SF COMMENTARY 80 40th Anniversary Edition, Part 1 August 2010 PHILIP K. DICK SPECIAL INCLUDES ‘SCANNER DARKLY’ DISCUSSION BOB TUCKER SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: BRIAN ALDISS RALPH ASHBROOK LENNY BAILES DOUG BARBOUR JOHN BAXTER SYDNEY BOUNDS DAMIEN BRODERICK JOHN BROSNAN HARRY HENNESSEY BUERKETT STEPHEN CAMPBELL IAN CARRUTHERS GRANIA DAVIS MATTHEW DAVIS DITMAR (DICK JENSSEN) BARRY GILLAM BRUCE GILLESPIE JEFF HAMILL HOWARD HENDRIX JOHN HERTZ STEVE JEFFERY WERNER KOOPMANN ROSALEEN LOVE PATRICK McGUIRE ROBERT MAPSON GERALD MURNANE GREG PICKERSGILL A. LANGLEY SEARLES BOB SMITH COLIN STEELE PHIL STEPHENSEN-PAYNE TIM TRAIN BOB TUCKER IAN WATSON GENE WOLFE RAY WOOD & MANY MANY OTHERS Dedicated to the good friends who organised the Bring Bruce Bayside Fund, 2004–2005, which took me to San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and Los Angeles in February–March 2005: Arnie and Joyce Katz, Bill Wright, Robert Lichtman, and Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer; Irwin Hirsh and Dick Jenssen; and many generous contributors, especially Thomas Bull, David Russell and Phyrne Bacon. This is the final chapter of an epic story. CONTENTS 4 EDITORIALS Michael W. Waite Cy Chauvin 4 I must be talking to my friends Harry Buerkett The Editor Bob Tucker 6 GUEST EDITORIALS 46 Introduction to the writing of Harry Buerkett’s article 6 Has the treasure been stolen? on Ice and Iron Stephen Campbell Harry Buerkett 7 New Wave and backwash: 1960–1980 48 Ice and Iron: Damien Broderick Wilson Tucker’s fiction experiment in critique Harry Hennessey Buerkett 16 THE BBB REPORT: THE FINAL CHAPTER 56 PINLIGHTERS 16 Introduction: Editor Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly: Greg Pickersgill Book of Honour, Potlatch 14 56 Some famous last words: Letters from departed friends Bruce Gillespie A. Langley Searles 17 The bleakest book I’ve ever read: John Brosnan Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly Bob Smith Bruce Gillespie Alan Sandercock 18 Notes for my talk about A Scanner Darkly John Brosnan Lenny Bailes Sydney Bounds 23 The Book of Honour panel, Potlatch 14, 4 March 2005: 59 Pinlighters Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly Brian Aldiss Ian Carruthers’ transcription of his own notes: Ahrvid Engholm Bruce Gillespie, Grania Davis, Lenny Bailes, Howard Hendrix Rick Kennett Ed Webber 26 THE WORK OF PHILIP K. DICK: THE DEBATE CONTINUES Steve Sneyd Ray Wood 26 P. K. Dick: The exhilaration and the terror Gene Wolfe Rosaleen Love Martin Morse Wooster 28 The great Philip K. Dick novels David Cake Colin Steele Dave Langford 29 The speaking light: Arthur D. Hlavaty Philip K. Dick and the shamanistic vision Tim Marion Robert Mapson Matthew Davis 32 PKD and the analyst Bill Burns Harry Buerkett Ron Clarke 33 The beaming paradox Franz Rottensteiner Ralph Ashbrook Skel 34 Explaining his explanation: Peter Weston Two mainstream novels by Philip K. Dick Nigel Rowe Tim Train Steve Jeffery Alan Sandercock 37 FURTHER TALES OF TUCKER Ian Watson Rich Coad 37 Arthur Wilson (‘Bob’) Tucker (1914–2006) Sue Thomason John Hertz Adrian Bedford 38 Responses to the Tucker Issue: SFC 79 Brian Hades Bob Tucker Rosaleen Love Earl Kemp Robert Lichtman Dennis Lien David Lake John Baxter John Baxter Phil Stephensen-Payne Gerald Murnane Greg Pickersgill Tom Whalen Gene Wolfe Ralph Ashbrook Martin Morse Wooster Gillian Polack Lesleigh Luttrell Harry Buerkett Steve Jeffery Barry Gillam Doug Barbour Werner Koopmann Race Mathews Frank Bertrand Toni Weisskopf 81 Feature letters of comment: Rich Lynch 81 Patrick McGuire in the middle of a snowstorm Dave Locke 83 Jeff Hamill asks: Can science fiction be literature? Lloyd Penney 90 World’s longest ‘We also heard from...’ column Tom Whalen 111 other correspondents 2 SF COMMENTARY 80 40th Anniversary Edition, Part 1 August 2010 96 pages SF COMMENTARY No. 80, August 2010, is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia. Phone: 61-3-9435 7786. Also available in .PDF file from eFanzines.com Available for The Usual (letters or substantial emails of comment, artistic contributions, articles, reviews, traded publications or review copies) or subscriptions (Australia: $50 for 5, cheques to Bruce Gillespie; Overseas: $US50 or 25 pounds for 5, or equivalent, airmail; please send folding money, not cheques). Printed by Copy Place, Basement, 415 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Cover: Ditmar (Dick Jenssen): ‘Contemplation’ Photos: Elaine Cochrane (p. 4); Jennifer Bryce (p. 6); Bruce Gillespie (p. 21); Toni Weisskopf collection (pp. 37, 50); Harry Buerkett (p. 46). Thanks to John Baxter for book covers shown on p. 39. Also available: 40th Anniversary Edition, Part 2: SF COMMENTARY 81 40th Anniversary Edition, Part 3: SF COMMENTARY 82 Contents include: Colin Steele covering the SF/fantasy field 2005–2010; Terence M. Green’s life and writing times; Ian Watson interviewing Stephen Baxter; Guy Salvidge’s extensive coverage of the entire work of Philip K. Dick; ‘Criticanto’ covering the major works of recent SF and fantasy. the editor natters; and more! Respond or subscribe now to get your copy; or download from efanzines.com Also look for the PDF/efanzines.com supplement: SF COMMENTARY 80A (see p. 96 for details). 