Earl Kemp: Ei54

Vol. 10 No. 1 February 2011 –e*I*54– (Vol. 10 No. 1) February 2011, is published and © 2011 by Earl Kemp. All rights reserved. It is produced and distributed bi-monthly through http://efanzines.com by Bill Burns in an e-edition only. Contents – eI54 – February 2011 Cover: “Cupid Goes Cosmic,” by Steve Stiles …Return to sender, address unknown….44 [eI letter column] by Earl Kemp Introduction “The Last Dangerous Visionaries,” by Earl Kemp A Touch of Ellison, by Earl Terry Kemp “I Must Have It,” by Ted White A Personal Remembrance of Harlan Ellison, by Lynn Munroe In Company with Harlan, by Linda Moorcock Harlan, by Michael Moorcock Harlan, by John-Henri Holmberg Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions, by Rob Latham Fifty Years—That’s Not Too Many, by Richard Lupoff Nebula Awards Tempe AZ 2006, by Patricia Rogers Get Stuffed, by Jerome Winter Unzipped, by J.D. Crayne Harlan Ellison and Final Stage, by Bud Webster Fond Memories, by Various Back cover: “Steam Punk Rescue,” by Ditmar [Martin James Ditmar Jenssen] Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you—as if you haven't been told a million times already—that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching. —Harlan Ellison THIS ISSUE OF eI is for Harlan Ellison on the occasion of his being named recipient of the 2011 Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction by the University of California, Riverside. In the strictly science fiction world, it is also in memory of Ruth Kyle. # SPECIAL THANKS to Melissa Conway, Rob Latham, and the crew at the Eaton Collection for their help in preparing this special Harlan Ellison tribute issue of eI. # As always, everything in this issue of eI beneath my byline is part of my in-progress rough-draft memoirs. As such, I would appreciate any corrections, revisions, extensions, anecdotes, photographs, jpegs, or what have you sent to me at [email protected] and thank you in advance for all your help. Bill Burns is jefe around here. If it wasn’t for him, nothing would get done. He inspires activity. He deserves some really great rewards. It is a privilege and a pleasure to have him working with me to make eI whatever it is. Other than Bill Burns, Dave Locke, and Robert Lichtman, these are the people who made this issue of eI possible: Gregory Benford, Bruce Brenner, J.D. Crayne, Jacques Hamon, John-Henri Holmberg, Earl Terry Kemp, Rob Latham, Hope Leibowitz, Robert Lichtman, Dave Langford, Lynn Munroe, Richard Lupoff, Linda Moorcock, Michael Moorcock, Christopher M. O’Brien, Patricia Rogers, Robert Speray, R. Laurraine Tutihasi, Bud Webster, Ted White, and Jerome Winter. ARTWORK: This issue of eI features original artwork by Ditmar and Steve Stiles, and recycled artwork by William Rotsler. The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired. —Harlan Ellison …Return to sender, address unknown…. 44 The Official eI Letters to the Editor Column By Earl Kemp We get letters. Some parts of some of them are printable. Your letter of comment is most wanted via email to [email protected] or by snail mail to P.O. Box 369, PMB 205, Tecate, CA 91980 and thank you. Also, please note, I observe DNQs and make arbitrary and capricious deletions from these letters in order to remain on topic. This is the official Letter Column of eI, and following are a few quotes from a few of those letters concerning the last issue of eI. All this in an effort to get you to write letters of comment to eI so you can look for them when they appear here. Monday December 6, 2010: Chris Garcia: I love this issue (eI53) and will have more to say and after I’ve written that I’ll have even more to say and so on and so on. This is a magnificent issue, possibly the best of the last couple of years and that is saying an absolute lot. First: Len Moffatt. He was, most likely, the oldest fan who I would talk to with any regularity. He was a good guy, supported me during my TAFF race, and would tell me great stories of days and folks long gone. I’ll miss him and his shirt made of Empire Strikes Back sheets like the ones that were on my bed when I was a kid. Sadly, while I think I met Donald Tuck when I was young, I can’t say I ever chatted with him. Second: The City & The City. I have read it three times. The first time, I was disappointed because I read it as a mystery. Yeah, it was all Mieville, who is likely my favorite author, but it wasn’t a great mystery. I guess I’ve been soaking in Westlake and Faust and Max Allen Collins for too long. Anyhow, I’d have said it was merely okay after that read. I came to it again and read it following a bunch of very heady SF. This time, it blew me away as a thought experiment. I mean seriously, there were times when I would have to stop and think out the problems that a single paragraph would present. How would this affect that something that was not on the page. When I was freed from the plot, I think I came unglued from the need to view it as a mystery and it quickly became my favorite novel of 2009. Gorgeous writing, better thinking. The third reading and I think I finally put it all together, came to the point where I could see that one played off the other, the mystery off the thought experiment. This was a book that was constructed like the world Mieville shows us. There is more hidden in the other side than you can view when you are only looking at it as a mystery or a fantasy/science fiction novel. This is the kind of book that not only rewards multiple readings, but forces you to re-read and re-think with each trip through the pages. It won the Hugo for good reason. Third: Steve Stiles is a stud. There is no other word for it. His stuff is awesome and your portfolio for him is great. I feel truly honored to have run as many pieces as he’s given me over the years. Thank you, Earl and Steve. The two of you rock. I love the way that Moorcock looks at Mieville, he’d let us run that Guardian piece in The Drink Tank, I think, and it said exactly what I’d hope it would say: China did good. You know, that Rudolph cartoon could be the perfect metaphor for almost any sport/entertainment tradition. Think about it: Santa’s the big guy, the bull of the woods, the one who runs things, but Rudolph, a young up-start he found, polished, made into a star, he wants his place in the Pantheon, he wants to wear the big boy pants, and so he takes the seat. It’s Joe Montana/Steve Young, Margo Channing/Eve Harrington, Ric Flair/Lex Luger. Steve Stiles does it again. I don’t have any memory of Cuchuma, though I know I’ve been there. Mexico has a place in my heart, and 3/8 of my blood, but I’ve only made a few trips there. Other than Lucha Libre Arenas like Arena Mexico or Plaza del Toro in Monterrey (where they’ve been doing wrestling since the 1950s), the place that I love most in Mexico is a small town in the Sonora desert where my Grandpa apparently slunk off to after being chased out of Texas for less than savory reasons. The Border Patrol is a mixed blessing/curse for most of my family. Grandpa was born in Texas. Grandma in California (she’s ½ Ohlone Indian, and she’d smack me if I called her Native American) and both went to Mexico in their teens for varying reasons, came back in a race against the clock to give birth to my Pops. Talking to Grandpa, he’d say that in the old days, it was a dirty business, the Border Patrol. They’d more likely take your money and let you walk away then send you back. Now, he complains that they are too clean, too much into following idiotic rules. Me? I dunno. I don’t look like a Mexican (my cousins, bless ‘em, all look like they are straight off the streets of Nogales) so I’ve never had problems, but all of them have, including one who basically had the scenario from Born in East L. A. played out in real life. It’s a weird world in which we live. The shame of it is that to Homeland Security, nothing is sacred, and that seems to show in their treatment of Cuchuma. Victor Banis. Damn, that man can write. I’d love to see him put out a Hard Case Crime book because he’s got that sort of touch. Lawrence Block!!!!! That’s all I can say: a name and a bunch of unsatisfactory pieces of excited punctuation. The man is a legend and since I embarked on a voyage of Crime reading, he has a deep place in my heart of reading hearts. Campus Tramp is a book I’ve seen for sale at a local bookshop in their front glass case.

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