Volume 16 No. 1 PLOKTA APRIL 2011 Colophon This is issue 41 of Plokta, edited by CONTENTS Steve Davies, Alison Scott and Mike Scott. nameless caballero had a It is available on 3. Editorial bright idea. “Well, we paper for letter of We’re back! Faster than a comment (one copy could ask them to”. speeding sloth, more to Mike’s address is Apparently, it worked. fine), trade (copies to powerful than a Hornby each of our locomotive, able to leap a Our original concept was addresses if possible, tall matchbox at a single The History of Fandom in please), contribution, bound (given a decent 100 Objects, but we’ve editorial whim, or for run-up), it’s the all-new had to impose some a Twitter-inspired mainly-electronic Plokta. budget cuts. revolution in Walthamstow. 4. iSpy 23. Collared Steve Davies Apple has been following By John Berry 3 Sandgate Avenue Reading Dr Plokta around his Double apologies to John Berks RG30 6XD Fortress of Solitude.. Berry, who gave us this article nearly two years Alison Scott ago (and see also the loc 24 St Mary Road 5. The History of column). Walthamstow Fandom in 37 London E17 9RG Objects 25. Lokta Plokta Mike Scott By Ian Sorensen, Jo 13 Collette Court The latest expedition into Walton, Bill Burns, Andy Eleanor Close the dark heart of Alison’s Hooper, Claire Brialey, London SE16 6PW in-tray has returned, after Chris Garcia, James enduring unimaginable [email protected] Bacon, Michael Abbott, hardships in the quest for www.plokta.com Peter Weston, Giulia De locs. The cabal also Cesare, Steve Davies, includes Flick, Giulia Jaine Weddell, Farah De Cesare, Sue Mendlesohn, Dave 26. Olde Plokta’s Mason, and Steven, Langford, John Coxon & Almanack Marianne & Jonathan Sandra Bond Cain. Once again, we give you We were getting tired of our predictions for the Art by writing most of Plokta coming year. And once Photos provided by ourselves. “How can we again, we wait until April Ian Sorensen and Bill get some other people to to do so. We find it makes Burns for their fannish write some stuff for us”, the predictions for the first we wondered. Then some quarter more accurate. 2 APRIL 2011 PLOKTA Volume 16 No. 1 Editorial We’re back! Lurching out of the grave iPhones to 27” iMacs, although Giulia is and back into the cut and thrust of still holding out. We now have our fandom, with random bits of our bodies salaries paid directly to Steve Jobs, as it falling off, like a bunch of superannuated cuts out the middleman. zombies. But enough about our New We’ve been checking up on what Year’s Day hangovers. Plokta is also back, happened while we were in hibernation. as we’ve finally recovered from the strain Apparently England have retained the of <plokta.con> Release 4.0. Which Ashes, which spread from Iceland to the went very well, thanks to the fine Gulf of Mexico, formed a coalition weather and our lovely guests of honour government, leaked radiation over Tokyo, (Paul Cornell and the sadly absent-due- and have now gone bankrupt. Anything to-illness Diana Wynne Jones). But it all else we need to know? seems like a long time ago now, and our memories are far too addled to produce So, Plokta is now an iPad-optimised any kind of a coherent con report at this publication. We’re getting tired of late date. Perhaps our readers could help. printing it and posting it, which is both tedious and unsustainable, so we’re going The world of superfluous technology to rely more on electronic circulation in has moved on over the past year and a future. Yes, we know that the Plokta half. We have iPads! New iPhones! New website says “Plokta will always come out MacBook Airs! We believe that the Cabal in paper form first”. We may have now collectively own nearly thirty Apple changed our minds. computers of various sizes, from How to Read Plokta Or The Usual, Redefined We know that some of you won’t want 2. If you contribute to the fanzine or to read Plokta electronically. If you would send us a substantial letter, by email still like Plokta on paper, here is how you (preferred) or on paper (legibly), and can get it: mention that you would like a paper copy, we will send you one. 1. If you already send us a paper fanzine, then we will continue to trade 3. A paper copy is available on request, unless you specifically tell us you’d rather provided you make that request by post. just get the electronic version. A poctsarcd will suffice. 