3 I must be talking to my friends Welcome to the 40th anniversary edition of SF Commentary. Not that it is the 40th; more like the 41-and-a-halfth. I’ll keep calling it the ‘40th’ because almost everything in it was in the files by January 2009, the true month of the anniversary. Only the editorials, Harry Buerkett’s contributions about Bob Tucker and a few of the letters of comment are recent. The 40th anniversary edition comes in three bits: SFCs 80, 81 and 82. Welcome to Part 1. Damien Broderick suggested that I produce an SF Commentary 80 filled entirely by contributors who were featured in No 1, January 1969. One slight problem: only Damien and I are still alive from the people who contributed to that issue. We lost John Foyster in 2003, and George Turner in 1997. Even Stephen Campbell was not there at the very beginning. He came on board, as cover artist and chief assistant collator, only with No 4 (mid 1969). I was teaching (not very well) at Ararat Technical School in 1969 when I met Stephen Campbell, then a schoolboy attending the other secondary school in town. As he relates in his Guest Editorial, I shoved some Philip K. Dick and Cordwainer Smith books in his hands, and the damage was done. He was also excited by the idea of fanzines, helped me duplicate the early issues, and joined ANZAPA (Australian and New Zealand Amateur Publishing Association) for a few mailings. He already wanted to be an artist, and that ambition remains. He attended Syncon 1, Sydney, New Year 1970. In early 1970 he and his family moved elsewhere in Victoria. I quit teaching at the end of 1970, and moved back to Melbourne. When Stephen turned up to visit me at my parents’ place in East Preston, he had quit school and turned into a wandering rover. We’ve kept in contact over the years, and now he is living in the Victorian coastal town of Warrnambool, quite near David Russell, another great friend of the magazine. Steve is still being an artist and still hoping for that great breakthrough. He does not own a computer, so every now and again he sends me wise and stimulating letters about whatever is currently itching his mind. One of those letters seemed an ideal item for a Guest Editorial. I did not so much meet Damien Broderick for the first time at the Melbourne SF Conference, Easter 1968 (my first convention) as witness his visitation. One day of the convention was spent in rural surroundings up at Boronia, in the lower reaches of the Dandenong Ranges. At the beginning of the authors’ panel (reprinted in SF Commentary 3, transcribed by Tony Thomas, who is still with us), Damien swept down the central aisle, all long hair and beard, accompanied by people who seemed to be his disciples from Monash University, spoke his piece at the panel, then swept out again at the end, not to be seen again until the Easter 1969 Melbourne SF Convention. In the meantime I had published, thanks to amaz- ing efforts of Lee Harding, Leigh Edmonds, John Foyster and John Bangsund, SF Commentary 1. In 1968, I had had few people to talk to during the convention. Easter 1969, everybody wanted to say hello. To my amazement, no less a figure than Damien Broderick summoned me over for a natter. In the years since, Damien has travelled much fur- ther than I have — producing many well-known Australian novels and short stories and criti- cal books; acquiring a doctorate; and moving to San Antonio, Texas — but he’s maintained an interest in SF Commentary. Stephen Campbell (l.) and Bruce Gillespie (r.), 17 February 2010. (Photo: Elaine Cochrane.) 4 What has been the greatest change over the years since 1969, apart from my disappearing hairline and expandng waistline? Not just the change from typewriter-and-duplicator production methods to computer typesetting and offset printing. Not just the influence of the Internet, a channel that has rediscovered friends long thought missing and delivered to me the vast plenitude of material available for this issue. No, the major change has been inside my head, typified by the long-running editorial column heading ‘I Must Be Talking to My Friends’. As Damien himself once said, what I wanted to publish originally was more like SF Criterion than SF Commentary. What became obvious by the early seventies is that I really wanted to do was gather all my friends in one magazine. My friends knew me and each other because of their mutual interest in science fiction literature.