Sigma The Newsletter of PARSEC - www.parsec-sff.org March, 2015 - No. 348

ing stable member of the community. I've been told President’s Capsule numerous times in the midst of some supposed The quality of being amusing solemn conversation, "Joe, this is no joking matter!" or comic... To me, joking matters are serious. Even though the or one of the four fluids of the hint of levity makes my status take quite a tumble to- body: blood, phlegm, yellow ward frivolous. bile or black bile. I look for humor where I can find it. In surprising Funny thing. I've been thinking and hidden places. In a turn of phrase. In an obscure by Joe Coluccio about humor lately. reference. I can often hear the writer smiling over And speculative fiction, of course. some small innocent paragraph of seeming lightness Some of you know I was a member of a comedy and fluff that may often sum up the meaning of the group that performed both on AM and FM radio and whole work. Certainly you have smiled at the con- at various venues around Pittsburgh. The group was cerns of the Puppeteers or the antics of Louis Wu, or called The Lackzoom Acidophilus Hour. Yes, there those of you with more daring, the instability of the is a story about the name. But really it was an homage Kzinti. There is nothing more funny, paranoid and to many of the old commercially sponsored schizophrenic than any of the works of Philip K. radio/television comedy and variety hours. Point is, Dick. Heinlein had a fine sense of humor among his for some years I wrote, produced and performed com- increasing libertarian diatribes. More recently, John edy material. Even got a laugh or two. Scalzi pondered the problems of wearing a Red Shirt Someone, in a conversation the other night, pointed as a member of a Starfleet command. And, of course, out that American SF magazine editors think SF sto- the number 42. ries that contain humor sell better on the other side of I propose a serious resurgence of humor in Amer- the pond. If you look at the roll call of topical, humor- ican SF. All you Kuttners and Goularts and Browns ous pieces of SF, you will see the needle of the humor and Sheckleys rise up and storm the SF mainstream. compass does point toward Britain and Disc World Make those dry hard science and literary editors stand or the Hitchhikers Guide. Yet nothing gives me more up and take note. Sure, I am advocating revolution. joy than to discover a new Gallagher story by Henry But you all know what a great gout of fun Madame Kuttner, or some short surprise wonder by Fredric Thérèse DuFarge, knitting by the light of the guillo- Brown or a tale of galactic lottery by Robert Sheck- tine, can be. ley. Critics hold these authors and other comic voices Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion, after a live rehearsal in high esteem. So what's the story? had the audience rolling on the floor with laughter, The prizes given to "notable" literature, or the Continued on Page 8 awards given to film or the praise heaped on a cre- ation of a painting or sculpture, end up with the same PARSEC is Pittsburgh’s premiere organization of science fiction, fantasy and horror. We sponsor an results. No matter how brilliant. No matter how pen- annual conference, workshops for young writers, etrating. No matter how wonderful. Works of humor lectures, and other events that promote a love of and satire are trumped by "serious" works of art. the written word and a passion for speculative fic- Drama seems to sympathetically pluck our strings tion. Our members include writers, teachers and even when bathed in cloying pathos. When you are a fans. PARSEC is a 501c3 non-profit corporation. serious person, people look upon you as an upstand- independent horror movie makers who I think first Monthly Meeting Minutes crossed President Joe’s radar. Presently they’re by William Blake Hall, Secretary showing around Razor Days, which starts out as February 14, 2015 “women seek revenge” but goes a little beyond to Top in the pre-meeting chatter was Kevin Geisel- deal with the trauma that can linger after a horrific man finding eminently decent-sounding employment. event. This sort of plot fits well with their fascination Geis also confessed to toying with a “Six Degrees of with moral gray areas. Watt and Best naturally grav- Kevin Bacon” theme for the Confluence video suite, itated to horror and they’ve been there ever since, al- which could conceivably leap from Tremors to Remo though they consider Days more a “noir mystery.” Williams and Cocoon and beyond. Our other Kevin, Their market is the Internet, video on demand, and Mr. Hayes, confirmed our picnic in Dormont