K39


K39 an APAzine for PIECES OF EIGHT from A. Vincent Clarke, 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent, DA16 2BN, for November '93.


UPDATE

Nothing dramatic has happened. This may start Sunday 28th., tho, when I'm due to have a two-day X-ray. Last time this ended with 13 days in hospital – I think this may be the same. I wonder if, when I'm asked if I have any allergies, and I answer 'Anaesthetic', if it'll upset anyone? Actually, this may be true – I was feeling so sick last time that even the sound of a tea-trolley in the distance made me heave. We'll see.

* * *

Meanwhile, to keep busy whilst actually sitting still, I've restarted on something I put aside about 5 years ago.

In the '80s I opened my Fanzine Collection to anyone who wanted to borrow stuff. I thought it would be an idea if I did a sort of guide to it, so I eventually produced 58 pages of description, giving each fanzine approximately one line.

But this had drawbacks. The typewriter, which I borrowed, was a broken down relic which took about half-an-hour really to warm up, otherwise if you tapped the space-bar it jerked forward anywhere between 3 and 14 spaces.

Also, it had Proportional Spacing. This is beautiful in the ordinary way of events, and it was combined with an 8 point (not cpi.) typeface which read nicely. But when you wanted to backspace, say to re-type over an error, it was a matter of luck if you landed on the correct place, which was pretty ghastly when you were cutting stencils. The job was done but I wasn't happy with it.

I brooded over this for a time. I then bought this Amstrad, and thought about putting details of the fanzines onto disc. Nigel Rowe, whom some of you may have met (a New Zealander now living in the US with a new wife) even went to great lengths to provide an especially tailored database.

Unfortunately, whatever other merits the Amstrad has, it just hasn't got the capacity to deal with the details of over 5000 fanzines. The database works well – but it would need about 10 discs, which sort of invalidates the whole idea of a quick smooth check.

So I brooded some more. But time has rolled on in the way that it does, and now They've come along with an add-on called Locoscript 3, which enables me to get down to 8 pt., proportional spacing, etc. on the Word Processor, and putting the stuff onto paper and thence copier has become possible again.

Using bold type for proper names amongst the descriptions still isn't as clear as reading them after they've been extracted from a database, but it's a step forward.

The job'll probably take all winter, but in my present state of health who cares?

* * *

Note for Terry Pratchett enthusiasts: I see a map of Ankh-Morpork has been published. Great! Been wondering what to give myself for Xmas.

* * *

Recently had the Dec. catalogue of Zardoz Books (20 Whitecroft, Dilton Marsh, Westbury, Wilts., BA13 4DJ). The catalogue itself is a bit of a joke – the pages are so mixed up and mis-numbered that I had to make a separate note of each page's number to find that I had 3 of them missing – but the firm itself is, I think. unique. It deals principally with old/vintage pocketbooks, and treats the trash that appeared just after the War – Badger Books and the like – as a legitimate object for collection. They have crime, sea yarns, Westerns, etc., but have a soft spot for sf. They also have an idea of comparative values for the collecting fanatic, so that although most of the PBs are at around £3 each, Brunner's first (under the name of Gill Hunt, published by Curtis Books) is a whacking £90.

But I wanted to mention here that they are agents for at least two outstanding books about sf. One of them is Vandals of the Void by ex-sf editor Phil Harbottle and fantasy enthusiast Stephen Holland. I've already mentioned this (Phil sent me a copy), but it's an interesting survey of the sf publishing boom between '46 and '56, when so many events, such as the founding of New Worlds, took place. It costs £13.95.

The other is a massive tome, The Science Fiction Reference Book, edited by Marshall Tymn, which is a 536 page guide to sf written for the benefit of US lecturers on the subject. It includes lists of awards, best books and authors, a section on fandom (by Joe Siclari, a fan historian) and practically everything you'd need to know if you were wanting to lecture on the subject. It even includes notes of American Universities which are holding sf collections (and fanzines!).

The book costs £21-95; the only slight drawback is that it's terribly complete but only to 1981, the date of publication.

