K36


K35, an APAzine for PIECES OF EIGHT, August '93, from A. Vincent Clarke, 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent, DA16 2BN. "When we awoke, the Earth was rising." GREG BENFORD, in Of Space/Time and the River.


UPDATE

Forgive me, Cap'n, for I have sinned a bit. The last 'K' was rife – as they say – with errors. Amongst the worse was my telling Ken Cheslin that I.O. Evans had written a book on future wars. Well, he may have done, but what I was trying to remember was VOICES PROPHESYING WAR by Professor I.F. Clarke. Fancy me forgetting a name like that! Can modesty go further? Thanks to Steve Sneyd for this correction.

I said the last NEOFANS GUIDE TO SF FANDOM was in '78. It weren't; looking further in the envelope there's one dated '84. Anyone who wants to borrow this is welcome.

I also said it was 'Comments on July Mailing' which was sheer muddle-headedness.

No, no! Not keel-hauling again!

COMMENTS ON JULY MAILING – second edition.

THROUGH THE SPEAKING TRUMPET – JDRickett

Nice to see so many contributions – 14 out of 19. In fact, lucky there weren't more, or you'd have had to use an even teenier type-face.

Incidentally, shouldn't post-mailings be mentioned in the following month's TtST, with a revised monthly total? Just a thought.

CRITICAL DISTANCE – Andy Butler

On fans, 'critical distance' and assorted wordage. Right where you get interesting – "The fan transgresses the border between reader and writing, or in this case between critic and text and simultaneously reinscribes the distinction by a critical act." you get, to this simple mind at least, distressingly obscure.

At the start – 1930's – fandom was a collection of people who realised that they differed from their peers in the extent of their enthusiasm for the subject. In that they were not much different from football fans, chess players, or girls whose greatest ambition is to be employed in stables mucking out horses.

By the end of the thirties, it was increasingly evident that the social dimension was of value. Fans liked to talk to each other, via clubs, fanzines and the occasional Convention. And by the early '50s, fandom was an end in itself. You could chat on about hundreds of subjects without once mentioning sf. Is this some form

of criticism of sf, its inability to hold the undivided attention of a certain kind of enthusiast?

Whatever, sf was always there in the background, and it was very rarely that one would get a fan who wasn't drawn into the scene by actually reading sf.

Then, of course, came the deluge. The old order changeth; Dr. Who, Star Wars and the media circus swamped the scene. It left my type of fan clutching at straws. I collected sf prozines, books of and about sf, sf fanzines, and some videos of outstanding sf films, I contributed to fanzines, etc.

If I was an sf fan, what was this character who possessed dozens of videos of Dr. Who and issued a fanzine about him? What about this fan who'd gone to twenty times as many Conventions as myself, but didn't know what a fanzine was?

The natural reaction was to deny that the other fellows were fans. This is pretty easy to do. In publishing – or even loccing – a fanzine, one is going back to the roots of fandom. A bit like a monk clutching a fragment of the True Cross whilst declaiming that his is The Way.

But one can't deny the other person's enthusi-asm. So the self-evident answer for the individual is to take from and give to whichever branch of fandom is most compatible. Live and let live.

Er – what was that original question? What's the difference between a fan and a reader? Well, it seems to me that if this person, who for convenience's sake we'll call Mr. Reltub, just sits on his bottom reading sf and watching hype for JURASSIC PARK on TV, then he's not One Of Us.

But if Mr. Reltub puts out a fanzine, or attends a convention, or even goes to the local pub to discuss sf with cronies, then he's a fan.

STRANGE DEBRIS 13 LITE – Chr$ Carne

Nice production, and glad to see details of the production department. If ever Ernie coughs up, or some hitherto unknown Australian uncle leaves me a fortune, this kind of hands-on, in front-of-eyes example is what I'd need, not glossy handouts.

The mention of Granta's list of the 50 (?) – {why (?) ?} – best young British writers brought to mind the list of authors of Faber fiction on the dust jacket of a recent library book (P.D. James' venture into Future Fiction THE CHILDREN OF MEN pub. by Faber '92 – thoughtful and boring). Oddly enough, although these names are neither all British nor all young, there's also 50 of them, and running a cautious ball-point down the list, there's only half-a-dozen I recognise. (If you must know, the first names listed are Walter Abish, Paul Auster, Murray Bail, J. Bernlef, Simon Burt and Aldo Busi.)

