University of South Florida Scholar Commons Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications 10-1-1988 SFRA ewN sletter 161 Science Fiction Research Association Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub Part of the Fiction Commons Scholar Commons Citation Science Fiction Research Association, "SFRA eN wsletter 161 " (1988). Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications. Paper 106. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/scifistud_pub/106 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Collection - Science Fiction & Fantasy Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The SFRA Newsletter Published ten times a year hy The Science Fiction Research Associa­ tion. Copyright '~; 1988 by the SFRA. Address editorial correspon­ dence to SFRA Newsletter, English Dept., Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Editor: Robert A. Collins; Associate Editor: Catherim: Fischer; RCl'iclV Editor: Rob Latham; Film Editor: Ted Krulik: Book NelVs Editor: Martin A. Schneider; Editmial Assistant: Jeanette Lawson. Semi changes of address to the Secretary, enquiries concerning subscriptions to the Treasurer, listed below. Past P,·esidents of SFRA Thomas D. Clare son (1970-76) SFRA Executive Arthur o. Lewis, Jr. (1977-78) Committee Joe De Bolt (1979-80) James Gunn (1981-82) Patricia S. Warrick (1983-84) Donald M. Hassler (1985-86) President William H. Hardesty, III Pust Editors of the Newsletter English Department Fred Lerner (1971-74) Miami University Beverly Friend (1974-78) Oxford, OH 45056 Roald Tweet (1978-81) Vice-President Elizabeth Anne Hull (1981-84) Richard Miller (1984-87) Martin H. (ireenbcrg w. College of Community Sciences Univ. of Wisconsin-Green Bay Pilg"im Award Winne,'s .I. Bailey (1970) Green Bay, WI 54302 o. Marjorie Hope Nicolson (1971) Julius Kagarlitski (1972) Secrehll·Y .lack Williamson (1973) Elizabeth Anne Hull I. F. Clarke (1974) Liheral Arts Division Damon Knight (1975) William Rainey Harper College James Gunn (1976) Palatine, IL 60067 Thomas D. Clareson (1977) Treasurer Brian W. Aldiss (1978) Darko Suvin (1979) Charlotte P. Donsky Peter Nicholls (l980) 1265 South Clay Sam Moskowitz (1981) Denver, CO 80219 Neil Barron (1982) Immediate Past President H. Bruce Franklin (1983) Everell Bleiler (1984) Donald M. Hassler English Department Samuel R. Delany (1985) George Slusser (1986) Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 Gary K. Wolfe (1987) Joanna Russ (1988) SFRA News/etter, No. 161, October, 1988 President's Message: Harlan Ellison and Robert A. Collins OU all know by reading the NClrs/eller that Bob Collins' account of Har­ Y lan Ellison's address at the Ninth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts last March has been controversial. I'm writing to re­ state SFRA's position and to add my own opinion about Mr. Ellison's au­ dress. As you must have gathered, Messrs. Collins and Ellison are not friends: therefore, their perceptions of events may differ. I have no personal knowledge of their interactions, but I suspect that they influence both men's present responses. Mr. Collins reported on ICFA in the April/May NClvs/ellcr. Mr. Ellison's recollection of events uiffers in a number of respects. In the News/etler Mr. Collins reported what he heard. saw, and experienced at ICFA. What he reported was not only at ouds with Mr. Ellison's own view of events, but also differed from the recollection of several other atten­ dees. To represent these perspectives. Mr. Collins printed two letters from members presenting opposing viewpoints. He then replied to them at length. Not having attended the ICFA. I can't comment on one of the issues, Mr. Ellison's participation in panels or on his contributions to the con­ ference organization, structure and tone. I ha\'e, however, listened to a tape of Mr. Ellison's keynote address, which Mr. Collins characterized unfavorably. In my opinion irs a wilty. fiery speech. Called "Condemneu to thc Gulag," it appears to be in part impromptu and always passionate. growing out of Mr. Ellison's long (and deeply) held convictions about the status of the writer who chooses to \\fork in SF. a form too often dismissed by "serious" academic and media critics. On the tape, the audience reac­ tion sounds strong and favorable. This is my view, not SFRA's. In reviewing Mr. Ellison unfavorably, Mr. Collins was giving his vie\\'­ point--again, not the official one of SFRA (nor necessarily that of any of its other memhers). However. Mr. Collins' review may have had unfortunate consequen­ ces. Mr. Ellison believes that the unfavorable NCII'slell('l' account of his participation in ICFA has cost him a speaking engagement and possibly SFRA News/etter, No. 161, October, 1988 endangered others. If that's the case, it's truly regrcllable and certainly