K31

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K 31, an APAzine for Pieces of Eight, Feb. '93, from A. Vincent Clarke, 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent, DA16 2BN. "If Shakespeare had wanted to use an English dictionary, he would have had to compile his own". (McAdam & Milne: Johnson's Dictionary)

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UPDATE

Practically nothing has has happened to me since early December. I've taken full advantage of my 'retired' status to just huddle. Watch TV. Fight the tide of incoming fanzines. Try to figure out when I can find time to watch videos. Keep warm. Eat. Breathe.

Oh, except for an unexpected gift from Phil Harbottle, whom I mentioned in a recent 'K' – I met him at the Vintage Pulp & Paperback Fair in London. He kindly sent me VULTURES OF THE VOID (Borgo Press, USA, '92) a paperback written by him and Stephen Holland. Vultures of the Void? I hear you mutter. This is some kind of joke?

Nope. Actually, the book is one of a series (No.13, in fact), called I.O. Evans Studies In The Philosophy and Criticism of Literature – Evans was the Welsh translator and editor of a prestigous edition of Jules Verne. The present book is a history of professional sf publishing in Britain between 1946 and 1956. An interesting period for an old-timer, as the genre gained new authors (Brunner, Bob Shaw, Aldiss, etc.) and managed to shake off the attentions of mushroom publishers and itinerant authors who were happy to write 'sf', and westerns, and gangster stories, at 10/- (50p) per 1000 words.

I even get a couple of fleeting mentions, one as an 'arch fan', a term best left, as it is here, undefined, tho' I've always liked Westminster Bridge myself.....

One item I thought was very interesting, being slightly outside what might be called my own field of expertise. Comics fans may like to note that after the War periodicals were not allowed to be imported because of balance-of-payment problems – except for newspapers. So a Midlands company brought in millions of newspapers from the US and Canada which had coloured (comic) supplements, threw away the news sheets and sold the supplements.

These established a following for comics in Britain, so that when the Treasury inspectors finally found out and plugged the loophole, the firm were able fly in the printing matrices for the US comics and print them in Britain with assured sales to addicts. I can't see any publisher in this country being philanthropic enough to publish this history, but am willing to have my arm twisted to lend it.

COMMENTS ON JANUARY MAILING

Yes, I'm skipping comments on the December mailing, that stuff having been written way back at the end of November and therefore needing far more of an effort of memory than most folk would care to give it.

THROUGH THE SPEAKING TRUMPET – JDR

Sorry to hear of Ian Bambro's departure – his contributions were always interesting. Greetings to Andrew, too...I enjoyed the Dec. intro.

On terrible necessity of paying for envelopes, labels etc., you could do worse than have a word with Phillips Duplicators of Bromley, Kent, 081-460-2772; they've long been suppliers of copier & duplicating paper and envelopes to the gentry ie. the steadily diminishing number of South Eastern fans who produce fanzines, and are one of the very few sources of 2nd.-hand duplicators that I know of.

Congratulations to Josie for getting another job so quickly.

MARAUDER – Ken Cheslin

Whether you send TOA out with PoE (initials! initials!) is a matter for the PoE chest of ill-gotten loot, I suppose, but this is a case where you can do some positive discrimination. Send TOA only to the PoE'ers who say they want it.

Your type of room party sounds fine, tho' I'd favour the small/select type. Bigger ones just reproduce the manners and atmosphere of pub gatherings.

I'm not sure that a 50-room hotel would be big enough for a Con without extensive alternative accomodation being available locally. Anyone know the standard Con-hotel size?

Re. your note on the OMPAcon, Rob Hansen has already written most of the rough draft of THEN 4, British fandom in the '70s, and has noted "The October OMPA mailing marked the start of a new year...mailings for '70/'71 had totalled 877 pages...in the AE's report Ken Cheslin announced (a) bid for the 1973 Eastercon...this was the first time an APA had ever bid for one..." and subsequently reports on the Con.

