SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SFR INTERVIEWS Sl.25 Geoige R^. Martin

Robert Anton Wilson ALIEN THOUGHTS much of Earth's resources that it will the Asian Rim, still be too expensive. Will it be possible to abandon the hyp-

The only chance for a space-adventur- ocrisy of saying it's okay for Ford and

ing future for mankind, as I see it, is a Kissinger to bribe Sadat/Egypt to cut loose revolutionary energy breakthrough in sci- from the Russians and not make waves, while ence—nuclear fusion or anti-gravity—or pointing an outraged moral finger at U.S, foreign we' re. going tu be facing a time soon when corporations for bribing lower-level our mass-production civilization will break officials to sell goods and services? down because of shortages in key (and ob- Can the voters be eased into the eye- scure)resources and the vast organization opening and morally uncomfortable position anc' technology required fur a manned space of knowing clearly that their self-interest program will no longer be possible. lies in assassinations and expedition-

It begins to look like space will not ary forces to exotic places?,. .that their be our new frontier. Space is probably a nice cars, stereos, long vacations, etc. In spite of the hopes of the space pro- dead end; an expensive ego-/military/-trip depend on looting (in a nice way) other gram optimists, I'm inclined to think the possible only for a temporarily wealthy, peoples' lands? U.S. space program, now in the scaled-down high technology few nations. doldrums, will be phased out even more Will we trade a son for a Caddy and a firmly in the next ten years. We'll have to wait for Godot—the trip to Vegas? us the the aliens—to come to us and give The motivation is gone. We beat Well ? Secret, On the other hand, once we pass Russians to the Moon, didn't we. We got the point of no return in resources and "Don't be in such a hurryl I'm think- men up there five or six times, set up all technology, the "flying saucers" may lose ing!" kinds of experiments to help justify the interest in us: they'll return tu trieir expense, and had an orgy of Superiority If the naked truth surfaces and refuses home planets and report, "Sorry, sir, the for a few years. Great stuff. to be repressed, the cynical and selfish natives of Sol III blew it. Where do we arguments will boil down to: Hell, if we But I can't think of anything, now, try next?” don't grab the iron and bauxite and nickel that would impell us to invest another The death of a space-travel future may and tungsten and oil in X, the Communists umpty-ump billions of bucks into another kill off science fiction as we know it. will! The rest of the under-developed manned program for bigger and better space- In fact, the souring of technology and mass- world will be plundered, sooner or later, craft, and space platforms and the nec- consumption may kill off science fiction so we might as well get it now—or we'll cesary advanced technology.... completely.. .leaving us with various forms have to fight like hell for it later. The voters are pissed off enough about of fantasy. But, not to worry, I'm sure 99^ of the taxes and welfare. They see space shots as citizenry will cower from such grim choices Of course we'll have spy satellites and a space industry boondoggle; just another and decisions. The old reliable lies of new generations of missiles for as long as welfare-for-engineers program. (And a cost- self-justification will suffice: we'll it is humanly possible to build and maintain plus subsidy for large corporations.) Like keep the peace and do good and be patriotic them. The military will always have first pyramid building. and hate the Evil enemy. priority. Where is the profit in space? Until The bloody handwriting on the wall will I might even point out that if the mili- Exxon can see a way to turn that trick I always be papered over,. ..except..,. hadn't seen the obvious benefits tu doubt the Congress will see a reason for tary space technology, the further vast expense. The "public sector" them in satellites and There is this growing counter-culture: dazzling sheepskin of the manned needs it more. glamorous, libertarianism, ecologyism, isolationism, space programs clothing the military wolf, the back-to-the-land movement, the pagan The most we can hope for is using the wouldn't have been funded by Congress and religions.... space shuttle to ferry radioactive wastes ' sold to the people. up and out, so that the nuclear power It'll be interesting to see how the - ' I see plants will be more acceptable to the en- Sg^_given the space-less future establishment is going to sell another vironmentalists. ahead of us, what are the "bottom-line" foreign adventure to the youth of this harsh truths we face? country. The young won't follow a Hubert In the meanwhile I can't think of a Humphrey or a Ford or a Reagan or a Jack- "free world" damn thing the Russians are capable of div- More and more nakedly, the son. They just might trust a Jerry Brown be in ing in space that would provoke another dominated by the United States, will or Jimmy Carter or Ted Kennedy. Commies" a a national pride-saving effort. an open struggle with the "Godless for the Third World resources. The world In the meantime, friends, buy a wood And without fear, or the national ego pie is shrinking, everyone's appetite is stove for back-up service when the oil is at stake, or tha lure of making a buck growing, and we'll have to give the geo- cut off again or goes to |1. a gallon, pay present, the space program in this country political davil its due and admit to our off your bouse, and insulate it to the appears wiped out. citizens that their standard of living de- hilt.. .so you can be warm as you read up on Did somebody mumble about mining the pends on our controlling (through "foreign home gardens and the tactics of fighting Moon? Too costly, of course. It's a aid" bribes, threats, CIA covert operations, off armed gangs of thieves. Catch-22 situation; by the time we will and "virtuous" military interventions) Ah, Doom-saying.. .a delicious, virtucus desperately need whatever oils or minerals South and Central America, and as much as Middle-East, and avocation. page 4 are in the Moon, we'll have used up so 2 possible of Africa, the ^^ontlnued on 2 ) ,

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW R O. Box 11408 Formerly THE ALIEN CRITIC^

Portland, OR MAY 1976 COVER BY'STEPHER FAB IAH VOLUME FIVE, NUMBER TWO 97211 WHOLE NUMBER SEVENTEEN ALIEN THOUGHTS 2 PHONE (503) 282-0381 RICHARD E. GEIS

AN INTERVIEW WITH Ed I tor & Pubi i sher GEORGE R. R. MARTIN ALL UNCREDITED WRITING IS Conducted by Darrell Schweitzer-6 BY THE EDITOR IN ONE GEIS REVIEWS OR ANOTHER PHILIP K. DICK: RAX 5 A PARALLAX VIEW KlULERBOWL Reviewed by George R R Martin- 10 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY By Terrence M. Green -1 NAMELESS PLACES Feb., May, Aug., Nov. Reviewed by Jeffrey Miller 16 WHEN FOOTSTEPS ECHO THE DEVIL 1% DEAD or Rev iewed by Wayne Hooks 17 Single Copy $1. 25 FINNEgAN'g AKAKE THE PROMETHEUS CRISIS Reviewed by Keith Soltys 18 By R. A. Lafferty 16 TRITON Reviewed by Donn Vicha 24 SUBSCRIPTIONS EPOCH UNITED STATES: $4.00 One Year MICROCOSMOS Reviewed by Mike Glyer 27 57. 00 Two Years MARUNE:ALASTOR 933 R. Faraday Nelson 20 By SHOWBOAT WORLD CANADA*: US$4.50 One Year THE GRAY PRINCE US$8.00 Two Years THE ALTERED EGO Reviewed by Lynne Holdom- 36 •Canadians may pay with personal NEW WORLDS ¥& cheques if the chequing acct. By James MoQuade 23 Reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer 38 number on their cheques is printed EYEWITNESS TO SPACE in computer numerals. (Ihus we be- - — Reviewed by Freff— — 42 ccme slaves to the needs of the AN INTERVIEW WITH VIEWS Machine. ROBERT ANTON WILSON Reviewed by Freff-—— — 44 IMPERIAL EARTH UNITED KINCaXW: £2. 48 C8ie Year Conducted by Neal Wilgus 30 ECOTOPIA £4.35 Tiro Years STAR MOTHER To Agent; Tttn. Dawson & Sons THE IMPLOSION EFFECT Cannon House ANGEL FEAR: MANKIND AT THE TURNING POINT Folkestone, Kent, A Sort-of Review Column ODYSSEY CT19 SEE THE BEST OF STEPHEN FABIAN of SF Art FANTASTIC NUDES AUSTRALIA: $4, 00 AUCT. One Year $6,00 AUST Two Years By FREFF HI A HANNES BOK SKETCHBOOK THE SCIENCE FANTASY CORRESPONDENT To Agent: gpace Age Books THE SPACE VAMPIRES 305 - 307 Swanston St. THE ALTER-EGO VIEWPOINT H5 THE TRIUNE MAN Melbourne, 3000 Vic. Reviewed bv Alter Ego 45-46 All other Foreign & Strange Places; ALIEN CONCLUSIONS 46 US$4. 50 One Year US$8. 00 Two Years IMTERIOR ART All foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S. dollar cheques or 2-3-45-46-48 Tim Kirk money orders, except to agents. LETTERS David naugh 4 Michael G. Coney II Grant Canfield &-29 Philip Jose Farmer 17 William Rotlser 8-29-21-24-30-33 Bud Webster- — — -- — -18 Alexis Gilliland 13-16-18-32-35-39 COPYRIGHT 1976 BY Robert Bloch ————— -18 Jim McQuade 19-23 0 Andrew Weine 18 Mike Gilbert 22-34-37-44 RICHARD E. GEIS FOR THE 27-47 Harlan El 1 ison 9 Vic Kostrikin CONTRIBUTORS Paul Walker- ————————— 19 Todd Klein 31 Harry Warner 22 Jim Shull 36 Karl T. Pflock 25 Freff 41 Jerry Pournel le 25 Charles Platt 26 I^OTE: I've mislaid the name of the artist George Warren — 26 CharTes C. Ryan/GALILEO ^^29 who did tie heading illo fc'r the Green Forry Ackerman- — —34 article on page 12, Come forward, sir, Peter Mandler 35 Fred Roux 37 and claim credit. ..next issue. Darrell Schweitzer 37 Peter Weston 40 Byron Preiss 41 David Gerrold 44 Ron Rogers 47 Gei r-Arne 01 sen 47 Don Keller — 47 SCIENCE FICTION REVIEIW IS AVAILABLE SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW is published at IN MICROFICHE FROM: GEORGE HAY 1525 N.E Ainsworth, Portland, OR 38B Compton Rd, ^20-76 The post office is fcrgiven: I London. N. 21.. Second class paid at Portland, OR, just got my second class mailing permito UNITED KINaXW ALIEN THOUGHTS continued from page 2 paranoia that points to an unwritten law "rake in that easy money". And don't send of delay concerning small-press second me sample chapters for my opinion. If you

class applications, both locally and at must try the market buy a few of the books, I had been considering adding a heavy national headquartes, A minor p.o. offic- study them, and then write to the address cover this issue, a la #15, but then I read ial let slip the existence of the policy given in the back of the books. If they’re a report in the Kipplinger Newsletter that in a conversation with me a few months ago. interested they’ll respond, the post awful is scheduling another round Let a major publisher launch a new magazine, of 2nd, 3rd, and Ath class rate increases however, and application is okayed I may write another to finance some in July. promptly. house improvements and some dental work, I cringed as usual and ran screaming and. ..whatever emergency shows up. SFR I really weary of complaining about the around the house threatening to disembowel doesn't yet clear enough to keep me in all post office. Let me say only that (espec- phase the next postman I saw. ..but that the Red Rocket wine and peanuts I drink/eat. ially in the New York area) if you don’t passed as usual. I grimly concluded it get your copy of SFR in a reasonable time wiser to stick with the current A8-page —usually by the end of November, Febru- self-cover newsprint format. Those heavy ary, May and August^-don't suspect me of Speaking of RED... Ummm, about the covers, besides costing over $100. per running off to Las Vegas with intent to red print of last issue... I have never thousand, also weigh as much as the rest abscond and indulge. Like as not the p.o. experienced such an outpouring of vehement of the issue. Who needs a nearly doubled has "lost” it. Overseas subscribers, of opinion such unanimous opinion about postage bill? — — course, must expect to wait up to and be- an aspect of one of the issues. And the price of newsprint has gone up, yond two months. No, I don’t understand, Readers—dozens of them—complained too, insuring that the printing bill will either, why it takes so long. Boats aren’t bitterly of seared eyeballs, weakened vis- be up again, that slowl

(And besides, as many readers have Still another reason for avoiding the TttEM I. said they like the easily folded newsprint expensive covers is my typewriters. The Ni IW TWE as have said the heavy covers are nifty to Sears Medalist 12 which I use for rough look at.) copy and manuscript work has taken to sticking. I’ll be typing merrily along, In fact, I expect inflation and price I’ll look up and lo, I’ve pounded out six increases to come on hot and heavy later words in one space. And this loyal Olymp- this year, with the p.o, whimpering and ia standard which is perhaps the best manual whining ’’crisis” and "bankruptcy” to the ever made, with its lovely 17 space per Congress every two weeks until Congress inch tall elite, is frustrating because it gives a whopping two billion subsidy. Rat- was not designed for a carbon ribbon, and es can’t be increased much more (especial- my jury-rigged feeder and altering of the ly first class rates) without a catastroph- ribbon take-up mechanism is so often cranky ic loss of volume. A utility company in and eccentric that I often have to retype an eastern state recently found it could a "missed” letter or word or phrase,... deliver its own bills by hand cheaper than So I’m going to buy me a dual pitch Selec- postage. A raise to 150 (say) for a first tric which takes drop-in carbon ribbon class letter would trigger an avalanche of cart ridges. defections to alternate bill delivery sys- tems. The dual pitch Selectrics start around

ion, blurry type, fogged brains.. . NEVER, $855, I think, and by the time I add the Already several book publ'shers are extra typing balls I want, and buy a dozen EVER, DO THAT AGAIN, GEIS! they gently sug- sending review copies via United Parcel gested. or so cartridges... .and a service contract Service (After that incredible million- color for the covers and package foul-up they had in, ..was it the So the change six interior pages is out! Black ink is Detroit post office? I can’t conceive 'a In order to afford the Selectric I (And supervisor letting machinery chew up hun- wrote another porno epic. This one is easier to read, yes. besides, it sav- dreds of thousands of parcels (mostly called (my working title) MOTHER LUST, and es another seventy dollars or so.)

books) without doing something about it. will bring in $1500. I have the first

It took a visit by a Congressman to expose $750 check in hand. The balance is due on the mess.) publication. For those who are interested, What a Tot of people don’t realize in the first book I did for Beeline a few their dazzled initial something-for-noth- Bruce Arthurs sent me a long letter months ago (the money went into reprinting ing euphoria concerning a nationalized detailing (from personal p.o. work exper- TAG #5 and #6 and a few ads upcoming in health care service and/or the recent ience) the various stupidities and inef- ANALOG) is out on display in adult book- assertion by a few black/poor groups that' ficiencies he observed. shops nationwide, I guess, and was retitl- everyone has a right to food, is ed by the editors to DADDY’S HARLOT. By- that it And. ..the high muck-a-mucks in Washing- is two-way street. lined Sheela Kunzur. Heh-heh. a ton D, C, still haven’t okayed my second It is still True class mailing permit, ,, no doubt still hop- By the way, please don’t ask me for the that There-Ain't-No- ing in the interim I'll quit publishing on address of Beeline’s editor and his/,their Such-Thing-As-A-Free-Lunch. There is al- ways price schedule so they can deny the application editorial taboos and needs and etc., so a , sometimes in coin you don’t 4 expect or hadn’t and save a few hundred bucks... It is not you, too, can "knock off a sex novel" and considered possible. ~ —

Beware of politicians bearing gifts. ed another sinking spell—down to around Govto of the politicians, Their price is power—over you. Si. 85 in U.S. currency. by the bureau- crats, for the non-producers. I have whipped out my handy seven doll- In this case—health care and food— ar pocket calculator and have arrived there is an unspoken and often unrecogniz- at the following rates to send to Wm. Dawson Society may be kept moving ed (by the recipient) ’’social contract”: by its misfits & Sons Ltd. for a new subsciption or renew- —people who fail to respond t(i the ex- al: pensive housebreaking procedures educators If you get ’’free” food and ’’free” medi- 1 year (4 issues) t2.A8 call "socialization.” cal care you willbe required to perform a years (8 issues) tA ’’free” service for 2 .35 the State. First, If this is so, it raised some crucial subtly, you become dependent on the state To: Wm, Dawson & Sons Ltd, questions. How much of this essential ec- for food, shelter, medical care, amusement Cannon House centricity—this disorderly behavior .... And then, once all the machinery is Folkestone, Kent CT19 5EE can a society tolerate? Are a society’s in place and the structures are built and rigidities gratuitous or do they produce society re-arranged. ..then (or reasonably, entrepreneurs by giving them something gradually, during the seduction) you become solid to push against? Or can we begin the property of the State. GROWING UP IN ERTO to imagine a society in which eccentricity is the norm and the Whoever feeds you and shelters you and entrepreneurial im- On the cover of Michael G. Coney’s new pulse, in one form or another, cares for you is your master. Some people is express- novel, RAX (DAW UY1205, Sl.25) is a quote ed more universally? prefer to be their own master. from Theodore Sturgeon: ‘'It is heartening “Richard Cornuelle to see a good writer become very good.” Jimmy Carter has now joined Hubert Scotland Yard detectives use Humphrey, Scoop Jackson and Edward Kennedy And that is true of Mike with RAX; it’s a simple pattern to decide whether a burglar is a in favor of a cradle-to-the-grave national the best novel he’s written, and I suspect professional. If they find that all the health service. They all insist it be a he has crossed an invisible bo'rder to a drawers of a cabinet or dresser compulsory program. They never seem to ex- territo'y of new skills and more effective are open, they suspect a professional; if only the plain why people must be forced to partici- technique. ..and a greater knowledge of what bottom drawer is open, they look for an pate if it is such a wonderful deal. he wants to say and how best to say it. amateur. The reasoning, as Sherlock Holm- The key is that with a voluntary pro- I’m reluctant to give specifics about es would say, is easy once you have the gram people could withdraw if they find it the story in RAX. It’s about coming-of-age key. Pros know it’s quicker to start at isn’t as great a deal as they thought in on an alien planet humanoid by a boy (who the bottom drawers and work up, leaving the beginning,,,. is extremely human And politicians and in almost every respect) drawers open as you go. If you start with bureaucrats HATE to lose control of people. during a war and in a culture and technology the top drawer, you must close it before roughly 1875-ish in our terms. you open and look into the drawer below, The dynamics of these in-place and pro- It with posed social programs: federalized welfare, deals the strange and fascinat- ’’Newsline”, PSYCHOLOGY TODAY food stamps, ing climatic Changes health care, etc. is that they of the planet, and Dec. 1975. always tend to spread, to bring more and with the equally fascinating alien flora more people into their care/control, and and fauna and unobtrusive companion human- Among Frank Harris's flickering claims to ever-diminish the number of people who oid species everyone seems to ignore as on our memory was his preposterous MV LIFE are essentially free of the State. unimportant until. ..in the end... AND LOVES, which was one of the financial props of It deals with an astronomical catastro- his declining years. It has an phe, hidden at first, which is structured assured place in the history of porno- graphy; generations of into the final section of the story to re- randy schoolboys Sharp-eyed SFR-watchers will note that have veal the essential nature of government and passed it from desk to desk and with this issue Space Age Books in Mel- rulers... countless travellers have smuggled it bourne have become SFR’s subscription through the Customs wrapped in woollen un- agent in Australia. Hell, it’s a hell of a novel. Detailed, derwear. I always thought, even as a Australian subscribers may renew with persuasive, gripping. It starts slowly, schoolboy, that it was rather a bore, and Space Age Books if they wish. It simpli- but Mike can now carry a reader with inci- more than faintly unattractive, particular- fies matters considerably for everyone. dent and character as he develops his story ly in its advocacy of the use of a stomach Rates are: at his chosen pace. pump as an adjunct in the successful con- 1 year (A issues), SA.OO Aust. This novel inspires great admiration summation of erotic activities. After Miss years (8 issues) Aust. 2 S6.00 in me. Coney is now Very Good. He’ll get Pullar's revelations we can judge it in a better. different light. When we realize back- To: SPACE AGE BOOKS the ground against which it was created 305-507 Swanston Street, it emerges as a baroque tragedy, and Harris’s Melbourne 3000 Victoria. ’Little souls wish you to be unhappy. last and most stupendous lie. For when he It aggravates them to have you joyous, ef- wrote MY LIFE AND LOVES he was completely ficient and free. They like to feel that impotent. It was the final flicker of a fate is disciplining you. It gives their Rates for U.K. have changed subscrib- burnt out body and an exhausted brain. egos wings if yours are clipped. You can ers, too. No sooner had I received a let- ruin your life in an hour by listening to —Beverley Nichols, ter from W. Dawson & Sons Ltd. quoting new their puerile opinions.’ THE SPECTATOR, May pound rates, but the British pound suffer- „ -j p u 24, 1975 —David Seabury 3 **»l***X****i*******.**:*:*:^*:!t::^*:*::^».»:^c!^;t,»-:^^t.**** AN INTERVIEW WITH people have come close. Strangely enough, Lovecraft in GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I think is one of them "The Colour Out of Space" which is an alien that CONDUCTED BY DARRELL SCHWEITZER is normally not considered when people are talking about science fiction aliens, but is one of the most terrifying alien and SFR: How does one go about constructing an getting at. different entities I've ever seen, and al- alien world? How do you do it? so, of course, Lem's SOLARIS. But other SFR : Do you think it is safe tu assume than that how many different kinds of al- MARTIN: Well I just wrote an article on that the products of a completely independ- iens are there? There are not many. Most ent evolution would have things so constructing aliens for Charlie Grant's anthro- of them are, if they're simply a foreign FICTION, pomorphic as cities and religion? WRITING AND SELLING SCIENCE which country, then they're human beings with a SFWA and the WRITER'S DIGEST are doing, so minor quirk. You know, they make some

MARTIN : in some ways I had to think about that much I think you can get things going physical difference and extrapolate from ways. more analytically than I ever had to be- both There’s a lot of space out there, but the basic premise on which fore. Up to the present, up to writing there and really anything may happen, which they're operating is still humanity.

that article, I had always not thought a- is one of the interesting things about sci-

bout how I did it. I just did it intuitive- ence fiction tu me, that you can set up SFR: Have you ever considered the biolog- ly. I do not use the Hal Clement/Poul An- your conditions any way you want, and if ical aspects of this, the amount of chance

derson world building method where they es- you're pressed long enough you can justify twists in evolution which would have to be sentially start from a planet a certain them. I do think that there will be races duplicated in order tu get something with distance from a sun, and they give it cer- that are similar to us, like the Shkeen, two arms and two legs? tain climatic features, and then thay work and there will be races that are complete-

out what the ecology would' be like from ly alien. In a sense I'm going over some

MARTIN ; There was a period in science fic- there, what sort of people would develop on of the things I said in the article. tion when a number of articles appeared ar- the planet. They'd have aliens at the end, The really alien alien is one of the guing for parallel evolutions simply be- and perhaps the planet would suggest some hardest things to do in science fictiono I cause man is an optimal thing. The writ- storylines. don't think it's ever been done well. Some ers of those things postulated that any al- I work it the opposite. For me the sto-

ry comes first, and the characters, ant I

start with that. Then I design the alien

world tu make the points tiat I wanted to make in the story. Like, "A Song for Lya”

was simply a story about love and religion and loneliness and things like that, and

there were things I wanted to say about those issues. So the world was designed

to enable me to make the statements I want- ed to make most effectively.

SFR : 1 think there's a problem in many stories of this type, including "A Song for Lya”, and that is that the alien world com-

es off not as a society of another species

but just as a foreign country. Would you agree?

MARTIN : That's true about the Shkeen, I

think, to an extent. But that again was the requirement of the story. It was nec-

essary for them to be mentally very close to humans, so they could feel the same need for love, the same need for religious back- ground that humans feel, so that humans

would be susceptible to the Greeshka, the mass mind. My protagonist refers to that

in the story when he names other alien races and says, "This one feels no emotions

at all," and of another one, "I feel their emotions very strongly, but they're alien emotions," but the Shkeen are very close

to humanity. So in that case, yeah, I do

think a certain amount of that is true, but it was deliberate. That was what I was ien races would be virtually identical to SFR ; Are you a conscious writer or an un- and am always getting new ideas. But when humanity in most aspects, simply because conscious one? Do you make careful outlin- 3 story is actually finished, done, aid off, it works better. es or does it just happen? I cease to daydream about that story. It’s

gone, like wiped clean. I don't daydream I don’t buy that, but in a sense I do MARTIN ; It just sort of happens. General- about "Song for Lya" anymore like I did go to a modified theory of it. Simply for ly I get an idea, and I have an idea sheet,' when I was writing it. It doesn't come in- story purposes it is much easier to deal which is simply one sheet of paper, and it to my mind on the subway and things like with that sort of thing than a completely consists mostly of titles or maybe one word that. alien being. The utter alien is quite a descriptions that kind of act as a start- challenge, and it’s something I would like So I think that when you talk out a ing point for a whole idea. So I just type to write about someday, but not necessarily story, in some ways it’s equivalent to out the title, the phrase on the idea sheet, in every story. writing it. You're making the decisions. and then when I want to write, if I’ve got You don’t have to make the decisions before. nothing going at tie moment, I pick up the SFR: Often when writers try to create a You can daydream a scene one way and you idea sheet and sit there and look at it, completely non-human being they simply take can daydream it another way. But when you drink a lot of coffee, and eventually I may human traits and reverse them, the tradi- write it down it's frozen, and whtin you start daydreaming about one thing or anoth- tional one being the aliens have three sex- tell it to someone it's also frozen. You- er, and that’s how I write most of my sto- es instead of two. Can you think of any ’ve told the story. There it is. So it's ries, by day dreaming, writing on the el or way so it isn’t just anti-anthropomorphic? gone from you and it's rot in the process staying awake at night, listening to music Most aliens are reflections of western cul- of creation anymore. or whatever, and scenes and characters and ture. stuff start to fit themselves together in _SFR; You mention that you write quickly. my head. The story starts t.) come alive, MARTIN ; What many writers do, and what I Do you ever revise much? and when a large enough amount of that hap- think is a very lazy thing, is not simply pens, 'the story starts tn come alive with to reflect western culture but to reflect MARTIN : Generally speaking, I revise as I the scenes, then I sit down and begin to other cultures. For some reason they’ll go along. I do not do drafts. I sit down write it. Usually it goes pretty quickly read an anthropology text and they’ll find and I'll type a page, or a sentence, a^id if once I'm past the beginning. That's where out about some African tribe or South Pac- I don't like that page I'll rip it up and the more conscious work comes in, taking ific group which has very odd customs and retype it. If I’m typing something, a sen- some daydreams and rejecting others, fit- they’ll extrapolate those into aliens and tence, and I say, "Oh, that sentence is ting them all together and filling out the say it’s supposed to be non-human. Just garbage," right then I'll change it before spaces between the powerful scenes. because it isn’t part of our particular I do anything else, as many times as I have culture that doesn’t make it nonhuman. to until I’ve got it tha way I like it. SFR : If you were to tell someone a story Sometimes it goes through rather quickly, Aliens are very hard to do right, I idea in advance, would you lose the story? and after a story has been written parts don’t think it’s easy to get around the re- Do they "die" on you once exposed? Do you of it are the first draft and other parts verse thing, Just the starting point is have that problem? have been considerably revised. Parts of very difficult. it I have been satisfied with and haven't MARTIN ; I generally don’t like to talk a- been changed. Then I’ll go through it once SFR: When you project future human so- a bout my stories overly much before they're again with a pen, and I'll make final re- ciety, is this derived from contemporary have much delayed myself written. I very visions. Mostly that consists of just western culture or directly from the story? talking about story idea in the past. by a tightening it, cutting words. Maybe I'll Once, very early, after I'd sold Ben Bova redo one or two pages that a bit displease MARTIN ; I derive it from the story in most like one story, I was in his office and I me. But that’s the extent of tiie revisiono cases, I do not extrapolate what direction told him the whole next story I was going I type fairly hard copy the first time out. our society is going to take most of the to write which I had daydreamed out pretty I don't really think it needs that much re- time. Some of my stories, the near-future well but hadn't put a word on paper, and at vision. type things, are or were extrapolations of the time I kind of lost interest in it for of some the things I thought were likely to a long while. I finally did get around to happen. But most of my stories are pretty writing it, but it was several years later SFR: Did you always work like this, or did far future, other worlds, and the story is and it was a much different story by that you change as you became more professional? the thing. The story takes primacy over time, because I had daydreamed on other everything So the extrapolations are else. things and I guess the changes I had made MARTIN ; No, essentially I've always worked built for for dramatic purposes and what is had altered the story enough to reawaken my like this. I don't do rewrites except necessary in terms of the story, interest in it. usually on editorial demand, and I'm grov>- ing more and more reluctant to do even SFR; Then where does the story itself come SFR : Why do you think it works this way? that, because I’ve discovered that the sto- from? Does it come from an idea, or per- ries I’ve rewritten most never seem to an image? haps something as abstract as MARTIN ; I don't know. When I have a story work. I rewrote one story about six times, in progress, when I'm thinking about it or and that's one of the great horror stories