The point I'm trying to make is that there's at least six publishers who could come up with similar lists of their own authors. So there's at least 300 authors vying for one's gold (or library ticket). How do you pick 'em? Rely on critics?

And that's only the fiction!

RYCT Dop. Acronyms. These seem to have crept into modern terminology by the back door. I suppose wartime usage (PLUTO, NATO, even GESTAPO) was partly responsible, but it may be significant that my mid-'60s encyclopedia has five pages of abbreviations and doesn't even mention acronyms, not even BEMs.

Incidentally, the abbreviation 's.f.' means 'towards the end' (Latin: sub finem). Not many people know that. Or want to.

Nice piece on Mornington Crescent. Did you know that some enthusiasts play Magic Mornington Crescent, where they give themselves obstacles such as removing the Piccadilly Line? Crazy – the real game's hard enough.

K35 – self

Fallen into that terrible book buying habit again, tho' have been keeping it cheap. THE CREATION MEMOS – Geoffrey Atkinson (Willow Books '83) is a selection of God's office correspondence while making the world. Bit repetitive, based I think on an idea in HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE, but an interesting lot of letter-headings – Exotic Worlds and Intergalactic Garden Centre, etc.

GILES, A LIFE IN CARTOONS by Peter Tory (Headline '92) looks a pretty good biography. Repetition of explanatory (and horribly po-faced) captions in the actual text a bit annoying, tho.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARMO – Caitlin Moran (Doubleday '92) – comes with an interesting plug on the cover: 'Oh God, this good already and she's only sixteen'. By one Terry Pratchett. Just family humour, pleasant, episodic, but for a sixteen-year old....!

Spiders/light sails. There's a passing ref. in Arthur Clarke's SUNJAMMER, but not I think the specific item wanted. Search continuing.

I handed our gallant Cap'n the last 'K' in the Wellington (on the night of the 1st., so at least 3½ hrs. before the deadline), with the bit to Eunice Pearson about not having a clue as to modern female horror writers. On the train going back to Welling, Tony Chester (co-editor of CONCATENATION) told me that Lisa Tuttle had edited an anthology of such called SKIN OF THE SOUL. Aaaaargh!

MARAUDER Vol.4 No 7 – Ken Cheslin

Marvellous cover.

Your memory's OK. 'The Wizards of Pung's Corner' was a '58 Pohl yarn. But interesting your remark on changed perception of Cordwainer Smith over the years. I think most of us would tend to down-grade an author.

Oddly, I can't find much to comment on in this MARAUDER, tho' thoroughly enjoyed as usual. I note the remark re Hamlet, that 'according to the beliefs of the time' etc., which underlines the fact that it's very difficult to gauge the effects on an audience of a later period.

GOT A BRAND NEW CHIMNEY ETC. – Dop

RYCT Kench: I don't think you should characterise the Ocarina fanzine as desperately earnest. Different strokes for different folks, you know. I mentioned the rat-fanciers fanzine I had. Do you know there was a page lamenting the passing of particular pet rats? Now, that's what I'd call sad.

Interesting picture – Aubrey Beardsley, I suppose? Like the captions.

Hope you succeeded in the exam, and envy you the knowledge.

FRAGMENTS – Mike Gould

Welcome back and stuff. You've certainly had a hard time of it recently – hope things turn better.

Don't like the sound of 'the fridge was in the dining room and leaking profusely'; you mean you'd disconnected it without de-icing? Tush. Wish I had some of that DIY enthusiasm, tho.

LITTLE BITS OF ZERO – Carol Ann Green

RYCT John: I should have said that there was a vast difference between books when 'reading out loud'. Can you imagine reading Pratchett out loud, with all those footnotes? On the other hand, years ago I was reading an Enid Blyton out loud to a kid – and fell asleep whilst doing it. Luckily, it put the kid to sleep too.

ROPE OF SAND – Brian Jordan

Nice easy waffle by Gerald Hill, but why didn't he put on a tape and listen to what he liked?