* * *

I'm on the books (pun not really intended) of BIBLIOPHILE, which is a London-based bookseller specialising in remainders. The Xmas list has recently turned up, and I thought whilst leafing through it how I could pick out titles I considered interesting and comment on them to friends:

THE INVISIBLE MAN: The Life and Liberties of H.G. Wells.

I grew up practically worshipping Wells, except naturally a follower of the humanist Wells doesn't worship. Of course, I eventually found out that Wells as a man had feet of clay, tho' other parts of his body were alive and very well. But that doesn't alter his fiction writing, which carried me through a lot of adolescence. And his Star Begotten(1937) created a small sensation amongst the (few) sf fans of the time; the idea that 'Martians may be doctoring human germ cells with cosmic rays so as to produce a superior, Martianized kind of man' (as Olaf Stapledon put it in a review) could have been aimed deliberately at fans, with their sense of alienation from the mundane world.

ENGINES OF INSTRUCTION, MISCHIEF AND MAGIC: Children's Literature in England from its Beginnings to 1839.

I'd read the Opies book on Children's play many years ago, but this subject is completely new and strange. I'd always thought, vaguely, that Children's Books started with Alcott and Henty. Incidentally, did you know that a certain sf fan is a sort of authority on Henty? Has his 115 books, or some absurd number like it.

150 YEARS OF THE GENERAL CATALOGUE OF PRINTED BOOKS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM:

Just a passing wonder as to whether they mention fanzines lodged there.

THREE MEN ON THE BUMMEL

By Jerome K. Jerome, of Three Men In a Boat fame. I read this years ago and remember some hysterical bits, but the book's disappeared. Ideas of humour change over time – you have to be very good to survive over 50 years. Tho' come to think of it, this has been remaindered.....

UFOS AND HOW TO SEE THEM

Jenny Randles, she for whom Dave Langford was collecting cash a few months (years?) back 'cos she'd been allegedly mis-judged in a court case, wrote this. I like the title – HOW to see 'em. Get drunk? Can't be – there's 'revealing photographs'.

FANS

Oh...it's about maker's techniques, etc.

KING ARTHUR'S PLACE IN HISTORY: The Great Age of Stonehenge

'Dr. Cummins traces the legend back to an earlier Bronze Age prototype......' What, with Lancelot and Galahad and all that lot dressed up in woad and animal skins?

HOW I MADE A HUNDRED MOVIES IN HOLLYWOOD AND NEVER LOST A DIME

By monster schlock master Roger Corman.

And dozens more. If I had the time & money....

* * *

COMMENTS OF NOVEMBER MAILING

PIECES OF EIGHT – Cap'n Kincaid

Subtitled 'The Pirate APA'. What – not 'friendly' any more? But a funny introduction. Looks as if PoE is in sure and safe hands. Sorry about Dop leaving – trust this is only temporary,

MS SELENEOUS – Sue Thomason

Very very interesting, perceptive and refreshing, especially the piece on books that have changed one's life. Tho' not exactly changing life, more of one's perception of it. Or to put it another way, books which have changed one's thinking.

Being older than most people who are reading this (all of 'em?), my perception has had a number of radical changes – in my youth a large part of the map was coloured pink for the British Empire (India, South Africa etc etc.), Africa was inhabited by ignorant blacks under the wise rule of the white man, TV was virtually non-existent and so was air-travel, and mid-Europe was a far-off ramshackle collection of countries which it was easy to ignore.

Time has, of course, changed all that. Time is the great teacher. But thinking back, I've taken bits of philosophy and views from all sorts of people – Wells, as mentioned above, Bertrand Russell, Bernard Shaw, Bronowski, etc. But to get down to specific cases:

Van Vogt, in a fairly bizarre yarn called The World of Null A introduced myself and thousands of others (it was initially serialised in Astounding/Analog) to the notion of semantics, which led me to Stuart Chase's Tyranny of Words (another flawed but influential book) which led to Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa. That more or less wrapped up my education in the actual elucidation of thought.

Again, dare I confess it, Astounding was responsible by running an article mentioning Patterns of Culture by Ruth Benedict, which led me to her anthropological books, especially Race and Racism. These did as much as anything to eliminate any lingering traces of racial superiority left over from schooling.