MARTIN ; Both at various times. It comes when I’ve started to write it—let's say of my life. I finally managed to sell it. autobiographical things are from my life; I'm half way through—I daydream about it. It did improve in the process, but mean- sometimes at least the seeds from which It's on the burners of my mind cooking, and while it just took years of aggravation and stories grow; from things I read, stories I think of scenes and I alter scenes and I work for one small sale when I could heve by other writers. I respond to them, 7 rework characters and pieces of dialogue, had six stories sold instead of one sale and five old drafts in the file cabinet, SFR ; How do you feel about these claims tion before I could answer that question, and, I think, improved myself just as much. by people like Silverberg and Malzberg that maybe more experience with my own writing

there's no room in science fiction for a career, I want to see the sales figures, Rewriting serves several functions as serious writer?, how they would look for serious work. But I see it, and the most obvious one is sim- there are many serious writers working in ply to improve the story. Another function MARTIN ; In a way I'm not really in a posi- science fiction, Le Guin for one, Gene which I think is equally important is to tion to judge their claims, because my ca- Wolfe for another, two writers I admire make a writer aware of his faults, his reer is in a much different stage than immensely. I think they're both as good as problems, to get him to analyse his own their careers are. Both of them I think any mainstream writers and they're working material. And if you just write stuff out from their comments would like to do a Von- primarily in science fiction and they ap- first draft and send it and sell anything negut in a way, to transcend science fic- pear to be satisfied and having good suc- you can write, sometimes your work suffers tion and achieve considerable mainstream cess. Now that I've said that they'll because you're not aware of your own protH financial or critical success. In a way probably quit next week and make me look lems, because you're not going back and what they're saying is there's no room in like a fool by the time the interview comes critiqu'ng your own work. I participate in science fiction for that. They're saying out, writers' workshops extensively, and there a writer cannot do that if he's too closely I think I get that sort of thing, which is associated with the science fiction label. SFR ; It seems that everybody is lusting very important. And if I have a story And it may or may not be true. It depends after critical acclaim from people who are which is heavily critiqued at a workshop, a large part on who's doing it, and just sufficiently bigoted that they won't read which lots of people see problems with. I'll on very mundane things like marketing and a book if it has the words "science fic- go back and revise and fix the minor prob- how they handle themselves. But certainly tion" on it. Is their approval even desir- lems. But generally I will not overhaul my writing is serious and I work in science able? the story and do exte'sive rewrites, chang- fiction, so there seems to be room for me. ing the structure and stuff like that. I Silverberg was a serious writer and for all MARTIN ; It's desirable in a very pragmatic would prefer to take that knowledge about that he's quitting, now he was active in it sense. It's desirable to get any acclaim myself and my writing and use it to make for many years and he produced many excel- because eventually that translates into the next story superior, and meanwhile sell lent books, and there would continue to be money. Leslie Fiedler tells the story that the previous piece of work. Maybe that's room in science fiction for him if he con- he was one of the judges for the National just an intellectual justification, but tinued to be active. I'm sure Robert Silv- Book Award and he wanted THE IRON DREAM the fact is emotionally I find rewriting a erberg could sell any novel he cared to considered as best novel and the other loathsome chore. I really hate to do it. write. judges refused to consider it. They said I'd much rather work on a new story than some year they may have a special science rewrite an old one. fiction category, but they would not con- SFR ; His objection is that they go out of sider science fiction for the novel award. SFR ; Aren't you afraid that years from now print quickly after he sells them. This is one story, and in some ways it you'll have a long trail of stuff you'd says very bad things about the people who rather forget, the intermediate versions? MARTIN ; Well, that may be so, and that is give the National Book Award, that they unfortunate. As a matter of fact I wrote would not even consider the book. On the MARTIN ; I suppose that's possible, and to a review of Silverberg's latest thing for other hand I would certainly not turn down an extent it’s true of every writer. No the Chicago SUN TIMES and I lamented the the National Book Award if it were offered matter how well he goes about it, even if fact that his books do go out of print, but to me. It can do absolutely fantastic he revises extensively and spends a year on books that go in and out of print are in- things for your career, and I do think it each story, the fact is that if you're fluenced by other factors, I don't think is a meaningful award, and that there are learning anything from your craft at all it's all quite so simple as he said, be- perceptive critics in the mainstream for you'll be a better writer ten years from cause his good books are all out of print all that there are also assholes. It's now than you were when you first started, that's a bad sign, that there's no room for true of science fiction critics, too. so you'll be embarrassed by yoijr early work a serious writer in science fiction. I There are some science fiction critics who to an extent. don't know. I'd have to have more informa- —

are very good and very perceptive, and seems to me that no two people mean the beg for you, but there are novels that have there are some who are not. We see that same thing by style. good characterisation and a style that is within our field. basically workmanlike. I don't want to

MARTIN : The way a writer handles words. denigrate a workmanlike style. There are There was VERTEX, for example, with You know, your story, your plot is one places for it and there are stories where its review columns where they would auto- thing. Content can be many things. It you should have it. Style should be an matically pan any book if it had authors in can be the plot, or your theme, the things instrument and you should be able to choose it that were associated with the so-called you're trying to say, but I think style is what you want. New Wave. the language that you choose to say it in. I went through a period early on where It's the difference between saying you're

SFR ; Their definition. I would see something I admired and I would up shit creek without a paddle or you're try to write something like that, in the up the proverbial estuary without the prop- MARTIN : Yes. style of a certain author whom I admired er means of locomotion. They convey the in order to get inside his head and if I same message, but stylistically they're far SFR: Allow me to go out on a limb for a could do it, master his trick. Like I apart. I think one of science fiction's minute. It seems to me that no science would write a Lovecraft story. Lovecraft primary deficits in the past has been poor fiction writer can be any good unless he had many flaws as a writer but I also style, lack of style. The words were work- has a literary background outside of the think he did some things extremely well* manlike. They told the story, and they field. Otherwise he produces only stale So I would try to write a Lovecraft story told what happened in the story, and you rehashes of other people's science fiction or a Robert E. Howard story, so that I got from point A to point 6, but when I stories. Now having made this dangerous could learn to do the things that they did. read a book by Fitzgerald, to name one of statement, let me ask you what is your And after I thought I had learned that I my mainstream favorites, I read a section background in writing, who are your influ- would go on and do something else. A wri- from THE GREAT GATSBY and not only does he ences, and so forth. ter should have command of many different convey the thing happening, but the images voices, so he can use one that is appropri- from it would just be so powerful, because MARTIN : My literary background is actual- ate to his story, of the choice of language. Are you famil- ly primarily scinece fiction, although I iar with GATSBY at all? have read mainstream and taken literature SFR ; Do you think that the deliberate wri- courses in college, and I read a fair a- ting of pastiches is a worthwhile learning SFR ; Yes. mount of mainstream. I read much more sci- tool for most people? ence fiction than anything else because MARTIN : Like his description’ of Gatsby's that's the field I'm working in, for that parties. You could just describe them by MARTIN : It can be, but there are dangers pragmatic reason as well as others, I want saying there were a bunch of people booz- to it, and I think you have to know what to keep up with the field I'm working in ing and bumping into each other, and that's you are doing, what your intention is. and see what other people are doing. It's the stylistic device you chose, and it mak- Like my Lovecraft story was very different a valuable source of stimulation. Also, them es the point, but he describes as from all these Lovecraft pastiches that I my academic background is in journalism. brightly colored moths fluttering together. did. Lovecraft gave me a certain feeling I have a master's degree in journalism so That's a beautiful image to me, and it con- when I was in high school and reading him* I've had newspaper experience and things veys the same information, but much better* He scared the shit out of me. They were like that, which is kind of a different Also the language itself is an additional lovely horror stories and they really af- literary influence than anything else. source of pleasure to the reader. I just fected me, and I wanted to write that, so

That had a profound effect on me, sat back and said, "That's lovely." It I tried to write stories that gave the same

writing in journalism, just in my style. sticks in my mind and I remember it. Now feeling, I looked at some of the things he

When I started writing in highschool and that's one thing that I want to do. did to try and get that feeling. But I write very heavy, such, I had a tendency to The kind of science fiction I'm inter- didn't go around and borrow all his names adjective-laden prose, long sentences, and all ested in writing, the kind I'm doing right his characters like some of these heavy description, purple prose. That I other people did. August Oerleth did it, now anyway, I think of as rather tradition- think was modified considerably by my and Lin Carter in his pastiches of him al science fiction. I deal with tradition- journalistic experience where the emphasis al SF things that are very much within the they take everything from Lovecraft except is on terseness, tightness, clean copy, the feeling, which don't So genre, but I want to add to it style, as they get. maybe too much so. I think that to a de- their stories for me at least just don't good as I can make it, and characterisation the other direc- gree I’m holding back in which is another weakness that science fic- come alive. They're total failures. I tion now, but I think it is necessary to tion has had, would certainly never make a career out of admit that the journalism thing was a very pastiching another writer. It can be a

valuable training ground for me. The sto- SFR; Don't you think these are highly re- learning experience, but remember that ries I'm doing now are richer in terms of lated, because it is by the author's use what you want is not the trappings but the style, and generally more Fitzgerald than of language that you can tell one charact- effect. Hemingway, let us say. I like Fitzgerald er from the other?

better than Hemingway. I like his style SFR ; Have you done any supernatural horror stories professionally? of writing much more, SFR : They are related, but I don't think that they are necessarily identical. Yeah,

SFR: What exactly do you mean by style? a good style will help you in your charact- _WRTM: ' I've done two professional fantasy You may have heard Delany's claim that erisation. It's good to have command of a stories. One was ny second sale. It was style and content are inseparable. It 9 good style and you can make it sit up and a science fiction fantasy story called "Ex- —

rad and his short story, "The National Pas- it To San Breta," a ghost stury but set in plot. The ending is oh-so-ironic; the time," which chieved a good deal of no- the future in a science fictional sort of a brutish unwashed fans hiss and boo at Mann

tice and was picked up for a Best . Then world where the highways are deserted and for ruining the game by making Matison William Harrison sold another short, "Rol- a man encounters a ghost car. The other confess rather than killing him out of ler Ball Murder," to ESQUIRE, and that was one was a story called "The Lonely Songs hand. spawned of Laran Dor," which is a fantasy. It has picked up for a Best too, and soon Anyone who has noticed similarities not yet appeared. Ted White has it sched- the movie ROLLERBALL. Recently not one but released competing between KILLERBOWL and the film ROLLERBALL uled fur a forthcoming issue of FANTASTIC. two publishers have re- should go to the head of the class. Begin It’ll probably be in print by the time this print anthologies of sports SF. with the title, an obvious echo. Proceed interview comes out. And now we have Gary K. Wolf and KILL- to the plot, a fraternal if not identical ERBOWL. I may do more fantasy. I’m interested twin of the movie's. Not only is the in doing more, but there is simply not the KILLERBOWL is the story of Superbowl structure virtually the same, but whole market for it that there is for science XXI, played in the streets of Boston on New scenes are nearly identical. In the movie fiction. Vear’s Day, 2011. fhey don't use statiums rollerball champion Jonathan E. watches as friend in 2011; the game is called "street foot- his best and long-time teammate is SFR: How much of what you write is con- ball" and the rules bear faint resemblance callously murdered on the track. He gets trolled by whdt there is a market for? revenge. T. K. Mann to those used today. Players are encased In the book, watches in armor. They have to be; the defensive as his best friend and long-time teammate MARTIN: I don’t know. To an extent it team is allowed to use its long knives and is callously murdered on the field. He certainly hinges on it. I write as a com- short clubs on the bail handler. Then gets revenge. In ROLLERBALL, Jonathan E. municator. There are things I want to say there's the player called the "hidden safe- faces the last surviving member of the en- and I want people to read them, I do not ty," who carries a rifle and one bullet. emy New York team at the end of a bloody write like some writers who write only for He sneaks off and hides at the beginning world championship game after everyone else themselves. I do not write only for my- of every game, and you'll never guess how has been slaughtered. He triumphs and self because if I knew there were no maga- he deals with touchdown threats... stands alone. In KILLERBOWL, T.K. Mann zines and no way I could get my stuff pub- faces Harv Matison at tha end of a bloody lished, I probably would not anymore. I - A street football game lasts from mid- Superbowl after everyone else has been might still daydream. I don't think I night to midnight, and Wolf assures us that slaughtered. He triumphs and stands alone. could ever stop that, but I wouldn't go the sport is the most popular ever devised. Both stars get into trouble because they through all the work of putting it on pap- Deaths are very common—players speak calm- are incorruptible; Jonathan E, won't re- er. So the fact that there are markets ly of their LPR, or lost player ratio, tire, T. K. Mann won't cheat and kill e- makes me write, and what they are deter- which is the sort of statistic you get when nough. Both sets of baddies try to get at mines what I am writing, I'm much more you mate a pass completion percentage with tne heroes through frieir women; both female likely to express the things I want to say a body count. In 2011, the fans love gore, leads turn out to be working for the other in tne kind of stnry where I can place it and like nothing better tiian to see their side. And so on. And so forth.

and get across tn a lot of people. If I idols carried out maimed and bleeding. Conclusions are obvious; KILLERBOWL is hgven’t succeeded in communicating and it's Since every death boosts tiie ratings, the exploitation. Doubleday is pushing this not going 'to go anywhere, tiien I have to television network that sponsors street shoddy book very hard—mailing t-shirts put itjn my drawer, and I'd ratner not football schemes to insure more deaths. to reviewers, among other things—in a bother. Wolf's plot is built around the con- rather cynical attempt, apparently, to cash flict between two players. Protagonist T. in on ROlLERBALL's popularity. Sadly, the SFR ; Thank you, Mr. Martin, K. Mann is the aging quarterback of the t-shirts read better than the book. The ******»****»******»*»*****»*»**»*****+* San Francisco Prospectors. He plays quiet, novel has none of the virtues of the film SUPERBOWL XXI conservative football, and has the lowest it seems to exploit, all of its faults,

KILLERBOWL by Gary K. Wolf LPR in the league. The villain is Harv and some new faults of its own. Doubleday, S5.95. Matison, charismatic young quarterback of the New England Minutemen, who is determin- The recent spate of SF-sports stories Reviewed by George R. R. Martin ed to prove that Mann is past his prime and all seam to have one common factor; they replace him as street football's top super- project that sports will grow bloodier and Sports fiction was once ona of the ma- star. He'd like to kill him too. Matison bloodier in the future, and that the fans jor categories of the old pulps, but in is a sadist; he started out as a hidden will love it. None of the authors seem to the last twenty years or so there hasn't safety and he has the hi ghest LPR in the understand sports very well, since this ex- been much of it around. Unlike the SF mag- league. Matison is also a fraud; even his trapolation is cockeyed nonsense. In fact, azines, the sports pulps didn't manage to football prowess is faked, since I6C—the the whole history of sport has been a hang on; unlike the mystery and western rotten corrupt street football network steady growth away from violence, towards genres, tha sports story didn't get itself is feeding him game information illegally ever more subtle and sophisticated games in transplanted to television. Sports fic- via an electronic implant, so that he can which the conflicts are increasingly sub- tion just died. spice up play with more deaths. T. K. Mann limated. Boxing, perhaps the most primal But within the last two years, it has finds out about this sinister plot, but be- and direct of sports, went from spiked been staging a minor comeback, perhaps as cause Matison has killed his best friend, fists to bare knuckles to padded gloves, result of a society drenched in Big Time he refuses to go to the authorities and and the padded gloves grew larger and larg- Sports. And much of the new sports fiction tesify. Instead he waits until the Super- er, and despite that the spo^t has waned is sports SF. First there was Norman Spin- bowl, and then smashes Matison and tite IBC l steadily and might be dead today except for a —

the charisma of Muhammed Ali. Today’s ty commanded my respect has proved to have letter-person is not necessarily the real- football is stately compared to the era of feet of soft shit. That soul-searching person. From my reading of Denys’ person- I admired was a sham, a de- leather helmets and the flying wedge. We honesty which alzine, WaM, I get a broader view of his fucking great have staid trotting instead of chariot vice. Beneath it, you are a life, and I would not conclude that he is of rigid trig- racing, jousting is a dead aid forgotten stereotype thought-tracks, in fact an unhappy individual. He is deep- conditioned responses just like pastime, and in baseball post-Abner Double- gered into ly involved in the causes of women and homo- stupid I've day it is no longer possible to get a base- every goddamned quasi-liberal sexuals and in his letters often overstates fought for forty-three years. runner out by braining him with a thrown and uses radical rhetoric. His grudge is ball. The trend is damned clear; tomor- your word, ’Listen to me, you sniveling rat. I row's sports will be less violent, not more. ((The items that triggered my comment spent a lot of thought designing a careful on your letter in SFR use of reply to Denys Howard intending to let him #16 were your Wolf, Jewison Harrison and So like and positive statements his life and down as lightly as possible without ignor- about at- Spinrad, is peddling an empty cliche. And titudes: ’...he is an unhappy person... ing him completely. I could have torn t-ie For his is even more empty than theirs. ...target for his bile .his bitter- silly twit to shreds, and you know it. other presentations of the Bloody Fu- the ness...’ (My italics.) If you had said But I was careful—and you can bet I was ture scenario at least had something going apparent unhappiness.. .. seeming bitterness bloody careful to make any assumptions combat football for them, Spinrad’ s — I ... wouldn’t have said a word. And you about him which I couldn’t support. Could- of football and boxing was at least blend — did say you had no personal knowledge of n’t you have credited me with that intelli- feasible, and he shored up his doubtful him. gence? thesis by having his promoters exploit ((This is a tempest in a teapot. real and social tensions as well as you The re- ethnic 'No, of course couldn't. ((I freely have admitted to having feet bloodlust. William Harrison's over, tiie Geis knee was an unreal flexes had taken of clay. It never occcurred to me they Murder’’ was fine, well- under attack. "Roller Ball a jerking, A homosexual was were actually soft shit as you say. But film on the crafted short story, and the based Rally round, Richard, and support un- you may be right; it would explain why peo- visual impact and a fas- minority member. Regardless it had undeniable derdog, the ple near me keel over when I take off my cinating pseudosport. Rollerball, like of right or wrong ! Hit back at the demon shoes.)) combat football, could probably be played. Conayl Hoist him with his own petard! ^»:-Kiif*:t:*******************************’>‘*-"- *

Street football could not be. The 'So what did you do? You said, "Seems 'Indeed, the CIA was long welcomed by

players run through the streets of a city to me you make a number of assumptions a- liberals as a kind of good FBI, an FBI of for twenty-four hours, ducking in and out bout (Howard) that you have no personal our very own. The good guys were doing of high-rises and department stores and knowledge to support," tha manipulating in this case. But of alleys, stabbing each other with knives course that is what most of the nation has 'And it seems to me you’re wrong. and trying to make yardage. Each player all along thought of the FBI itself. I_t is followed by his own cameraman and ref- 'It might be said that I assumed the was the good guys, and it was out to get eree. Each game requires the evacuation following: the bad guys. Who cared how that was done? of thousands of people—several dense ur- Since they were bad guys, you could not oan blocks—and the closing of numerous '1. That he is a queer... But he said handle them with kid gloves. Agencies that streets and businesses. As a game, street so repeatedly! deal with them have to destroy the law in

football is rather a joke, as shoddy and order to save it. Un-Americans don't de- '2, That he is an unhappy person... one-dimensional as the book's plot and serve the protection of the law anyway. LeGuin makes him 'angry.* Straight males characters. And who was un-American? We ali are, un- make him ’very, very depressed,' LeGuin til we prove different—take our loyalty KILLERBOWL deserves to be roundly ig- 'oppresses' him. He has been 'denied his oaths, submit to security checks. Stand nored by SF readers and sports fans alike. humanity.' Geis—I would say my word 'un- up and be counted. If you are not willing happy' was a mild statement of fact—cer- to be snooped on, manipulated, observed, tainly no assumption, LETTER FROM MICHAEL G. CONEY then you must have something to hide

'3. That he has a grudge against foundation in itself for a prior assump- February 16, 1976 straight males... Now—is that self-evi- tion of un-Americanhood. The only good dent or not? Be honest! American, the only one who deserves to be 'SFR 16 received safely. Two gripes; free, is the one who puts his freedom at one major. In general, SFR very interest- 'Okay, Three statements about Howard, the disposal of our secret police system, ing as usual, particularly Brunner and Lu- each of which is lifted directly from his Alas, this makes most of us pretty good poff. Minor gripe your questions to letter ((in SFR #13)). Whereismy 'number — Americans. Pournelle prompted replies demonstrating of assumptions?' Can you answer that,

that Jerry is about the most normal, aver- without playing word games? Can you? 'And so we advance the 198A equations: age, boring writer in a field consisting ’I’m sure you can. But to do so would freedom can only be guarded by destroying mainly of interesting oddballs. Couldn’t be to admit you were wrong, privacy; only secrecy can protect the open you hjve somehow sparked him off? In per- society; and the law must be denied those son, he never struck me as the 1920’s ultra- 'Can you do that?’ Americans who are sneaky enough to obey conservative your interview depicted, the law while thinking things we do not ((Admitting I’ve been wrong is one of 'Major gripe, coming up, like. Right, Comrade?’ the things I do best in SFR. However, in —Garry Wills, 'You, Geis, have joined the ranks of this case... NEW YORK REVIEW of Books, Nov. 13, ’75 the hypocrites. The one man whose integri- ((It has been my experience that the ‘‘ Li***************!***:,************,********* ,

PHILIP K. DICK: especially the meni). A PARALLAX VIEW Simply put, THE MAN IN THE HIGH By TERENCE M. GREEN CASTLE is not about what would have happened if Japan and Germany had emerged as victors in WW2, Many of the surface incidents of the novel re- volve fascinatingly around some of the possible or probable developments of such an alternate present. But this

is not, I repeat, what the novel is

about ; (it's just as Juliana says about Abendsen' s novel in the excerpt). And I contend that this is true of the en- tire Dick canon: what happens in the

novels serves only as a surface layer to the real meaning implicit in the "Vision" that Dick has about Man's

plight; this vision, furthermore, is sustained and elevated by the Tone of wit and the power of Dick's invention and imagination.

I realize all this is going to need further explanation, much illustration. Let me try. The paranoiac delusion of

having attained insight compells me to

I had just re-read Philip K, Dick's ing to me as I was reaching the closing try. 1962 novel—the Hugo Award winning THE pages of Dick's book. Could it be that

' MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. Being fascina- I was the only one who knew how bril- As I said, THE MAN IN THE HIGH ted with Dick's books was nothing new liant Di^ really was? The paranoiac CASTLE is central to an understanding to me; I'd been a fan of his for years feeling was softly comforting, yet in- of Dick, because in many ways it has —buying and devouring each new paper- sistently disturbing. the "key" to "what's really going on" back edition of his novels as they were (what's really going on is always the Dick had really done it to me. printed. And saving themo Organizing big question). Dick's vision of Man He'd left me with the feeling that them. Like a collection. (Like the is classical, biblical. Within the I'd unravelled something horribly yet characters in his novels who compuls- novel THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, his wonderfully complex, that I'd seen ively collect their own trivia and sav- characters are reading another novel: th'ough the surface trappings of his or it.) I'd always liked the off-beat Hawthorne Abendsen's THE GRASSHOPPER book. And with the feeling came the humor in Dick's books, and felt his LIES HEAVY—a novel about (seemingly) characterizations were the best in Sf. insight into everything else I'd ever what would have happened if the Germ- But I'd ’never more fully identified read of Dick's, the certainty that the ans and Japanese had lost the War! man was indeed Master in modern lit- with a Dick character than I did with a (If?) The title of Abendsen's novel, Juliana, near the end of THE MAN IN THE erature. we are told, is from the Bible (p.53). HIGH CASTLE. Follow up this clue, and see where you I went back to his earlier novels arrive. At six-fifteen in the evening (to 1955) and ahead to his later ones (circa scanning, thinking, amaz- she finished the book. I wonder 1970), Well, you arrive at Ecclesiastes, if Joe got to the end of it? she ed. I saw growth, development, experi- 12:5. Depending on which version of wondered. There's so much more ment, change; but beneath it all was the Bible you consult, you will find Dick in it than he understood. What is the consistent Vision. And I be- various translations and paraphrases THE MAN IN THE it Abendsen wanted to say? Noth- gan to see how HIGH of this idea, among them, "the locust ing about his make-believe world. CASTLE could be viewed as the Central shall be made fat"; "the grasshopper Work, which radiated both backward and Am I the only one who knows? I'll drags itself along"; "the grasshopper forward (time doesn't much in bet I .am; nobody else really under- matter shall be a burden". What the phrase books; maybe right); for stands GRASSHOPPER but me—they his he's it refers to, in fact, is that the grass- BOOK OF DICK just imagine they do. is, indeed, THE (apolo- hopper (metaphorically man), in old gies to DAW publishing house here). Still a little shaky, she put age, can barely sustain himself; he has it away in her suitcase and then become a burden to himself, and "lies It was as if I'd somehow peeked put on her coat and left tha motel heavy". into one of those alternate worlds his room to search for a place to eat characters often stumble upon. I was If we include all the twelfth chap- dinner, (p. 182) now a Dick character. The metamorphos- ter of Ecclesiastes (not merely verse

This was me! I'd finally experi- is was thrilling (yet awful—imagine 5), we quickly learn that this book enced the paranoia that his characters being one of those incompetent failur- asserts that all worldly things are in " experience constantly. It was happen- es with which he populates his books— 12 vain, or, even more succinctly, All is Vanity" (12:8). Furtheniiore, an confused yet? Dick would like it if subjects I have some competence ironical note to this investigation, you were...) a quotation from the Book in," As a matter of fact, he was (and to Dick's novel within a novel) of Ecclesiastes—a book with (coinci- not certain what Mr. Tagomi was is added in 12:12—^"of making many dentally?) the same major themes as all talking about, (p. 55) books there is no end." (Was this Dick's own work. And he tells us near author a precog?) I'm sure we all understand Baynes' the end of THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE reaction to ona degree or another... Now let's proceed to the next ex- that the characters are left in total pansion of this route—to the entire bewilderment when they discover that Later, another character (Reiss) thair talks Book of Ecclesiastes. From the begin- world is an illusion (a vanity?), to himself: and that THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY ning to end, most would agree that its is They know a million tricks "true". To further dazzle with overall motif is simple: the futility us the these novelists. Take Or, Goeb- intricacy of the concept, THE GRASSHOP- of all effort; it deals with the "same- bels; that's how he started out, PER LIES HEAVY was written, we are ness" of all time and all place, and told, writing fiction. Appeals to the not "really" fay the folly of the vanity involved in ig- Abendsen, but by the base lusts that hide in everyone Oracle, by the I CHING or BOOK OF noring this. no matter how respectable on the CHANGES. (Who "really" wrote the Bi- surface. Yes, the novelist knows ble? What is Revelation?) —there is no new thing under humanity, how worthless they are, the sun (l:9) ruled by their testicles, swayed What was that I quoted earlier a- —there was no profit under the by cowardice, selling bout there being no end to the making out every sun (2:11) cause of many books?... because of their greed—all —and how dieth the wise man? as he's got to do is thump on the So Dick has us going round the fool ( 2 : 16) and drum, and there's his response. round, books within books—one writing —all things coma alike to all And he's laughing, of course, be- the other; one within the one (9:2) we are hind his hand at the effect he holding; the title of the one within —there is one event unto all gets, (p, 97) (9:3) the one we are holding based on a Book This latter excerpt, I submit, is —that which hath been is now; and (Ecclesiastes) within another Book (the Dick's outrageous way of portraying that which is to be hath already Bible). Dick has been described as both his themes and his method. Dick been (3:15) pyrotechnic, you know... is indeed "laughing behind his hand at Consider, too, some of the dialogue It is in Ecclesiastes, too, that "the the effect he gets" as he shows us how within Dick's novel: sun also rises", and "earth abides"! worthless we are. As Mr, Tagomi has

"We are observed, "Tone is everything". In Ecclesiastes the wisdom that a absurd," Mr. Tagomi (p. 17?) man can gain does not alter his condi- said, "because we live by a five- thousand-year-old book. We ask tion, other than to deepen the sorrow Can we sum up some of this? (I'm it questions as if it were alive. caused by his comprehension and aware- still trying to communicate ray "in- It alive. As is the Christian ness of the "useless striving" of life. sight" you see...) To simplify (if Bible; many books The "sameness" of fate is an evil inher- are actually such be possible): alive. ent in existence. Effectively then, we Not in metaphoric fashion. Spirit The themes in Dick's books are in- are doomed to moral confusion, unless animates it. Do you see?" herent in the Book of Ecclesiastes; God is just! He inspected Mr. Baynes' face for his reaction. this is certainly not true of all his Ecclesiastes is a vast, deep, dif- themes, Carefully phrasing his words, or of all his novels, but gen- ficult book—a problem book (most erally speaking, it provides Baynes said, "I—^just don't know a solid scholars would agree with this, I thematic foundation enough about religion. It's out for his work. think). It leaves leaves loose ends, of ray field, I prefer to stick to The method of Dick's communication strings untied, leading in various di- rections, always insufficient in length. (Sound like any Dick books you've read?)

Do I dare to go the next step in this geometrical progression? To a consideration of the Bible itself? Ob- viously this is beyond my meager scope. Suffice it to say that it is book of reference in our society today.

Where is all this heading now?

Perhaps you've seen some of the mirror-like labyrinth of connections already. Let's backtrack a bit now.

