Steam Engine T ime ERIC RAYMOND DEBATE HEINLEIN’S ‘STAR BEAST’ REVISIONIST VIEW of LE GUIN Zoran Bekric Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) E. B. Frohvet Bruce Gillespie David J. Lake Yvonne Rousseau David Russell Jan Stinson and many others Issue 6 August 2007 Steam Engine T ime 6 STEAM ENGINE TIME No. 6, August 2007 is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia ([email protected]) and Janine Stinson, PO Box 248, Eastlake, MI 49626-0248, USA ([email protected]). Members fwa. First edition is in .PDF file format from http://efanzines.com, or enquire from either of our email addresses. Print edition available for: Subscriptions (Australia: $40, cheques to ‘Gillespie & Cochrane Pty Ltd’; Overseas: $US50 or £20, or equivalent, air- mail; please send folding money, not cheques); Traded fanzines (printed); Review copies; Contributors; or whim. Printed by Copy Place, Basement, 415 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. Illustrations Ditmar (Dick Jenssen): front cover, and pp. 7, 8; David Russell: back cover, and pp. 21, 29. Photographs Covers of various books and magazines discussed in this issue; plus photos by Philip Harbottle (p. 3); Jenny Blackford (p. 9); Yvonne Rousseau (pp. 10, 12, 15, 17); Eric Lindsay (p. 11); Jason Von Hollander (p. 27); John Baxter (p. 34). A big thank you The print edition of Steam Engine Time 5 was made possible by a very generous donation by Dr David J. Lake, Brisbane. 3 EDITORIAL 1: 27 LETTERS OF COMMENT Farewell to Syd – and changes here at SET Darrell Schweitzer Bruce Gillespie Damien Broderick Harry Buerkett 5 EDITORIAL 2: Chris Garcia Afloat on a sea of books Alan Sandercock Jan Stinson Jeff Hamill Greg Egan Martin Morse Wooster THIS ISSUE’S COVER James Doig 7 When will the men return? Julian Warner or, Non-standard spaces Art Widner Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) Sara Creasy Terence M. Green Dora Levakis ERIC RAYMOND DEBATE E. D. Webber Stephen Campbell 9 Critical Mass versus Eric Raymond Jerry Kaufman Yvonne Rousseau Ian Nichols plus the members of Adelaide’s Critical Mass: John Baxter Zoran Bekric, Ian Borchardt, Neil Cooper, Lee Harding Brian Edwards, Jacq Felis, Jeff Harris, Steve Sneyd Adam Jenkins, Roman Orszanski Robert Elordieta Robert Sabella 14 Notes on Yvonne Rousseau’s article Larry Bigman Zoran Bekric E. B. Frohvet Patrick McGuire 15 Why libertarian politics don’t have much to do with SF Steve Jeffrey Zoran Bekric Joseph Nicholas Lloyd Penney Gary Dalkin HEINLEIN JUVENILES Franz Rottensteiner Tony Keen 19 Jurisprudential difficulties in Heinlein’s The Star Beast and many others E. B. Frohvet REVISIONIST NOTES ON LE GUIN 22 Grouches on Gethen: Improbabilities in The Left Hand of Darkness David Lake 25 Coda: Estraven’s early life David Lake 2 GILLESPIE FANZINES GO ELECTRONIC Because I cannot afford to continue supporting the cost of printing and posting my magazines from my irregular income, I am changing the distribution pattern from now on. STEAM ENGINE TIME I will honour all subscriptions paid for paper copies; regular trades for magazines sent by post; regular suppliers of books for review; plus a print copy for each contributor. All other readers are pointed towards the ‘Bruce Gillespie’ section of http://efanzines.com, where you will find each issue in .PDF format as it appears. If you let me know by email on [email protected], you become an official Downloader. I will email you when each future issue is published. SF COMMENTARY THE METAPHYSICAL REVIEW The only hope I have of reviving these magazines is to make them available only on efanzines.com. Watch that space. Editorial by Bruce Gillespie Farewell to Syd — and changes here at SET Late last year I received the following address in the country, presumably a email, which passed on a message nursing home. I sent SET 5 there, but from British agent, writer and fan Phil he was probably already too ill to reply Harbottle: ‘It is with profound sorrow to it. that I announce the death of Sydney J. Why notice the death of Syd Bounds. Syd died peacefully in his Bounds when the year has been filled sleep this morning, Saturday 24 with news of the deaths of notable November 2006, after just one night in figures in SF and fandom, especially a hospice, after leaving hospital.’ Syd Arthur Wilson (Bob) Tucker, one of Bounds had just turned 86. He died of my favourite SF writers, and the cancer. mightiest fan of us all (subject of two Few readers or writers in Australia different issues of SF Commentary), Lee will have read Syd Bounds’ many Hoffman, the first and greatest female stories or novels. They appeared fanzine editor (Quandry, Science Fiction mainly in Nebula and New Worlds, the Five Yearly), rich brown, long-time fan- best-known English SF magazines of nish fan, Dick Eney, publisher of the Sydney J. Bounds, 1920–2006. the 1950s and 1960s, or from smaller Fancyclopedia, and Jack Williamson, (Photo: courtesy Philip Harbottle, Cosmos British publishers, such as Robert whose publishing career extended Literary Agency.) Hale, rarely distributed here. I’ve only from the late 1920s until now? (More ever found one of his books in a than any other novel, his The Human- a week of tube-system strikes. After secondhand store. Readers of my oids, read when I was twelve, made me surviving my visit, he was kind magazines, especially SF Commentary, a lifetime SF reader.) enough to keep in touch, often exhort- will have noticed that Syd Bounds I’m paying special attention to Syd ing me to take up fiction writing (hah!), wrote a letter of comment to almost Bounds because of his wonderful and sending a constant stream of news every issue that he received. Because I quality of self-effacement (the rarest about the 1950s–60s British writers did not receive a letter in reply to Steam quality among writers) and the great (such as Ted Tubb and Ken Bulmer) Engine Time 5, I knew something was kindness he offered me when I visited who were still alive. very wrong with him. A year earlier he England in January 1974. Syd actually The death of Syd Bounds has a sym- had written to me that his landlord in let me sleep upstairs in his bed in his bolic importance. He never bought a Kingston-on-Thames, South London, tiny house in Kingston for a week computer. He kept himself solvent by was trying to throw out him and his while he slept on the settee downstairs. writing everything on a portable type- collection. A few months later, Ansible He also provided directions for mak- writer. As I said in an email when he reported that Syd had moved to an ing my way to central London during died: ‘I keep saying that I publish 3 paper copies of my fanzines for people fanzine, Cosmic Cuts. After the war juvenile fiction. like Syd Bounds who are not on the he worked in a factory, and since he In fact, when it comes to fingers net. With Syd gone, the temptation to loathed the job, he began working in pies, Bounds only seriously loses rely purely on the internet for distribu- more seriously as a fiction writer in out in the not-enough-pies for his tion becomes a lot stronger.’ hopes of making a living that way. multi-talented fingers part of the Dave Langford, editor and writer In the ’40s he started writing hard- equation. ‘People think writing is of the monthly newszine Ansible, boiled crime novels and selling not work. But it’s bloody hard work replied: ‘Syd was one of the reasons to ‘spicy’ stories to the pulps, and he if you’re doing it full-time. I used to keep producing the paper Ansible. remained a working writer for the wonder why am I sweating blood There are still a few others, but very rest of his life, producing fiction un- to get a few pounds, when I could few. It’s a wrench each time an old, der at least 24 personal pseudo- walk into a factory job and have it familiar name has to be removed (e.g. nyms. easy? But of course, it’s more inter- Ken Bulmer).’ esting. Even though very few The death of Syd Bounds gives Among those who paid him tribute people make real money out of it.’ strength to my arm in changing the was his agent and friend Phil Har- So which, among his diverse spread distribution of my magazines so that I bottle: of styles, is the most important can afford to keep publishing them. priority now? SF? ‘Well, it was Readers don’t take me seriously when I spoke to Syd to thank him for all when I started,’ he chortles. ‘Now, I say that my real income has been his friendship and literary support my main interest is surviving until dropping steadily since the mid 1990s. over nearly 40 years (he has been a the undertaker calls . !’ In 2006–07 I earned about a quarter as cornerstone of my career as an edi- Writing is a solitary vocation. much, in real terms, as I did in 1979–80. tor/writer/agent) and told him of How does he deal with that? ‘You That year was the last time I published all the forthcoming books, and that get used to that, as a writer. Since SF Commentary monthly, ending in he would be remembered etc., etc., my mother died I’ve always been Number 62/63/64/65/66, which was fearing it might be a last conversa- on my own.