3 Volume 16 No. 1 PLOKTA APRIL 2011 iSpy Like the rest of us, Dr Plokta was from his backup files, and present it here horrified to discover that his new iPhone for your edification and delight. Thanks 4 had been keeping a moment by to the excellent program iPhone Tracker. moment trace of exactly where he’d If you've got an iPhone, it’s tracking you been since he bought it. It would mean too. But don't worry for your civil that someone bent on ill-will could liberties; the Met already have much identify the location of all his secret better ways to track you. bases, the lovely bay where he likes to go Fortunately there's no 3G reception in sunbathing, and his favourite penguin- outer space, so the location of the spotting hideaways. Orbital Mind Control Lasers is safe. Of course, Dr P had the information When reached for comment an Apple stored super-securely. But not securely spokesman said “Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha enough! We have managed to extract it ha”. 4 APRIL 2011 PLOKTA Volume 16 No. 1 The History Of Fandom In 37 Objects By Ian Sorensen, Jo Walton, Bill Burns, Andy Hooper, Claire Brialey, Chris Garcia, James Bacon, Michael Abbott, Peter Weston, Giulia De Cesare, Steve Davies, Jaine Weddell, Farah Mendlesohn, Dave Langford, John Coxon & Sandra Bond Convention websites it runs DOS. It came with a 2.4 dialup The first time I attended a convention modem, which later got upgraded to committee meeting we spent most of the 14.4. It has a keyboard with no letters on time writing addresses on envelopes and the keys and it used to have a squat VGA stuffing them with typeset PRs before CRT monitor. It’s an unlovely object, and sticking on stamps and posting them. As it changed the world. Suddenly, being the years went by we automated things a part of fandom wasn’t something that bit—mailing labels were printed, could happen only at Easter, fandom was envelopes franked, PRs laser printed— in reach every day. The internet’s a thing but it was still manual labour being done but it isn’t an object. Demon’s old by highly trained committee members instructions for using it explained that it who, prior to the convention, lacked floated in the air just above your left gophers to delegate the work to. Now, if shoulder, and you could reach out to a committee wants to inform the download things from it, and upload members of anything they add it to their things to it. A ten year old asked me the website and/or social network page. This other day what things were like before ease of communication, however, comes we had computers. “Very lonely,” I at a price: a very low price. It could be replied. My 286 brought fandom into my argued that sharing the workload made a living room, and let me talk about books committee fuse together better—what it and writing and fandom and nonsense in really did was fuse vertebrae doing back near real-time. It introduced me to breaking work. Thank you Saint Berners- fanzines. It brought me people and Lee. conversations I’d never have imagined. —Ian Sorensen I don’t think I’m the only one to have had their life changed by a greyish My 286 computer with a slow dialup modem. My 286 was made, it says, by Quality Far The immediacy of the internet changed Eastern Manufacturing. I bought it for fandom, and fandom help shape the way £700 in 1992, and it’s the kind of off- the internet developed—our gift economy, grey that computers used to be. It has a our geeky obsessions, our love of text. disk drive, a huge 40MB hard drive, and —Jo Walton 5 Volume 16 No. 1 PLOKTA APRIL 2011 The Starship Enterprise Of course there had been women in Star Trek, really, but maybe a tv show fandom before—I’ll pause to can’t be an object. There are several recommend Justine Larbalestier’s The things it’s almost obligatory to mention Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction on an convention programme item about (Wesleyan University Press, 2002) and fan history. One is Star Wars (very bad, The Secret Feminist Cabal by Helen Merrick ruined fandom, brought in a load of (Aqueduct Press, 2009), partly because people with different ideas and they’re informative and readable books expectations, and started science fiction but also because I’m curious about how going mainstream) and another is Star serious it’s possible to get before Plokta Trek, which you might think tarred with turns down a contribution [it’s more how the same brush but actually in this long you get—Ed]—but they were context features on the positive side of definitely in a minority and quite a few of the scorecard because Star Trek fans them already had partners by the time were mostly women.