RYCT Dop: Remind me to lend you that original ATom Anthology one of these days if you haven't already got it, and also my own ATom Memorial Volume, which shows the change in his art-work over the years as it became easier to put solid black on stencils....

RYCT Darroll; Re. invitations from the US to join societies, I've had a completely unwanted piece of mail offering TURBOCAD (for WINDOWS or DOS), all the way from San Rafael, Cal. Anyone interested? I'm not into PCs.

This is an elegant looking apazine, especially the bacover. Curse you – I had that idea yonks ago but never got around to buying the plastic Brit. Is. template from Woolworths. Kench looks oddly lonely, doesn't he, seeing that he's so near the thriving fan centre in Birmingham? And as for poor Theo....! It used to be said that only fans who were geographically isolated were interested in the social intercourse of fanzines, and certainly in London it was always difficult to interest them in anything other than meetings.

Ta for the haiku – I'm just awaiting the August PoE to see if there's any more, then will transmit them to Steve Sneyd – all of 'em, I refuse to judge the best.

THE ONE PER CENT FREE – Darroll Pardoe

Nice account of Burstin...wonder what would have happened if the bouncer types had detected you smuggling in tea/coffee bags and milk?

'Head-shop'? Bit of '60s slang, I suppose. We've had some weird places open up in Welling recently; one shop sells garden gnomes, art-work and knitting wool. Another is into exotic candles, incense, pottery and '20s style fashions. Yet another serves 'Breakfast All Day'. A curious concept...an empty stomach shop.

DRIFTING IN UNCHARTED SEAS – Enice Pearson

"Usually when I fall over...." This could lead to a variety of responses, some of which are worrying. Sympathies, anyway.

Very interesting about the novel writing, and surprising that there's no local writer's group. How about the local library for 'How To...' books, such as Penguin's THE WAY TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION by Brian Stableford? And when you get it finished there's Michael Legat's AN AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING (Hale 1982).

One item I could lend you would be de Camp's SCIENCE FICTION HANDBOOK REVISED ('75 – the original was published in '53) – this is an American book and not likely to be available here.

There's also the BSFA 'zine FOCUS if it's still going – there's numerous issues in the fanzine library here. And – one of those coincidences, just as I write this the SOFTBACK PREVIEW catalogue bounces in with other "How To..." titles – a mini-series called 'The Way to Write.' (originally Elm Tree papaerbacks).

Are you writing enough? you ask. Enough for what? A short novel is about 40,000 words. A longish novel is about 100,000 words. Count 50 of your (double-spaced) lines, word by word, and average 'em. Average the number of lines over ten characteristic pages. Multiply average number of words by average lines per page. How you doing?

Er...who is Michael Ironside, anyway? Any relation to that American lawyer?

RYCT Jenny. I wouldn't expect total confidentiality in any APA, but Pam Wells should have her wrists slapped – the very basis of TWP is that women should be allowed to write about themselves with no fear of ridicule. Your only consolation must be that with the noise level at the Wellington (if that's where the incident occurred) it's unlikely to have been heard more than four feet away.

Blood donors: I asked when I was last having a blood test why they stopped you from giving blood over 65. The haemotologist (if that's what she was – she's not in my dictionary) said that older folk are reckoned to be awash with various medications. I'd have thought that would have been an extra...you'd get blood and a dose of medicine at the same time.

THE ARACHNO FILE – John D. Rickett

That's a first-class well-expressed rant re. Mother Teresa/birth control, even tho' it goes over ground that any thinking person must have wondered about. What does your Catholic friend (page 5) think?

You can so write for toffee, with, this time at any rate, a seamless style and certainty which makes it hard to insert a comment. And, by the way, why do we say that someone can't do something 'for toffee'? It's a reward, certainly, but why not 'He can't draw for chocolate'? Strange language.

Interesting your opinion of the US. In spite of knowing some absolutely astounding American fans, I've always had a dubious feeling about US society as a whole. Adding to your list of epithets, I'd add 'too violent'. I suppose that iT would be possible to get away to some isolated spot where you'd get the benefits of climate (if you weren't drowned or roasted), and undoubtedly it's a more dynamic society, but.....