Rob is trying to get THEN 4 out within a couple of months, providing my electro-stenciller and his duplicator are up to the job. He was on to me only this last week about any information available on the '78 FAANCON, which must have been one of the least publicised Cons in fan history. True, this was a small social-type Con, no programming, and I doubt if there were more than 30 people present, but I was able to turn up only one account of the proceedings (in Judy Mortimore's CHEEP) and that was mostly light gossip of the "and then we went to a Greek restaurant" type. If only the people who wrote Con reports knew how much solid fact may be later thirsted after by fan historians! I read an American fanzine once where the editor/publisher reported on two cons and didn't even say where they were held.

RYCT Dop: interesting song – can't say I've ever heard of it; actually, without trying to pretend that I know much of Southern English pubs and less of clubs, I can't imagine the circumstances where it might be sung.

RYCT me: I've found up a nearly complete OMPA mailing from 1958, and will do an analysis of what made it tick in those days, when I can find the time. I think that fandom is too diffuse now – there are not many topics which would elicit comment from the majority of active fans in the country. Possibly some aspect of the forthcoming World Con in Glasgow will do so, but that's a once-in-a-decade item.

"I have read folk who say...that the demise of the letter columns in SF magazines has diminished recruitment into fandom..." you note, and this is true; it's one of the reasons why the BSFA was started, to present some sort of organised body which potential fans could join. This was before sf became sufficiently respectable for Universities to have sf clubs, of course. I'm not at all sure that adverts for the BSFA in INTERZONE are of much use (statistics, Jenny?) but they're the only thing available.

Fandom is littered with examples of recruitment in strange ways, and it would be interesting to find out how members of PoE became aware of Us. We now know your origin. Me, I saw an advert offering sf in a pre-war prozine, sent for a catalogue, saw some fanzines offered as a sideline in it, bought some and subscribed.... And after the war, when I'd more or less broken off relations for various reasons, accidentally ran across a group in a second-hand bookshop who were looking for the same authors that I was, dared to introduce myself as a fan, and met names I knew from those pre-war (and wartime) fanzines. Destiny had a second swipe, and this time it took. RYCT Derek re. Hitler; yes, amazingly, and of course contrary to what we were told at the time, most of the German weapons of war were at least as good as, if not better than, ours. But there were all sorts of factors involved in Hitler's defeat, the premature invasion of Russia which bogged down millions of troops being one of them, the stupid-beyond-belief attack by Japan on America which brought her into the war being another and probably the most significant. I was no military expert, but I remember heaving a sigh of relief when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and Hitler declared war on the US a few days later. Whatever disasters now occurred, we were going to win!

This may have been a carry-over from sf, of course – one of the magazines I used to read because I couldn't get enough sf (I'm recounting early days) was FLYING ACES, which was a US zine, half of which was devoted to model plane plans, news of 'air meets' in the US and other non-fictional aeronautical items. But half of it was vaguely sf, some of it slam-bang adventure yarns of secret weapons in WW 1, but at least once per issue there'd be a story of US fighters shooting down the 'yellow Nips' in a future war.

Back page on the unemployment situation very interesting, especially the fact that more than 30 alterations have fiddled the figures. I wonder why they bother – surely nearly three million jobless is bad enough?

UNTITLED – Sarah Cox

This is marvellous writing for which the accepted cachet would be 'gritty realism'. It also brings a sense of horror – and anger – that parents should leave so much for the strained educational system to do – or undo.

I also wonder at Sarah's courage and possibly foolhardiness at undertaking this work.

Reminds me of an environment in which I once had a job. Nothing so uncivilised as Sarah's school, but merely a large and very very busy open-plan office. One Monday morning the Personnel Manager brought along a new chap to start work with my group. The newcomer stopped just inside the doorway, surveyed the scene, raised his voice to be heard over the ringing of telephones, said "I'm not working in this madhouse", turned on his heel and left. A pity in some ways that Sarah didn't take similar action, but then we'd have missed a marvellous bit of writing. Surely a version of this would sell to a newspaper or magazine, preferably something like the Guardian? Or BBC Radio?