inappropriate. Let me propose an analogy. A book review may lead a given reader not to read a certain volume--thatmay even be one purpose of the review. But the review is one person's opinion: even the most hostile opinion shouldn't be taken by anyone to imply that further works by the same author shouldn't be published. To apply my analogy: that Bob Collins didn't respond favorably to Harlan Ellison's talk at ICFA doesn't imply that SFRA thinks Mr. Ellison should not be allowed to speak. I would hope that no one would conclude that we're in the business of promoting or condemning any individual. There is no official SFRA opinion of Harlan Ellsion--or Bob Collins, or Bill Hardesty. Nor should there be. Bill Hardesty Fantasy and Postmodernism The Winter issue (No.4) of the iOlll7lal aJthe Fantastic in the A,1s is a special numbn, devoted to exploring the relationship between genre fan­ tasy and the "post modern" movement in literature and critical theory. Guest Editor Lance Olsen, of the University of Kentucky, remarks: "1 think we have a groundbreaking issue here - opening up a whole new area of discourse among those interested in fantasy." Included are: Lance Olsen, "Overture: What Was Postmodernism" Peter Malekin, "The Deeentered Absolute: Significance in the Post­ modern Fantastic" Ralph Yarrow, "Putting a Red Nose on the Texts: Post modernism, the Fantastic, and Play" Veronica Hollinger', "Theater for the Fin-du-Millenium: Playing (at) the End" Patt"ick MUl'phy, "De/Reconstructing the '1': PostFANTASTICmod­ ernist Poetry" Rob Latham, "There's No Place Like Home: Simulating Postmodern America in THe Wizard oj (}z and BIlle Velvet" Dorothy Joiner, "Fictional Cultures in Postmodern Art" William M. Schuyler, Jr"" "Deconstructing Deconstruction: Chimeras of Form and Content in Samuel R. Delany" Douglas Fowler', "Mill hauser, Suskil1l1 and the Post modern" Rob Latham, "Coda: Criticism in the Age of Borges" The special issue is due out in January . .TFA comes with membership in IAFA; single issues are $6 each. Write M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, NY 10504. 4 SFRA News/etter, No. 161, October, 1988 POINT OF VIEW PROBLEMS: A Conversation with Karen Joy Fowler Conducted by Earl Ingersoll and Nancy Kress In )9g5, Karen .Joy Fowler burst upon the science fiction scene with three stories in Isaac AsimOl"s SF Magazine, one in 77,e Magazinc oj Fantasy and Science Fiction, and one which was featured in the first volume of L. Ron HlIbbard Presents H'iitln oj the FWl/re. The next year saw several more appear, and by the end of 19R6 Fowler had enough material to pub­ lish her first collection,Altiflcial Things [Bantam/SpectraJ, a volume which won high praise from writers as diverse as Orson Scott Card, Kim Stan­ ley Robinson. and Lucius Shepard. In 1987, she won the John W. Camp­ bell Award for Best New Writer; her '87 short story "The Faithful Companion at Forty" was nominated for a Nebula Award and selected for publication in Gardner Dowis' }'car's Best Sci{'//ce Fiction [Fifth An­ nual Collection, St. Martin's, 19881. She currently holds a fellowship in fic­ tion from the National Endowment for the Arts and has recently sold her first novel. Despite this rapid success. there has been. in some circles, controver­ sy as to whether Karen .loy Fowler is a science fiction writer at all. Her stories, though they often feature alien beings and other recognizable icons of the genre. tend to focus on ordinary people and to usc the tradi­ tional material of SF more for its metaphorical suggestiveness than for its scientific or sociological import. To readers steeped in American SF tlf the 40's and 50's, Fowler's stories always seem slightly off, as if the genre's classic settings and props have been skewed somehow. Her work raises point-of-view prohlems, forcing the reader to ask herself: what is an SF story? what should one expect whcn reading an SF story? how much thematic ambiguity can the genre tolerate before a story stops being SF and becomes something else, like a dream or a parable? Actually, there is a fairly long tradition in SF of this kind of writ ing, running from Cordwainer Smith to R.A. Lafferty to Michael Bishop; these writers. for all that they differed one [rom another, have shared a restlessness with the field's conservative quality, an impulse to shake up and open up the genre. SFRA News/etter, No. 161, October, 1988 If one can, without contradiction, speak of a tradition of individualism, then that is the one to which Karen Joy Fowler belongs. She also belongs to the growing rank of women SF writers ami, like many of her contemporaries, is concerned with the implications of gender -- both thematically (as in the question: can SF provide models to study sexual difference?) and professionally (as in: what docs it mean to be a woman SF writer?).