SF Commentary 104 November 2020 92 pages ENJOY LIFE WITH FRANZ KAFKA It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet. The Zürau Aphorisms, 1931 CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Bishop Jenny Blackford William Breiding Jennifer Bryce Cy Chauvin Robert Day Paul di Filippo Henry Gasko Bruce Gillespie Edwina Harvey Robert Lichtman LynC Murray MacLachlan Denny Marshall Ian Mond Guy Salvidge Tim Train Michelle Worthington Denny Marshall: ‘Voyager’. SSFF CCOOMMMMEENNTTAARRYY 110044 November 2020 92 pages SF COMMENTARY No. 104, November 2020, is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough, VIC 3088, Australia. Email: [email protected]. Phone: 61-3-9435 7786. .PDF FILE FROM EFANZINES.COM. For both print (portrait) and landscape (widescreen) editions, go to https://efanzines.com/SFC/index.html FRONT COVER: Denny Marshall: ‘Voyager’. BACK COVER: Denny Marshall: ‘Recharge’. PHOTOGRAPHS: Susan Batho (pp. 22, 24); Lawrie Brown (p. 23); Robert Day (pp. 26, 27, 28, 29); William Breiding (pp. 34, 35, 38, 41); Jenny Blackford (pp. 53, 56, 57). ILLUSTRATIONS: Denny Marshall (pp. 1, 4, 7, 32, 92). 3 I MUST BE 33 INCIDENTS AND 59 YT YS AN EPYSTLE TALKING ACCIDENTS:: 60 CRITICANTO TO MY FRIENDS LIFE STORIES 60 PAUL DI FILIPPO 3 LYNC 33 WILLIAM BREIDING 60 SENSUAL ADVENTURES TRIBUTE TO PHIL WARE THE SKELETONS OF WINTER WITH OLD HERESIES 3 BRUCE GILLESPIE 44 JENNIFER BRYCE 62 WELLS V THE MARTIANS, 3 ENJOY LIFE WITH FRANZ TEACHING IN CONTINUED KAFKA A BOYS’ TECHNICAL 64 DELANY, ROBINSON 4 NO HURRAHS FOR SCHOOL 1968–1970 68 WHEN THE WORLD HOLLYWOOD 46 ROBERT LICHTMAN IS RUNNING DOWN 5 MUSIC COMING OF AGE IN 69 BUDRYS’S DISTINCTIVE (LOCKDOWN PLEASURE 1) THE SIXTIES VOICE 6 BOOKS 48 GUY SALVIDGE 72 CY CHAUVIN (LOCKDOWN PLEASURE 2) SUPERNOVA MEMORIES BENFORD’S BERLIN PROJECT 13 CANON SHOTS 74 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY: 17 TRAIN SONG 51 POEMS PERSONAL 50TH ANNIVERSARY 76 GUY SALVIDGE IN MAGIC HANDS 22 TWO WORLD 51 MICHAEL BISHOP 79 HENRY GASKO JAMIE’S HAIR CONVENTIONS ANYTHING-THE-AUTHOR- 52 JENNY BLACKFORD NEEDS-FOR-THE-PLOT MAGIC 52 MEEPS 22 EDWINA HARVEY 80 MURRAY MACLACHLAN 54 MONSTER-MOLLUSC DUBLIN 2019: REPORT 1 THREE ARTHUR C. CLARKE 55 QUANTUM STRING 25 ROBERT DAY AWARD NOMINEES 55 OUR LADY OF FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 83 IAN MOND THE WINTER SQUASH DUBLIN 2019: REPORT 2 THINKING OUTSIDE 55 SWEET INTERTIDAL FLESH 30 EDWINA HARVEY THE ORDINARY 58 THE MATRIX CHALK AND CHEESE: 90 MICHELLE WORTHINGTON 58 MOTHER EARTH 2020 CONNEWZEALAND: TAKING COURAGE IN 58 DOWN IN WINDY HOLLOW THE FIRST A DANGEROUS AUSTRALIA VIRTUAL WORLDCON 59 TIM TRAIN 59 SUPERMAN 2 Enjoy life with Franz Kafka Franz Kafka said it best in 1931: other people seem to be dismasted by the concept of lockdown and isolation. It is not necessary that you leave the house. But surely the removal of ordinary-world distrac- Remain at your table and listen. Do not even tions can be a gift? Now is the time, surely, to write listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still that novel or short story, research and write that and alone. The world will present itself to you PhD thesis, write those letters, paint that picture, for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy produce that podcast or video, or develop a musical it will writhe at your feet (The Zürau Aphorisms, project. Or, in my case, publish fanzines. ‘The 1931). world will present itself to you for its unmasking.’ Or maybe not. You might hate me for saying it, but I seem to be Because of a return of the covid-19 virus in June one of the few people I know who has been enjoy- in the greater Melbourne area, we’ve had to stick ing lockdown. Two friends have told me that lock- to our houses, except for one hour’s exercise per down makes no difference to their way of living. day. We’ve had to wear masks whenever leaving the Another friend, although ‘isolated’, has written 150 house. Nobody has been allowed to visit another’s letters to friends and family since February. Many house, except for that ‘special other’ person. Phil Ware: gratitude at the human touch, which A tribute from LynC was why he had never [Thanks very much, LynC, for allowing SFC to reacted. But by then reprint this tribute to Phil Ware from Ethel the we were friends. Not Aardvark 205, October 2020, edited by LynC for only were we friends the Melbourne Science Fiction Club.] but, at that stage he was rapidly allowing Phillip