on Au- the occasional convention like Horror Realm. gust 29. A YA workshop is coming together for Au- They’re also friends of a local venture called The gust 1, our Mary Soon Lee continues to get published Casting Pitt. Watt sees a bit of an inspiration in Ray and nominated, Kira continues to sell Parsec T-shirts Dennis Steckler, and I somehow restrained myself and filk CDs, Eric Davin gave away books, “The from blurting out “Cash Flagg,” an alias of Steck- Fall” by Christie Meierz comes out March 2, and ler’s. Flagg, er, Steckler got into film by first mas- DUES ARE DUE. tering the technical skills, and turned out some Ever the historian, Eric tracked down the phrase movies of the arguably “so bad they’re good” variety. “May you live in interesting times.” It is generally (I believe he may have been involved with Eegah!) attributed to Bobby Kennedy as a Chinese curse, but Watt went on to shamelessly drop the names of peo- there was some embellishment there, remindinge m ple he has been in contact with, although unfortu- of the “proverb” in the opening credits of the original nately for him they’re the kind of names only I might King Kong. Eric managed to find the phrase in a recognize: Ralph Bakshi, Alex Cox, Peter Green- 1950 issue of Astounding, specifically in the story away, Bill Richert (no, not Rickert). He also recom- “U-Turn” by one “Duncan H. Monroe.” “Monroe” mended the fun of trying to converse with people was in fact British writer Eric Frank Russell, perhaps around the world via Google Translate. best known for his Fortean work. So, now you know! Watt was selling a guide to “underseen” The raffle raised $24 and Kira walked off with movies called “Movie Outlaw” for $10, and I was a time travel anthology with stories by Asimov, Brad- impressed to see Greg Armstrong snatch a copy up bury, Serling and others. even faster than I did. In fact, I went ahead and re- Our speakers, plural, were the husband-wife viewed it before writing up these minutes. Now that’s a recommendation.

team of Mike Watt and Amy Lynn Best, the driving force behind Happy Cloud Pictures. They’re small 2 Monthly Meetings ories and time travel are presented in a no-tech way in my writing and how that presentation speaks to March something central to the human condition . . . and the Featured Speaker for March 14, 2015 – Time: 1:30 nature of story. PM at the Squirrel Hill Branch of the Carnegie Li- Lawrence C. Connolly’s books include the novels brary: Veins (2008) and Vipers (2010), which together form Joshua Raulerson, PhD the first two books of the Veins Cycle. Vortex, the The Punchbowl and the Fishbowl: Science Fic- third book in the series, was released in November tion and the Singularity 2014. His collections, Join PARSEC for a discussion of how SF – partic- which include Visions ularly in the post-cyberpunk stories of writers like (2009), This Way to Egress Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow – is using the trope (2010), and Voices (2011), of Technological Singularity as a fictional device, a collect his stories from commentary on technological modernity, and a means Amazing Stories, Cemetery of actively shaping the future. Dance, The Magazine of The technological Singularity thesis, formulated by Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vernor Vinge and more recently associated with the Twilight Zone, and Year’s futurist Ray Kurzweil, is a fascinating bit of postmod- Best Horror. Voices was ern historiography. It begins with an observation that nominated for the Bram most of us accept without question – the pace of tech- Stoker Award, Superior Achievement in a Fiction Col- nological change has been astonishingly rapid in re- lection. He serves twice a year as one of the residency cent decades, and indeed seems to be speeding up – writers at Seton Hill University’s graduate program and then extrapolates these apparent facts to their log- in writing popular fiction and is a full-time member ical conclusion. The result is something both momen- of the English faculty at Sewickley Academy. tous and totally unfathomable; a historical reckoning we can clearly see coming though, almost paradoxi- (Note: This program or event is neither sponsored cally, we can only guess as to what changes it might or endorsed by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. bring. Joshua Raulerson earned his PhD in English from the University of Iowa in 2010. His adapted doctoral thesis, “Singularities: Techno- Pay Your Dues culture, Transhumanism, and ...or the wrath of the Ancient Science Fiction in the 21st Century”, was published in Gods will descend upon you 2013 