Dick chooses, for the title of his novel within his novel, (is everybody — — —

goes one step further.. Not only are it died. It tried to make the best Perhaps the "All is Venity" theme books (novels specifically) the media of the circumstances, but it was of Ecclesiastes could best be illus- for his "vision” (thus his dazzling hopeless. I always wondered, Did trated by referring quickly to the juggling of them all within one anoth- it know it was hopeless? Did it "surface" changes in our dress patterns er while we search about for an answer weave the web knowing it was no in the future, as shown in Dick’s out- to what the hell’s going on here), but use? rageous descriptions in UNIK: the stories told in the books are mere- "Little tragedy of life," the ...girl. ..wearing a cowboy hat, ly the surface layer. One must remove robot said. "Billions of them, un- black lace mantilla and Bermuda the trappings to see the "vision”, to noticed, every day. Except that shorts... earn a glimpse of the Dickian wasteland God notices, at least according to of confusion. Thus the surface change my pamphlet." (pp. 86-7) ...this one in a floral mumu and —from past to present to future, from Spandex bloomers... (pp. 53-^) In DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC novel to novel; but the situations, SHEEP? Pris snips the legs off a spider And I shouldn't omit places, and people have an elemental because "it'll die anyway (p. 136), and "sameness” about them. G.G. Ashwood, wearing his customary Roy Baty, two pages later, unfeelingly natty birch-bark pantaloons, hemp- what mak- holds a lit match near the spider The Tone of his novels is rope belt, peekaboo see-through which now has only four of its eight es them bearable—or, if you choose top and train engineer’s tall hat... delightful, fascinating, humor- legs—^"until at last it crept feebly (I do), (p. 55) ous, and—generally speaking again away." (This novel ends with another will help explain the no- immensely enjoyable. Tone would have character checking the yellow pages for All this tion of "surfaces" changing and indi- to be "everything” if you insist on electric flies for her electric toad!) vidual "vanity", while also showing telling how all effort is futile, how Dick's vision of our astigmatic in- how nothing has "really" changed. We all time and place are the same, and sect-like existence is remarkably simi- are still run by advertisers; we are how we are basically incompetent failur- lar to Hemingway’s thematic insert near desperately striving to strike an in- es with bagfuls of neuroses and psy- the conclusion of A FAREWELL TO ARMS; dividial pose or identity that is some- choses. I mean—who wants to read for it postulates us as ants on a log how significant. We are still helpless that? Unless it’s either funny or that is being burned. All the "savior" buffoons in the future, dazzled and filled with fascinating trivia along need do is lift the log off the fire; confused by technology. So what has the way. instead he tosses hot coffee on the really changed? Maybe our clothes... Let me try to give a few examples ants, and they fall into the fire. We still get divorces in Dick's from works other than THE MAN IN THE (And as we know, Hemingway knew the novels, and we have hang-ups galore; HIGH CASTLE to illustrate the seemingly Book of Ecclesiastes; after all, "the we must drink coffee still, and smoke; vast generalizations of tha last three sun also rises"...) we must be entertained, to distract us paragraphs. (Somebody must comprehend To illustrate the Ecclesiastes from our "true" plight, and we are just my vision of his vision of our vision- theme that "there is no new thing under about personal-interest triv- less lives!) Remember my contention as ardent the sun" (1:9), I suggest you take note ia and collectables as ever. Differ- that the grasshopper in the quotation of the eternal business strivings of from Ecclesiastes was "metaphorically ent types of drugs allow us to bear all Dick's characters. As it is pre- life; but we still need some sort of Man"? Even Dick, I feel, bears me out sented to us in THE SIMULACRA, "we must "boost". Women are still concerned on this, for he has Mr. Tagomi comment have business as usual. That's the with breast vanity (and men remain as to his secretary that "we are all in- watchword of the day—if not the cen- sects... 'groping toward something ter- interested as ever!) tury" (p. 38). WE CAN BUILD YOU opens rible or divine.” (p. 76 ) and ends with "business". In UBIK and So where have we gotten? Nowhere. that Consider some further examples of COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD, death has been Today differs from yesterday in neckties wider, dresses different Dick's "insect imagery". In GALACTIC made into a "business" (even half-alive are a faster. In the future, POT-HEALER we read: states are commercialized). DR. BLOOD- length, cars MONEY is another novel that opens and perhaps we'll have precogs, drugs that I got down a cup from the cup- finishes with "business" concerns, will alter time; but we won't be any board, a cup I hardly ever used. while in CLANS Of THE ALPHANE MOON, closer to an "Answer", to what the hell In it I found a spider, a dead business is even carried on by a "slime- is really going on —and this is Dick's spider; it had died because there mold" (p. 23)—which collects things, fundamental message. (Dr. Bloodmoney was nothing for it to eat. Obvious- by the way. circles the globe, which has been re- ly it had fallen into the cup and duced to a wasteland, reading excerpts couldn’t get out. But here’s the To a greater or lesser extent, it from OF HUMAN BONDAGE to listeners be- point. It had woven a web, at the is fundamentally significant and im- low, to "amuse" them. Is this what bottom of the cup. As good a web portant to the purveyance of Dick's Dick is doing to us?) as it could weave under the circum- vision of our futility (and absurdity) "There is one event unto all" stances. When I found it—saw it that this is dealt with in all his dead in the cup, with its meager, novels. We "busy" ourselves with the (Ecc. 9j3). The suggestion here is that time and place are immaterial. If hopeless web—I thought, it never trivia of our everyday "business" con- had a chance. No flies would ever cerns because, as T. S. Eliot has put you haven't yet realized that Dick have come along, even if it had it, "Mankind cannot bear too much real- would subscribe to this, consider the waited forever. It waited until ity." various alternate worlds created in his —

novels; consider the way he handles the Kalends." faltered, aid I felt paranoiacally cer- Time (COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD, NOW WAIT FOR "Why?" Joe said. tain that I too had been allowed a LAST YEAR, MARTIAN TIME-SLIP, TIME OUT The robot hesitated and then brief peek at the truth of Philip K. OF JOINT, etc.). Probably the ultimate said, "I hope to be a free-lance Dick's "Vision", It just happened. example of this blending of time and writer someday." (p. 86) Random chance. space occurs in THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER: Is Dick putting us on? You bet he I guess maybe we should let Juli- Throughout the milling confus- isJ But the "vision" of "Things" with ana from Dick’s "central" novel have ion rushed a battalion of Brownie ambitions, dreams, hopes is multi-level. the last word here. After all, she's Scouts, cracking skulls right and we Are them? Are they us? Did we cre- probably just as "real" as I am. left with overbaked cookies, while ate them thus? Again, the mirrors kosher And she did see it first... a butcher, with his vorpal within the mirrors... meat cleaver, reduced the enemy to Truth, she thought. As ter- The number of times meat knish. Red-assed baboons Dick’s charac- rible as death. But harder to ters have with charged in behind him, pushing conversations "things" find. I’m lucky, (p, 190) (doors, suitcases, supermarket carts armed with fifty- cabs, robots, bal- loons,..) may be indicative of the iso- calibre machine guns. A rock and **:**** lation of the human condition, the roll group headed by a young long- failure of meaningful hair trumpeter named Gabriel played communication, Note ; The page numbers in this arti- the ultra-complexity of our the "jerk" while a team of trained ultra-ab- cle refer to the following paperback surdly dominating surgeons removed one appendix after technology. editions of Dick’s works. another, throwing in an occasional But the tone of these dialogues! lobotomy to avoid monotony, (p. lOO) Jeezez. I mean, read some of them if CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON, 196^t. you don’t knew... There really is a The ludicrous and the serious begin 00 ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? brilliant wit at work here. to blend and mesh as well. Signet , March 1969. Some conclusions? (Generalized, GALACTIC POT-HEALER, Berkley Medalion In NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, Tijuana , of course; how else can one deal with June 1969 . (definitely a modern metaphor for the someone THE GANYMEDE TAKEOVER, 196?. wasteland) remains unchanged at all as complex as Dick in an arti- cle this THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, Popular times; we are told this specifically size?) Library January I 96A, three different times (p. 188, p. 218, , Philip K, Dick is NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, Manor Books, and finally p. 220), "Time", Dick not interested in May 197^. writes on p, 220, "moves too fast here studying aliens, or studying alien cultures, THE SIMULACRA, I 96A. and also not at all." or planets (his aliens are U6IK, Dell May 1970. space-opera parodies: Papoolas, vugs, , Many of the examples cited are in slime-molds, reegs, Frolixians...). themselves evidence of the Tone of His concern is the study of Man and The following books by Dick were also Dick’s work. Again, I think you get the Human Condition; in this sense he consulted: the message. Dick’s power as a writer is truly a writer in the mainstream of SOLAR LOTTERY lies in his Tone and his power of in- literature, THE WORLD JONES MADE vention and imagination. After all, Dick may not be "noticed" EYE IN THE SKY if there’s "nothing new under the sun" as in Literature because he writes SF (we TIME OUT OF JOINT —I mean if even your themes and basic THE GAME -PLAYERS OF TITAN concepts date back to biblical times all know how that limits public expos- THE UNTELEPORTEO MAN you’ve gotta have an entertaining tone, ure immediately); and he is not as THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH and a captivating display of trivia to "noticed", quite often, even in SF, MARTIAN TIME-SLIP hold your audience. The result of this since he doesn't deal with major new THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER is that Dick strives to make the intri- "ideas" or "concepts" (in the RENDEZ- ELDRITCH cacies and details of the novels as in- VOUS WITH RAMA tradition), as do the THE ZAP GUN teresting to us as trivia and collect- standard "classics" of SF. THE CRACK IN SPACE ables are to the characters in the nov- His picture is, basically, an Ag- COUNTER-CLOCK WORLD els. Just for one last example of tone nostic one (agnostic in the largest WE CAN BUILD YOU mingled with detail, to create the- ef- sense). We are unable to know anything OUR FRIENDS FROM FRQLIX 8 fect at which Dick can "laugh behind really —especially by using our "reas- THE BOOK OF PHILIP K. DICK his hand" at our reaction, listen to on". Occasionally we are given glimps- OR. BLOOOMONEY the following conversation from GALAC- es, peeks into the "Truth", when our TIC POT-HEALER: *******!,!****»*****»*********:****:,,*:**** sense of time and space falters. The "Raising" children is primarily a mat- "And your pamphlet," Joe said, wisdom that results is inherent in the ter of teaching them what (life) games to "is the Book of the Kalends." maxims of the Oracle in THE MAN IN THE play. Different cultures and different "Not exactly," the robot said HIGH CASTLE: social classes favor different types of at last. No blame. No praise, (pp. 18-19) games, and various tribes and families "Meaning what?" Mali demanded favor different variations of these, sharply. My own delusion (illusion? real- —Eric Berne, MD, "Meaning that I have based my ity?) of being a Dick character occurr- GAMES PEOPLE PLAY various pamphlets on the Book of ed when my ov;n sense of time and space A FANTASTIC WASTELAND reading. Comparing these four to what’s ade ago), Bob Maurus, Brian Ball, Walter C. published elsewhere, I'd say they would be DeBill, and Ramsey Campbell, things go

NAMELESS PLACES, edited by Gerald W. Page a little below par for WHISPERS or F&SF, downhill very rapidly. Arkham House, 1975, 279 pp«, S7.5CI average for FANTASTIC, and above average Scott Edelstein tries to make us laugh for WITCHCRAFT & SORCERY, FANTASY I TERROR, Reviewed by Jeffrey P» Miller with two very short items, the first of or WEIRDBOOK. These are the best in the which is called "Botch,” and in which God and after a few marginal sto- introduction book by far, The editor says in his speaks to a clergyman saying a mistake has Byron Cover comprehen- ries by Drake again, Arthur that this book "offers a fairly been made in the creation of the universe (who spends most of his time talking about sive picture of the state of fantasy and and it has to be erased. Is mankind doom- dope), Carl Jacobi (who conveys a nice fantasy writing at the threshold of the ed? No. "I am tie experiment that failed,' sense of unreality, covering ground more last quarter of the twentieth century,” and says God, fading out. Somehow Edelstein ambitiously plowed by Philip K. Dick a dec- if he's right I'm worried.

Quite simply, NAMELESS PLACES is the worst collection of all original short fic- THE DEVIL n DEAD or EINHEgAH’g AWAKE tion I have ever read. Some of the con- tents consist of leftovers from August Der- a song after THE DEVIL IS DEAD leth’s consistently mediocre THE ARKHAM COL- LECTOR, so Page can’t be blamed for every- By R. A. LAFFERTY

thing, but still I find it amazing that in

a field where writers are many and major markets few and far between, he failed to Tell us the story of one who was said obtain even one truly first rate story. To live like the Devil and die like the dead town red The best, or perhaps I should say the Roll out the sidewalks and paint the least bad, are these: Today is the day that the Devil is dead.

”In the Land of Angra Mainyu,” by Steph- Look for that faint mark that’s under your skin in Goldin, another of his Angel in Black Say your prayers once more before we begin series which gained him some reputation in Drink from the bottle you keep in your head MAGAZINE OF HORROR. I genuinely enjoyed Today is the day that the Devil is dead. this piece for its unfamiliar background, quick pace, and wit. Were it appearing You’ve been dead before, it was no big thing elsewhere I might object that the language The left-footed killer has presents to bring is a little too larded with modernisms to Boys it's been fun, yes, a bang up, a revel be wholly appropriate for an ancient myth- Now someone must try to bury the Devil. ological adventure, but here it stands out

for sheer good writing like a diamond in a I know you believe it was Noah's great flood dungheap. That wiped out your brothers of the double blood

"The Night of the Unicorn,” by Thomas Our back-brain's much bigger, and wiser it seems Burnett Swann. Like all Swann stories this We'll always exist in the corpse of your dreams.

one is about a mythic event, and like most of them it strives to be fully human wittn The voyage is over, this song it is done out quite becoming so. For this book it’s The Devil has lost but nobody has one

a noble effort. The setting is present-day I saw him get hit and I watched as he bled Vucatan, something of a departure for the I swear I cried tears when the Devil was dead. author.

"Dark Vintage” by Joseph Pumilia, a competent enough yarn about a gang of war- locks who plan to bring back the Dark Ages

with a bottle of the essence of the bubonic

plague. There's a bit too much frenzied exposition of fiendish plans for my taste,

but I was carried through to the end still interested.

’’Black Iron” by David Drake. Like his stories in WHISPERS, this one is extremely strong on historical setting—the Middle East in Roman times, made incredibly vivid

in a very few pages—and weak on fantasy plot. Maybe Drake is in the wrong field

and should try a historical novel.

That's it, folks; all the ones worth ,

took a page and a half to deliver this weak Brian Lumley also has written passable LETTER FROM joke. His other one, "Businessman's La- stories before, but my chuckles while read- PHILIP JOSE FARMER ment" has a genuinely funny idea price —a ing "What Dark God?" were stifled by yawns. war among the Give Me A Buck Or I'll Kill An impromptu sabbat is held in a passenger Feb. Z, 1976 Myself racketeers—but does very little compartment of a train, and the ultimate with it. shocking revelation is that one of those 'I'm five novels late, the third Riv- weirdos is a Thing!!!! Tedious. erworld book, THE MAGIC LABYRINTH (the fin- al title, a quote from Burton's KASIDAH) No Arkham anthology would be complete Approaching now the bottom of the keeps getting longer and longer, but I now without a few stories in August Derleth's scale, entering the realm of the totally hope to have the first draft finished by Cthulhu Mythos (in which the good gods and illiterate, we meet David English's "Sim- the end of February. It'll probably be the bad gods play macrocosmic cowboys and aitha," a CREEPY comic book "Oh no! He's 20,000 words or more, but I'll be cutting to Indians, as opposed the Lovecraft Myth- returned from the dead!" story told in a it for the second draft. And probably, os, seldom used these days, in which man- style wholly innocent of grammar: alas, adding to it, too.' kind stands alone against unknown and ex- The older woman, her name was tra-moral forces) and if Lin Carter's "Out Simaitha, listened to the whisper- of the Ages" is any indication, three gen- DON'T LOOK BEHIND YOU! ing of the sea. Cp.99) erations of these things have finally pro- AAAARRRRRGHH! duced a form of highly mannered self-parody Robert Aickman's "The Real Road to the 1 TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK! about half way between a Dracula remake and Church" is unreadable. I gave up after I a TV situation comedy. realized that four pages of incredibly flor- WHEN FOOTSTEPS ECHO by Basil Cooper, St. id and cluttered prose, reminiscent of M. Martin's Press, Carter tells us a comfy bedtime story, 1975, S7.95, 184 pages. P. Shiel at his worst, had told me noth- managing to evoke every Mythos name imagin- Reviewed by Wayne Hooks ing, This is shocking when you remember able (Oid you know there's a Mrs. Cthulhu that Aickman won a prize for best short named Idh-yaa pronounced "id-yot" and — — Horror is an elusive element. In ord- fiction last year in Providence, and came they've spawned by "awesome copulation" two er to succeed, horror must strike a respon- close to winning another one for a lifetime strapping young Unmentionables?), and of sive chort with the reader. What is effec- of contributions to the fantasy field. course he wouldn't be able to scare two- a tive for one person, fails with another. (Fortunately standards still exist out- year-old out of his afternoon nap with the — Dread, as well as fear must be evoked. At side of NAMELESS PLACES and Robert Bloch result. — all times, the author must be in control got the award.) of his material. His other tale, "In the Vale of Pnath" Trends in horror change. Last and least, E. Hoffman Price’s Where once Poe's moves Clark Ashton Smith's sorcerer Eibon and Lovecraft's styles "Selene" is hopelessly garbled, jumping were much emulated, out of Hyperborea and into Lovecraft’s today the trend is to- back and forth between scenes, never telling wards a more stark, action ‘related Dreamland with a minimum of explanations, plot. the reader the whos, whats, and wherefores, Where Poe's, and his search for the elusive Glund Fluid and Lovecraft's emphasis was like a freshman litcomp by somebody who has upon mood and setting, is tame stuff, but amusing because some of today such a fulsome never heard of transition, and unless the overblown style the descriptions are rather funny. Eibon is boring, rather than ter- printer has mangled the text (in which case rifying. meets a learned wizardly sage: I apologise) I can only conclude that This is one of the reasons WHEN FOOT- This Shoggob was an elderly and Price, who wrote some of the best short STEPS ECHO by Basil Cooper must fail. 06- gentlemanly Ghoul of quiet, scholar- stories to appear in WEIRD TALES in the spite distinguished acclaim for this an- ly habits, tall and lean, grey-skin- 1920's, has lost his touch in the interven- thology of Cooper's short stories ned, and somewhat the worse around ing years. by such people the nostrils, the eyelids, and the as Derleth and Haining, WHEN FOOT- The ugly truth is this: NAMELESS PLACES STEPS comers of the mouth for the depre- ECHO does not succeed as a horror an- should never have been published. It is thology. dations of maggots. (p.21l) no The quality of the stories is credit to the writers, the editor, the pub- very even, but there is no brilliance in There are also moments of inadvertant lisher, or the (sadly dilapidated) fantasy monotonous mediocrity. The most noticeable comedy in Joseph Payne Brennan's "Foring- field in general. If better material is defect of Cooper's writing is his style. er’s Fortune" where the plot hobbles from not available, then it's time to stop is- It is reminiscent of Doyle in its over- "The Graveyard Rats" to "Pickman's Model" suing all original anthologies and make do writing, Adverbs and adjectives are used and then brings in the Deep Ones. Brennan on the glories of the past before the read-- entirely too freely. "Camera Obscura," has written well in the past, but this time ership is driven away entirely. "The Janissaries of Emilinn," and "Amber the prose, especiallu the dialogue, is on For Arkham collectors only. Print" suffer from hackneyed, overworked a Tom Swift level: themes. "Doctor Porthos" and "Cry Wolf "Great heavens, Forringer!" SUBSCRIBERS!!! lack imagination. In none of the stories I exclaimed. "What is the pur- is there a single original plot or IF YOU MOVE.... I need your idea. pose of this tunnel?" (p. U?) former address as well as your The characters are overdrawn. Cooper loses new address. himself and the reader in detailed descrip- And the author's inventiveness is shown | can't locate your tions of the characters. Rather than char- more in his said^ookisms than anywhere subscription stencil acter development advanced through else: otherwise. action, he contents himself Beware! When frustrated I give with mere physical des- "Fascinating!" I commentated, out contracts on noo-cooperative criptions. Phrasing is clumsy and there subscribers. And as for those who 17 is too much padding. Characters (p. U7) fail to renew. . . are under- Eunice was black and that there were clues the complex into the national power grid pointing to that conclusion in the book, before he is certain that all technical

I take him to be the final authority on his problems have been overcome and his workers writings.)) are fully capable of handling any emergen- worst fears ^**-t-t*»tt********:***’f**********:*********** cies that might occur. Parks' are confirmed when, like a row of falling LETTER FROM ROBERT BLOCH dominoes, a series of human mistakes and equipment failures lead to the most serious type of nuclear accident—a complete melt- 10 Feb., 1976 down of all four reactors.

’An excellent issue! But might I take The authors build up suspense with a liberty of revising one sentence in Dick the cinematic technique, cutting from one char- Lupoff's column, as follows? acter to another, showing the effects of

"'But science fiction has been dominat- the accident on those at the scene and the ed for 50 years by a crew of editors and surrounding area irradiated by the huge writers bearing names like Campbell, Bouch- cloud of fallout produced by the meltdown.

COUt-iT F'R,0(^(7/-A er, Pohl, Palmer, Conklin, Ley, Heinlein, They also intersperse scenes from the Con- Clarke, Bradbury, Anderson, Williamson, El- gressional inquiry into the causes of adding a grim counter- developed and characterization is flat. wood, Hamilton, van Vogt, Pratt, de Camp, the accident thus bureaucratic incompetence and in- The action is static in contrast to the un- Moore, Lowndes, Smith, Bova, Neville, Al- point of evenness of the progression. Motivation is diss, Brunner, Rocklynne, Farmer, Ballan- trigue. tine, Tremaine, Sloan, Bates, Nourse, Ham- lacking throughout, the characters are pup- The characters are largely subservient by author, rather than ling, Shaw, Carr, Wright, Mills, Matheson, pets manipulated the to the events of the story but the increas- Moore, Russell, Taine, Fearn, Stapledon, viable individuals. The handling of the ing suspense keeps that from being too great language is deficient. Pacing is too lei- Wells, Huxley, Orwell, Simak, Leiber, Le a fault. The science and technology are Guin, Niven, Pournelle, Lafferty, Zelazny, surely, lulling the reader to sleep. Dia- convincingly and accurately portrayed. Derleth, logue between the characters is unnatural Delany, Oisch, Knight, Burroughs, What gives the book its impact is not and forced, creating an atmosphere of arti- Wyndhara, Long, Farley, Wylie, Hubbard, of accident ficiality. Clement, Sturgeon, Blish, Norton, Dickson, so much the hellish horror the Reynolds, Nourse, Ballard, Sheckley, White, but the realization by the central charac- In order to utilize an archaic style Brown, Herbert, Miller, Bradley and doubt- ters that even after a catastrophe that such as Poe's or Lovecraft's, a tapestry less scores of others - including Gunn, the renders much of California uninhabitable of emotions and, reactions by the reader author of the book being discussed.” nothing has been done or will be done to must be woven by the writer through the prevent the same thing from occurring a- 'Anyone who thinks sf is a shetl should skillful manipulation of setting and mood. again elsewhere. Cooper does not attempt to establish a ghetto load of this!' mood, rather he relies upon setting, and 'P.Si I always thought Lester del Rey Along with the recent disclosures of fails. His attempts at setting fail be- was Swedish.' accidents and incompetence in some sectors cause the setting is seen through the eyes of the nuclear power industry this book of the author and not the characters. ((You forgot Geis....)) . serves as a cautionary portrayal of some There is no reaction or catharsis on the *****:***Ol********************************** of the grimmer consequences of anything part of the reader. THE LATEST DISASTER IS.... less than perfection in dealing with the In an earlier century. Cooper might nuclear genie.

have been an oustanding writer of the maca- THE PROMETHEUS CRISIS by Thomas N. Scortia bre, Today he is merely outmoded. Doubleday, & Frank M. Robinson . 1975, LETTER FROM ANDREW WEINER 58.95

Feb. 18, 1976 LETTER FROM BUD WEBSTER Reviewed by Keith Soltys 'Very good issue (#16) especially War-

2 / 10/76 As they did in an earlier book, THE ren on Bester, absolutely dead-on. GLASS INFERNO, which was made into the mo- 'Way back in whichever issue you said 'Lupoff and the Jews—he's hardly the vie THE TOWERING INFERNO, Scortia and Rob- "Did any of you catch on to the fact that first; inson depict a catastrophe caused by a ;she was black?”, referring to Eunice in ”Even more startling, the liter- combination of human error, mechanical de- I WILL FEAR NO EVIL by Robert A. Hein- ature of busy males, of politicians fects and the extension of technology past lein. and executives seeking at once re- the point where control over events is pos- laxation and the reinforcement of 'Dick, I have been over that book with sible. This time the disaster involves the their fantasies, is Judaised, too. as much care as I can muster for such a bad world’s largest nuclear power station, a The long dominance of the Western (comparatively) book. complex of four 3,000 megawatt reactors. and the detective story is chal- 'Where the hell did you ^ this?’ In the near future the need for non- lenged by that largely Jewish pro- fossil fuel power sources has become ex- duct, science fiction... The basic Prometheus com- the ((I didn’t. But in- a phone conversa- treme. The manager of the myths of science fiction reflect tion with Mr. Heinlein, he mentioned that plex, Gregory Parks, is forced to bring 18 urban outlook, the social conscious- ness, the utopian concern of the very fine. Geis, you are insufferably problem. It is the old technological modern, secularized Jew. The tradi- competent. Let's see what I can comment thinking of progress in terms of things tional Jewish waiting-for-the-Messi- on. that cost money. Build the biggest and ah becomes, in lay terms, the con- best things the most money will buy and 'Pournelle seems a likeable chap, not mitment-to-the-future, which is the the nation will prosper, but time and a- one of the more obnoxious variety of con- motive force of current science fic- gain, as with the Aswan dam, this has been servatives, but he shares some of their tion." contradicted. misconceptions about progress and the econ- —Leslie A. Fiedler, omy. As with most technologists, he con- 'Finding the money is the least of a WAITING FOR THE END ceives of progress solely in terms of nation’s problems. A nation's friends, as (p.75-6) Penguin, I 96A, things ; hence building the future is a well as enemies, will compete to give them matter of building bigger and better build- funds. But finding ’Fiedler on Superman: "The biceps are the right technology ings. It is the very old Victorian notion is another, sometimes unsolvable problem,. the biceps of Esau, but the dialogue is of Man against Nature, man in opposition Remember that the "technology" of America the dialogue of Jacob." to the elements, the typically human megal- was land, resources, and millions of im- 'Actually, Superman may not be so much omaniacal fantasy of man as the Master of migrants who supplied virtually free labor. the goy as a Canadian wish-dream. golden , the Universe. But science is not headed But these were Europeans doing in America Richler points out that Metropol- Mordecai in this direction. The lessons of the past what they had done or wished to do in Eur- (the is is actually modeled after Toronto twenty or thirty years is that Nature is ope. In Asia there is no similar sociolog- STAR) so maybe DAILY PLANET is the TORONTO unbeatable; man doesnot exist against nat- ical base for capitalistic progress. No Jewish Canadian in- Superman combines _a^ ure but within it, not in opposition to "American Dream". The problem is one of feriority feelings.' the elements but in relationship to them. social, rather than technical, engineering. He may modify certain specific natural con-

ditions for a period of time in an infini- LETTER FROM HARLAN ELLISON 'One last point which is so typical, tesimally small speck of the universe, but and appalling, of conservatives. He beyond a certain, indefinable point his 11 February 76 speaks of a "thousand year accident" that most super modifications are inefficient. would "perhaps" kill thirty thousand peo- 'Concerning Dave Wixon's excellent re- 'I am not a doomsayer, not a luddite, ple, then points to the National Safety view of Arther Cover’s AUTUMN ANGELS. Ex- not even a pessimist. I agree with Pour- Council as "gloriously happy because only tremely fair, informed, literate and a nelle that we have the technology to deal forty-five thousand people were killed on pleasure to read. One point should be re- with our problems and I believe we will the highways." I remember when it was futed, however, just to keep the record deal with them in time, but things are something like 70,000, but that is not the straight and to keep from detracting from never going to be the same again. The Cult point. The point is that people don't think the talent Art Cover demonstrated in the of Things designed to master nature is giv- that way. Nobody imagined 30,000 people book. The image of the crawling bird that ing way to the Cult of Relationships de- were going to be killed every year when Mr. Wixon finds so breathtakingly brilliant signed to (or said to be perceived to) the first Fords rolled off the assembly ...was Cover's. I neither added nor delet- bring man into (an uneasy) harmony with line. We can imagine 30,000 people killed ed, changed nor advised. It is pure Cover, nature. in a nuclear accident, but we can also it was in the book before I ever saw it, imagine that there is no way to make a and I deserve absolutely credit for its plant absolutely secure against radiation memorable creation. My editorial hand 'Pournelle also, like all conservativ- leakage. With hundreds of plants going 2A shows up in AUTUMN ANGELS only by its ab- es, believes in money like some believe in It hours a day across the country—if not sence: I badgered Arthur to rewrite only God, is an absolute truth, with an ab- solute the world—the possibility of poisoning to toughen up his sequential progressions, value, that must be preserved in our atmosphere, and ourselves, is too high to clean up his syntax and to add the its purest state. But to the less credu- to make it safe. No, I don't think we will "slices of life" sections I thought would lous it should have been obvious for some poison ourselves into extinction, but cer- add background depth to the picture of the time that money is meaningless; an archaic tainly in a much higher rate of death from society he presented. All characters and abstraction that is just waiting for a more cancer.' tone, plot and force of narrative were all national currency to whisk it away. It is

there before 1 got into it in any way. As not a matter of inflation; it is that money Wixon perceives, Cover is an original, and has always had an utterly arbitrary value, for anyone to lay credit for his abilities but as long as there was only a few people on my doorstep would be to sell me too high, in the world who held most of it, it seemed

and Cover too low. I venture to say his to be efficient. With today's billion and work will continue to amaze and delight trillion dollar GNPs, the relationship the sf/fantasy readers for years to come.' value of a dollar and the goods and servic- es it will buy has ceased to exist. What *^^^^:^i,:t****»****************************** will replace it? I have no idea. But to LETTER FROM PAUL WALKER say "three quarters of the world lives in poverty because they haven't enough invest- March A, 1976 ment capital to buy the technology of the

'Excellent issue. That Malzberg re- West" is, I think, wrong. In fact, the view was the best thing I have ever read Pakistani engineer who feels "helpless be-

by him. Your own reviews were not bad, cause he hasn't got a trillion bucks to either. The interview with Pournelle was sink into development" is the gist of the MICROCOSMOS

By R. FARADAY NELSON

"I FIND MY OWN COMPANY WEARISOME when

I descend into self-pity," writes Robert Silverberg in Chapter Eleven of DYING IN-

SIDE, his science fiction novel about a man who has the power of telepathy but nev- er does much with it. Shortly after read- ing this line, I heard that Silverberg was giving up writing. I wasn't surprised.