LITTLE BITS OF ZERO – Carol Ann Green

I'm not sure that the lines you quote from Roy Harper (whoever he is) are all that clear – "Sometimes I vote for the men in the coat" ? – but any what-I-regard-as-a-normal-person would go along with the sentiments you express. Sometimes I find a sneaking sense of approval creeping up when I think of way-out attempts to make a better world, such as those weirdies who were bouncing around on mattresses at the last Election. At least they have a goal in mind and are striving towards it.

The Canadian travelogue could do with more personal detail, such as the brief mention of the sealskin.

RYCT Kench on word processors. As I've just written to him (for the same topics came up in both the APA and his genzine THE OLAF ALTERNATIVE), I find a word processor infinitely helpful in re-arranging words, eliminating superfluous ones, and generally sorting out what I write in the first burst of inspiration (?), and couldn't now imagine myself back to just typing. There are many people around who can write (and talk spontaneously, as you can see any day on TV) without having to 'edit' what first pops out, but I'm not one.

Tho' come to think of it, I used to be – I used to compose 'straight to stencil', ie. cut a plastic/wax stencil, when a re-think would involve scrapping that same stencil, and in the office have used a dictaphone in a similar strait-jacketed mode. Can't make up my mind if my mental processes have deteriorated or if I've just sensibly taken the easier option.

DAY FOR NIGHT – Fiction – Paul Kincaid

Interesting, as always. The list of short stories has given me a few to look for (some idea of origins would have been useful), and I entirely agree on the merits of 'James Tiptree Jr.' But I note that all the stories you mention, including those in the afterword, seem to have been written after 1960 (except I think 'Angel's Egg'), if memory is correct. Personally, my tastes would include Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley, Fritz Leiber, Damon Knight, possibly A.E. Van Vogt, etc....all pre-1960 writers. Interesting, and shows the depth of the field now.

The radio script piece fascinating, especially the time limit involved. Any chance of you printing a transcript in a future DfN?

PHANTASMAGORIA – Derek Pickles

I writhe with embarrasment, but I seem to have mislaid this. Derek sent me one early, so it wasn't necessary to include another in the mailing. And the thing's vanished. With about 5 fanzines coming in per week I know I should have put it aside, but....Of course, I'd have locced it when it first came out, hah hah, but I'd have liked to assess it nowadays. Will continue to look for it, Derek. Sorry.

VLADDY 'ELL – Dop

More layout than substance, but nice to see. In the World's Worst Movies (Octopus '86), very recommended, the wristwatch boob is mentioned (tho' it was El Cid and in mediaevel Valencia), but there's a classic line quoted in it from I Was A Teenage Frankenstein (1957): "I know you've got a civil tongue in your head," the monster is told, "because I sewed it there myself."

It's just struck me that Frankenstein's creation (1818) and your pal Vlad (the fictional Dracula dates from '97) have made their entry into the mythic pantheon (along with Holmes and Robin Hood and King Arthur, etc.), as examples of the man-made monster and the vampire. Is there only room for one distinct specimen of each kind? The niche for the Monster has presumably been filled by King Kong – no other applicants such as Godzilla need apply. James Bond is the secret agent, show all those other shifty-eyed characters out of the back door. Let Philip Marlowe do your private eye work – turn the others away.

Sustainable proposition?

TRAVELS IN HYPERXREALITY – Maureen Speller

I'm glad you've overcome that 'fit of good manners' re. Kench's plea for 'more wackiness' and have lain it out as you see it. It's a marvellous exposition of what we used to call 'serconism' – serious and constructive writing, although the 3½ pages could have been neatly encapsulated in the para. reading...if this APA is, as some people like to take it, a microcosm of fandom, of society, then it should mirror at microscopic level, the collective responses and personal interactions of any group of people. Thus not everyone is simultaneously whimsical, or serious...."

This para. sums up your whole position, and it's one with which I entirely agree. Let everyone please themselves. This has been an aspect of APAs for many years. I well remember the earnest sercon efforts of an early FAPAn, who conscientiously laid out in several instalments the science-fictional contents of the American story magazines (ARGOSY, ALL-STORY, etc.) of the early years of this century. It was only of interest to passionate collectors of the genre, but it was his thing, and he did it well.