by Liverpool University and you will be crushed like Press. Raulerson lives in little smelly bugs! Greenfield with his family and a great many moldy paper- But seriously folks, it’s not much money, backs. Pittsburghers may but to Parsec it’s everything. Your annual know him from his entirely dues help pay for meetings, picnics, print- unrelated day job as the local host of NPR’s Morning Edition on 90.5 WESA. ing, mailing, websites, our secret plan for world domination and....well, you get the April point. And heck, you get a snappy mem- Featured Speaker for April 11, 2015 – Time: 1:30 PM bership card you can show off to your at the Squirrel Hill Branch of the Carnegie Library: Lawrence C. Connolly friends. So go to http://parsec-sff.org and Dreams, Memory, and Time Travel use the easy online payment link. Love ya’. A discussion of the manner in which dreams, mem- 3 Slime Gods, Crackers, thors. I start with Henry Kuttner who was by all reports Mutants and Robots as awful a writer as he was a great one. Kuttner wrote Henry Kuttner, Part One under almost twenty pen names. His early stories in by Joe Coluccio the pulp magazines are considered close to despica- ble. (See the anthology by Hafner Press entitled I was tooling around the WWW (Dub Dub Dub) "Thunder in the Void"). No one wanted to publish about two weeks ago. No particular place to go. I anything written by the author of these low class came across a kick-starter project that produced an erotic works. Hence the requirements for so many anthology of the compete Henry Kuttner “Hogben” Noms de Plume, that and the fact he was a pulp writer stories. I immediately who managed to feed himself when many others were plunked down some languishing. They are full of Bug Eyed Slime Mon- change and ordered sters and heroines who manage to lose their wispy the book from the suc- clothing at the drop of an evasive maneuver or in the cessful kick start. Best clutches of eldritch odd aliens who seem to have high thing I had done since libido when it comes to women reporters, secretaries, the prior Tuesday. scientists and lab assistants. What those fantasy I feel a guilty joy. women did for my young psyche has not abated over The internet has the years. I conclude I am a slimy fat faced nematode proved to be a place from Triton. where I can discover He also wrote a host of stories for Weird Tales and purchase works I in the manner of HP Lovecraft. He corresponded and had no hope of ever emulated Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and Clark Ash- obtaining or affording. The wonderful pulps and ton Smith. (See the Hafner Press anthology "Terror in comics and early SF collections that now adorn my the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One"). The walls make me happy and sappy. It also makes me first story of the volume "The Graveyard Rats" from sad. Those people I have venerated and works I have the March 1936 Issue of Weird Tales, is considered longed for are too often forgotten. one of his best. I have for many years turned one blind Henry Kuttner, Fredric Brown, John Collier, eye to Horror fiction which used to delight me, but I Charles Beaumont, George O Smith, James Branch am coming around. I'll never love these stories as Cabell, to a lesser extent C.L. Moore, Robert Sheck- much as I do science fiction, but I do appreciate a ley, Richard Matheson, Leigh Brackett, William Tenn. healthy dose of mental anxiety from time to time. It would take me a short moment more to run my fin- My earliest memories are of the Kuttner sto- gers over my book shelves and come up with two or ries that have been endlessly anthologized. Those in three dozen more. the classic anthology "Adventures in Time and Space" I dove into the “Hogben Chronicles”, then stormed by Healy and McComas both, under the Pen Name up and down my house looking for more Kuttner. I "Lewis Padgett" - "Time Locker" and "The Twonky." found a bunch in the basement (which is creepy as What absolute wonders both those stories remain. “The Rats in the Walls”), some in the garage (creepier Many are found in the Groff Conklin anthologies: than “Pickman's Model”) and the most among the "The Piper's Son" a baldy story, "Mimsy Were the bookshelves (not creepy at all, just sloppy) that sur- Borogoves" , "Margin for Error" , "What You Need" round me. It has been a blast reading. all written by Lewis Padgett. It occurred to me I wanted to do more than read Yes, I know what you are thinking. Those Lewis and enjoy. I wanted to report a mixture of my memo- Padgett stories, weren't they co-authored with C.L. ries about the stories read long ago and my new daily