Martin Gardner in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science bolstered and added to my attempted rational view of life.

Odd – I'm not coming up with much in the way of specific fiction books that have shaped my outlook. Maybe, long ago, they merged into the background? Be interested to read other people's views on your provocative piece.

THE STRUTHIAN PERSPECTIVE – Theo Ross

Nice verse – very much to the pernt. That half-line – "knock up your golds"; is that British or American usage?

Re. new shelves. I've managed to restrain myself from adding more bookshelves for three or four years, but I have to do something soon for the tottering piles. Throw some out? As you say, tastes change over the years. With much internal groaning I occasionally do a little culling and load up a hall window-sill for the benefit of visiting fans, but it's hard.

* * *

Which reminds me that in the last 'K' I said I'd list Wodehouse books that will cost anyone just the postage if they'll let me know:

POCKET-BOOKS:

HARD COVER:

Gee – I didn't realise I had so many. Most of the PBs are in good condition, some have markings, owner's names, showing their charity shop origin.

I can also supply a photo-copy of the BOOK & MAGAZINE COLLECTOR article on PGW – July '90, 11 pages, if wanted.

And there may be a delayed answer due to possible hospital, Xmas, etc.

* * *

Back to normal service:

SILVER PENNIES – Helen Gould

The recipes have the drawback that Radio Times and other sources have – not suitable for singles!

Interesting notes on Nemesis which I'd never heard of (even my 1522p. Maltin doesn't mention it); guess it's brand new.

Sympathies on the Miscarriage Clinic episode. If all else fails (which one hopes not) will you consider adoption?

MYSTERIES OF LIFE – Dop

Does Dop get a mailing? If not I'll send him this. Which is to say it's a nice farewell and quite understand financial situation, but if you want some copiering done on a rather rickety copier, for free, there's one here.

ROPE OF SAND – Brian Jordan

Good illos – the new software seems to be working well. Wish I understood more of the technicalities of PC-ware. I've recently bought a copy or two of Micromart, without coming across anything I can afford, but it seems to be the top selling/buying 'zine. But not knowing the procedure is a bit worrying. What do you do if you agree with a seller about something you want. Just send off a cheque and hope he's honest? Post date it?

TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY – Maureen Speller

Re. political scapegoats, I was looking at C4's A Week in Politics, a satirical view of the week's politics (!), and some apologist for the Government found another group to blame for the country's troubles. It is, he said, the fault of the Opposition. They don't oppose enough.

"Even being passively counted these days means a lot of money" you say, truly. And how about this racket of charities sending around Xmas cards and labels, unasked, just so that you'll feel ashamed if you don't send them a cheque by return of post? I get the impression that more and more concerns are jumping on this particular band-wagon. Worse than Jehovah's Witnesses – at least the latter don't put you under any obligation except moral.

I went through the Lyme Regis travelogue, with, I must confess, some lack of enthusiasm (anthropological insights – nil), but boggled briefly at you finding fossils "all of them too big to transport." And you with a car? Fer Chrissake, how big were they? Dinosaur size?

RYCT Ken; I regarded his story as more or less a rough synopsis, but you certainly sighted the big guns on it – I think the critique is slightly longer than the subject. I do agree that if one starts talking about selling a story then you have to use a different set of criteria and can only expect rejection unless it meets professional standards. I don't think Ken was seriously offering it as something he intended to submit to an editor in that form, but your essay was certainly a good example of the sort of hard criticism that might pass through a professional editorial mind.

Have noted down The Secret History for checking at the library (wonder whether it's in Crime or standard Fiction?). Incidentally, as my local library has only a limited space for sf (and for that matter crime), more and more genre books are going in the standard category. Another argument for having specific authors in mind when paying a visit.

DAY FOR NIGHT: COBB – Paul Kincaid

Interesting to get your own views on Lyme Regis – whatever else I shall remember, the words 'small' and 'hilly streets' will remain in my sub-concious. I wonder whatever it did to deserve this microscopic examination – except of course be the setting for The French Lieutenant's Woman. Oh, just a moment – Maureen says "a whim". Oh. Fair enough.