DYING INSIDE sums itself up in that line. It was "wearisome" and it did indeed "descend into self-pity."' It was one of the most boring books I've ever read. Why did I read it? Because it had been praised to the skies by battalions of critics. I didn't want to be excommunicated from lit- erate society; I manfully plodded through to the final page where appear the words, same genre as DYING INSIDE, was consigned help them "try on for "Silence will become my mother tongue." size" unfamiliar to the flames, along with many other un- lifestyles tried hard to find something in the book and values. I think that's what published works of Ray Nelson. science-fiction to like, but failed. does, when it does what it should. That's what the real science-fic- As R. Faraday Nelson, I began writing, Here was this book that critics had tion is all about. groping along, learning to write all over raved over, that the author had rated in again, working out my new style, my new It's not about stupid puns and shaggy interviews as superior to his other books philosophy, as I went. There were a few dog stories, such as defaced the pages of (And he has been a winner of both the Hugo short stories for Ted White's FANTASTIC, the late, unlamented magazine, VERTEX, and Nebula awards), and I could barely where I was experimenting, and finally It's not about Feghoots. It's not about bring myself to read it all the way to the a- long came Roger Elwood, who didn't know non-science-fiction stories like DYING IN- end. I did not even think it was a real the old Ray Nelson, and was willing to SIDE passing themselves off as science- science-fiction book, but a second-rate take a gamble on "R, Faraday." (Though fiction to the gullible critics. Humor mainstream novel with a little science- even he backed off from using my new has a place in the Little Worlds. Realism fiction pasted on to make it sell. Could name on my first book for him, BLAKE'S PRO- has a place in the Little Worlds. But it be I was a victim of the one unspeakable GRESS.) neither of these can properly be the Main mental disease, poor taste? If this was Attraction, the truth, it was truth I’d a rather not My new approach or writing philosophy face. . takes the name "Microcosraic." Its aim is The Microscosmic approach carries cer- not, like DYING INSIDE, to show the world tain basic assumptions that usually remain Instead I came to the realization that . as, it is, or worse than it is. Instead I implicit, almost subliminal. Let's for a Silverberg was probably successful at doing want to show the world as it might be. The moment, take a clear look at them. whatever he was doing, but that it was some- great weakness of Silverbergism is that it thing I would never do, or try to do, no The first assumption is that Man can is a cowardly evasion of the need for mak- matter how much I longed for the praise of make choices. ing choices. Under the disguise of object- critics and acceptance of editors. DYING ivity, it may say "this is how it is" or If Man cannot make choices, then it is INSIDE became, in a perverse way, a turn- even say what it's against, but it never pointless to consider alternate realities. ing point in my writing, a powerful influ- says what it is for. There's a risk in There are no alternate worlds. There can ence, By summing up in a single work all beifig for something, in advocating some- be no alternate worlds. It is a waste of that I hated in science-fiction, it gave thing. You might make a fool of yourself! energy to consider anything beyond things me a new sense of direction, I was not as they are. It is a waste of energy to certain where I wanted to go, but I at 'Well, I believe that part of what my consider possible fututres, since Blind least knew what I wanted to escape from, or reafers are putting down money for is to Fate will impose itself upon us no matter rebel against, see me take risks. They don't want me to what we do. take photographs and, when asked what the I changed my name: I had been writing photos mean, to say, "No comment," They I cannot accept that. under the name Ray Nelson, but now I became want me up there on the high wire without R. Faraday Nelson, though editors have been There are many philosophies current a net, in the hip argot, they want me to reluctant to accept the change. In my fil- that picture Man as a puppet. Astrology "put something down." es there was a novel I'd once written for makes Man a puppet of the stars. Marxism

Damon Knight when Damon was editor at Berk- They want me to create for them Micro- makes Man a puppet of History. Other phi- ley Books, (Damon loved it but, unfortun- cosms, "little worlds" designed as sketch- losophies make Chance our master, or Karma, ately, Dardis Fisher, his superior, reject- or Predestination. es or miniature scale models of societies . None of these philoso- ed it.) This book, recognizably in the different from our own. They want me to 20 phies is proven scientifically, though all lay claiin to being scientific. They are been times when I damn near gave up. That is the assumption that "Things popular because people like to believe that could be different." Why should I let my protagonists off if the world is a mess, it’s not their easy? Of course, if you are not a puppet, fault. If they do things they are ashamed then you could have chosen to do something of, it’s because something "made them." Why should I let them slide languidly else in the past, so that your life would There’s no way we can judge for sure if into oblivion, or go insane, or kill thenw- now be different. And you can act today Man is a puppet, but we can see that, no selves? I never allowed myself such lux- to make your future different, to select matter what he is a puppet of, the end re- uries! the future you want. sult is the same.

This, in fact, is my second assumption, The same thing Boredom! is true of society as a which follows from the first. Man can whole. Boredom is the only appropriate emotion struggle! He may win or he may lose, but If Cleopatra, at the battle of Actium, in the world of Man the Puppet, and that is he can always struggle! had chosen to stand and fight instead of why so many modern novels and stories are The foundation stone of the microcosraic fleeing, she might have defeated Octavian. so terribly, terribly boring, and why life style is the choice-making, struggling pro- The Roman Empire would have been the Egyp- itself is, for people who accept the ideas tagonist. He is there for my reader to tian Empire instead, and ^11 history would underlying such literature, so dull. identify with or admire. Without him there have been different. Y^u would be differ- would be no reason for a reader to enter In literature as in life, Man the Pup- ent. my microcosm, be it ever so wonderful. pet fails to hold our interest, fails to If Prince Albert on his deathbed had make us care whether he lives or dies, This is simple, basic storywriting not prevented England from entering the fails to arouse our sympathy, let alone theory. You’ve been told a hundred times American Civil War on the side of the our admiration. After all, whatever he about the importance of an active protag- South, the South might have won, and once is, good or bad, is the result of the forc- onist. But how many times have you been again everything would have been differento es acting upon him, nothing more. Yet Man told about the philosophical assumptions the Puppet is the Great Cliche of modern behind active and passive protagonists? Or let’s look at the future. fiction; almost every amateur writer’s It’s not enough to make your hero heroic; Is civilization doomed? Will we fall first story is about this poor passive you have to know you’re doing it. victim to nuclear war, or pollution, or ov- nebbish who sinks slowly from a bad situa- If you like passive characters, there's erpopulation, or exhaustion of natural re- tion into a worse one without a struggle. sources? Certainly if we a place for them. A passive character mak- act like puppet- Often the story ends with the protagonist people, sooner or later we will, like the es a good "Or. Watson" for some active insane, dead, or committing suicide, or, "Sherlock Holmes," passive protagonists of so many "modern" if he's lucky, merely getting beaten up by stories, be overcome. But if we under- some dreadful bully or humiliated by his We now come to the thing that makes a stand that the world is the way it is be- wife or employer. Such stories are writ- microcosmic story microcosmic. cause we made it that way, and that we can, ten by the ream but are seldom published, if we wish, make it some other way, then except where someone, like Robert Silver- we will think, a.nd imagine, and struggle. berg, has made a name for himself that some Microcosmic science-fiction can provide us publisher thinks is exploitable enough so with a powerful way of visualizing possi- it doesn't matter how crumby the story is. ble futures, of working out things to

There used to be a subgenre of Weird strive for, to realize the dangers hidden

Fiction about vast cosmic monsters who in contemporary trends before it is too finally overcome some unfortunate human, late to do anything effective. (It is

I don’t mind that. There’s no shame in be- never too late to do something .) ing overcome by a monster, if he’s vast My new style is devoted, above all and cosmic enough. Actually, it's a kind else, to exploring what alternate socie- of honor, because of the implication that ties and various futures might actually be nothing short of a vast cosmic monster has like. My job is to make the unthinkable got what it takes to overcome us. thinkable, to break tha spell of "things-

But if I was going to be driven to as-they-are" with the magic of "things-as- suicide by a nagging wife or a mean boss they-might-be." My job is to show, to the or "mechanistic society", I think I would- best of my ability, what it might actually n’t say anything about it. I’d hope no- be like to travel to the stars, to harness body would notice. alternate sources of energy, to adopt al- ternate forms of government, alternate re- So, in literature and in life, I be- ligions, alternate philosophies. What lieve Man can make choices. I worked for would life be like for you and me if this many, many years, sometimes under very ad- or that or the other thing were changed? verse conditions, to become a writer, I That’s the kind of question the microcos- will not accept a protagonist in one of my mic story addresses itself to. stories who is less willing to struggle

than I am. Indeed, I should hope my pro- I'm glad I live in California. Calif-

tagonist would at least be a little more ornia is as far as possible from Europe. determined than I’ve been. There have And it's as far as you can get from New York in tho United States, without actual- speaks to me, when he speaks to me at all, LETTER FROM HARRY WARNER ly going to Hawaii. Writers in California, with such condescension that friendship is

from Joaquin Miller and Jack London to Pool impossible. I'm too naive for him, I think. March 26, 1976 Anderson and Fritz Leiber, have always been I haven't given up all hope. 'I read the start of your editorial singularly freeuof the weary wisdom of pas- in He's thin, bearded, somewhat aristo- SFR 16 at the wrong time, unfortunately. sivity that infects the European and the cratic, with huge sad eyes, quite handsome AdventrPublishers pays no advances and I've hew Yorker. We've had a passionate love- in the Byronic tradition. He looks at me been trying fear relationship with ths wilderness we since November to get the manu- with those eyes half-closed and pities me. script for the new fan history book back found out here that absorbed us so much we from Ed Wood, without success. Ed didn't find the languid sophistication of the Old He was born and educated in New York want it unless I wrote some additional sec- World trivial, irrelevant. City, but moved out here to live in Oakland, tions, which I flatly refused to write, I California. So far, however, his soul has We don’t see life as a gray wall. We told him to send it back if he didn't want not left the Big Apple. His soul is back in life room where don't see as a little three it the way it was, and at the end of March, "Fun City", and without it his body is slow- people spend eternity tormenting each oth- I still haven't received it. Fortunately, ly running down. er. Our reality is one of doing. We know I have a couple of carbon copies and offers we can change the world, because we’ve done But if he has given up hope (as any of publication from two other firms, so I it, because we're doing it. The European, should be making the deal with someone self-respecting New Yorker must), I have else the Hew Yorker, is outside Nature, looking pretty not given up hope for him. Recently he soon, in. He can’t hold Nature in his hand and granted an interview to EDGE, an amateur 'Franz Rottensteiner had written me in mold it, making a forest where there was journal of science fiction published by a letter some of the same complaints that no forest before, making new rivers, new the students at Stanford University. He Dick Lupoff voices in his review of THE mountains. It is the Californian who is a says; SCIENCE FICTION BOOK. Many of these mis- part of Nature. It is the Californian who takes occurred in captions written by the has sold the concept of ecology to the ’’l.ately I’ve drifted away from publisher’s employees, not by Franz, world. writing, I've spent a lot of time which in the Sierras, spent a lot of time he had no opportunity to correct in proof. There are twice as many members of the simply working in my garden, and I’m But I disagree with Dick in his overall Science Fiction Writers of America in Cal- finding new realms of experience viewpoint on the book in general, I think ifornia as in New York, and last year, just in planting, pruning and hack- it's an excellent summing up of the field when the annual Nebula science-fiction ing." in such a limited space. Moreover, his re- awards were being handed out, none of the view might at least have had some mention winners were at the official banquet in Ah ha! California is getting through of the superlative reproduction of the many New York. They were all at the unofficial to him! The green things that have taught illustrations, like those full-color pro- banquet in California. At one time there California writers so much more than Europe zine covers. There's no way anyone is go- was a rule that all Nebula banquets must or New York have... they're beginning to ing to write a book of this size about sci- be held in New York; now one might well seduce Bob. Maybe his soul will finally ence fiction in general without giving more ask why a^ of them should be held there. coma west to join him! Maybe the trees or less space to certain topics than anoth- Let's face it. New York is not the sort and plants and birds will convince him that er person would have given; in fact, this of place where good science-fiction can be the whole universe isn't made of gray con- is what my dispute with Ed Wood is about. written. Not enough trees, for one thing. crete and glass after all. 'And I don't think that devoting almost But mainly, in New York it's so hard If that happens, I venture to prophesy half a book about prozine art to Paul is at future to believe that mankind has any at a revolution in his attitude. He'll become all excessive. I've been p'-edicting to all, let alone an exciting one. Ihere are an even more fanatic rebel against his the point of repletion for at least ten or many literary critics around eager to so past "Silverbergism" than I am. He'll be- fifteen years that Paul is going to become applaud those damn passive-protagonist come true Californian, never again to a an artistic discovery someday in the mun- stories, so many "creative writing" class- read the NEW YORK TIMES book reviews. dane art world, that he will be given the es where the art of the passive-protagon- He'll get rid of those slobbish passive same postmortem lionization that Van Gogh ist story is taught. And the life one protagonists and get down to the serious received. (The two have lots in common as leads there is so dreary and hopeless that but fun job of creating microcosms. — — maverick artists, even though it would be only a pessimistic attitude seems honest. hard You’ll see! to think of two artists with more dis- Once I wrote a novel _(the one 1 burned) similar styles and life patterns.) I keep and the editor, Damon Knight, Don of the 'Nutritional aisoroers may also affect wondering how many Paul originals have sur- Milford Mafia, insisted I change the happy vived during all these decades when behavior in bizarre ways. Pellagra results he has ending to an unhappy one. Unhappy endings been scorned by most people, and how from dietary deficiency in niacin, a cor:- valu- are the only kind you can believe in, if a able they will become pound of tne vitamin B complex. The first a decade or a cen- you live in or near New York. tury from now.' cases in the United States were found in When writers come to California from institutions for the insane. The patients somewhere else, they either change radical- were psychotic, disoriented, and suffering ly, like Aldous Huxley did, or they stop from nallucinations and delirium. Once ni- writing, Silverberg. like Bob acin was ac’Oed to their diet, their symptoms disappeared.' As it happens, I know Silverberg per- —PSYCHOSOMATICS by Howard R & sonally. He's not my friend, but I can Martha E. Lewis certainly call him my acquaintance. He 23 (INNER) SPACE (SOAP) OPERA that can be found in science fiction if not other satalites representing '57 Varieties' in mainstream literature. of sexual preference/ideologies. Thus, he chooses to elude his neurotic 'masculine* In the emotional and logical chaos of TRITOI^ by Samuel R. Delany logic for the equally neurotic 'feminine* Bron leading up to a fitful sleep that con- Bantan Y2567, $1.9% emotions through a sex change. 369pp. cludes Oelany's story—it doesn't sound Reviewed by Donn Vicha like much, but that's the whole point I'm. At this point, what has seemed to drag coming to —Delany finally, after (I dare on becomes a suspenseful, psychological to say) more than a thousand pages of three TRITON yet another navel novel. Al- flight. It is taut, it involves you with is navel novels, engages the reader. Finally remains much to be mined from your own experiences of self-alienation, though there the reader is thrust into the maelstrom of Delany, I've heard, has tried and it has to parallel Delany's own strug- inner space, the leading figure’s distressing despair. patience of some ST readers, writers, gle with the ideas he has been writing a- the It's excellent writing that succeeds in de- reviewers for the last time with his bout for much too long, and feating itself with a vengeance. navel-gazing stories. I liked OHALGREN, Bron is ultimately rejected by her/his I'm going to leave but for the life of me I couldn't give you yoj with that para- lover, then by each of her/his friends un- very coherent statement why. dox for just a moment and quickly point a til she finds herself lying to Audri, her out some highlights leading up to Bron's Again, Erederik Pohl has allowed De- lesbian boss, and of course, she ends up (and Delany's) grand Moment of Truth, lany's mental masturbation to reflect his facing the fact or at least the possibili- "taste, integrity, and discrimination that First, there is a game called vlet ty that he/she has been lying to herself have made his own works so highly respect- which sounds like a nice change from Anti- all along. ed..." Monopoly or poker ala Tarot cards, tba Now maybe that doesn't sound like much, mumblers of a bizarre religious sect, the Why does Delany do it? And why are we but believe me, it builds on so many levels micro-theater productions with a randomly so terribly outraged by his insistence on it has great power. Most important of all, chosen audience of one, and a trip to one boring us with pages unending? Unless, it makes you care for Bron; carrying it hell of a great restaurant (read while I for some reasons we hold some incredible further, you begin to care about what De- was near starving, it nearly killed me it hope that 'Chip' will put aside self-agon- lany has been agonizing about. sounded so wonderful). izing/analyzing and use hi=; great (they And what does all this have to do with must be great if we are so concerned about Second, Delany summons forth excellent paradox, despair and hopes? what he's written) talents to entertain parodies (I think) of technical passages and enthrall. of hard science fiction with long-winded Delany has simply put himself out of (and equally boring) discussions of meta- the soap opera business. The agonizing has Well, you'll have to follow another re- logics (Bron's profession) and the mechan- turned on itself, the existential hero is Delany protagonist to his/her de- pulsive ics of sex change operations and sexual a pathetically self-pitying fool. Delany, order keep that hope intact. spair in to preference refixations (about six hours and as his characters, has remained aloof from seventeen minutes and Bron becomes woman). the First of all, don't bother to read the a reader and more spefically, from the comprise the last science fiction reader. The SF reader is two appendices that 59 The highly coincidental nature of the of book: you that an audience in a non-existential sense, his pages the spare yourself lovers' clashes and their inability to form kudos or brick-bats medium of kind of crap you had to have a through many pages the any kind of synthesis of understanding is which tha SF receives feedback; in big D, and you won't writer wade through the an uncomfortable blend of soap opera and neither reader or writer is truly alone... get that feeling that Samuel R. is talking DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. as long as they that re- down to you, hiding himself among erudite care about special As ZHIVAGO, Bron confused- lationship. observations or SF which seem to have noth- in is the If Delany has attempted to doctor-of-life who cannot find security spell SF ing to do with what went on before. out his relationship with through within the opposing societal structures Bron's despair, he has failed to seal off Secondly, if you bought the book but —Earth and Mars representing sexual pat- his individuality from either the subject- just couldn't stand stupid and pathetic riarchies and matriarchies, Triton and the ivity of his own 'world' or the objectivi- Bron Hellstrom, the central character (who is not a poet, minstrel, or artistic figure of any kind, for a change) and his inabil- ity to relate with his reluctant lover (the artistic figure—bad habits are hard to break, I guess), a woman who writes, di- rects, and produces micro-theater perform- ances, or his inability to communicate very wall with the few friends he has: a

7A year old homosexual, a bisexual diplo- mat involved with what could loosely be called an interplanetary war, and a les-

bian head of his department at work. ..pick

it up after the break on page 271. From thare, you'll have little prjblem getting through to the most chilling and realisti- cally written exploration of inner space ty of the world' (of SF) in which he writes. 'The proximate cause of this epistle is 'Jerry: "The Poor Laws, which provided It is this failure which rings so true at the Pournelle interview in SFR l6. It was some relief... for paupers and indigents, the end of TRITON that succeeds in bringing one whale (heh-heh) of a piece. As always, were Conservative..." Yep, they sure were. the reader to care about Bron, and Delany. found Jerry enlightening, entertaining, I The prime movers behind them were the neo- outrageous, thought-provoking. And, as Certainly, Bron is left reeling in her feudal English landed gentry. (They got always, he managed to tighten my jaws now sleepless nightmare, guilty of being human mo'-e than a little help from the radical- and again. (Jerry and I have been exchang- and of having feelings she doesn’t under- chic Beautiful People of the day.) The ing friendly diatribes for some time now. stand. And it's entirely possible for her gentry feared and hated the Industrial Rev- It's most unlikely that we'll change each to continue life as an existential veget^ olution largely because the booming facto- other's views much, but it's fun—and it ble. ries were draining off their "serfs," who does wonders for our minds and spleens (at deserted the great estates in droves to go Fortunately, the parallel between Oe- least it does for mine, though not always to work for those "flinthearted capital- lany and his characters ends in the hope in that order.) ists" who "forced" them to live "intolera- that always rises after such despair. Be- 'Concerning the jaw-tightening points. bly miserably." One of the objectives of cause of the chilling realism of that final the early Poor I'll take them as thay came up in the in- Laws was to keep 'em down passage, Oelany reveals himself not as the terview. Jerry (concerning savings/capit- on the farm—for their own good, of course. individual he'd like us to think he is, but As for al investment): "...how did the West do the actual effects of the poor, or as human who sh-ares with all a us an indi- welfare, laws, read Herbert it? We saved the investment funds. I Spencer—-or vidual understanding of the nature of any current should say flint-hearted capitalists, who newspaper. truth. lived well themselves, forced a lot of peo- 'Enough; my spleen no longer throbs. We've all gone through some kind of ple to live intolerably miserably so the Besides, I want to applaud Jerry's remarks money analysis and if we survived it was because could be savedo" Bunk. The founda- about getting out into space and getting we've discovered truths are not to be tions of the English Industrial Revolution rich—not to mention saving Homo sap , (the found in some natural (metaphysical) state were laid in the seventeeth century by a one endangered species I can really get whole of family —as if that were the nature of truth! slew small, enterprises run worked up about) from extinction. He's There are only the makings of truth that by people who put off their ow current con- absolutely right. continue to elude those too lazy to com- sumption (they hardly lived well, and most

plete them. of them went broke) to provide the capital 'If any SFR readers would like to do needed to launch tha iron, coal, building more than just nod their heads in agreement, The conclusion of TRITON is an event, materials, and other basic industries. As there are two new outfits worthy of their Delany's rite of passage, a bar mitzvah... for the intolerably miserable conditions of support. The first is the National Space the end of navel-gazing and the beginning the working classes during the 1820s and '30 Institute (1911 North Fort Myer Drive, of a new consciousness of a writer who has '50s (which is tha period I think Jerry has Suite ^03, Arlington, VA 20009). NSI is already been considered a giant in SF. in mind), the truth is, they weren't. (See headed by Or. Wernher von Braun, and it was Looking back at TRITON, the event real- the essays in CAPITALISMS AND THE HISTORI- established to promote public understanding ly never meets one's expectations. One ANS, F.A. Hayek, ed.) Consider: If they and support for space activities. Members man's catharsis is another man's stifled had been, would country people have aband- receive an interesting monthly newsletter yawn. So important, yet also so mundane... oned the beneficent care of the conserva- and other goodies. Annual dues (deductible anticlimactic. But if TRITON is such an tive gentry to become factory workers? from federal income tax) are S19. (college anticlimactic work, consider now that De- age and older) and 89. (high school age and 'Jerry: "I am not. ..a Libertarian be- lany is free to be himself and to entertain younger). Life memberships (also deducti- cause I believe freedom is a very important the few readers he might have. I foresee ble) are 9100. value, but not the ONLY value." Implying a grand and wonderful comeback of a truly that freedom is the only libertarian value, 'The other group is Earth/Space, Inc. gifted man. For that alone, TRITON is which just ain't so. Trua, freedom (not (2519 Sierra, Palo Alto, CA 9^503)—"dedi- worth reading. "anything goes," but the absence of coerc- cated to free space enterprise." Earth/

ive restraint on peaceful, voluntary activ- Space publishes a monthly newsletter con- ity) is THE political value of libertarian- taining of LETTER FROM KARL T. PFLOCK, a lot interesting information freedom ism. But Libertarians value be- (one year, 83; five years $20). Edit or, LI BERTAR I AN REV I EW cause (among other things) it makes possi- 'Join or die!* 20 February 1976 ble the peaceful pursuit of all other val- ues. ^*-*:tl*t*;^:»:*t.*:-*X:***************************** 'Curse you and SFR! This is the sec- JERRY POURNELLE REPLIES ond time in two days that I've found my- 'Jerry: "Who speaks for the Grand Can- my judgement, are self at the typer knocking out a letter to yon?. ..Some things, in 1 March 1976 to whim you when I should be doing pay copy. What too damned important to be left and 'Regarding Pflock's commentary: I would ancient and unspeakable rites do you per- even to majority sentiment; much less to make one point regarding my whims on the form over SFR to do this to your readers?' the market place." Translation: "I believe Grand Canyon (and Death Valley): Certainly some things (e.g., the Grand Canyon) are ((The truth is, and I really hesitate — the State imposes its whims on everyone too important " (by what standard, Jerry?) to admit this, I made a pact with tha Devil else, supposedly for the common good. Cer- "—to leave to the whims and sentiments of about ten years ago. My immortal soul in tainly perceptions of the common good may you dumb clucks. So I will use the power Frankly, I'm exchange for ten Hugo awards. differ—I can recall when a pretty good of the State to impose on you m^ whims and getting worried: I've already got six Hu- segment of tha military thouglit Preventive sentiments— for your own good, of course." goes...3nd I'm only beginning middle age.)) War to be in the common interest (and some —