Moore? You're damn skippy they were. In one of the confrontation with the fictions. My assumption is most seamless collaborations in history. I’ll write there are many of you familiar with the writers and more about Kuttner and Moore and more in the com- stories I have selected but have neglected them, and ing editions of Sigma. many who have never read or heard the names of what are now considered Golden and Silver Age au- 4 second movie, All Through the Night. By Watt’s own Outcast of Thousands account, its origin sounds utterly formulaic. Studio Movie Outlaw by Mike Watt head Jack Warner wanted a movie warning of a Nazi reviewed by Bill Hall “Fifth Column” and Humphrey Bogart, not yet a su- There may be no more surefire Turing test of es- perstar, got the lead role only when George Raft sential humanity than the compiling of a passionate turned it down. (For that matter, even a title with directory to obscure movies. I thereby pronounce “Night” in it was hip at that time, as in the earlier They Mike Watt, one of our February 2015 speakers, to be Drive By Night.) No, where Through failed was only human. How much more he is than simply that, I in unlucky timing, offering Nazis as mere buffoons leave to you. At that meeting I impulse-bought his but then getting released right after Pearl Harbor, book Movie Outlaw, an alphabeticized romp through whereupon any mix of silliness and Nazi-bashing was 75 movies of some interest to him and more or less instantly relegated to Bugs Bunny. fitting the description “obscure,” although I’m old Watt tracks down outcasts, and with the special af- enough to recall or The Ruling Class Murder by De- fection of a filmmaker. I may never seek out House as major releases. Reading it, I sensed a bit of a cree of Bad, but Watt pauses in the middle of reviewing it kindred spirit. It has long been an open secret that I to make a larger point, namely “There’s an interesting suffer the curse of what I call a “lint-brush memory,” double standard that arises from critics when review- an ever-sprawling mental library of staggeringly use- ing independent films.” On the one hand, we keep ex- less data, but Watt, God bless him, seeks to cash in a pecting a next great diamond in the rough: Reservoir little on such an affliction. Truth to tell, this is hardly Dogs, El Mariachi, Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade. a new idea. San Francisco TV horror host John Stan- At exactly the same time, we tend to directly compare ley has put out a couple of Creature Features books, small movies with the bigger ones – especially if we and VideoHound has gotten in on this act. Actually, want to criticize them. The chasm between those two Watt’s Outlaw reminds me more of Michael Wel- extremes is vast, and Watt seeks to fish some back up don’s “Psychotronic” books, and recalls the spirit of into public daylight. For House of Bad, he argues that some favorite websites of mine such as 1000 Mis- it’s not really about ghosts, but the failure to get past spent Hours or Aycyas, which of course means And a tragedy. (Which, peculiarly enough, reminds me a You Call Yourself A Scientist! So how does Outlaw little of how he was describing his latest release, stack up against so much rival output? First and fore- Razor Days.) Is that enough to make me seek it out? most, of course, it’s a book by a Parsec guest speaker No. But his defense sounds fair. (so I appreciated Greg Armstrong snapping up a copy The same may even be true of The Ninth Configu- even faster than I did), but I would also recommend ration. A lot of thought clearly went into that, but did it as a provoker of reveries, as time and again I would it succeed? Here the attraction of this book is not set it aside while it got me to thinking of other movies. even the movie per se, but the featured interviews One can easily categorize by title or by date (as in one with the film’s star, Stacy Keach, and Pittsburgh’s website I’ve been frequenting, Every 70’s Movie), but own Tom Atkins, and I think Atkins’ remembrance Outlaw got me to thinking of specific subgenres or may handily sum up much of the trouble in making ambitions or “feels” of movies. It’s a labyrinth out it. Not all misfires are equal; some aim high, and the there, and “Outlaw” is a fair starting point, for while autopsy can be fascinating in its own right. And what this stuff does tend to load up its forays into fantasy of Insignificance? Is Marilyn Monroe (played by and science fiction with terror and violence – if not Theresa Russell) explaining the theory of relativity blatant ill-advised silliness – it would be a mistake to enough to get