Did you see that a new American idea is on its way – warehouse shopping? Pile it high and sell it cheap. Just like a wholesaler, but aimed at your suburban housewife (or man). The first warehouse is being built on the outskirts of London, and the supermarkets are screaming about it not being fair and level playing fields and suchlike. I've seen this sort of thing in a supermarket chain, yea even in Welling, where they piled up cartons of Cornflakes etc. and nothing was ever 'tastefully arranged'. The idea failed, the shop may have looked too tatty for Welling housewives. But this American endeavour covers everything – computers, etc. – and the marketing folk think there'll be a 25% price reduction.

Aside from the obvious advantages pricewise, I'm wondering though what the effect this will have on supermarket staffing levels. Always a drawback somewhere....

So coypus have been eradicated in this country? When I was small, they were an exotic foreign animal. Then someone started to farm them (in Norfolk, I believe) for their fur, then they escaped and bred, and then they started being a menace (don't quite know how). There the story stopped, for me at any rate. Pity we haven't any PoEans hailing from East Anglia to tell us more.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR – Brian Stovold

Cornwall. Took the kid down to Bude many moons ago, about the only memories left are of trying to climb an isolated boulder and finding I couldn't do so (which has left me with a more respectful attitude towards rock climbers ever since – amazing what actual experience teaches one, tho' wearing rubber-soled shoes had something to do with it), and finding, some miles up the coast, a lovely cottage crammed to the rafters with second hand books for sale.

The ruins of the castle at Tintagel – very Gothic and picturesque – and a very commercial Arthurian Round Table advertising, I seem to recall, a cafe.

Oh yes, and meeting on the beach a dog which had taught itself to stand on its hind legs and frequently did so, whilst looking around with an enquiring air. The owner was baffled by it. He didn't know what it was looking for.

What is this book on time management you mention? Sounds interesting. I'm sadly aware that right at this very moment there are sixteen jobs about the house that are pining for attention.

MS. SELENEOUS – Sue Thomason

I sent a copy of this to Steve Sneyd because of the Blake enthusiasm and the mention of poetry. This is a marvellous contribution, not because I'm within a mile of understanding it but because of the sheer expression of joy.

And yes, I saw the TV programme on the language acquisition by chimps, etc., and thought that it was extraordinary, especially the chimp (or whatever) which picked up language because its mother was being taught (and not doing too well).

But 'In other words, they are people'? Now let's not be too enthusiastic. I'd say they were at about the level of a two-year old human. I don't think we can expect much more than that.

TRICHINOPOLY – Tara and Barry

Actually, hardship apart, there's a lot to be said for a directionless life. Not so much the feeling that you're at the level of a beach-comber, but that the whole fruity stuff is in front of you, waiting to be picked.

You obviously have a good mind. I trust someone will see the merits of it and load you with work – and money.

Well rounded stuff on Kev/Kench which I nearly agree with. Kench writes at white-heat. I don't give a damn how many nit-picks one can make, the essence of Ken is there, and I like it.

And grateful thanks to Editor Tara for sending me BLACK HOLE 33. Over the years I've accumulated nearly 20 of them; Leeds has always produced the most fannish of the University 'zines. Don't know whether you knew it but in the early '70s John Harvey and Eve (Simmons as she was then) were on the editorial board, and later were active fans for...um, well aside from producing fanzines, if you count going to Cons (Ken!)..really, to date. Very very nice people. Now they're in Herts., where John has a small manufacturing business.

Incidentally, I see BLACK HOLE is coming up to its 20th. anniversary at the end of this year or the beginning of next I believe – not too sure as my collection starts with No.2 (and the editors were still awaiting locs on No.1).

PreviousNext

Vince Clarke's APAzines
Contents

PreviousNext

Notes and Queries
K1
K2
K3
K4
K5
K6
K7
K8
K9
K10
K11
K12
K13
K14
K15
K16
K17
K18
K19
K20
K21
K22
K23
K24
K25
K26
K27
K28
K29
K30
K31
K32
K33
K34
K35
K36
K37
K38
K39
K40
K41
K42
K43
K44
K45
K46
K47
K48
K49
K50
K51
K52
K53
K54
K55
K56
K57
K58 to K69
K70
Books About SF Continued
From K??
Vincentian 1
Vincentian 2
Vincentian 3