WARREK REPLIES still ttiink it would have been a good idea for being derivative. GEORGE back when we could clearly have won). Had 'This would be insulting if it were we then had no State but merely a collec- March, 1976 not so dumb. It takes a small mind to tion of private armies and police forces, bicker about which facet of a book was bor- 'Richard, for the love of God get in might one of them have tried it? And would rowed from where, and ignore the larger touch with Charles Platt and tell him some not that have affected the rest of us? truth that both of Bester's two classic sf dyslexic dimbulb has got hold of some of arid wreck- 'The trouble with leaving irreversible novels were packed with innovation and ide- his letterhead seems intent on reputation, I'm sure Mr, Platt decisions up to the whims of individuals as and were a lot more mature, in their ing his does not deserve this..... or even the whims of a majority—is that relevance to real life and their ideas a- sometimes the results have been really hor- bout morality, than the books of almost any 'Mercy me, I wasn't deriding Mr. Best- innocent suffer othar writer in sf of that period. That rible for everyone; the er for deriving his plots from that great perpetrators (or only tha innocent THE STARS MY DESTINATION used THE COUNT OF with the body of Good Stories that is one of the is unimport- have not a hell MONTE CRISTO for its structure suffer). True, Governments treasures of the species homo more-or-less of a good record for making the right ant; and the notion that THE DEMOLISHED MAN sapiens; I was applauding his wisdom, ma- condotierri, unrestrain- borrowed from Joyce's ULYSSES is simply ab- choices, neither do turity, and judgement in doing so. Nobody feudal bar- perhaps Warren meant FINNEGAN'S ed capitalists, labor leaders, surd— alive knows more about story values than juvenile gangs, WAKE? ((That's your apostrophe, Charles.)) ons, Presidents of various Mr, Bester; by extension, nobody alive IRA and Orange Defense That, at least, had some experimental typo- officers of the knows better than Mr. Bester how empty and League, kings and pninces, mercenary sol- graphy in it; but so did countless other unsatisfying a book is when the author has diers, etc. modern authors books that may books by — left them out, or skimped on them, or sub- Cliff's Notes but are not be mentioned in stituted verbal or conceptual condiments 'If Pflock and his friends really do to some of us whose interests ex- familiar for the solid protein of sto'y values. not see that there is something fundamental- tend beyond tha pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS And it's no good substituting Mr. Bester's wrong with pure freedom if it includes ly magazine. Bearnaise sauce for the ketchup of a less- freedom to starve, then maybe there's no Warren would be happier if Best- er "experimantalist" if you have left out way we can communicate. Of course I prefer 'Maybe were now trying to turn out the same old the steak, and I'll bet Mr. Bester is rath- that institutions be voluntary, and I sus- er as tired- er more conscious of this than are those pect that nearly all the functions of the stuff, going through the motions who, like our Platt impersonator, would State can be undertaken by voluntary as- ly and unconvincingly as Clarke or Asimov miscues. I admire Alfred seek to please him by praising his sociations—what de Tocquivil called a or Heinlein. Personally Mr. Bester, like Mr, Joyce (Bester is on fourth branch of government in America, Bester for being the only sf writer of his record about his debt to Joyce already, and private institutions which so well accom- generation to have the courage, awareness, take new direction rath- knows very well that what he and Joyce plished so much of what only government and initiative to a with typographical er than stick with a tried-and-tested old- share has nothing to do had br-en able to do in Europe—but having fashioned selling format. devices borrowed from many sources both be- said that, I fear I cannot conceive of life fore and after TRISTRAM SHANDY), knows very government except in the terms without a 'The most obnoxious accusation in War- well that you can sell the reader virtual- Thomas of Hobbes: ren's piece is that Bester stopped writing ly any kind of "experimental" fiddle-de-dee sf because it didn't pay well enough. For "'Life in a state of nature is soli- on tha Surface if there's a good story at goodness sake, does Warren imagine Bester tary, pr-or, nasty, brutish, and short.'" the bottom. As there was in ULYSSES, THE ever di^ make a living out of science fio- +»***..*****»*****#*****+*******•*•******* DEMOLISHED MAN, THE STARS MY DESTINATION ... tion? Out of two novels (one of which was LETTER FROM CHARLES PLATT submitted to countless publishers before it P-ay what is Cliff's Notes? Some sort finally sold) and 50 or 75 short stories? of crib which has escaped my attention The fact is that Bester was writing for while engaging that of our imposter friend? February lA, 1976 comics, radio, TV, and glossy magazines be- I do share some deficiencies in formal edu- 'Why do you allow someone as stupid and fore, during, and after his science fiction cation with, among others, Fletcher Pratt,

as senile as George Warren to review the "period" because he believed that making Frederik Pohl and Ray Bradbury. However,

work of a good writer like Alfred Bester? money elsewhere would allow him to devote I like the company (especially if the al- derived, as it Warren has somehow picked up bits and piec- a lot more time and trouble to science fic- ternative is an education es of an "education" enough to be able to tion—time and trouble that full-time sf apparently was in the case of the man who (mis)quote Goethe and Sir Donald Tovey authors could not afford to spend, and stole Mr. Platt's letterhead, through a lot did he get it from Cliff's fJotes, perhaps? whose work was less finely crafted and less of breathless swotting on ponyback). And —but ha writes with the prejudices and innovative as a result. at any rate my own education is still going insensitivity of an illiterate who is sus- on. "Study as though you were going to 'Warren might be arely competent to re- picious of intelligence and downright hos- live forever." —San Ysidro de Sevilla, view a baseball game, but where literature tile to anything with pretensions of being seventh century A.O. is concerned he's about as perceptive as "literary", especially if it violates those Archie Bunker, Sometimes a reactionary re- 'The above is a quotation, of course. good old rules of storytelling—tha tight viewer can at least be amusing, if he has Quotations have those funny little double plot and the conventional exposition. His wit, intelligence, and style. But Warren squiggles before and after them. Para- real objection to Bester's recent novel, is dull in every way and, apparently, not phrases do not. In a quotation you must it seems to me, is that it strikes out in too bright. I hope you won't be publish- get both the sounds and the sense right. new directions and is experimental; yet ing anything else of his in future. In a paraphrase you must get the sense paradoxically he takes cheap shots at THE right, and (paraphrasing Lewis Carroll, DEMOLISHED MAfJ and THE STARS MY DESTINATION I think) if you get the sense right, the flooded the original anthology market, in ing with the 60-page "Arm" come Hugo-time sounds will take care of themselves. Which fact Ted White feared Elwood had washed it this year, on is as cogent 3 statement literary style away. Brian Aldiss' "The Aperture Moment" can as ever I heard. At any rate, it might be Therefore gossips proposed to construct infuriate or enthrall. It surely has too smart to point out here that the man who the ideal anthologist using Elwood's busi- many conceptual layers, too many fascinat- quotes exactly has, often as not, the crib ness abilities and restrained by Silver- ing gimmicks and controversies, to be dis- at his elbow as he writes, by the crib berg's good taste. But when such a project missed. Aldiss makes ferocious comment on Cliff's Notes or Bartlett's or whatever. came into being, the real question was how art, and by extension challenges the whole The man who paraphrases has, most likely, could Silverberg get the kind of story he science fiction problem-solving tradition. read the book. likes to buy past Elwood? It's at least as sophisticated as "The Ones 'Neither the reader nor the reviewer Who Walk Away From Ornelas" but by being Oddly enough, EPOCH did nothing more owes it to us to out what it is that figure more threatening as well, is a sure bet than produce a literal fusion of the two we are up to when we write. Every time we only for the Nebula. editors’ average product, Elwood's usual, write for publication we are required to called "one good story, two atrocious sto- wheedle, sweet-talk, or con the reader into Michael Bishop, one of sf's newest ries, and a Malzberg story" is merged with tal- that necessary willing suspension of dis- ents, says he wrote "Blooded Silverberg's standard "one Nebula winner, on Arachne" as taste for our stylistic stumbles through a "sort of Technicolor entertainment two Hugo nominees, and AO, 000 average with unmapped, if often familiar territory. One no slowdowns and a suitably imageful words." I make no claim that each editor and more paraphrase: Boswell once... but no, cadenced style. ...The story. ..is no sort was actually responsible for a separate Bozzy is too 'good not to quote: Johnson of landmark at all, either field level of quality. And EPOCH is the class in the or, "observed that a gentleman of eminence in more modestly, in my own development of 1975, with four to six surefire awards as a literature had got into a bad style of po- writer, but I think it nominees. On the other hand it has between succeeds precisely etry of late. 'He puts,’ said he, 'a very in those areas I wanted three and seven stories that should have it to. ...Enjoy. common thing in a strange dress till he been unpublishable. does not know it himself, and thinks other Bishop sounds needlessly abashed, hav- people do not know it.' BOSWELL: 'That is ing created with great style and verve pre- owing to his being so much versant in old Perhaps coincidentally, EPOCH seems to cisely what sf readers say they can't get English poetry.* JOHNSON: 'What is that end the era started by DANGEROUS VISIONS, enough of. If done a little rutnlessly, it was to the purpose, sir? If I say a man is picking up story types both good and bad done well enough to compete with Bish- drunk, and you tell me it is owing to his that (l) were typical of DV, (2) contempo- op's other work for awards. And having read taking much drink, the matter is not mend- rary with DV, or (3) strongly associated "Blooded on Arachne," the reason you might ed,"" with Ellison-as-editor, I say that not on- nominate it over another Bishop piece that ly because the collection has these featur- "ought" to win a prize, was alluded to by es, but it is missing Tiptree, Pournelle, Jerry Pournelle. He reminded his audience THE DYNAMIC DUO HAVE PRO- Reamy, Joe Haldeman, Gene Wolfe and other at LA 2000 that fandom has disproportionate DUCED.... writers who've become significant since that time, excepting George R, R. Martin EPOCH, edited by Roger Elwood and Robert and Michael Bishop. Silverberg. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975. There is in EPOCH the last of the Known (srsc 2/76 selection) 110.95, 623pp. Space stories by Niven (whose "Neutron

Reviewed by Mike Glyer Star" copped the 196? short story Hugo); a Clarion story; one of Barry Malzberc's last

Since DANGEROUS VISIONS burst on the sf pieces (at least, a fan magazine said he scene in 1967 we've come to rely on the was getting out); an Aldiss story in the short fiction anthology to redefine and vein of 1967's CRYPTOZOIC!; four stories highlight the range of possibilities for involving psychogenic drugs; nine stories sf. In it Ellison tried to emancipate the with explicit human sex; one story with genre from pulpish editorial standards, to graphic xeno/human sex. All the taboos DV signal that, sink or swim, each story could smashed (sort of), and the types of major find its own level unencumbered by bluenose fiction present in the freeze-frame year of prejudice. How writers lived up to that 1967 . And some of the crap we hated even challenge was reflected in successive then. But starting on the high notes... years' NEW DIMENSIONS, UNIVERSES, Carr's "ARM," bv Larry Niven, last of his annual Best collections, Ellison's AGAIN, Known Space timeline works, takes the open- DANGEROUS VISIONS, and various triplets, ing position in EPOCH. The first and last (e.g. THREE FOR TOMORROW). stories in a Silverberg collection are al-

Not all readers wanted to give writers ways special. What’s unusual in EPOCH is such freedom: and Roger Elwood rose from that they’re both sf/detective stories. obscurity to cover them with the shadow of Last is Jack Vance's "The Dogtown Tourist his editorial hand. Some claimed his Agency," a 109-i3 age intro for his new ser- changelings had been planted in market ial character, Vv. Hetzel. Vance fanatics niches that would once have been occupied don't rate it with his best, but I like it by anthologies like those named above. He well enough to feel that it’ll be compet- of pretentious crap, John influence on wh;3t gets published. One ens to turn into a diatribe, but writhes Speaking avenue of its power is the Hugos. Pour- about til it becomes a dryly funny myth, Shirley's "uneasy Chrysalids, Our Memories" nelle felt that in recent yeers sone Hugos can be diagnosed as that dread disease, W. Macfarlane, long a favorite writer, had been awarded to fin^-ion the voters felt Mainstream Political Statement Disguised answers muster with a fragment of juvenile unimag- had a fnoral right to win—not to fiction As SF. Not only is the background fiction. "Graduation Day" develops its the voters actually enjoyed. He warned inative, the essence of the story is de- colonial society in strange new ways with that if you don’t give the Hugo to what you stroyed by translation into this genre; the prose as fine as clockwork. want to read (rather than what you ’’ought" stfnal gimmick is really not so unlikely to like) sure as hell you’ll get less of I've never based dislike of an antholo- that such a tale couldn’t be peddled in what you enjoy and a lot inore of what won gized story simply because it didn’t turn the mainstream. Moreover, each writer in tha award. out to be sf. However, Ward Moore’s "Dur- EPOCH contributed a postscript. Shirley’s ance" also isn't a story, but an ambiguous confirmed my suspicion that the ones with Four high-powered stories in one book prison episode with a cliche in place of a the most to say afterwards were the ones is a good record. EPOCH might have had two conclusion. who said the least in their fiction: his more just as good had the authors involved being a strange combination of ignorant at- been able to write themselves out of corn- Clifford Simak's "The Ghost of a Model tacks on Walt Disney and cutesy sacrilege. ers their stories put them in. T" isn't much of a story either, though

still a pleasantly written metaphor in Sim- Despite four widely-spaced gems, there "Cambridge, 1:58 A.M." displays Greg- ak's best pastoral style. It’d better be are times when one is tempted to trash the ory Benford’s high skill in the hard sci- presented in a slick magazine, book. Only that rare flicker of genuine ence story. Drawn from the far frontiers storytelling, intervening between midnights of theoretical cosmology, anchored to prob- Gordon Eklund’s "Angel of Truth" is an of pretension and copout keeps one going. lems just out of sight of today’s beaches, adventure in solipsistic boredom lacking Benford's story fuses intellectual chal- either conflict or conclusion, barring what ' Among them is George R. R. Martin's lenge with a sense of wonder. He comes one might care to read _into it. I've never "...for a single yesterday." The idea of quite near to writing a classic sf story, been one for Rorschact>-blot sf. That also chronine, a drug that illuminates memory

in both form and fact. Ironically he miss- explains my disenchantment with Kate Wil- to tha point of reliving whole events, is

es because he can’t carry through to an end- helm’s "Planet Story." That takes up one masterfully exploited. Though the story’s ing with his premise intact. Therefore the of the archetypical stf plots (an alien use of first-person protagonist struck me

story is left rationalized but not resolv- Eden that evokes reasonless terror in a as the wrong choice, the narrator being no

ed, the quality of striving in the charact- scouting party). Wilhelm collects the am- more than a talking head without personal ers left to degenerate into pessimism. biguity prize and little else in this sto- history or character, other characteriza-

ry whore (l) the human protagonist is re- tion is pretty fair. ferred to neither as male nor female but A. K, Attanasio also produced a brilli- Another peak was Jack Oann's "Timetip- has sex with both man and woman, (2) the ant failure (’'Interface"), but didn’t come- ping," The notion of ethnic science fic- source of terror is left undiscovered. anywitere near Benford in figuring some way tion always sounded absurd to me, but a few

to bail out at the end. It is HOT a story In "Encounter With a Carnivore" Joseph more stories of this caliber and I'll be a when having developed your problem, you Green found himself with an idea, not a convert. panic and have all the protagonists murder- story; human/alien lovers now pitted a- And R. A. Lafferty, "For All the Poor ed. This incredible betrayal, this stupid gainst each other to the death. After the Folks at Picketwire," if missing the spark co[>-out,. destroys a beginning with fine build-up of conflict. Green does nothing of true wit, is an interesting bit of fic- characterization, a superb story idea, and but drive it to a mechanical end. tive scholarship. first-rate writing. How any editor, espec- Since EPOCH is advertised as a state- ially Silverberg, let him get away with it In the case of Fisher’s "Bloodstream" I ment on sf's "state of the art," the read- is beyond me. can only cite de Camp’s handbook, which said er might assume three quarters of the gen- that if you get your characters out of a But Attanasio, despite his literary re’s writers have forgotten how to tell a disaster don't end the story by putting EPOCH treason, at least _foi£^ an ending. s tory . But can they ever write, and the/11 them back into one. Just don't do it! is riddled with fragments, whether actual prove it til it makes you sick. incomplete stories, or stories ended by Harry Harrison’s "Run From the Fire" "Nightbeat" by Neal Barrett, Jr., con- throwaways that coma nowhere near to resolv- nearly does it too, but this craftsman sists of prose like "The wakechimes touched ing the conflicts they initiated. Except knows haw close he can get to the brink me with the sound of cinnamon. I stretched, for that problem, Malzbsrg’s "Leviticus: and not fall over; he proceeds to tell his turned over, and watched the clockruach In the Ark" (my first encounter with the story without pretension. play time games against the wall. It mark- author's work) utterly disproved his image ed the spidery minutes in fine script and So does Ursula LeGuin in "Mazes" (a —here he is witty, sage, and challenging. left crystal dungtracks behind. It was Clarion product), and Pohl in his cold- Another controversial writer, Joanna half-past blue, and a lemon moon spilled blooded "Growing Up In Edge City." Russ, has gotten so much bad press it's color into the room..." A very slender hard to read her work objectively. (Wom- idea is gorged with pretentious imagery and Alexei and Cory Panshin's "Lady Sun- en’s Lib —dangerous stuff, haven’t you nearly bursts. Every time I read something shine and a Magoon of Beatus" was the only

heard?) That’s an obscene way to cripple like this I think I'd like to give the writ- story in EPOCH I had difficulty making up see a writer, so I made a special effort to er a swift kick in the pants. It harkens my mind about. I searched far clues to look at the story' as if I’d never in the back to the golden days of DANGEROUS VI- whether it was prejudice or judgement that world heard of her, "Existence" is an SION's "Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird." How do forced my dislike of it. I found that in elaborate sarcasm. Its beginning threat- editors let themselves buy such bilge? A? pages the Panshins suffered too many —

lapses to let oie believe this synbological m PROZINEU! ’Fortunately, SF is one big (happy?) hash concealed anything profound. They in- A LETTER FROM GALILEO family and we are getting responses. Ray dulged in prose cliches I’d hoped died in Bradbury has sent us a poem and another the mainstream. "She turned., .to intercept February 20, 1976 piece, Hal Clement is doing a fact article one of the distant animals that Lady Sun- on nuclear reactors, R. A. Lafferty has shine had seen, which now approached them. 'I would have opened "Dear Richard" or sent us a story, so have Ron Goulart, Jac- Or was it a man? Or a boy? Or was it a "Dear Alter" but, for the life of me, I quiline Lichtenberg (Star Trek fame), Kev- creature part human and part something oth- can't figure out which one of you opens in O' Donnell, etc., and Gordon R. Dickson, er, than human?" They used the word "some- the mail.' Clifford A, Simak have either promised us how" to extricate themselves from a moment ((_! open the mail. Geis sits back a story or said they'll keep us in mind. in the action when the outcome appeared and *aaaAARp* foredoomed. They used a very old hack de- 'Anyway, you get the idea, most seem ((Actually, Alter-Ego tries to grab the to vice avoid filling in background at one happy to see us coming down the pike. I mail first but I always Take Control and point; "She did many pointless and destruct- had a chance to speak with Jim Baen (he banish him, not always in the nick of time, ive things that you would not enjoy reading suggested I write you, though I was going as you will note.)) about." (The background there may be un- to anyway) and Ben Bova. Jim—the saint necessary, but 'To business. We that manner of resolving the at FICTION (copy en- —said he'll give us a trade ad and put situation wasn't successful even in 185^, closed) are planning a new science fiction in a letter noting we are on the way & look- when it was repeatedly used in Defontenay’s magazine (prozine) titled, GALILEO which ing for writers. Ben said he can't trade STAR.) They we hope to debut at revived one of the Rew Wave’s the MidAmericon in Kan- —Conde Nast won't let him—but said he sas City favorite cliches, "But mankind was sick and this September. would be happy to refer writers to us. horizonless. There was not a man alive who 'We are looking for authors, new & old, 'Things look good. Virginia.Kidd just did not know that Earth, the source, the and stories (previously unpublished) for sent us an 8,000 word story by an Austral- wellspring of man, was dead, ruined by man." GALILEO. ian writer—Damien Broderick which is In asking whether they were heavy philoso- — going to be a bombshell (though I hope not phers, or bores, once their prose was thrown 'While FICTION has been entirely edit- a hollow one). He has to be SF's equiva- into the balance, the scale tipped towards ed and produced by volunteers for nearly h lent of James Joyce or Thomas Pynchon, an the latter. years, we feel we have been able to publish incredibly complex prose style. A chal- a highly professional magazine. As you . End of review. lenge for us, here, and for SF fandom. It might agree once you read the enclosed.’ will create a stir, maybe even a full blown ((Yes, FICTION a polished, typeset, riot. Who knows? newsprint-with-slick-cover format magazine. 'I should have noted earlier, the l2 to The fiction is literary and not my cup of payment rate will depend on the standing Tokay, but I recognize its sincerity and of the author who submits the story. the quality of accompanying illustrations.)) It is a bit unfair, A story takes as much from a 'I am sure you have a good idea of what beginner as a pro. But it's the only way is entailed in putting out a magazine mann- we Can do it for a while. Besides, I just ed by volunteers—a lot of hard work, but don't have enough backing to pay everyone no money. We have some financial backing 3?, or even 2p a word. It will oome, for GALILEO, but very little. We volun- though, in time.' teers fully expect to be working for free Charles C. Ryan the first year at least. Everything goes — editor into the magazine. We conservatively esti- GALILEO mate we will sell A, 000 copies of the first 339 Newbury St. issue of GALILEO. 1,000 are on order from Boston, KA 02115 a bookchain, 2,000 will go to readers of FICTION and the remainder will be sold at the MidAmericon, through ads, and through ((l have an idea you'll soon receive nearby book & magazine dealers. large quantities of manuscripts.))

'The magazine is on schedule and will The scientific assumption that the two arrive Sept. 1st. We need authors. As I hemispheres of the brain have specialized said, we are putting everything into the jobs—analytical thinking and verbal work magazine and will be paying between U and in the left, creativity and spacial rela- a word for 1st N. Amer. serial rights. tions in the right—is crumbling under It's not a great deal, but as good as some the pressure of new research. Biologist of the existing SF prozines. We'll pay Eran Zaidel and psychobiologist Roger better (l promise) as we get bigger. We Sperry have found that the supposedly mute are, and have been, asking the top SF auth- right hemisphere has the vocabulary of a ors to help us out with stories at these 1^-year-old and the shaky syntactical (cheapskate) low rates to: 1, create a new skill of a five-year-old. market for their own work and that of oth- ers, and 2. to provide another source of "Newsline", PSYCHOLOGY TODAY reading entertainment for readers and fans. Dec. 1975. ********* ******»»**S,***»*»*»;f* »**»** *»**,;:,. —

think AN INTERVIEW WITH instance, is almost all Shea, but I my lyrical additions to the text add to ANTON WILSON ROBERT the esthetic beauty and philosophical rich- ness of the sybology and give more existen- Conducted by Neal Wilqus tial meaning to George’s ultimate ejacul^ tlon into Mav's warm, passionate mouth, in

a Maileresque sense. Of course, this is only important if you agree with Vonnegut’s co-author of ILLUMINAT- SFR : I know you’re claim that the function of the modern novel GNOSTICA, GREEN EGG US!, have written for is to describe Blow Jobs exquisitely. and others and were once assistant editor PLAYBOY could you fill us in on the of SFR ; ILLUMINATUS! incorporates much of the details of your life and present activi- Cthulhu Mythos, refers often to H. P. Love- ties? craft and even includes a short scene in which HPL appears. Is it you or Shea with, I never ball- WILSON ; Well, to begin that's the HPL enthusiast? ed Sophia Loren on a bearskin rug. I think that's what gives my writing its unforget- WILSON ; It's me. I went through a period table poignancy and haunting sense of cos- in the early 1960s when I kept having the mic search. I’ve got about a thousand ar- Lovecraft horrors every time I took peyote. ticles in print, in everything from schol- Cthulhu leering at the window. Yog-Sothoth arly journals to tabloids of the sleaziest oozing down the chimney. Azathoth invad- nature, some poetry here and there, a few ing my neurons with vampiric psychic-horror short stories. vibes. It was like a non-stop Creature My other books are SEX AND DRUGS: A Features without commercials, every time I BEYOND LIMITS, PLAYBOY’S BOOK OF JOURNEY gobbled a cacti. A lesser man would have THE BOOK Of THE BREAST, FORBIDDEN WORDS and changed his religion, I assure you, but I THE SEX MAGICIANS, a all non-fiction, and managed to recapture the Reality Studio and Markoff rather funny porn, novel featuring banish them all with violent Cabalistic im- Chaney from ILLUMINATUS! precations. They don't dare show their f?eTliSc TO faces, or lack of faces, in any of ray uni- I was busted for civil rights activi- j verses anymore. ties in '62, walked a few yards behind Mailer in the Pentagon protest of '67, got DOUBT SFR : Will there be more collaborations tear-gassed at the Democratic Convention 1$ with Shea? A sequel to ILLUMINATUS!? of 'GL I've worked as a longshoreman, astrology columnist, reporter, medical a well-adjusted citizen. I have long sus- W1 LSQN ; That depends on our Contact, the orderly, laboratory assistant, engineering pected that he is actually a time-traveling Mad Dog from Sirius. Right now, we're aide, encyclopedia salesman and most of the anthropologist from the 23rd Century doing working on separate novels. Mine has some things you find on writers' resumes. And a report on primitive civilizations. When of the characters from ILLUMINATUS! and I was'an Associate Editor, not an assist- I try to pump him about -that, he becomes much the same psychedelic style. It con- ant editor, at PLAYBOY. The difference is very evasive and looks nervous. To the cerns the aftermath of a sex-change opera- as important as tnat between a mere Con- best of my knowledge, he has never balled tion and what happens to the amputated pen- gressman and an annointed Senator or be- Sophia Loren on a bearskin rug, either. is, To the best of my knowledge, it’s the tween a zebra and a horse with striped pa- first novel ever written with a penis as jamas on. SFR; Could you give us some idea of how the protagonist and I'm hoping for a huge ILLUMINATUS! was written? Who wrote which wife, I have a beautiful red-headed especially in San Francisco, parts? sale, four kids, a dog, and a cat named Conan

the Bavarian. SFR; The theme of "immanentizing the Escha- WILSON ; Most of it was communicated to us ton" runs throughout ILLUMINATUS! but the telepathically by a canine Intelligence, Editor SFR: Robert J. Shea is Senior at phrase is never defined or explained. In vast, cool and unsympathetic, from Sirius, ILLUMINATUS! was PLAYBOY and I understand the framework of the book this seems to im- the Dog Star. I was aware of being a chan- editor. written in 1970 while you were an ply that various secret societies are work- nel for interstellar sarcasm, but Shea Could you tell us something about Shea? ing to bring about the end of the world thought he was inventing his part of the is that a valid interpretation? transmission. In general, the melodrama in me; but some of WILSON : ILLUMINATUS! was written 1969- is Shea and the satire is was coined by a Chris- him and some of WILSON ; The phrase 1971, while we were both Associate Editors. the satire is definitely tian historian, Eric Vogelin, and refers to Shea had what it takes to stick it out at the melodrama is certainly me. "When At- the Gnostic doctrine that people aren't the Bunny Empire and is now Senior Editor. lantis Ruled the Earth" is 9^ Shea. The Christians think. Robert Putney really as hopeless as I quit after five years because I got bor- sections about Simon Moon, Eschaton, from the Greek, means the last ed and wanted to do something more amusing. Drake and Markoff Chaney are 992> me. Ev- these untangle. things, and, in Christian theology, Shea has a beautiful blonde wife, a son, a erything else is impossible to the for are Heaven and Hell. Immanentizing 30 home in a prosperous suburb and passes as The celebrated Blow Job on the beach, Eschaton means seeking Heaven within the rot and betrayal of the New Left. Actual- are dozens of accessory witnesses. The ’'immanent” universe, i.e. the only universe ly, if you want the facts, vhich are always Neo-Americans have fouled and will have to

we know. funnier arid more interesting than the pay the penalty. It does me no good in myths. Dr. Leary is the ring-leader and I’m publishing circles to have my funniest To a thoroughgoing Christian pessimist an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to book attributed to somebody else, or to be like Vogelin anybody who tries to be happy immanentize the Eschaton by achieving high- accused of a Clifford Irving fraud. or make others happy is dangerously close er intelligence, longevity and extra-ter- to Gnostic heresy. I am all for immanent- restrial migration in this generation. In SFR : How serious are you about the rule izing the Eschaton in this sense, next Tues- the next generation (for which, due to lon- of fives and the importance of 23? day if possible. Vogelin detects iramanent- gevity we’ll both still be active) the hope izing tendencies in humanists, liberals, is to achieve immortality and starflight. WILSON : If ILLUMINATUS! doesn’t answer technologists, optimistic philosophies of that, nothing will. The I told you the truth was more interesting else documented evolution like Nietzche's communists, an- than the myths. fact that I have published serious, or at archists and most of the post-medieval least redantic, articles on Cabala should thought of the Western World, all of which add to the mystery. The philosophical SFR ; Why are you suing the Neo-American are overtly or covertly aiming at the ver- Church for 11,000,000? Isn't that just a point of the book is the reader's own ans- boten "heaven on the rndterial plane." promotion device to publicize ILLUMINATUS! wer to the question, "Is the 5-25 relation- ship a put-on an In the novel, we make the point that and the new book you’re writing with Leary? or important Cabalistic revelation?' Of course, Cabala itself conservatives are also in danger of imraan- is a complicated joke, but all profound philo- entizing the Eschaton by continuing a Cold WILSON ; The Neo-American Church, who most sophies turn out to be jokes. War that can only result in Hell on the certainly do not deserve to ball Sophia material plane——nuclear incineration. Loren on or off a bearskin rug, have claim-

SFR ; How serious are you about the Illum- In one sense, ILLUMINATUS! is a reduc- inati and conspiracies in general? to ad absurdum of all mammalian politics, ANNoUfJCiMS THE SeciNNlN^, Right or Left, by carrying each ideology OF ^ (s^r (i/SEJ?fes: A/e WILSON ; Being serious is not one of my

one logical step further than its exponents vices. I will venture, however, that the care to go. Voltaire used that satirical idea that there are no conspiracies has judo against the Churchmen and I decided been popularized by historians working for

it's time to turn it on the Statesmen. The universities and institutes funded by the only intelligent way to discuss politics, principle conspirators of our time—the as Tim Leary says, is on all fours. It Rockefeller-Morgan banking interests, the all comes down to territorial brawling. T«E FlcrpsBiAL UlSTCI?/ oFTHg’ Council on Foreign Relations crowd. This 'UMlVEftSE IM -QM^Ui-S^aABES/ is not astonishing or depressing. Conspir-

SFR ; I understand the Eschaton theme •COLLECT ALL -S.iSO.MYq// acy is standard mammalian politics for • 'EM AND £wAP 'EMi.'i stems from an anti-Gnostic campaign in the reasons to be found in ethology and Von NATIONAL REVIEW some time ago. Could you WHITE tWTi Neumann's and Morgenstern's THEORY OF GAMES fill us in on the origins of the term? AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR.' Vertebrate compet- ition depends on knowing more than the op-