me to see it? Now there’s a puzzle. lump all this together as “Boy, George Pal’s Doc Sav- As I read on, I got to wondering about Watt’s feel- age sure is stupid, haw-haw-guffaw.” Occasionally, ings about other movies. Somehow his take on Dead- you will find a project hunting for a little extra sub- girl sparked memories of Hard Candy. Then others stance. leapt to mind. What about Frailty? Series 7: The The book is called , but I think it Movie Outlaw Contenders? Bubba Ho-Tep? A book like Outlaw is fudges at times to keep upholding that catchall and terribly idiosyncratic, and with idiosyncrasy can come might be better named “Movie Outcast.” Take Watt’s Continued on Page 8 5 as an ex-human promising a world of logic, free from Unified Aliens Theory emotion – albeit under the control of those titular Leonard Simon Nimoy, 1931-2015 brain eaters. (Details, details!) This proved even by Bill Hall more prophetic than his very first “Star Trek” appear- I could have been a Buddhist. Though I was es- ance as an emotional Martian. Only later did the en- sentially raised secular, my mother was interested in tity we now appreciate as Spock come into full focus, Buddhism and I shared some of her fascination with and the fit of actor to character was remarkable, for it, and I continue to. Yet I elected to become Chris- Nimoy not only had the face for it – and , it must be tian. As I look back, I think I can understand my pref- confessed, excellent make-up artists to smooth over erence. The Buddha, as tradition has it, awakens to the rough edges of his ears and hair – but that voice, the realization that existence is just an endless point- rich and warm even when the delivery was clipped less wheel of suffering and death, and is thereby able and dry. As a kid I wanted that voice, and before to escape that wheel and achieve Nirvana. This much longer I wanted to visit the planet Vulcan. sounds marvelous, and yet I always found it somehow Not everyone “got” Spock, and sadly that even wanting. Thankfully Buddhism itself clarified my included Gene Roddenberry himself. Roddenberry dissatisfaction, in the form of what is known as the wanted a kind of running joke, a weekly reminder that bodhisattva. As I understand it, the bodhisattva has logic alone could never hope to match the depth of every opportunity to ascend to Nirvana, yet chooses experience and insight available through human emo- not to, so as to be of help back here on earth. That tion. However, upon assuming the role, Nimoy felt peculiarly needed far more to look forward to in playing a char- Christian to me, acter, and so it was Nimoy himself who shaped so and seemed the much of all that became Spock. Before we knew it, better course. this one actor had managed to make an entire alien It may sound race seriously cool, and in a way that did not pander silly, to have to us but actually challenged our expectations. Sure, thoughts this deep Vulcans lived longer, were physically stronger, had on the occasion of psychic powers and a wicked neck pinch, but they the death of an also played music, wrote poetry, shunned eating meat actor, but for me and valued diversity and non-violence. Yes, Spock something far could become absurdly handy, a kind of one-man greater than sim- Wikipedia on subjects as obscure as the OK Corral, ply Leonard making him the sort of smart-aleck usually equated Nimoy has left us. with a certain Time Lord. (Now there’s a concept: It may fall to the Spock as a Time Lord.) Yet whenever it became nec- proper perspective of the far future to gauge just how essary to relate to anyone from space hippies to the important and unique he was. A chapter has closed – rock-eating mother of an entire race, Spock was the sorry, William Shatner, but it has – and an opportunity crucial go-to guy. How cool was that? has been lost. But what, exactly? To simply call Spock a phenomenon is, I think, Let us first get out of the way the story of the almost a dismissal. I say that Nimoy, through Spock, man himself. Nimoy began like many a hungry actor, went a long way to rescuing how pop SF imagines finding his niche thanks in part to his thin high face aliens. We had never truly seen Spock’s like before, lending itself to generically “ethnic” roles in an An- and I worry that we will now surrender it. Before thony Quinn sort of way. It is typical to point out his Spock there was Klaatu, the calm precise reason-is- tiny role as a Martian in the otherwise skippable serial cool alien hero of The Day the Earth Stood Still (the Zombies of the Stratosphere, but I would argue that it original!), but Klaatu ultimately served a robot master is in