Lindsay Ware: Born 19 March 1958, Died another to invade his 6 September 2020 after a long battle with cancer. heart, and he was He is survived by his wife Mandy Herriot and their soon to marry Mandy son Jonathan Herriot-Ware. Herriot. Between After a troubled and somewhat nomadic child- them they were there Phil Ware, 1991. (Photo: LynC.) hood, Phil made the decision to stay with his when I really needed mother from whence he could receive stability a friend to lean on. and an education. Having the brilliant mind that Phil was also a he did, he then went on to Melbourne University Friend who could discuss esoteric and intellectual where he honoured in Mathematics. It was at things such as the book Gödel, Escher, Bach, or the Melbourne University, through the Melbourne concepts behind ‘Discrete Mathematics’. University Science Fiction Association (MUSFA) Through me, he discovered he had a bent for that I first met him in the mid ’70s. These days computing and then went on to far outstrip any- what happened next would be called harassment; one else I knew, going from learning on the job in but confronted with someone so full of pain I had the public service to lecturing in that most arcane to reach out. In those days he had the most glori- of areas -— Cyber Security. ous mane of hair tied back in a ponytail (it was the He was still lecturing when he fell ill, and in- 70s), and every time I went past I would reach out deed up until the last couple of weeks of his life. and gently tug it. It was some years before he told A true friend; a brilliant mind. I can’t believe me that he had been torn between annoyance and he is gone. 3 Carlton has been sending out parcels to Greens- borough after I’m sent in my orders, but I’ve been saved from Browsing Splurge Syndrome. I’ve been offered only one freelance indexing job during the last 12 months, so my financial situation would have been disastrous without lockdown restrictions. All this assumes, of course, that Elaine and I can avoid the virus itself. So we stay at home. This sounds as if I have little sympathy for those who are suffering deprivation during various forms of lockdown throughout the world. Not so. I can visualise all the situations in which I would be very much worse off. Not having Elaine and the cats would be the worst. Even in countries where restrictions on move- ment are much less severe than in Melbourne, Australia, most of you are sitting at home. You are venturing out in order to buy food and essentials, or waiting for deliveries. You’re probably not sleep- ing very well, even if you’re allowed an hour or two a day for exercise away from the house. You’re probably not going for long walks if you live in inner suburbs or in tenement-style buildings. Almost all retail shops have been closed since July, You’re either living alone with little hope of visiting apart from shops selling food. Hairdressers have family or friends, or you are living in a house been closed, whereas they were allowed to open inhabited by far too many people: parents trying to during the first lockdown from March to May. work from home on their computer, kids using All these restrictions are nuisances, but they their devices to do home schooling, babies squawl- have brought the daily rate of covid-19 infection ing, and the dogs, cats, and other pets hurtling down from 793 on one memorable day a month around underfoot. In many parts of the world, you ago to an average of about 10 a day. For Elaine and are probably most worried about the people you me, the restrictions have given us certain freedoms. would most like to visit: elderly relatives who are We don’t feel obliged to go out to dinner in restau- locked up in age-care homes and are more likely to rants that serve indifferent food at prices we can’t be afflicted by covid-19 than anybody else you afford. I don’t feel obliged to drink the usual glass know. You are either unemployed and wondering of beer with a restaurant meal. Beer is something I how to pay for food and the next utility bill, or still try to avoid these days, not only because most beers employed or on some pension but wondering how are uninteresting after the first glass but because to fill in the rest of the day. beer puts on weight. We try not to buy food filled But I don’t understand people who have enough with fat and sugar, so I’ve managed to lose 10 kg physical resources, but seem bereft of internal re- (20 lb) during the first lockdown.