WILSON ; As I say, it was coined by Vogel- ed that ILLUMINATUS! is actually written position, monopolizing information along in. The anti-Gnostic theme was chronic in by Dr. Leary and that Shea and I are co- with territory, hoarding signals. Entropy, during the early '60s legal fraud committed by conservative circles conspirators in a in a word. Science is based on transmit- and even got into a TIME editorial once. Tim to evade contractual obligations, what- ting the signal accurately, accelerating As an ordained priest of the Gnostic Cath- ever that means. (Neither Or. Leary nor the process of information transfer, Neg- find amusing, since olic Church, I this it his lawyers nor the Justice Department are entropy. The final war may be between Pav- makes most of the educated classes into un- aware of any contracts that would prevent lov's Dog and Schrtidinger's Cat. knowing disciples of us Gnostics. As Marx Tim from publishing ILLUMINATUS! as his own However, I am profoundly suspicious a- said under similar circumstances, "I once book, if he had indeed written it.) The bout all conspiracy theories, including my shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he Neo-Americans have accused Shea, Or. Leary own, because conspiracy buffs tend to for- got into my pajamas I'll never know." and myself of a felony, and they have done get the difference between a plausible ar- so maliciously and untruthfully. In the gument and a real proof. Or between a leg- American legal game, maliciously and un- SFR : What is your relationship with Timo- al proof, a proof in the behavioral sci- truthfully accusing somebody of a felony thy Leary? ences, a proof in physics, a mathematical is a libel. The persons so damaged in rep- or logical proof, or parody of any of the utation may collect pieces of green paper, a WILSON ; Are you sure you're not from GAY above. My advice to all is Buddha's last blessed by the Federal Reserve and called TIMES? Dr. Leary and I are just good "money," in proportion to the damage, as words, "Doubt, and find your own light," friends. I mean, really, do you mind , estimated by 12 jurors who are hopefully Or, as Crowley wrote, "I slept with Faith Bess? Honestly! Well, if you must have sober at the time. Happily, the two typ- and found her a corpse in the morning. I the truth, I'm playing Zola and Tim is ists who typed the originalms. of ILLUMIN- drank and danced all night with Doubt and Dreyfuss—or, at least, that’s one of my ATUS! are still at PLAYBOY, many of the found her a virgin in the morning," Doubt old scripts. I suppose Tim might think editors heard Shea or me read parts of it suffereth long, but is kind; doubt cover- he's Johnson and I'm Boswell. Then there’s when it was coming hot out of our typewrit- eth a multitude of sins; doubt puffeth not the theory that I'm his C.I.A. "babysitter" ers (after business hours, Hef!) and there itself up into dogma. For now abideth and supervised his whole campaign of mind- sj doubt, hope, and charity, these three; and the cradle-planet. the Right anarchism of Hagbard Celine in the greatest of these is doubt. With doubt ILLUMINATUS!, but I am detached from both The most advanced shamanic techniques all things are possible. Every other enti- on another level. —such as Tibetan Tantra or Crowley's sys- ty in the universe, including Goddess Her- tem in the West—work by alternating faith Politics consists of demands disguised self, may be trying to con you. It's all , and skepticism until you get beyond the or rationalized by dubious philosophy (ide- Show Biz. Did you know that Billy Graham ordinary limits of both. With such sys- ologies). The disguise is an absurdity and is a Bull Dyke in drag? tems, one learns how arbitrary are the re- should be removed. Make your demands ex- ality-maps that can be coded into larynge- plicit. My emphasis is on whatever will SFR ; Could you tell us something about the al grunts by horainids or visualized by a make extra-terrestrial migration possible authors and ideas that have influenced you? mammalian nervous system. We can’t even in this generation. The bureaucratic State, Are you a long-time science-fiction/fantasy visualize the size of the local galaxy ex- whether American, Russian or Chinese, has fan? A neo-Pagan or occultist? cept in special High states. Most people all the clout on this planet for the fore- are trapped in one static reality-map im- seeable future. The individualist must Wilson : My style derives directly from printed on their neurons when they were fulfil hir genetic predisposition to be a Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Raymond Chandler, naive children, as Dr. Leary keeps remind- pioneer, and the only way SHe can do that H.L. Menken, William S, Burroughs, Benja- ing us. Alas, most so-called "Adepts" or today is by moving into space faster than min Tucker and ELEPHART DOODV COMIX, in "Gurus" are similarly trapped in the first anyone else. I think the maverick Seed is approximately that order of importance. post-rapture reality-map imprinted after included in the DNA scenario to serve that Chandler has also influenced my way of their initial Illumination, as Leary also function in each epoch. I'm leaving Earth telling stories; all my fiction tends to realizes. The point of systems like Tan- for the same reason my ancestors left Eur- follow the Chandler mythos of the skeptical ope; freedom is found on the expanding, Knight seeking Truth in a world of false- pioneering perimeter, never inside the fronts and manipulated deceptions. (Of centralized State, To quote another Zen course, this is also my biography, or that

koan , "Where is the Tao?" "Move on!" of any shaman.) The writers who have most influenced my philosophy are Aleister Crow- SFR: You're involved in an organization ley, Timothy Leary, Alfred Korzybski and called the DNA Society which is interested Karl R. Popper, Korzybski and Popper (and in biological engineering and immortality, a few Logical Positivists) are absolutely the creation and exploitation of higher necessary for epistemological clarity, es- forms of consciousness. How serious are pecially when you get to the growing edge you about this? How close are we to achiev- of science, where the hot debates are go- ing this on a broad scale? ing on, and even more if you wander into the occult. Sci-fi and fantasy are my fav- WILSON ; Let me refer the reader to THE orite forms of fiction; I think the so- PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY and MAN INTO SUPER- called "naturalists” and ^social realists” MAN by Ettinger, THE BIOLOGICAL TIME BOMB have committed high treason against human- by Taylor, THE IMMORTALITY FACTOR by Seger- ity by selling their gloomy perspective as berg, TERRA II by Dr. Leary and Wayne Ben- the "real" reality. A book that lacks the ner, the writings of John Lilly and Buck- element of heroism is a crime against the minster Fuller, and my article "The Future young and impressionable, in my opinion. of Sex" in OUI for November 1975. A book full of anger and self-pity is an- other crime. Needless to say, as a liber- With that documentation, I assert that tarian I don’t mean literally that these the basic longevity breakthrough will occur are crimes to be punished in court. The before 1980, Segal, Bjorstein or Froimo- only final answer to a bad, sad book is to vich, among others, may be very close to write a good, funny book. (l love debate it already. The basic principles of re- and hate censorship. Accuracy-of-signal imprinting or meta-programming the nervous and free flow of information define sanity tra, Crowleyanity and Leary’s Neurologic system, as discovered by Leary and Lilly, in my epistemology. I should have includ- is to detach from all maps—which gives will be accepted and used in daily practice ed Norbert Weiner among the primary influ- you the freedom to use any map where it by around 1985o A neurogenetic quantum ences on my thinking.) works and drop it where it doesn't work. jump in life-expectancy, intellectual ef- As 'Dogen Zenji said, "Time is three eyes ficiency and emotional equilibrium (or, as As for neo-Paganism and the occult: and eight elbows." Leary calls it, Hedonic Engineering) will I'm an initiated witch, an ordained minister be revolutionizing human life before the in four churches (or cults) and have vari- SFR : Would I be right in saying you prob- 21st Century, Some of us will be alive ous other "credentials" to impress the gul- ably lean more toward the libertarian form when the Immortality Pill is found between lible. My philosophy remains Transcendent- of anarchism than the classical leftist 2050 and 2100. al Agnosticism. There are realities and variety? intelligences greater than conditioned SFR ; Dell’s marketing of ILLUMINATUS! as normal consciousness recognizes, but it is WILSON ; My trajectory is perpendicular to a trilogy rather than a long novel and its premature to dogmatize about them at this the left-right axis of terrestrial politics, hardsell advertising of the books seem de- primitive stage of our evolution. We’ve I put some of my deepest idealism into signed to make it a "cult" novel like hardly begun to crawl off the surface of both the Left anarchism of Simon Moon and STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and DUNE. Do you think it will succeed? manship, etc. and Linda would be an honored ride when similar cinematic-journalistic

artist. I mean, that gal can really swal- matrices are applied to the novel. Hitch- WILSON: The sane senior execs at Dell had low Peter, But I digress. cock uses the Griffith cross-cut continual- very little faith in such a madcap prank as ly, for tease-effect and suspense. People I don't think the reader needs to be ILLUMINATUS! for a long time; it took the only object when the tease reaches the in- particularly erudite to appreciate most of enthusiasm of five junior editors in suc- tensity of a Zen riddle and makes them the humor in ILLUMINATUS! I’ve received cession, each of whom fought for publica- genuinely uncomfortable about their current lots of fan letters from teen-agers, and tion, before the Alphas at the top of the reality-map. Well, ILLUMINATUS! reflects nobody is particularly erudite at that age herd were persuaded. Then they split it post-LSD consciousness, the new (post- (although I thought I was). There are lots up into 3 volumes (and cut 500 pages of Bell’s Theorem) physics, the occult reviv- of "in" jokes that will only be appreciat- the more spaced-out stuff) because the in- al, etc. and therefore is an utter failure, ed by fnathematicians, or physicists, or vestment in paper to print it as one vol- in its ambitions, if it doesn't make peo- Joyce scholars, or acid-heads, or Cabalists ume seemed too great a business risk to ple uncomfortable with static reality-maps. or other special interest groups, but that’s them. They only gave it an advertising There may red, white and blue cockroach- just icing on the cake. Some traps are de- budget, finally, after it became a success es in the universe next door, liberate, of course; as Josiah Warren said, without advertising. As for my private "It is dangerous to understand new things opinion as one of the co-authors of this SFR ; Who really did kill JFK? too quickly." I have tried to shield my accursed neo-NECRONOMICON, why, I think it readers from that danger. Besides, a book should be promoted as a majot historical WILSON ; In the universe created by Earl should last and not get worn-out. I've event, similar to the publication of ULYS- Warren, Lee Harvey Oswald did it, acting been reading FINNEGANS WAKE for 27 years SES or the bombing of Hiroshima, and not alone. In the universe created by Mark now and I still find loads of new jokes as a ”cult’' novel at all. Did you know Lane, it was done by a cabal of right-wing and subtleties every time I get into it. that Disney was a secret peyote and himson millionaires and former CIA agents. In my weed cultist and his last words were "Red, current universe, that’s just one of the

white and blue cockroaches dancing in har- many mysteries remaining to be solved. I mony."? might add—^"without fear of contradiction," as Hitler used to say—that, whereas cur-

SFR ; ILLUMINATUS! has heavy doses of ob- rent IQ tests only measure one dimension scenity and sex, requires a pretty broad of intelligence, future psychology will background knowledge and uses unconvention- measure n-dimen«ional intelligence, accord-

al stream-of-consciousness techniques^—do ing to how many universes a person can oc- you think these things will be an obstacle cupy simultaneously. for large numbers of readers?

SFR ; Is it true that your initials, RAW,

WILSON : There is no such animal as "ob- are an Illuminati joke revealing you are scenity," scientifically speaking, until really Ra, the Egyptian Sun God? and unless somebody invents an obscenomet-

er which can be pointed at a book and will WILSON ; No. Actually, I'm Kharis the Mum- give you an objective reading of how many my, and who took my tanka leaves? smuts or microsmuts of "obscenity" are in it. Meanwhile, "obscenity" is just a word SFR ; What _^d happen to Joe Malik's dogs used by people with sex-negative imprints 33 in ILLUMINATUS!? and confuses their private map with the ob- I hope ILLUMINATUS! might last that way for jective territory. Sex seems to be the WILSON : I'm surprised that a person of real aficionados. There's lots of fun, most festive aspect of mammalian life and its your intelligence hasn't seen through that for instance, in store for anybody who should be enjoyed and celebrated to the little koan. Anybody trained in classic starts relating the contents of the ten full. detective-story thinking can solve that chapters to the Sephiroth on the Cabalistic for Pres- mystery quite quickly, by simply reviewing I started the "Linda Lovelace Tree of Life after which the chapters are the evidence in an orderly fashion and then ident" campaign two years ago, by having a named. rubber stamp made with that slogan and us- making the logical deductions. Actually,

ing it on my envelopes. (I correspond ex- Finally, there is virtually no streanw the first step is to ask, did anybody ever tensively with editors, writers, witches, of-consciousness in ILLUMINATUS! The nar- _^e the dogs, or were they only inferred?

scientists and other culture-makers.) To rative technique is based on D.W. Grif- If tie answer doesn't appear 'from sifting my delight, the campaign has already re- fith's INTOLERANCE, which I think is the the data through that question, re-read

sulted in a movie with that title, LINDA greatest movie ever made. Of course, to page 53 of Volume III very slowly. I might

LOVELACE FOR PRESIDENT, and I hope the idea get Schrbdinger's Cat and the new physics add that other "loose ends" complained of

will continue to snowball and become a mam- in, I had to introduce parallel universes by certain distinguished critics (nameless moth write-in vote next November, which alongside of or on top of the Griffith time- assholes, actually) are, like the disappear- ing would be a perfect Discordian action to montage. .But, as McLuhan pointed out, the dogs, easily penetrated by a reader of commemorate the first anniversary of ILLUM- newspaper uses similar collage or mosaic lively and skeptical intelligence. But where are my tanka leaves? INATUS! In a sane society, cock-sucking effect every day. Only static, archaic would be esthetically judged in terms simi- notions about what a book "should be" pre-

SFR : Here's If lar to novel-writing, grand opera, swords- vent people from just going along with the a hard one. George Dorn was a student at Columbia 'at the time of modern super-rich sn-called Bilderberg- SFR ; Thank you, Mr. Wilson. the 1968 student strike, how could he pos- ers but there was no mention of this id- sibly be as young as 23 in tha novel, which ea in ILLUMINaTUS! How come? is obviously set in the late 1970s? ILLUMINATUS!

WILSON ; That is in ILLUMINATDS! Part I; The Eye in the Pyramid

WILSON : The novel is set in a very specific several times, but the word "Bilderberg- Dell A688, $1.50 year of the 1970s, which can also be deduced ers" somehow didn't get included. Prob- Part II: The Golden Apple from the dialogue on pages 118 of Volume II. ably a thought-ray from Bilderberger Hq, Dell A69I, $ 1.50 If you don't have any tanka leaves, do you managed to knock out that particular have some Columbian Gold? synaptic connection in our brains. The Part III; Leviathan Sphere of Chaos which controls the Eld- Dell hlhl, $1.50

SFR : I realize the Squirrel is not infer- ers of Zion, the Rothschild banks, the ior to most of the characters in ILLUMINAT- Federal Reserve, etc., in the diagram on THE NAKED COLLECTl V IST/STATI ST US!, but I'm still wondering what purpose p. 97 of Vol. I, is a portrait of the

he served. Did he serve any? "Bilderberger" wing of the Conspiracy 'We used to have a safe, humane and without the "Bilderberger" label. Cur- fair way of getting. ..disturbed. ..persons WILSON ; One of the first things you learn iously, the single most intelligent and into treatment. in this business is that you just follow least nutty of all the conspiracy books 'There has come to be a pervasive mono- orders and you don't ask questions. They I've read (and I've literally read thou- mania in certain circles that a person has told me we needed a squirrel, and I put the sands by now) is THE NAKED CAPITALIST, the right to do with his body as he feels squirrel in. Once you start asking why, by W, C. Skousen. Skousen describes the fit, including suicide. How do such per- you lose your effectiveness immediately Rothschild-Rockefeller-CfR netwcrx in sons come to the conclusion that they "have and then you're no good to anybody, not ev- brilliant detail, but he doesn't use the this right, that they are in fact the own- en yourself. It's your balls in a sling word "Illuminati" and only mentions the ers of their bodies? They had nothing to then, friend. I shit you not. "Termina- "Bilderberger" conferences in passing. do with producing their body, either its tion with maximum prejudice"—as the boys I presume that these omissions must have generation or its characteristics. around Alexandria and at CFR headquarters some sinister meaning. Quite possibly,

in New York. The overlords, on Sirius, Skousen, along with Shea and me, is in- 'They didn't buy it. They fail to don't like it when any of us in Earth Con- fluenced by psionic Ascended Masters who recognize that they have but squatter's trol get out of line, believe me. prevent us from seeing, or revealing, rights; they are stewards of their body for too much, the benefit of the body politic. Actually, I think it has something to

do with giving a ONA-eye view of historyo 'Failure to take care of it places a SFR ; What is your reaction to the re- It makes more sense in the original, before greater burden on others. At the most views of ILLUMINATUSI? 500 pages were sent down the Memory Hole by mundane level such persons must often be the Reality Monitors at Dell, but even in supported by Welfare and So'^ial Security WILSON ; They've all been most kind and the truncated published version, we have when thnough treatment they could be con- gratifying, but I get the distinct feel- representatives of all the major races, na- tributing to the common welfare. There ing that none of them have really unoer- tions and tribes of WoMankind; the gorillas are few fantasies so omnipotent as that stood the book. Of course, I enjoy be- and dolphins, representing Higher Intelli- which maintains that one has the right to ing told how witty and imaginative we gence; the squirrel, representing mammal- murder one's own body,' were, but thus far only Dr. Leary and an kind at even more primitive level than the occult journal called GREEN EGG have —Or. Paul H. Blachly, human characters; EUCKUP representing non- noticed that the satire is only the sur- Psychiatrist, UNIV, of OREGON biological intelligence; Leviathan, stand- face. Something else is going on under OREGONIAN "Forum", March 3, 1976 ing in for unicellular life Writ Large, as and above and alongside of the joking. it were; the American eagle, for the domin- ifiri,^^^iif-^ilf.ififif*if*i:r*************-***it*‘***** Like Bernard Shaw, I have to look askance ation of the air; the squinks (Swift-Kick at my own skill in disarming my audience LETTER FROM FORRY ACKERMAN Inc.), as designers of the local galaxy; by making them laugh, and I almost wish ? Apr etc. Together with the linear jumps across 76 I had provided a Shavian preface warning time-zones and the non-linear warps of 'I'm seeking info everybody that the final joke only be- leading to Artist space-time itself, this should create a per- comes obvious to those who decipher the Paul's widow or daughter, Yictor Rousseau's spective transcending normal human chauvin- appendices called "The Tactics of Magick" daughter, John/Dorothy deCourcy, Jack Lewis, ism, oxygen chauvinism, Type G star chauv- L, Taylor Hanson, Hendrik and "Operation Mindfuck." Or, as Shaw Dahl Juve, Edna inism, and other parochialites imposed on said, the funniest part of this comedy Tichenor, Rog Phillips' widow, SPMeek, "realistic" novels by the taboo against is that 1 really am a menace. Heh-heh- JRAyco, Mari Wolf, Mindret Lord, Jack Lewis, asking serious philosophical questions in heh. (Murky laugh.) and Winona McClintock, so-called "serious" fiction. In other ' Forry Ackerman words, the squirrel and the other infra- 2 A 95 Glendower Av., aid sub- and supra- and trans- human char- Hollywood, CA 90027.' acters are there to dramatize Ouspensky's

injunctionm "Think in other categories." Entrepreneurs are rejects. They employ themselves because they are, in one way or another, unemployable, SIR ; Thinkers ot tlie John Birch persua- rPichard Cornuelle sion have linked the'Illuminati to the — —

PETER HANDLER Apart from that. ..I can see why some will tell me that BLAKE'S PROGRESS is — A Reply to Barry Malzberg people might "like" the story. the only one of the last zillion Laser books worth reading and make me believe 'T wrote the review to add a dissent- it? Or that of tha umpteen illustrated 3 March 1976 ing voice to the multitudes who nominat- histories, most are worthless? (To me, ed the story for awards. If Malzberg they are just attractive coffee-table *I appreciate the opportunity to re- "liked" the story, that's his business. ply to Barry Malzberg's criticism of my books.) And even Barry Malzberg can I "disliked" it. What does this prove? review in SFR though I must admit pluck my heartstrings with a piece of 15, As Ted White says, I will not argue mat- literary criticism (on ALTERNATE WORLDS) that I am unsure as to exactly what I ters of taste.' am supposed to reply. He refers to the that simultaneously convinces and elic- ((Let me By and review of BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE intrude a moment. its sympathy. This was an unconsciona- large, it seems to me that characteriza- YEAR Edited by Terry Carr, as "in- bly good issue. tion can be demonstrated to be either competent" and "inept" without deigning 'My good or bad or indifferent, and a story only objection to your editorial to suggest why he found it so. What he can also be shown to be in or out of policy is to an attitude, practically an does specify is his opinion that I have assumption, shared by Richard Lupoff when neither read the stories involved nor control. These are not matters of pers- onal taste and only partly of interpreta- he says that the essential spirit of sf understood them. I find this slightly tion.)) was or is optimism. Even assuming that insulting and totally unappreciative of this was the case for the Gernsback era, the difficulties in reviewing antholo- 'The pitfall of any review is that perhaps is the case in your minds, why gies. insist that it be the case now? I share 'The problem is that, unless one your preference for upbeat endings, but confines oneself to two or three partic- that is no reason to deny the validity of ular items, detailed investigation of the downbeat science fiction story. It each story will yield a review nearly as is certainly no excuse for out-of-hand long as the subject itself. Since a) I condemnation. Of course, such condemna- found almost the entire volume interest- tions merely reflect your attitude; what ing and well-written, making it impossi- bothers me is the hint of arrogance in ble to select one or two samples, and b) suggestions that writers should not your journal makes no pretensions to lit- write that way and readers should not erary criticism but prefers "recommenda- enjoy that writing. That I-can-only- tions" (or condemnations), I chose to call-it-paranoia is reflected in "Then summarize the book briefly and recommend I read the final page and understood. it. You have repeatedly stated that the The authors Do It to the readers." This purpose of SFR is to cut down tha unman- reader was glad they Did It— "it" oc- ageable bulk of published sf and act as casionally comes as a relief.' a guidline to what could be read and what ((Perhaps tragedy has to be better could be safely ignored—one reviewer's written than straight commercial happy- opinion. On that basis, I rushed through ending formula fiction. a description of the book and tried to ((I, too, enjoy a variety of sf. Yet briefly explain its merit. The sole I do believe that sf is inherently an story I panned—and only mildly, since optimistic genre, if only because it better men than I have praised it— re- deals with our future; it assumes there ceived only slightly lengthier treatment a future. The current literary tide in the "twenty inept words" Malzberg de- it does not necessarily reflect a major- is to paint the future dark, but I think plores. ity opinion. (Incidentally, I make no that is a rebellion against the happy- pretensions to literary criticism myself; 'Not having a copy of the review or ending formulas of commercial fiction, apparently Malzberg does. In that case of the story in front of me, let me an aspect of the Literary influence, and we are aiming at different ends and are briefly repeat my objections to "Tempu- the inherent pessimism of young writers. unlikely to agree on means.) nauts." The supporting characters lack- (Isn't it curious that young writers ed a third dimensions, usually go in for doom and despair fic- parroted stereo- 'Anyway, I don't think the review tion, while typical dialogue which read more like a was an "insult" to Phil Dick, who could older writers become more script laid before serene and optimistic? You’d them, and, as stereo- hardly be termed a "struggling profess- think it types, failed would be the to come across as satire. ional" and whose career will in no way other way around^) The leading characters failed to drag be damaged by my comments, however in- ((As to tragedy.. .or "tragedy".., me into their predicament, thus lacked eptly phrased. let me quote a paragraph from a recent "involvement" as well as character; they letter from George Warren: seemed puppets in a story out of control. "Your comments in SFR 16 on page

The predicament itself, an old one witl>- 'To move onto a more general plane 25, middle column, 2nd and 3rd grafs in out much sign of revitalization, was I read SFR largely for the reviews, particular were right on the but- described drably, without color, and was which perform a valuable service. While ton.. .except that it is not tragedy denied satisfying resolution or even ir- I violently disagree with George War- you are talking about. If the piece resolution (this is elaboraboration on ren's (gorgeously expressed) judgements ends on a total downer it is not the few comments I made in the review). on THE COMPUTER CONNECTION, .who else tragedy, it is just a dov/ner. A downer ending avoids katharsis, whose strange effect on those of wavering con- ADVANCE AND BE RECOGNISED effect (like, as viction' literally purgative reeks of elitism. You , of I say, the effect of REM-sleep course, are not subject to this strange MARUNE: ALASTOR 953 by Jack Vance dreams) is to get the downer out of effect. Only others of weaker mental- — Ballantine 24518, $1.50 your system by resolving it. Not ity. Your residence in Oxford, sir, has SHOWBOAT WORLD by Jack Vance necessarily by happy endings, per- gone to your head. Listen, if fiction Pyramid V3698, $1.25 haps: HAMLET ends with Prince Hamlet calling for the consumption of the salt- THE GRAY PRINCE by Jack Vance dead. ..but then of course he’s re- ed eyeballs of female black Jewish homo- Avon 26799, $1.25 solved all his problems on the way sexual children were published and sold , to death, and (perhaps equally im- I would support it. The people are sov- Reviewed by Lynne Holdom

portant to him) has left behind a ereign, not their elected servants (de- single just man to tell his story spite what Nixon and other power-hungry Jack Vance is a great favorite of mine. I suspect that he could make to succeeding generations and statists and collectivists say), and the the telephone cleanse the court of the curse it freedom of the people individually is listings amusing to read. In any case one doesn’t has borne. The effect of this is the greatest good and must have the high- read a Vance novel for the plot a- lone for far from a downer (and if you’ve est priority. but the wildly baroque backgrounds seen any productions of the play ((Government is only tolerable when and tne strangely exotic cultures he creat- es. In which end in dejection they were it functions to keep the peace and main- contrast his plots are often quite simply done wrong). The first time tain a stable currency. When it exceeds mundane.

I saw done right I got a good those two mandates (or abandons them!) it In 1975 Jack Vance wrote three novels cry out of it (as Mr. W. S. obvious- it must be cut down and put back in i'ts which show him in three different moods—— ly wished me to) and went home feel- place. romantic, humorous, relevant. However ev- ing liberated and healthy.” ((Government (politicians) seeks al- en in these common moods, Vance is like no ways to grow and to seduce its citizens. ((In tragedy death must be justified, one else. The citizenry which allows itself tc be the reader or viewer should be made to seduced soon finds itself enslaved to MARUNE: ALASTOR stems from a Romantic feel Okay—that’s worth it i A ticklish, its seducer. (”For the love of God, sir, tradition typified THE MAN IN THE IRON delicate effect to achieve, I think.)) by another food stamp!”) MASK and THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. It is the ’Finally, to Michael Coney, whose ((See what a bit of wine does to my tale of an amnesiac who must learn who he sf was eloquent brain, Peter? Go, and sin no more. Con- essay on prejudice in is, where he comes from, and why his memory and superficially well-reasoned, although template the British unions which fiddle was erased. He finally learns that he is burdened with a misevaluation. Admitted- while their economy burns. Aye, it’s Efraim, a Rhune of Marune and heir to a stereotypes, even genocide something for nothing, lads, and the dev- ly prejudice, Kaiarkdom. He returns to overcome all ob- all have their place in fiction as much il take the consequences.)) stacles—he gets the Kaiarkdom, the fair plotting, ideally. What Jo- as downbeat maiden and his revenge. The only thing 'One additional few issues across note—a anna Russ et al. are trying to get missing is the "and they lived happily ev- back I think you mentioned that AMAZING is that at this point, at a delicate mo- er after.” The Rhune culture is certainly and FANTASTIC had lost their British ment in intersexual relationships, to as bizarre a one as Vance has ever created distributor, and my experience seems to ostensibly support sexism in fiction is and the only fault of the novel is that it confirm that. Yet today I noticed two confirm reader’s sexism in fact, to a doesn’t end so much as stop. copies of the February FANTASTIC on a whether consciously or not. It is a local newsstand. Could it be that Ulti- disservice to the movement and it is a SHOWBOAT WORLD, on the other har.d, is mate is on its way back up?’ disservice to society to lend aid and strongly reminiscent of HUCKLEBERRY FINN in enemy. If Coney consid- **.*^:^»»***ti»*iti**t***t:****:»:tLif:f*********** comfort to the its timeless riverine atmosphere of BIG ’’liberated” he should en- ers himself ’SF is a ghetto? Writing itself is a PLANET. Certainly Apollon Zamp and Garth liberation, or at least cease courage ghetto. Come to think of it; life is a Ashgale have got to be reincarnations of discouraging it. I would similarly from ghetto!' — Hack’s friends the Duke and the Dauphin. object to blatantly anti-semitic fiction Here the plot is very simple—both at the height of the Second World War **************************************** Zamp and Ashgale want to win the right to and I hope that Coney would as well. compete in the Grand Festival at Morraune; Fiction has a strange effect on those of both lose their riverboats under suspicious wavering conviction.’ circumstances. Finally Zamp gets the back- ing of another showman on the condition ((You will have to excuse me if I that he perform only classics which Zamp am not too coherent at the moment—this knows don't sell; but he finally agrees to being evening and I have just had a half show MACBETH after making a few "small glass of 19? Tokay with my meal—but a changes” that would have old Will whirling call to a writer to inhibit himself, to in his grave back on old Earth. Then there halter his talents, to self-censorship is the Mysterious Damsel in Distress who is in the name (for Christ’s sake!) of the constantly frustrating Zamp’s attempts to public interest—sends me to the armory be a Dirty Old Man. for to take up tha lance and the sword and the buckler and the shield.... All in all the book is great fun to ((Vour comment that ’Fiction has a read as the showmen cope with the crazy —

cultures at each alonn stop the river—all 'Also, I couldn’t agree more with ((I 've felt, since my teens, that the misfits on Earth migrated to the Big Lynne Holdom’s list of SF’s worst of God is an emotional/social necessity for Planet—and even the Grand Festival is not 1975 . However, I feel that Oelany’s Man (whether in the form of a tradition- quite what it to DHALGREN appears be on the surface deserves a spot all by itself. al God or in the slightly disguised form Never has novel been a a greater disap- of Leader and/or State), that Justice is With THE GRAV PRINCE we enter a situa- pointment —pure, unadulterated shit a chimera, that Morality and Laws are tion that at first glance seems to be evoc- and only 61.9^1 at that. Fred Pohl absolute necessities to keep us halfway ative of an Africa colony where white men should be forced to do public penance tamed (and protect them as has from those have settled. The planet Koryphon has tor his been allowing name to be associated as ain't), and that death is the end, occupied and developed by Outker Land Bar- with such dreck. Since my classes ac- (However, there is deep down a tiny hope for two hundred years. ons The Uldras re- count for the sales of between 2bOO-28UO that I'll be pleasantly surprised after gard the Outkers as usurpers even though SF books a year, I feel I have a right my own death.) physical comfort to their and standard of liv- bitch when I've been conned,' ((However, we're very few of us cap- ing have improved as a result of this set- able of conducting our lives on the basis tlement. The leader of the Uldras, Jorjol, LETTER FROM of unflinching Reality, We have to pre- is the gray prince of the title and was a DARRELL SCHWEITZER tend in Justice and Retribution and the homeless, abandoned waif raised Land by a work, ethic and that there is Meaning to Baron family. Still he is trying to get Feb. 20, 1976 life. It's probably built into us; our Mull declare the to that the Land Barons ego demands these aspects of life, 'The wonders of SFR 16 are manifold. occupy their land illegally and wishes to ((I see myself and other people as Your prozine notes are very brave or have Schaine Madduc, his foster sister, be- living what is essentially a schizoid very reckless or something come his wife. Unfortunately for Jorjol because in existence: we know life is a shuck, a talking about the Bishop Martin/ is and the situation much more complicated farce and a no-win situation. Yet we Waldrop efforts you freely admit some- th.an he realizes is in (everything always seem inherently, instinctively, to act thing which many Vance novel) and one Outker Land (most?) readers would a Baron, as if these truths aren't true. We live consider a lapse of critical taste. Gerd Jamasz, is quite capable of protect- lies.. .and are happy with them, basicgi- Thanks, Now we understand ing his own interests and winning the hero- each other. ly. Is a puzzlement. From this dichot- I'll keep it in mind when I read your ine's hand. He also seems to be the only omy springs our varied' religions, philo- reviews in the futureo living Koryphonite with a sense of irony. sophies, cultures.... It Vance that is a tribute to the ending 'What I mean is your saying you'd ((As for me, I am a mass of conflict-

is not quite what you expect. rather have a happy ending, be skillful- ing needs and drives. ..as we all are, as

ly lied to, than have a logical, truth- the basic schizophrenia surfaces in a All has in all Vance had a good year. ful "downer" of a finish. Yeah, I've dozen ways. Without his works I wouldhave found it a always felt that if nothing means any- ((I veer toward the hedonistic life- quite barran one, I envy those who have thing, if there ain't no God, and there's style, I switch to Work... I seek a yet to discover his writing, no purpose for anything we do, then truth balance, a combination of work and leis- isn't always the answer. If painful ure that satisfies, and as time passes, knowledge accomplishes nothing, then may- as I grow older, my perspective subtly LETTER FRED FROM ROUX be it's better to go through life, and changes. Talent and ego maxe demands on

especially to die in some way deluded. me, the costs of existence make demands... 25 February 1976 Without Purpose, the only thing we want and my body (aches, pains, malfuctions) '"Noise Level" by John Brunner (SFR is comfort, right?' tells me of my coming Doom,