fact 1958's The Brain Eaters which weirdly fore- and basically showed up with the warning “Shape up tells his greatest role. The movie’s only an hour long, or get burned to a cinder.” Currently the Syfy channel and if you can suffer through it till the end you will has plans underway for a dramatization of Arthur C. see and hear Nimoy shrouded in both fog and beard Clarke’s “Childhood’s End,” and there is perhaps a 6 hint of Spock or Klaatu to be found in the distinctly concede its moments of excellence, one being the devilish-looking Karellen. Yet Spock was an alien two-part episode “Unification.” Now there was a even among aliens, rebelling against his father to go story that “got” Spock, as he struggled to reunite the work for Starfleet. His own betrothed told him that Romulans with the Vulcan regarded him as “a sort of legend,” and yet he Vulcans (and that in a was very much left on his own, not quite fish nor time when the world fowl. watched and worried So it grated, grated, grated on me as I saw the as Germany was re- Vulcan people further and further devalued. As the unifying). Spock Trek franchise struggled on, Romulans, those con- learned his error, yet spicuous Vulcan lookalikes, became the new villain, continued to hope for while Vulcans were reduced to mere neurotics. It was unification. as if John W. Campbell, who had decreed that no Isn’t that the way? alien could in any way be superior to humans, was SF continues to get right back in the driver’s seat. Aliens were to once dismissed as escape – again be little more than belabored ethnic jokes, fail- and it does have a ing to in any way truly challenge or inspire us. stron g escapist streak, and God bless it for that – but Spock was, by any number of criteria, arguably in that final televised glimpse of Spock we got to ap- superhuman. Yet here was a superhuman who wished preciate that the most fanciful, quixotic projects of all to be part of our team. This particular superhuman are precisely the ones which are the most logical, and was not here to harvest us for food or rule our planet, very often the ones which are most necessary. To the and to the extent that he occasionally lusted after our very end, Spock worked to try to set things right, and women, many a woman would have happily lusted this he could do not only with raw intellect but even right back. He was very much like Kal-El of Krypton, with humor, from “I am endeavoring, ma’am, to con- although he left the bulk of his flying to Scotty, and struct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives would probably have found a cape and tights gauche. and bearskins” to “There is an old Vulcan proverb: He was less Messiah than guardian angel, less Buddha Only Nixon could go to China.” Spock gave all of us than bodhisattva. He was a solid role model. humans perspective, a perspective we felt obliged to It’s easy to knock this argument, but it’s just respect. So as I look out at the century ahead of us, I cheap to complain “Well, the original Trek was miss his counsel, and wonder: will pop SF ever again cheesy.” It surely was. Yet if I must champion a not- oblige us with so valuable an adviser? I do worry. quite-star of some cheesy ancient TV show, I’d say But I watch, and wait, and wonder. that only goes to show how impoverished we have al- lowed American pop SF to become. Kids today can roll their eyes at the high school musical production values of a quick melodrama like “Amok Time,” but that episode continues to resonate as an exemplary masterwork of character development. Kirk was never more Kirk, Spock was never more Spock, and McCoy – heck, McCoy saved everyone’s ass. Word is out that director Neill Blomkamp is out to lens a Ripley adventure that basically pretends that the third and fourth Aliens movies never happened, and I find myself feeling much the same about Nimoy’s career as Spock. The man was an actor, a trouper, a pursuer of paychecks just like the rest of us, and so I must make my sad peace with Spock’s pres- ence in the new J.J. Abrams “reimaginings.” While I was never a big Next Generation fan, I begrudgingly 7 Movie Outlaws continued from Page 5 Book Review some disappointing omissions. Luckily, there are The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes by Al- bonuses. There are some guest reviews along with bert Wendland Watt’s. Watt made me look at old stars in new ways, reviewed by Patrick T. Madden as his review of Harry In Your Pocket made me re- Publisher: Dog Star Books, 2014, $14.95 flect on how nice a Walter Pidgeon film festival ISBN 978-1-935738-61-9 might be, or as he tracks down a now very hushed-up