And I remember an early feminist, the late Bobbie Gray (nee Wild), a very active fan in all spheres in the late '50s and through the '60s. She had a bee in her bonnet about Richard III, and in several OMPAzines had long articles on the wrongs which had been done to him.

But here I slip into nostalgia, which grates on you. Let's get up-to-date.

You say that modern fan writing has changed from performance to communication. I'm a little uncertain as to your definitions here, as you seem able to mix long articles on literary topics with lighter stuff – gossip – about your own home life, so you yourself are not an ideal example. But do you really think that worrying in print about the fate of 400 people being starved to death, or however many thousands are being killed on the road or choked by passive smoking or whatever is going to alter anything?

You have about as much chance of changing the ways of the world in a fanzine as we innocents of the '50s had of getting the great powers to relinquish their A-bombs, which, primitive tho' they were, posed as great a threat to our continuing existence as anything around today. What we did, deliberately, was to acknowledge that we couldn't alter the world, and to construct the laager of fandom. With its own slang, references, history, myths, humour, we could – as a relaxation – forget what was going on in the larger sphere.

Nowadays, fans appear to believe that you can wring out your tear-sodden handkerchieves in public, cry about the shortcomings of self, society and civilisation in general, and presumably think it will do some good. This is all self-indulgence, just like our construction of a self-contained fandom, except that we at least did have fun in our make-believe.

I know what form of escapism I prefer, but each to his/her own.

RYCT Brian. Smallness of medieval folk: There is also the fairly striking instance of Henry VIII's armour, which is in the Tower of London and which I seem to recall is made for someone about 5'2" (1.55m) tall. But take the other side of the coin. How about all those well-fed Americans one sees? Surely, better nutrition makes bigger bodies? I'm pretty sure that Desmond Morris covered the subject (anthro-pometry) in THE NAKED APE, but my copy's gone astray. Damn.

RYCT me. Only just read Campbell? My my. He had several phases; early choked-up-with-hard-science space operas; a later period when he wrote ordinary sf (FORGETFULNESS and WHO GOES THERE? {filmed – twice – as THE THING} are good examples) and some for-the-fun of-it yarns in a magazine other than his own.

But it's as a magazine editor that he profoundly changed sf. and the philosophy of numerous readers. When he first came on the scene, sf was super-science. Science was going to conquer all, and lead us towards a material paradise.

As the years progressed, he realised that humankind would have to change as well. He dabbled in Dianetics, the fore-runner of Scientology (his magazine had the first mentions of Dianetics), and other hare-brained schemes, but besides these ill-conceived enthusiasms he always tried to get readers to think about themselves, their attitudes, their pre-conceptions, and the world's future.

He did not, in a crude sense, do 'hard-wiring' as you call it. I don't know that anyone would be capable of altering the human psyche outside of an sf story. But what Campbell did was the next best thing. His magazine – still being published as ANALOG – was eagerly read by prospective and actual scientists and other intellectuals in the US and elsewhere, and in his choice of story material and his editorials he must have influenced the thinking of thousands of them. Incidentally, his editorials were published along with many letters in two volumes after his death.

I don't know if Campbell's influence will ever be fully explored, but his magazine was automatically targeted on scientists, and he was in a unique position to model their philosophies.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR – Brian Stovold

I think 'ebbulient' is the word I'm looking for – just a sec. while I look it up in Chambers....um, one 'b', two 'l's – not often you get a typo in a dictionary – but yes; 'boiling up or over', 'enthusiastic'. Lovely stuff.

Liked the NovaCon report, of which I've seen too few in recent years. Is the art of decent Con reporting another discarded fish skin in the dustbin of nostalgic fandom?. The kitten too is a great help...pity that they have to grow up. Wealth untold awaits the first man who manages to preserve a kitten for years.

I mean alive.

The story suitably groan-worthy, and the picture on the back – tho' the caption is as terrible as most Punch cartoons of the era ('37?) – crowds in some marvellous detail. I particularly like the laughing horse.

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Nope – no sign of PHANTASMAGORIA or NAKED APE (an unlikely combination), and if I don't finish tonight I shall again be one of the Accursed. So farewell. AVC.