# 16 ) was perhaps of interest to other ((As a Reader (hedonist) I want and ((My attitude is partly personal and writers of SF who have had their own bat- • like certain fictions in fiction. As a partly p''ofes3ional, partly Writer and ties with publishers and agenis, but Writer 1 understand the needs of writers partly Reader. speaking as a fan/teacher of SF I would and talent and ego... much rather see Brunner devote some time ((Well, back to your letter.)) to discussing his own work. It might 'But when you apply this to litera- please John to know that he rates very ture—maybe because literature is a highly with college students in SF cours- made up thing, removed from our lives es. In fact, he is respected as much or by the printed page arid the will to read more Niven, Le Guin, Clarke, Heinlein, or close the book when we want a lot Herbert, Zelazny and Aldiss. Getting — of people (me for instance) are dissatis- college students to read anything these fied with easy, comtoiting lies like hap- days is a chore (for some reason they ly endings that oon't belong.' prefer drinking beer and getting laid), therefore it is especially gratifying to ((If a happy ending doesn't belong, watch them turn on to STAND ON ZANZIBAR it's because the author isn't good en- and THE SHEEP LOOK UP. His careful in- ough or it simply doesn't fit. There terweaving of all plot elements, major are satisfying tragedies and "downer" and minor, as well as his innovative stories, but I suspect they require a structural and narrative techiques stim- very hign order of writing talent and ulate a great deal of discussion. Keep skill. But, again, the ability to make 37 it coming, John. a "happy ending" appear convincing and inevitable is actually rare. So...)) his writing as a deliberate process, and but it seems that all his life Dunsany he is the one who uses outlines, diagrams, wrote everything in a white heat of in- 'For instance, as I write somebody plot synopses, and all that. I didn't spiration (or in the case of longer downstairs is watching EASY RIDER, which think to ask deCamp about this Lthat be- works, chapter by chapter, one per sit- I saw once & don't care to see again. ing my second interview) but from the ting) I never revised a word (his command Earlier this evening I watched WHO'S Sf HANDBOOK I'd say he’s a conscious wri- of form must have been amazing). He made AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? for the second ter. no notes or outlines, or at least doesn't time (having aUo read the play). The mention them, and seems to have written difference between these two is, I think, rough generalisation, 'To make a very this way all his life. His last book truth. The active mind demands truth in in our field at least, the conscious was published in 195^, when he wgS 76.' literature (where it is safe?) which is writers are the ones who tend toward "i- conscious why I prefer WOOLF to RIDER any day, put- dea" stories, hard science & the like, ((I'm apparently mostly a subject ting aside tor the moment the fact that the ones who read an article in a sci- writer—with notes and outlines during actual Richard Burton is an actor and Dennis entific magazine & right away make a sto- to inspirational change the

Hopper a mumbling amateur, or that WOOLF ry out of it. writing*)) soars above the other film in such areas *:*:!K*=**X**r******^**’f*****-**’f ************ 'The unconscious writer is the op- as direction, script, pacing, wit, etc., posite. His stories come more from deep PRETENSIONS, SPACE OPERA, etc. My big objection is that EASY RIDER, inside him, and are not deliberately AND NON-FU.NCTIONAL like ti'-i science fiction story with the planned, although they may be carefully WORD PATTERNS cheap happy ending, merely reaffirms tne worked out mentally before being put on audience's cherished beliefs, tells them NEW WORLDS #6, edited by Charles Platt i paper, I've sold stories to unquestion- That yes, they're right, and everybody Hilary Bailey. Avon/Equinox, 1975, ably professional buyers (VOID, Edel- else in the big cruel world is wrong. 233 pp. S2.95. stein, ANDRUMEDA) so I can throw myself It doesn't make them question the very into this. I'm an unconscious writer. foundations of their beliefs. No, it Reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer Absolutely, utterly. I have great dif- throws up more illusion and lulls the ficulty writing genuine science fiction audience so they'll stop questioning. NEW WORLDS has probably gone through because altho I can come up with the i- The story which assumes rather than ex- more incarnations than any other SF maga- deas, they don't link with my subcon- amines, which comes to a nice ending zine. It was foundea just after World scious (k form stories. Only lime I ever without a good reason for optimism, is War II by SF fans turned publisher, and did it successfully (sold the result, inherently dishonest.' for three widely spaced issues it was a that is) 1 deliberately treated all the conventional science fiction pulp, al- ((isn't it simply badly written on science as magic, & was writing about though somewnat less garish than its ail levels? Are you saying that ANY such things as time I the desire to tran- American counterparts since the Bug Eyed tnis is story with a happy ending (even with scend death. Anyway, much of Monster and Brass Brassiere tradition lotsa truth and examination buried in probably my inexperience, but it seems never caught on in England. it along the way) is inherently dishon- that on the whole unconscious writers est?)! have less control over what they write. By 19^9 the magazine was digest sized

They make terrible hacks. They may not and on a more steady footing. Throughout 'The Pournelle "interview" is very, be any good, but they lack the ability the fifties and into the sixties it was very good, far better than mine. I used to grind out fiction like yardgoods. It basically very good second rate, a notch quotes there, because this thing really must have some inner, personal attraction below the leaders in the field. It isn't an interview at all, but a series or it doesn't come at all. served to develop many writers who later of short essays written to order around made it very big, such as J.G. Ballard, your questions. ... It's quite different 'From my interviews, I've found that John Brunner, Brian Aldiss, and Michael from one of my interviews in which the (again generalising) most SF writers are Moorcock, author talks off the top of his head conscious writers. The unconscious writ- without any preparation (often without ers cluster at the "literary" end of the In 196^ it became a monthly paper- young- more notice than a meeting in a hotel spectrum, and they also tend to be back Dook, a very interesting experiment

corridor and a "Hey Mr. K, wanna do an er. I've never found somebody whose in the area of getting SF magazines off interview?") So hats off to Jerry Pour- writing methods match my own, but George the newsstand and into tne paperback nelle who writes fascinating short es- R. R. Martin (see interview) comes very store. This lasted for three years, and says. close. The only difference between us is the contents got livelier. This was the

procedural. 1 do drafts, rather than period of Tom Disch's "Squirrel Cage", 'I'm beginning to believe on the stopping to correct a sentence on the Zelazny's "Keys To December", Moorcock's basis of interviewing some 20 writers, spot. "Behold the Man" (short version), and the and talking to a lot more, that there last of Ballard's science fiction. In are two kinds of writers, conscious ones 'I would also guess that many writ- fandom people were just beginning to and unconscious ones. (l got the term- ers shift from tha unconscious category make noises about something called a inology from Gordie Dickson.) The guy into the conscious as tiey get older. 1 "new wave." who is able to talk about everything a- can find only one over-fifty unconscious head of time & who benefits from bounc- writer, I I never interviewed him: Lord Tfien in 196?, with the aid of an ing ideas offothers (Dickson describes Dunsany, Arts Council grant, the magazire became a how the Chiloe Cycle formed by him talk- very impressive looking slick, and the ((What about R. A. Lafferty?)) ing for a couple hours to Richard McKen- fiction was the best ever, including from na) is a conscious writer. He is doing 38 'I'm taking my info his memoirs, Disch's CAMP CONCENTRATION, the stories from Aldiss's BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD, an After a brief hiatus in the great makes preposterous claims for it. He excerpt from Brunner's STAND UN ZANZIBAR publishing house in the sky, the maga- would have us believe that B. J. Bayley and, on a somewhat lower level. Spin- zine was revived as a paperback again, "never fails to produce fresh concepts" rad's BUG JACK BARRON. NEW W0RI.DS was, first a quarterly, then an annual. This and has "inventiveness unsurpassed by I think, in every way, the best science present volume is the most recent of any other author writing science fiction fiction magazine ever published between these to be published in the U.S. and today." None of this is verified by the fall of 1967 and the spring of 1968, it is the equivalent of #7 in the Sphere Bayley's "Maladjustment" this issue, for the space of about six issues. Books/Corgi series. Its contents strike which presents, as if it were a brand

me as remnants of the earlier phases of new idea, the concept of a man adapteo Then things started to go downhill the magazine's development. About by half aliens to their own environment. He very fast. the entries are not science fiction and does nothing with it, save have his read like leftovers from the stint as a character explain his situation in a The most common mistake of the more "little" liierary magazine. Others vague- series of questions and answers. shrill propagandists on both sides of The ly resemble the "new wave" stuff. piece is as crude as anything published the "new wave" argument was the assum|>- by Gernsback, and it wouldn't have been tion that there was a co-ordinated move- Certainly tne fiction is more read- out of place as VERTEX filler or an ann ment afoot rather than just a lot of able. There was only one piece, "The ateur effort in a fanzine, but unsurpass- people going off in individual direc- Jewel Thief" by Ronald Anthony Cross, ed in inventiveness or anything else it tions. which did not allow itself to be read must certainly is n^t. (and the problem was boredom, not obscur- Harlan Ellison's New Thing was nev- ity), although quite a few did not allow I wonder could it be that er Michael Moorcock's New Thing. Elli- — NEW WORLDS themselves to be remembered. The ravag- has regressed to son was always calling tor gut-level emo- the level of the pre- es of the non-functional word pattern John Campbell pulps? There tion and more human involvement in sci- are certainly can still be felt, and many of the "sto- signs of it, even if Platt does berate ence fiction, while Moorcock, if the fic- ries" are n: more than drab descriptions other SF for being tion in NEW WORLDS was any indication, rooted in the 1950's. or domestic things, and lacking any ap- wanted increasingly less. Eleanor Arnason's ''The Warlord of peal to the emotions or the intellect, Saturn’s Moons" has its literary begin- The NEW WORLDS writers stripped away the reader forgets them within a few nings not in the all toe basics from their work, things minutes after reading. 1950's, but the 1950's. It's rather well done, I must admit, but like characterization, plot, themes, and Jean Charlotte's "Red Sky at Night" it's about an escapist lady who writes idea. In the end the magazine was print- is about a girl who kills and dismembers space opera to get away from the nasty ing nut fiction at all but blocks or her father, and it's very antiseptic, world. Ihe story is botn her thoughts prose devoid of any humanity, completely populated by stick figures who feel no as she writes and what she writes, cold and lacking any intersection with most- pain, terror, hatred, or other emotions ly the latter. It is to Ms. Arnason's human experience. They could have just which would certainly be present in a credit that she tries to explore the sort as well been written by computers, and similar situation among human Deings. of mentality that produces these things, at least one of them was. (A piece of but it is not creditable when she Tails computer writing, "by" J.G. Ballard, was Along similar lines in James Sallis' into stereotypes. The space opera and printed as "fiction" in issue #187, Feb. "The Insect Men of Boston." Sallis is ' sword and sorcery writers I've met are 69 .) These items did not seem to be an odd writer because while others have not emotional cripples at all, just peo- short stories, poems, essays, or any occasionally slipped non-sf into sf pub- ple wno don't put anything serious in other form of vernal communication. For lications, he's the only one to make a their fiction. With this sort ot mater- want of a better term I have dubbed such career of it. Most of the things he pro- ial, the total package NEW creations "non-functional word patterns" duces fall into the non-functional word of WORLDS be- comes ludicrous. and I would cite as examples of these pattern category. He has either discard- the "condensed novels" of J.G. Ballard ed all the advances made in narrative and most of the output of James Sallis. technique since Neolithic times, or else he never knew about them. "Insect Men," Needless to say the readership for nowever, represents something of an im- this kind of thing is very limited, and provement. It is on“e of those domestic NEW WORLDS' circulation dropped to al- descriptions I mentioned earlier. Sal- most nothing. lis is slowly beginning to realize that

Right before the very end there was sentences can be laid in a meaningful a shift back in the other direction, to- order t'l form paragraphs, and tiie para- ward fiction, and even toward science graphs in sequence can be used to convey fiction. There was an excerpt from M. thought. He has yet to do anything with John Harrison's THE COMMITTED MEN in the his new tools, but someday he might last generally circulated issue. stumble into the realm of the short st)- ry, and perhaps even into science fic-

One more, sent only to subscribers, tion, But I'm not holding my breath was a "good taste issue", deliberately over it. He shows remarkably little promise. noe-Victorian, with a piece of sentiment- al goop by Disch as feature fiction. It There is some science fiction in the was a good joke. : book, and Charles Platt's introduction longer a leader in the' field, In addition to Platt’s introduction Jacobs was rejected from Jack Dann's It is no well to the rear in its development. there is also a very pretentious book WANDERING STARS allegedly for being too but "taboo- review section by John Clute and M. John shocking. Nothing of the sort. In The blurb writer calls this a speculative Harrison. Both of whom get my nomination Dann's book it would have been conspicu- breaking annual collection of tame stuff, for Most Irresponsible Critic in the ously below par, even if it does stand fiction" but it's all very field. out in NEW WORLDS. The plot: a Jew in and even the stories with sex in them of place in ORBIT a 19th Century Russian village circum- wouldn't have been out Iheir routine, as demonstrated is- cises babies fon a living. But he can't or E&SF, except for considerations of lake a batch of sue after issue, is to attempt have a child of his own the normal way, quality. There's still a feeble craditional SF novels and second rale of so he takes all the foreskins and makes to wring a little more notoriety out write patrorisingly about them as if all one. The kid, Schtip, has an odd youth, the banning of NEW WORLDS in 1968 (the of science fiction had never gotten be- and when he grows up he joins the army. issue in question, #180, contained a sec- such a level. The Implication is yond two of He stands at attention very well, espec- tion from BUG JACK BARRON with that no one outside of the NEW WORLDS ially when the Czarina is present. Mean- the graphic sex scenes used as padding, clique is capable of writing anything word patterns by Lang- while, a flying saucer filled with horny and non-functional worthy of adult attention. Everything amazons has landed in the village, and don Jones and Carol Emshwiller), but cuddly bedtime stories, so we else is rather all the men are being sexually devoured. again, what shocked us then is are told. Schtip is sent in; he boards the saucer; ordinary now. As for serious specula- tion, there isn't any. All we have are To be fair, there are a few tnings it takes off and explodes; and the world aid tired rehashes. Some of the in Ntw WORLDS #b that are worth reading. is saved. Great, huh? No, actually it's satires is old-fashioned and Michael Moorcock's "Pate Ruses" is an not as funny as it sounds, and has a fiction quaintly readable, occasionally very to It's amusing, but most of it is merely ster- normously giggling schoolb y quality it. become fumy satire on romantic fiction set in worth one reading but no more. ile. NEW WORLDS has, I think, the distant future, in which young Wer- the elephant's graveyard of the "new Rose and White Rose" by Rach- "Black It lacks head, ther cle Goethe (age bOO) is sorrowful wave" of the 1960's. el Pollack is a real surprise, an other- because he craves guilt in a world where heart, balls, and soul, and like any worldly fantasy legend with lesbian ele- there is no such thing, ("Morals? Was- other literary dinosaur caught at a dead ments in the romance. (Girl meets girl.) n't that some sort of wall decoration?") end, it should simply be put to rest. It is quite well written, occasionally At last he finds his Sin in the corrup- *»*****»r********»****l|!******l.***»******* captivating, and worthy of reprinting, tion of the beautiful ana innocent Cath- LETTER FROM PETER WESTON eiin- Lily Marguerite Natasha Delores "The Ghosts of Luna" by Ian Watson Beatrice' Machireship-Seven tlambeau but the only is a minor little piece, 3 April 19V6 Gratitude. Deliciously overburdened by story in the book at all in touch with 'Can you use the enclosed review? ((THE his crime, he jumps off a vlift, only the present, despite all Platt's more- SPACE. MACHINE by Christopher Priest. Yes, to be revived by his teilow hedonistic with-it-than-thou claims. Ghosts of the and it will appear in SFR 18)) It was corrH immortals, who set up the whole thing Apollo astronauts appear on the Moon missioned by SE MONTHLY but that journal out of a sense of iun. Ihe story is one when a Japanese visits there around the just folded with the April issue, so of the best things Moorcock has oone, turn of the next century. Watson brief- has the review i unwanted. (STM will probably and it might be worth the price of ad- ly explores the image and legend of the have a successor; SF DIGEST, a quarterly mission, were it not easily available in U.S. space effort. His conclusion is magazine more akin to the normal type of his recent Harper a Row bnok, LEGENDS that the Moon itself was disappointed We're all waiting for definite FROM THE END OF ilME. because the exploration wasn't romantic magazine. from the publisher but English fandom enough. word "The Wold That Follows" by M. John is by and large in mourning; we were all Harrison is an excerpt from his also also mention in passing I might happily selling articles and stories to SFM easily available Ooubleday novel, THE "Break" which seems tu Bruce Boston's for all we were worth!) someday CENTAURI DEVICE. Harrison may be a rewrite of the jailbreak sequence 'I have just received one advance copy become a fine writer, and he's definite- in Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION. of ANDRQMEDA-1. It looks pretty good and ly a man to watch. He will probably The only difference is that the Big obviously I'm proud of it. I will send you turn out t'l be The first writer discov- Brute's companion is an effeminate man "new wave" a copy as soon as I get some more. Issue ered by NEW WORLDS during its (of course they’re having homosexual re- 19o8) to 2 has gone in and will be out in the Autumn period (first story in lations) and after they have escaped (at last) with your epic!' amount to anything. Right now his sto- through the underground river the Hulk ries are beautifully written, glittery, looks at his face vanishes. The narrator ((Yes, I can hear the screams now,.,)) and puddle deep. His last novel, THE in a pool and discovers that they've 'PS: The 1979 Worldcon site is Brighton; PASTEL CITY, read like an Edgar Rice merged, without any explanation. Boston we're calling it 'Seacon 79’ and a second Burroughs novel written by a 19th Cent- might become an interesting writer some- at- Progress Report will be out soon. I'm ury romantic, and in his now one his day. He has better control of his prose capital D Chairman. We already have about 600 pre- tempts to be Decadent with a than most of the little-known NEW WORLDS supporting meinbers now.' give his fiction (a space opera) a quaint, contributors. Yellow Nineties quality. It even has ********++*********«******>(<********»*»**** So in tie end, what are we to make of FLEURS DU MAL, sp 3 ceships naired LES all this? I think NEW WORLDS is living LIFE IS NOTHING BUT LINGERING DEATH TRILBY, and ATLANTA AT CALYDON. with what in its own past, out of touch ****»******+*******»********•*•********* Harvey "The Man Who Made a Baby" by 40 is currently going on in science fiction. LETTER FROM BYRON PREISS ANGEL FEAR: 12 April, 1976 A Sort-of Review Column of SF Art 'I am writing to SFR with regard to a discussion of my series, WEIRD HEROES, in By FREFF "The Gimlet Eye" column in your l6th issue.

’It does my heart good to see a^full QNE /Trouble With Triton column devoted to fantasy graphics and

Gustafson has an eye for that which he There are, in this otherwise speaks about in "Gimlet." There is a com- interesting world, things that ment within the discussion of WH, however, make me want to scream.... that spurs me to write. Backtrack to December, 197^, ’In the piece, Gustafson says, "I hav- and my first encounter with the en’t read it (WEIRD HEROES) and I may not Bantam pb of Oelany’s DHALGREN, ...I purchased it because it is a "stand- A curious moment; the book had an ard" paperback with interior illustrations, air uncommon to our field. It and lots of ’em." He then goes on to say, wallowed in self-confidence. "Although most of illos are not of a very Such a cover! Strong, tasteful high caliber (with the exceptions of these graphics surrounding a painting by Jones and Nino) they are what I have that burned into the casual hoped to see for years; books with more than browser’s eyes with its harsh just a cover illustration..." reds and muted yellows, and the

’I think Jon is missing a very, very final touch, the sine qua non of important point when he dismisses the work the late 197^ paperback bestsell- of the other artists in the book as being er—metalic title lettering. "not of a high caliber". Technically or Copper. personally, yes he can say that , to him , the work is not of a high caliber. BUT AS Whatever DHALGREN may or may not

THE WRITER OF A COLUMN ON FANTASV ART, HE have been as a book (the controversy you’ve never heard of, though he j.s a SHOULD NOT DO THIS WITHOUT READING THE STO- still rages) the package almost guaran- well-known illustrator. His work has RIES . teed good sales. Life followed art's appeared on many book jackets, in READ- lead, the book sold very well, and the ER'S DIGEST, in advertisements... ’In fantasy graphics, it is usually im- art director picked up some design portant that the artist do more than draw But he doesn't know SF. And he does- awards. It is no surprise that NOVA was nice pictures. He or she must TELL A STO- n’t know the limits of his imagination. reissued shortly afterward in the same RY —and do so in a way that amplifies or And in this field, which has fo rmat. its pecul- the prose blends with involved. Tom Sut- iar and subtly different demands on wri- ton's work on Phil we Farmer's "Greatheart And now have Oelany's newest, ter, artist, and reader, it shows. Silver" in WH is not a stunning example of TRITON, which pulls a few minor varia- In the TRITON cover, in ascending anatomical proportions, BUT it 3 beauti- tions on the set pattern. The tone is order of annoyance, we find ful meshing of styles—Tom’s exaggerated cool and calm. The cover painting shows these errors. One, there is a flat and I mean comedy with Phil's off-the-wall adventure. a green research station on the green — flat— disc in the upper left of the painting, It functions because the. two complement each surface of Triton, with a blue-and-pur- purporting to be Neriad. But na part of other. The same with underground cartoon- ple Neptune and green Neriad drifting in it is in shadow. No roundness of form ist Sheridan’s work. Its scratchy quality the dark sky. The title is once more is painted in. It might suits Goodwin’s counter-culture hero. metalic (blue, this time, and fairly as well be part of another picture entirely, since Alone, as illustrations, they have certain conservative; cutouts and flocking are it seems intent on defying the flaws, but as story illustrations they this year’s style) and the effect at illusion- producing rules function effectively. first glance is pleasing. that govern the rest of the composition. Two, Neptune itself. Still, I feel like screaming. Why is Here’ Hooks uses a very popular, and very 'Jon is no doubt aware of this, but an my subconscious knotting its invisible fast, technique. He scrubs in his water- off-hand dismissal of the rest of the art fists? color and gouache (opaque watercolors) in tha book prompts me to get on the soap with short, sharp strokes. The game is box for some very talented graphic story- More background will explain that to create just enough texture so that tellers. succinctly. Cover concepts at Bantam the picture is subtly alive instead of are worked up into rough form in com- ’Thanks for SFR. It is one of the most flat (but then why was Neriad—? Oh mittee, and there is the only say the well.) enjoyable things to come out of the field*— It can work well. Here it is a editor has. Then the art director takes and it has a sense of humor to boot.’ stone pain. Hooks obliterates the disc over completely, exercising his right to of Neptune by painting its shadowside and ((Jon Gustafson's art review column choose an take artist to the simple idea the background the same way, turning the will return next issue. Jon and Freff (shown two paragraphs ago) and clothe it planet into a ghost of what it could be. wi 11 alternate issues.)) in camera-ready reality. This time the (l will only mention in passing that be magic M, .****+*++*+***» wand touched one Hooks, whom n has shown gas giant Neptune with craters J v

the job of and an icecap, f'aybe it really does Why change it? imagine them subcontracting look that way: astronomers?) What ang- selection to somebody on the staff of So it would be a science fiction ers me most, however, is error number the Hirschorn Museum. It is, after all, painting, of course. three, that lovely ’’research station." only a block away, which will certainly

Give it more than a passing glance and But M. Hooks is not an artist that save cabfare. it resolves itself into oil cans, ink would understand that, because like so This newly-recruited worthy, a hook- bottles, many chess pieces, a bottle of many otherwise talented people he lacks nosed modernist, then had a vision. Get- PH Martin's Watercolors, one of Neosyne- the twist of imagination the field needs. ting a top publisher and nice sales phrine, shaving mirror, a magnifying All technique and no content, in a land a meant getting big-name artists, he reas- percent viewer, a dart, a rifle cartridge, and where content is at least fifty oned. various and sundry other items, includ- of success, if not more. The result that inspired ing what seems t t be a tube of tooth- concrete And with that as a springboard, we paste seen end-on. this little fantasy is a book called leave cover art temporarily and dive EYEWITNESS TO SPACE, published as a cof- reading It is a habit of mine, while through the surreal ("sure is real," say feetable-type book by Harry Abrams, Inc. reading. a novel, to mull over what I am Firesign) world. It is a heavy, heavy volume. Usually I stare at tha cover while this is. going on, but if I try that here I am Most of what's in it is dreck. school ripped from Delany's world to high two/" esus, Kelly — ulturesT’ (Though there are exceptions, notably still-life assignments in an instant. the material contributed by Robert Mc-

It hurts. Once upon a time there had to have Call and Paul Calle, who were already

been a conversation at NASA tnat went, I known for their space art.) The reason Scream, suspect, something like this: for this is that the artists involved

I talked to Hooks over the phone; just didn't know what they were seeing, "Got a great idea, Scott. Let's get he is a reasonable man, one who knows either because things weren’t suffient- a bunch of artists together and show his techniques, if not their proper a-i- ly explained or because whatever in them them our operation. The VAB, a launch plications. Yes, he'd looked up every- creates doesn’t resonate to the chords or two, you know. And then we get some- thing he could find about Neptune, but NASA plays. It is the same lack M, Hooks body to release the work they do as a all the photos were pretty blurry, so showed on TRITON. It plagues our field. book. What a chance for publicity!" he’d winged it. And no, he hadn’t Enter Ron Miller, wearing the mantle thought t) disguise his research station "Gee, Scott, that sounds great! of serendipity. Ron's work has appeared so that it wouldn't be instantly recog- I'll get on it right away. ..err. ..what's on several SFmagazine covers, and he is objects. nizable as an array of mundane an artist?" one of the few in the field who handles "It looked pretty good the way it was, Thus caught in a true .dilemma, I astronomicals and human beings with didn't it? Why change it?"