Love, murder, betrayal and greed. What's not to TV movie starring Bing Crosby as a small town doc- like? This murder-mystery is a backdrop for the au- tor who quietly murders people. As for Fedora, he thor's keen ideas of a future of humanity heavily in- seems to review that mainly to give a long, and long- fluenced by rare alien technology long-buried in the in-coming, apology to his wife, which I found Fe- form of "Clips." Basically, a microchip encased in a dorable. (No! Don’t hit me!) gemstone, each Clip has the power to transform soci- Perhaps most idiosyncratic is his pairing a re- ety. Governments and corporations will kill to find view of the 1987 TV movie The Spirit (which I might them. Withholding information about Clips is a crime, look up for Major Kira herself, Nana Visitor) with but discovering one can make you rich. one for the 2008 movie The Spirit . Each version had The main character, Ranglen, is particularly adept their disappointments, but it’s interesting to read Watt at unearthing Clips, having found two of the four point out that Brad Bird, a veteran of TV’s The Simp- known to exist. One of these led to the creation of An- sons, took a crack at an animated movie. As Watt nulus, a glorious shining arch in space hosting a strat- quotes animator Stephen Paul Leiva, “Brad’s script ified society with the wretched refuse living on its was wonderful.” But it was a difficult time to push a underneath surface. sexy, action-packed, all-humans animated Disney Ranglen's former flame Mileen, Mileen's husband, project. (To my mind, The Rocketeer coming out as and three others unwittingly discover a lead to finding late as 1992 may begin to sum up this problem.) So a Clip. People start disappearing or getting killed. A come 2008 there was a rampant studio lust to trans- race to find the Clip starts as government security and mogrify the Spirit, an unusually lighthearted hero cre- private interests become involved. Ranglen feels the ated by Will Eisner, into another Dark Knight by way only way to save Mileen (and himself) is to find the of Frank Miller’s Sin City. Watt laments the unjustly fifth Clip. forgotten, but he finds that 2008 attempt justly for- The chase leads us to exotic planets, stories of long gettable. Watt’s is the kind of anguish that “mun- lost alien races. We hear paranoia in the characters' danes” love to kid us “geeks” about, while failing to voices as they get closer to the Clip. There are police realize that we can, among other things, make them interrogations, brutal murders and some shocking rev- more money. elations about the nature of Clips, and the nature of So for all this, these juicy tidbits plus an intro- humankind. duction to a subgenre in which demons are characters The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes is an appro- with names like Lo or Kaps, did Watt sell me on any- priate title. Albert Wendland is co-director of the thing? Yes. I think we should track down 2010's MFA in Writing Popular Fiction Program at Seton Drones, the movie that dares to ask: What would you Hill University and it shows. His greatest talent is his do if one of your office coworkers was an alien trying calm, sure ability to paint the sky, terrain, and oceans to conquer the world – while another coworker was of alien worlds. another alien trying to simply destroy the world? In "Dawn came green in the east, the spectrum of the fact, as I think about this plot, I have to wonder, and parent star too slanted toward blue to allow much worry: Why would they even have to be aliens? warmth in its tones." "The mist was like soft violet fungus, the vines like President’s Capsule continued from Page 1 arteries and fat veins, the leaves like cells of green tears streaming down their faces, unable to catch their blood, the blue-white trunks like dried bones...He felt breath or in some cases hold their bodily fluids, they had been swallowed and were inside a body." looked at the shaking quaking melting group of peo-