SA\!l I L R. pr l-ANY SAMI FI. R. UEI.ANY

42 —

equal ease. He also happens to work as be felt all around, like a seeming con- .art then, that a real Skylab space sta- planetarium artist for the new National sciousness, as the spotlights cast shad- tion will be open for the public go Air and Space Museum, and makes use of ows on clouds that bank in just the through, or that the Wright Brothers' his post to do what educating he can. right places, or as vultures drift on first plane hangs serenely over the I'll cover some of the effeots of that the wind, or the sun gives an abstract Apollo 11 command module. But most won- in the education next section. replay of a launch as it lifts over the drous of all, one of the museum's three horizon at dawn. To be there, and What he did that has relevance here to moon rocks will be embedded in lucite open yourselff to it, is to stand at the is that he changed the composition of in such a manner that part of it is ex- living clockwork center the next NASA artist’s tour, held last of a fine old posed. universe. summer during the Apollo-Soyuz launch. You, too, can touch the moon.... Among the tech illustrators and the ran- We felt it, they didn't dom fine artists there were also people seem to. In three months it will be worn (At least, they didn't show like Kelly Freas, Ron himself, Sandra it on the smooth with the plastic. Want to bet? surface.) Miesel, Jim Cunningham, Vincent Difate, and (since Rick Sternbach had been forc- The best SF artwork captures it. ed to cancel, leaving a hole in the ros- FOUR/ Se veral Unequivocably Enthusias tic But they never quite manage, for all S uggestions ter) me. they reveal to us wonders hidden else- where. There is an "outsider” mentality We were escorted through the Secret I have no shame, no humility, and if entirely separate from whether or not Wonders. There was Viking the Lander this be ballyhoo, so be it. an artist works in the field we talk Clean Room, largest of its kind in the about so much. Suggestion number one, JIM CUMMING- world, where we were dusted off and HAM, whose dropped jaw I mentioned be- suited up in the white plastic outfits, End of philosophical digression. fore. He's a prime example of the out- and allowed to wander about, leaving eye- Back to SF art, and to how some of "us" sider who isn't. His work has only re- tracks. There was the Viking launch pad, are finally getting recognized by "them," cently been seen in SF artshows, and then and then before lunch the various Lunar and how some of "them" share a spirit only in the midwest (with Oiscon as a Mission simulators. All SF artists with us, and should be searched after by w'ild exception.) He has yet to be pub- would benefit, I think, from getting to anybody who really cares about capturing lished on a book or magazine cover lie in the couches of the Apollo Command SF in pictures. in Module the field. He doesn't paint cute aliens and letting their hungers creep a ***** or Bergey women or clankshudder little closer to the surface. But far machin- eries. But in Indianapolis, where Jim and away the greatest moment of the tour THREE/ NASM lives, he sells his work at prices was being taken to the roof of the VAB which equal or excell the top pay in the field, at sunset. It is huge, so huge that un- The National Air and Space Museum and the city has even commissioned him til you look over the edge you can’t opens in July, and (at least partially to paint a few walls. think of it as a roof. The rain puddles because of Ron Miller) a lot of SF peo- were really shallow lakes. And there ple made it in. Ron's work will be part Those who know Jim's' paintings are were, of course, the vultures. of the planetarium show, and his astro- almost scared at the thought. nomicals will also be seen in an audio- Really. Hundreds make their home up He paints astronomicals—sort of. visual exhibit in the LIFE IN THE UNI- there. They like to float on the up- They are abstract, to be sure, but you VERSE hall. Right next to those will drafts. be can't mistake what they mean. By taking Bonnie Dalzell's paintings of specially- multiple glazes of pure blues and greens, Later that night, watching the jewel designed extraterrestrials, some of them adding occasional reds and whites as his that all launch towers become when the taken from sources like Larry Niven's sensibilities require, Cunningham bends spotlights are turned on, the differenc- Bandersnatch, In the same hall is an line and form and space in a way that is es in the artists assembled for the exquisite model of an alien space probe the pure essence of SF art without the tour were very obvious. The mundanes analogous to our Pioneer 10. It was "finned spaceship" trappings. yes, let’s use the charged word—were done by westcoast eclectic genius/artist/ talking and slapping at mosquitoes. But sculptor Don Simpson. Jeff Jones paint- For a full article about him and his Kelly Freas drew while the people near ed a whole set of "famous astronomer" experiments with technology and art (plus him took turns holding a flashlight portraits that would make any serious some inferior reproductions of his work, (sometimes he held it in his teeth.) painter drool, no matter what field he lacking most of the green) write to IN- Sandra Miesel was spinning out ideas for or she came from. Bob McCall worked for CITY MAGAZINE, 6502 Guilford Av., Suite her unique astronomical embroideries. I months on a multi-story scaffold to One, Indianapolis, IN A6220, and ask for was taking pictures and staunchly keep- create an eighty-foot tall mural in the their December issue. ing my own jaw off the ground while help- main entranceway. ing Jim Cunningham pick up his; he was Other artists have contributed work Suggestion number two, SID MEAD. A in shock from too much deja vu . to the gallery. The list is a fairly technical illustrator par excellance, The Kennedy Space Center should be long one. Sid is also the man who won the NASM the SF World’s esthetic Mecca, you see. commission to design a starship. Mmmm. And then there are things which I It’s the one place on the planet I have His feelings for machinery is startling, can't help but call art, for all that seen where Nature and Technology con- and the results he manages with gouache no responsible artists can be easily spire to create balanced new beauties quite unique. For a free book of his pointed out. Call ft purely conceptual that neither alone could manage. It can paintings (not to mention a set of post- —

DAVID GERROLD srs) send a request to INNOVATIONS, OS riVE /Mea Culpa LETTER FROM

Steel Corporations, P.O. Box 56, Pitts- March 25, 19?6 burgh, PA 15250 . All you have to do is A confession; I am young. Twenty- fol- ignore the text, which is straight from two years old in October. Back ’in early ’A few days ago I discovered the ’ youth fresh from jun- lowing quote in a book review: ’’Fame is the promotion and doesn’t have anything to 69 , as a churlish do with the artwork anyway. You might ior high school, I wrote an angry letter sum of the misunderstanding that gathers a- also find the subject matter of the work to GALAXY demanding (oh, the pain of the round a new name.” (Rilke) It expresses less than gut-exciting, since it is memory!) that they stop using the crummy quite well how 1 feel about fandom this mostly futuristic transportation of artists they were using and try me out week, Mead’s design, but check out the back- instead. ’In the past year or so, almost every grounds and details, like the lizard-on- Quite properly, Judy-Lynn del Rey, action I have done that was intended as a a-leash, or the animals I have come to then Managing Editor, sent me back a positive one has been misinterpreted. Every think of as Shetland Poodles and Cobra short letter that left bloodstains all Time I have spoken out in an effort tu in- Collies, Neat stuff. over my bedroom floor. I have never crease understanding, I have instead only

Suggestion number three, ROGER DEAN; quite recovered; and I hope that the re- increased fragmentation. The result has if you know current record cover art membered pain keeps me a bit more con- been ill feelings and a lot of pain that you know this man from his designs for scientious, Art criticism (which this has interfered with my peace of mind and my YES, OSIBISA, BADGER, GREENSLAOE, and column has not been this time, not real- writing. None of it was intended. many others. Everything in Dean’s work ly, but certainly will be next time ’Whether the fault is mine or fandom’s looks like it was grown where it is around) is mainly a land of fools, who is immaterial—it’s probably mutual; but be it rocks, tree, or buildings—and not only rush in etc. but do it backward the plain fact of the matter is tnat I sim- hasn’t quite finished evolving. Wasp- and buck naked, I will not likely be an ply no longer feel welcome in fandom. If winged elephants trumpet at green liz- exception. Shout at me. I listen. fandom truly is a family (which I am begin- ards. A dragon calmly sips water at About two years ago I got my first ning to doubt) I do not feel a part of it. the base of a parched tree. Planets illustration assignment from Jim Baen, sever all con- shatter. Eive-armed priests ply their ’So I have decided to at IF, He liked it enough to give me least for a while. scriptures and consultations. c. as cal- nection with fandom, at another, and then another, and when I tn those con- ligrapher and designer Dean, a 51 year- I will fulfill my commitments finally really blew it I’d amassed enough will make old Englishman, has few peers, and most ventions I have promised, but I brownie points that he didn’t shake his usual paid of those only in matters technical. No- no committments other than the head and dismiss me forever. As a result body has his imagination but himself, appearances. I will try to remain in touch I suspect I am, by a margin of a couple like to regard as friends,, although he has a growing legion of with those I would years, the youngest illustrator in cur- accessible to those young imitators. (I’ve copped a theme but I will no longer be rent science fiction who can lay claim immature and insensitive. or two meself.) whose actions seem to professional status. Past efforts have proven futile and there And did I mention he was also an are more important and rewarding avenues That much dignity is this column’s architectural designer? for my emotional energy. limit. I love criticism given clearly. book of this The name of the first when gets snide. I hate it it ’I suppose this will be greeted with man’s work is VIEWS. It costs SlO. plus outsider pleasure and/or derision in some quarters. I I’m on the edge, neither shipping from Big 0 Posters, Box 6 68 , proven, and from that view- No matter; I am not doing it for fandom’s Charlottesville, VA 22906, although a nor fully things are very interesting indeed. sake, but for my own. I will probably en- careful check of your local record and point installment is mainly pet hatreds, joy my life a lot more without the hassles bookstores will probably find it for Next and a little more about the Mysterious that some elements of fandom have brought you—it’s been selling tremendously. Affair of the Misplaced Responsibility me. I regret losing the joys; most of it Deservedly so, since it brings together (cross reference: ”I’ve Got Those Art- has been fun, but the price has been too not only excellent reproductions of his Director Blues.”) I’ve interviewed high. record covers but a belief a lot of oth- Kelly Freas, the most successful man in er drawings, plus a load of background ’With all best wishes to those who und- the field, surely, and plan more things material on techniques, intentions, pre- erstand.’ along that line. parations, theories.. .and conclusions.

Plus the odd, delightful tidbit. Who can (And now that this is finally over, help but appreciate a man whose house ’tis back to work, la!) You only sap your strength when you midst of fanciful plans include, in the ******»****»******»***********+******** become preoccupied with the drawbacks of seashell curves and cavernous rooms, a the person you deal with. He’ll continue notation requiring ’’badgers in the base- to be what he is. Let him be that; it ment?” doesn’t have to affect you... Freedom from exploitation is perhaps the easiest freedom

End of breathless recommendations. to get. All you have to do is to stop par- well-known, These three are all fairly ticipating in any relationship—of any though not as artists. Which, by kind—that doesn’t suit you. damn, they are. —Harry Browne, HOW I FOUND FREEDOM IN AN UNFREE WORLD —

THE ALTER-EGO VIEWPOINT he journeys through the independent, self- looked through MANKIND AT THE TURNINGPOINT— A Dialogue isolated country of Ecotopia—that is the The Second Report To The Club Of Rome (Sig- former U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and net J6852, $ 1 . 95 ) and seen all the graphs the northern half of California. In 1980 and schedules and charts. Think mankind has a chance? these peoples seceded from the Union in the Time of Troubles. They cut themselves off "Oh, sure, mankind will survive, and from "civilization" and reporter William will have all kinds of future civilisations, Weston is the first "outsider" allowed in but they’ll have to do without a heavy-meta’, since then. The time is now 1999." high-energy technology as we have t)day. All the computer And you say this is a fine piece of models point inexorably to writing? a crisis in about twenty-thirty years. A population crunch, a resources crunch, and "Yes, damnit. It's really credible. energy crunch. Probably a financial/debt The Ecotopian life-style is both idealistic crunch before then," and practical. This may be the most danger- Okay, Alter, you’ve had nearly three So what should ous book tn come along in years." we do? months to read a Ibt of science fiction and "Enjoy life while now it’s payoff time. But you haven’t but skimmed and ’sniff- you can, Geis, Fuck worrying ed’ it. Alter. about the futre. We’re both too ’’Don’t bother me now. Gels. I’m rest- old to live to see it, probably. In the ing. Shut the door on the way out. Turn "I will read it whole one of these days. short run the expedient solution is chosen, off the light." Maybe I’m a bit afraid of it. It might pol- and in ths long run we are all dead,' Why lute my precious libertarian/capitalistic worry? Let No, you’ve got to earn your keep. Since thoseunder 30 worry if they bodily fluids. ..or something," want." I did away with The Archives you’ve had it

Review! Pass opinions! Huh! I also note easy. Up, up! that you finished That’s totally irresponsible! STAR MOTHER by Sydney J. Van Scyoc. (Put- "I’ll pass you down the Hole if you "And totally realistic. nams, $6 . 95 ) What’s this one about? Besides, atomic don't leave me alone. Nag, nag, nag, nag!" fusion might come along. Or anti-gravity. "About 18b pages of combined do-gooder Alter, look at this mess of books and Who kno'ws? Have faith, baby, and spend sf and your average Gothic novel. Worth magazines on the floor. Here. ..this one... your money. ..before it loses any more value." reading, but it won't set a fire under your IMPERIAL EARTH by Arthur C. Clarke (Harcourt, sense of wonder. Good, solid, alien planet Hmmmph! I suppose you have evil things Brace & Jovanovich, $7.95).. .you stopped and problems-of-human-colonists detail, to say about Roger Elwood’s new magazine, 88. Why? reading on page ODYSSEY. worked out nicely. I couldn’t get excited "Boredom, Gels. Pure ennui. Clarke about or much interested in intersteller "Heh, You know, this is a curious $1. writes a kind of sterile, calm, documentary peace corps cadet Jahna or the master of package. Good to excellent fiction; espec- fiction, as if he has a million bucks in Pengalen, name of Becklord." ially "The Prisoner of New York Island" by the bank—which he probably has—and there But the changing power structures, the Frederik Pohl, "Beneath the Hills of Azlar- is a lack of tension.,.. Here he’s got a ecology of the radioactive planet... oc" by Fred Saberbagen, and Jerry Pournelle’s dynasty of male clones dominating Titan of "Bind Your Sons to Exile." And good fan 2276 A.D., and the youngest clone of this "I said I liked the spadework! Get on features by Robert BlOch and Charlie Brov/n, ruling family, Duncan Makenzie on the way with this inquisition!" a keen book review column by Bob Silverberg, to visit imperial mother Earth, as the Titan Alter, I hold in my thumb and forefing- plus a general column by Theodore Sturgeon, envoy, and it’s blahsville. er THE IMPLOSION EFFECT by Gary Paulsen, An Interview with Zenna Henderson. "He had that giant alien spaceship to ex- published by Major Books (30A8, $1.25). "But no editorial personna visible or plore in RENDEIVOUS WITH RAMA and that situ- You finished this one? felt, and the 3ds are all from pulpsville. ation carried him. Here, he ambles along There is a hangup in the layouts, too, where with long asides and long background and... "Yeah, Geis, and I thought it damned they had to "fill" excess pages with repeats faugh! I could care less about the minor well written in a commercial formula style of illos. Also noted: a run-of-the-rall psychological and physical problems of a and with the smell of authenticity of de- Kelly Freas cover. superior, superrich kid." tail and action that grabs the reader. I’ll "ODYSSEY hit Portland with a resounding grant you. the story of a scratch crew of Well. ..what about this one? ECOTOPIA thud; two weeks after about fifteen copies scientists—malcontents and losers all by Ernest Callenbach, from Banyan Tree Books, were put on the magazine rack at my local building a secret spy-satellite tracking $^75 (available from Bookpeople, 29^0 Sev- supermarket, they were pulled. At least we and listening-in station on a small, desert- enth St., Berkeley, CA 9'<710.) My Ghod, got one copy, eh, Geis?" ed Pacific island for a mysterious business you got peanut butter on the cover! What a group who want to steal secrets for vast Yes. ODYSSEY ffl (Spring, 1976) gives slob you are! the profit— *Gasp* *Inhale* " —is not very impression of a hasty, third class pro- duction. The material is better "I didn’t have time to get but a few science fictiony, and the murders—one by than the magazine’s appearance pages into this one, but that bit convinced one—of the crew is hardly original, but I suggests. me it’s a fine piece of science fiction. At admire the tough, smart realism. Gary Paul- " I'm supposed tu give the opinions here, least, the premise is fascinating. See, sen writes too well to settle for what Maj- Geis. You' re supposed to set me up and feed it's structured as the notes and diary of or is paying for a novel, for long." me leading questions. Stay in your place!" an international affairs reporter for the What matter, Alter? You’ve TIMES-POST of (I think) Washington, DC as does it 45 Err, sorry. I forgot. I don't suppose you forgot what you think of Colin Wilson’s on an even better glossy, textured white ALIEN CONCLUSIONS new (Random House, S7»95) novel, THE SPACE stock and unbound—10 black & white plates * * VAMPIRES, did you? — ready for framing. And *sn3rf *drooI all are in fantasy settings. Well worth "Wilson’s idea of what goes on in a the S8.” spaceship in deep space is laughable. But once he gets back to Earth with those three That opinion was predictable. What a- home strange humanoid aliens he is more at bout this second item sent by the de la Rees and more believable.. .but not by too much. —A HANNES BOK SKETCHBOOK, edited by Gerry He tries to rationalize the vampire mytholo- de la Ree and Gene Nigra, 88. —are you a Incredible and gy, but it boils down to a Bok fan? too-familiar plot ploy at the end. Not a "Sure, I grew up admiring his work in first-rate novel, but it has its moments.” the sf and fantasy magazines, and on and in Alter, in response to Richard Lupoff's the few books published. This book is 80 read pleas for recognition and reviews you pages plus covers, heavy white stock, excel-

his ne» THE TRIUNE MAN (Putnams, 16.95) lently printed. It provides a panorama of As usual I will lead off "Alien Conclu- didn’t you? Bok’s styleand techniques from 1930 on. He sions” with a rundown of the reader re-

had a rather solid, blocky style, in the sponse to ^^16. "Veah. In a nutshell, so far, Dick Lu- main, and from these many sketches it seems The interview with Jerry Pournelle was poff seems a better reviewer than novelist to me he wasn't all that great an artist, at considered very fine indeed, and the credit —with the exception of NEW ALABAMA BLUES, least in the early years. In fact, Geis, is due Jerry. I but asked the obvious which is a superior piece of work. I found if he were alive today and unheralded, and questions. THE TRIUNE MAN interesting for its mastery sent you some work, you'd probably think him was Bary of the comic strip trade and techniques, a talented amateur and not take but a few Also well received Malzberg's but unbelievable in its simplistic multi- of his sketches for SFR.” mini-essay and review of James Gunn's AL- schizoid psychology and alien superscience TERNATE WORLDS: The Illustrated History of Is no one sacred to you, Alter? plot complications. ..magic science. Science Fiction . I thought Jim Shull's "This is for hardcore sf addicts and un- "Nope. Not even old-time fan name of illustration exceedingly apt for the piece critical readers who are familiar with long- Willis Conover, who's first issue (after —even though he sent it along with no of Barry's review. time sf conventions. I still don't under- 40 years) of the SCIENCE FANTASY CORRESPOND- previous knowledge stand how one of the personnas managed to ENT, expensive and quality-iorinted, arrived I should mention that Jim's cover won save the Universe from its fiery fate. I recently. It is 8l0, per copy, three issues some praise but was ignored by most. think Dick attempted too much in the areas for 825. from Carrolllton Clark, 9122 Ross- of symbolism and extreme superscience and lyn, Arlington, VA 22209. The back cover, by Tim Kirk, was a re- the complications of multiple personalitias "This is 64 pages plus covers, on heavy, print of an 8^ x 11 poster Mike and Susan out their Hugo-Winning in one body." pale-tan paper, with a rich variety of ma- Glicksohn sent with ago. terials by professionals.. .such as Robert fanzine, ENERGUMEN, several years Lupoff will pluck your tendrils, Alter, Aickman, Brian W. Aldiss, Arthur C. Clarke, They urged that it be reprinted to help and stuff them up— Robert E. Howard, David H. Keller, Henry the ecology movement. I kept it in mind,

"Go suck an egg, Geis. What's next on Kuttner, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack Williamsonc. and when the need/opportunity arose.... the pile?" Hey, some of these are dead meni This first And speaking of Tim Kirk, where has he issue is nostalgia oriented, has a sharp Two Stephen Eabian art books from two got to? The last letter I sent him at his prj-space exploration article by Clarke, small-press publishers. You’ve looked over Shawnee, KS address, in mid-January, came a long semi-fantasy by Aickman... A very THE BEST Of STEPHEN FABIAN, published by back marked "Addressee Unknown.” elegant publication. I enjoyed it, Geis, Loompanics Unlimited, Box 26A, Mason, MI but to my mind it is a prestige item, pub- Not much response to John Brunner's 4885^, priced at S12.50. This is a limited lished (and priced) for a relative few,” column, "Noise Level”, last issue: the (1500 copies) edition. readers would prefer to read John's thoughts And you’ve eyeballed the other Fabian Okay, Alter, you may go back to sleep on his own work or others' SF, not his offering: FANTASTIG NUDES—^ Portfolio By for a while. Sorry I distirbed you. troubles with editors and publishers. Stephen Fabian, published by Gerry i Helen "Like hell you are.” My comments de la Ree, V Cedarwood Lane, Saddle River, own notes and were liked, *:^if***:ift:****:i,*i:*ra:************************** much, for my views for NJ 07458 . S8. per portfolio. Limited edi- as usual, as as the

tion of 750 . DOUG MCCLURE: (to old woman he thinks is involuntary thinking they provoke. And a What say you? William Shatner in drag) I'll meet you few people actually went out and bought

up in your room in thirty minutes. Nelson's BLAKE'S PROGRESS on the strength "I say the Loompanics book is overpric- WILLIAM SHATNER: Ah, Cash.... of my review. The book has a good chance ed but provides a wide range of Steve’s DOUG MCCLURE: (realizing his mistake) Uh, to make the Hugo ballot. styles and skills (for a close example, ob- sorry, ma'am. I thought you were some- serve his cover on SFR 14 and the cover on I was happy to read such comments as body else. ikLupoff this issue, SER 17), including quite a few is an excellent reviewer—authori- 010 WOMAN: Does this mean you won't be previously unpublished full-pagers. All 50 tative, balanced, well-written judgements^ coming up to my room? are printed by offset, are in black & white, about his opening review column, "The Lit- —BARBARY COAST Rich in are 8^ x 11 on heavy white stock. erary Masochist.” isn't this is- (Thanks to Buzz Dixon) sue due, I trust, to work/lack of time. I "The FANTASTIC NUDES are larger, 11 x 14 **-****x******************************-*****‘^^ — — —

will check with him and hope he will send lished sf poems dealing with either (a) mands, then your fiction isn' t yours any- a column for ^18. man's first contact with an extraterrest- more, it's a product to c onsume , and I rial lifeform, or.(b) black holes. Mater- tell you, it hurts.' George Warren’s essay-review about wri- ial submitted must be suitable for junior There's much more to his letter, but ting and review of Hester’s THE COMPUTER high school as well as adult readers. A you see where he's coming from. CONNECTION earned mixed feelings: most brief autobiographical sketch should accom- He likes the idealistic freedom of tiie of those who commented agreed that this pany submissions. An S.A.S.E. must accom- pure artist and hates the discipline of tiie book was not up to his two earlier classics, pany manuscripts fur return. Closing date: marketplace. He'll have to learn tu com- but parted company with George on other Sept. 30, 1976. To: Peter Dillingham, 2272 promise, or write as he wishes and self- matters. South Bannock, Denver, CO 80223. publish, which has been done. But there

Again, Jon Gustafson's ’’The Gimlet Eye" again, the marketplace..,. was praised wholeheartedly (with a few RON ROGERS has a contrary opinion about caveats by affected parties). The art art inside paperbacks. Sayeth he: 'Who DON KELLER review column was a good idea, long needed. has different values for gives a great big fyunch (click) about il- fiction. ..as opposed to me, apparently. He Michael Coney’s "Whatever Happened to Fay los? I am basically neutral on the subjact, wrote: 'I strongly disagree with your Wray?" brought a smattering of reaction, thougii I have been known to comment on statemtnt about what you'want tu get out some in agreement on his WimLib and other those "GD pictures that keep getting in the of fiction. Perhaps it's just a differ- views, and some opposed. One reader summed way of the flow." Usually I can take 'em ence in our ages, but I have read enough by saying didn't much care about it up he or leave 'em and I will admit I sometimes 'pretty lies' in my short life to last the Coney’s private views— he liked his books. say "That's a nice drawing." (l am speak- rest of it, and would vastly prefer to ing of interior illos entirely.) I expect have the truth told to me, no matter how the drawings in the prozines, but when I’m painful, no matter h:w much I may hate tne paying $1,50 and $1.95 for teeny paperbacks NEXT ISSUE IS ALREADY PACKED WITH teller of that truth for it. Robert Silv- in the first place, I sure don't want no GOODIES: A delightful Grant Canfield cov- erberg's DYING INSIDE almost literally space-wasting pictures in there. If what's er; a long, very good interview with Lest- bludgeoned my mind to numbness because of in the print doesn't make own er del Rey by Darrell Schweitzer; an inter- its pictures the power of the truth it told, about me in my head, it shouldn't be in that print. view with "Alan Burt Akers" (in quotes, be- and my kind: it hit so close to the bone Prices are high enough, and though artists that cause Akers is a pseudonym for...?); an I could not relate objectively to it have to earn their livelihood, I buy books article about SF and writing it by Barry at all until I read it again. I would — to read them and if I want to look at pret- much- rather Malzberg ^"A Short One For The Boys In read something like that than ty pictures I'll go to a museum.' The Backroom"; major reviews by George R. a book that tells me, "Well, things may be bad now, turn R, Martin, Robert Anton Wilson and a lot but they'll out all right in of the regulars, the end, I'd like to find out that was GEIR-ARNE OLSEN, of Norway, says there Expected are Jon Gustafson's art re- true, but I can't really believe in it. is a tendency to 'tired-grandpa-mentality' view column and George Warren's bound-to~ However much I disagree with M. John Har- in SFR. Hrummph! Young impertinent be-controversial column. Hoped-for is rison, I, like he, do not want a 'litera- whippersnapper! He is into the ART of Richard Lupoff's review column. And I'll ture of comfort.' What do I want? If creating ani he resents the readers who de- have my usual pages.... backed to the wall, I world say: intensity mand fast-moving adventure fiction, and "Yeah, Geis? What about me?" of experience. And pulp-action plotting the publishers who have very high literary and You, Alter? Oh, if there’s room happy endings (unless very skillfully standards (in Norway)... 'There's the con- "If there's room! The readers love me. done) don't do it for me; in fact, they sumers on one hand and the literary elite They beg fo' more of me in this rag! You enervate the experience. on tie other, and the artist is someplace should give me at least six pages—'' 'I don't know, though; this may change between.’ He doesn't want to be tool Too much lined up, Alter, You'll be as I get older. Most of the people I know 'because if you write what the public de- lucky if you get seem to enjoy escapist reading more and "You do it deliberately, Geis! You de- more as they get older.' liberately buy zillions of book reviews and Good points, well-made. When we're other crap so you can have an excuse young, in general, we lust, we hunger, for Crap !? truth about ourselves and the world. After "—to crowd me out! You're jealous a while we know the truth about ourselves " of me, Geis! You're afraid— and the world and our appetite for having THAT'S ENOUGH! Go ,tu your dungeon! it rubbed in diminishes. We prefer distrac- tion or, in still older age, escape from it.

Where was I? Oh. As a matter of fact, At the moment I like truth told, in fic-

I do have a lot of reviews stacked up. It tion, up till the very end—when a convinc- will be a crowded issue. ing lie is nice to read (even though I

know it is a lie...I admire the skill and

the verisimilitude). As a species we also

have a need for order and justice (which CTHULHU CALLS is running another poetry are in real terms fraud^. That is the hu- contest. First prize $75., second $50, man condition. Life itself is a sour joke, third place $25. plus publication in tfie given self-awareness. Had enough? Jan, '77 issue. For best original, unpub- 47 BACK ISSUES The A1 ien Critic Some afterthoughts" by Harlan Ellison; Science Fiction Review "The Gimlet Eye" by Jon Gustafson.

No other numbers are available SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #1A An Interview ONE DOLLAR PER COPY With Philip Jose Farmer; "Dancing On the Titanic" by Charles W. Runyon; "Thoughts EACH ISSUE CONTAINS MANY REVIEWS. On Logan's Run" by William f. Nolan; "The EACH ISSUE CCOTAINS LEriTERS PROM Gimlet Eye" by Jon Gustafson. WELL-KNOM SP & PANTASY WRITHES, Fic EDITORS. PUBLISERS AND PANS. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #13 "Spec and the Perry Rhodan Ghetto" by Donald THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS ARE OP C. Thompson; An Interview With L. Sprague FEATURED CCWTRIBUTIONS de Camp by Darrell Schweitzer; "Uffish Thots" by Ted White; "The Gimlet Eye" by

THE ALIEN CRITIC #5 Interview with Jon Gustafson. fritz Leiber; "The Literary Dreamers" by James Blish; "Irvin Binkin Meets H. P. SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #16 An Interview Lovecraft" by Jack Chalker. with Jerry Poutnelle; "The True and Terrible History of Science Fiction" by Barry Malz- R. THE ALIEN CRITIC / Interview with berg; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; "The A. Lafferty; "The Trenchant Bludgeon" by Literary Masochist" by Richard Lupoff; "What- Ted White; "Translations From the Edit- ever Happened to Fay Wray?" by Michael G. orial" by Marion Z. Bradley. Coney; "The Gimlet Eye" by Jon Gustafson; "Plugged In" by George Warren. THE ALIEN CRITIC §1 "The Shape of Sci- ence Fiction to Come" by Frederik Pohl; "Noise Level" by John Brunner; "Up Against the Wall, Roger Zelazny", an interview,

THE ALIEN CRITIC #8 "Tomorrow's Libido: Sex and Science Fiction" by Richard Delap; "The Trenchant Bludgeon" by Ted White; "Banquet Speech" by Robert Bloch; "Noise BACK ISSUE order form Level" by John Brunner. $1. 00 each

THE ALIEN CRITIC #9 "Reading Heinlein Dear REG:-- I enclose $ Subjectively" by Alexei and Cory Panshin; Please send Back Issue(s) #5 #6

"VJritten To a PulpT' by Sam Merwin, Jr,; #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 "Noise Level" by John Brunner; "The Shav- #15 #16 er Papers" by Richard S, Shaver. (Circle #s desired)

THE ALIEN CRITIC #10 An Interview With Stanislaw Lem; "A Nest of Strange and SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW Wonderful Birds" by Sam Merwin, Jr.; Subscription coupon. Robert Bloch's Guest of Honor Speech; All you have to do is fill it The Heinlein Reaction. in with your name (or someone you wish to destroy), enclose money, and your life (or that THE ALIEN CRITIC #11 An Interview With of the other victim) will nev- Avram Davidson; "The foundation On Sands" er be the same. One 'fix’ of SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW and by John J. Alderson; "Footnotes To Fan you’ 11 be hooked. History" by Larry Shaw. How else can you become so pleasurably addicted as inex- SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #12 "Smoke and pensively?

Glass"— a non-fiction fantasy about Har- $4.00 One Year / $7.00 Two Yrs. lan Ellison by Richard Delap; "You can't

say THAT!" by Richard Lupoff; "Confes- Name •

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SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW #13 The Elwood City Controversy; "Visit To a Pulpy Planet" State Zip by Milton F. Stevens; "HARLAN ELLISON—