Continued on next page ple and said, "Sure, you laugh, but that's funny." 8 Brief Bios Alien Landscapes continued from Page 8 I found The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes to Mindret Lord & Lilith Lorraine be iridescent with imaginative atmospheres and tech- by Eric Leif Davin nologies, hauntingly beautiful in its descriptions, and (Mildred) "Mindret" Lord (Loeb) (1903-1955): craftily written. I look forward to the rumored prequel Lord was born in Chicago and was a respected Hol- and sequel. There is surely enough universe here to lywood and TV screenwriter from the end of World explore in two more books. This novel is appropriate War II until her suicide in 1955 at age 52. In addition, for any readers 13 and up. There is some strong lan- she published much fantasy fiction in Weird Tales guage and violence, but nothing too obscene or from 1934-1943. graphic. I heartily recommended this book. Her film credits include Strange Impersonation (1946), The Glass Alibi (1946), Yankee Fakir (1947), The Sainted Sisters (1948), Alias Nick Beal (1949), and The Big Bluff (1955). Lord also wrote the original story for Alias Nick Beal, a contemporary Faustian morality play directed by John Farrow, the father of actress Mia Farrow. In it, Ray Milland is an effective modern-dress Beelzebub (alias "Nick Beal") to whom a crusading judge sells his soul in exchange for the governorship of a state. Lord's most well-known film credit was perhaps as the screenwriter for the 1955 Bette Davis vehicle, The Virgin Queen, which also starred a young Joan Collins. Bette Davis had already portrayed England's Queen Elizabeth I in the 1939 classic, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Here she reprised the role in Lord's story, which suggested an ultimately tragic romance between Elizabeth and the adventurer discovered a new writer named Robert Silverberg and Sir Walter Raleigh. However, in the story, Sir Walter published his first story in Different. had designs upon lady-in-waiting Joan Collins. She was a champion of SF verse over many Lord had just entered the field of television script decades and edited a genre poetry column in the orig- writing with the short-lived 1955 TV series, The Lone inal Fantasy Book. Her 1951 collection, Wolf, when she killed herself in Los Angeles three Wine of Won- , is thought to be the first ever book of science days before Christmas, 1955. der fiction poetry. Despite this, her pioneering work in "Lilith Lorraine" (Mary Maude Dunn Wright) the field of science fiction poetry has been forgotten. Lorraine was born in Corpus Christi, (1894-1967): Thus, the science fiction poetry award is not named Texas, and educated at the University of Texas in in her honor. Instead, it is named the Rhysling Austin and the University of Arizona in Tucson. She Award, after a completely fictional Robert A. Hein- was discovered by Hugo Gernsback, who published lein character. her stories "The Brain of the Planet" (1929) and "Into the 28th Century" (1930), both feminist socialist utopias. PARSEC She was also a sometime journalist and a well- P. O. Box 3681 Pittsburgh, PA 15230 - 3681 known poet who published many volumes of poetry, www.parsec-sff.org several of them genre-oriented. She also founded the Avalon World's Arts Academy and edited its journal, Dues: Full Membership $15 Different, as well as other poetry magazines, suchs a Associate Membership $3 (with full member in Challenge. Her magazines published much fan po- the same household) etry, as well as the work of professionals. In 1953 she 9 Back Page Throwback Parsec News & Announcements

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New date: Thursday, March 5, 2015 7:00 pm 102 Thaw Hall, 3943 O'Hara Street, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260 De-Light Pittsburgh is a year-long initiative designed to inspire a city-wide focus on energy efficiency while encouraging energy consciousness and ecolog- ical conservation to citizens. This innovative pro- gram will kick-off during the internationally recognized Earth Hour 2015. Downtown and Oak- land property owners and managers are encouraged to dim or turn off rooftop signage and other non-es- sential lighting for one hour on Saturday, March 28th from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. • Jamie Lackey had two short stories published in January. You can read them here http://stupefy- Parsec Halloween Party, 2005 ingstoriesshowcase.com/?p=438 and here http://dai- lysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/science-fiction/j Parsec amie-lackey/for-your-time Board of Directors: She is also one of 10 finalists for the Jim Baen Me- Joe Coluccio - President (Programming Com- morial Short Story Award. mittee Representative) • Barbara Carlson - Vice President (Publishing The March issue of Galaxy's Edge is just out with Committee Representative) Eric Davin’s story, "Twilight on Olympus." To read it free, go to Lara Van Winkle - Secretary/Treasurer (Confer- http://www.galaxysedge.com/ and then click on the ence Committee Representative) story. Thomas Seay - (Workshop Committee Repre- sentative) Chris Rickert - Member at Large Bonnie Bogovich - Member at Large David Brody - Member at Large

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