RYCT Darroll on the '60s. Very interesting. You saw the '60s from the perspective of being too young, I of being too old to join in (and family responsibilties).

What did the '60s youth movement accomplish? A glance through the historical notes of that decade sees African chaos, Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy assassinated, Rhodesia, Malcolm X, Seaman's strike, Israeli-Arab Six Day War, R. Kennedy and Luther King killed , Moon landing, Vietnam, N. Ireland, Kent State.

You'll notice that in hardly any of these headline events is there a British representation. The first post-war generation in Britain had grown to adolescence, and were having to come to terms with the fact that not only did it's voice mean nothing (a common state at that age) but neither did Britain. No wonder it was annoyed.

Cobb?

THE ARACHNO FILE – John D. Rickett

Talk about once over lightly! Everyone gets a mention (as is right and proper), but nothing much to get one's gnashers into....not even the odd political squib waiting to be jumped on. I suppose the only opening you leave is RYCT Brian J. on Ken shoving out stuff with axe and granite if he had to, and "We await words of wisdom from the justified ancients of fandom here". 'Justified' noted, but I suppose that there's a case for a nicely illustrated, justified, easy-to-read fanzine being – er – easier to read.

But what sticks in my mind is that the most successful fanzine ever produced in this country, HYPHEN, was typed on not very good machines (including John Berry's with a can of beans tied to it instead of the spring for the return mechanism, and an ancient Varityper I bought in London for – I seem to remember – £20, which was dead cheap even in those days), and it was duplicated on a No.26 Gestetner, dating, I think from the mid-20's.

And yet the material was so good that, as I wrote above, HYPHEN was regarded as No.1.

GALANTY – Derek Pickles

Interesting statistic reported from Buck Coulson about the casualties in their Civil War being 90%, and your own quotation of the Somme figures. Not sure we're comparing like with like, though – one is the complete war.

But the general drift of Buck's comment, that the public wouldn't stand for great casualties if they knew more about them is taking a rather controversial view. Bosnia should be evidence of that. Humans can take a lot of horror on board without being unduly aghast, if it's not completely personal. Evidence stretches from Roman circuses to the present.

I remember guarding a crashed aircraft during the War, and meeting a chap who was holding a scalp, complete with hair, in each hand. Didn't really affect either of us, except, perhaps, that with this and other incidents in the memory I take a rather jaundiced view of 'horror' stories these days.

Agree with your comment to Dop about ACClarke's work in collaboration with Gentry Lee. Not worth reading.

THE ONE PER CENT FREE – Darroll Pardoe

RAEBNC

LITTLE BITS OF ZERO – Carol Ann Green

Not often one reads of an Incident from such a close range. Reads very well indeed. Agree on virtually everything else here. We tried a hypnotic act in a Convention during the '50s, and various fans I knew went through it, saying afterwards that they were in full control but just didn't feel like doing anything about it. Which made me extremely wary – if there's one thing I adhere to more than physical control it's one's mental control. Which is why I never submitted to the drug culture. Tho' truth to tell I was too old for it anyway.

K38 – self

Y'all may remember that I was writing about the prospect of getting Steve Sneyd, the fan/poet, into PoE some months ago, and John suggested that we write haikus to try and entice him in?

The haikus were rather thin on the ground, but there were a few other rhyme-forms inc. a limerick, so after doing some patient waiting until no more popped up I sent what had appeared off to Steve (with, as usual, the latest 'K') and received a long letter of comment and appreciation back, but:

Very flattered indeed that ANYONE took the trouble to utter verse to try and lure me into PoE. As I said before, it's something I would like to join if/when life is a bit more organised, some of the n backlogs cleared off, etc., but at the moment would rather still take a rain-check, despite, as said, the v. flattering pieces.

Oh well, better luck in a couple of years. Meanwhile, you may remember that Chris Carne was speculating, in verse, on how Steve pronounced his surname, and he's come up with some verses which are too long (in both senses) to appear here, but it rhymes with "Bede, reed, weed, deed, creed, seed.

So there.

He also comments: "Glee in film audiences at gory scenes predate ALIEN in my experience....can remember in '59 or '60 watching some film about Korean War in a fleapit in Bristol called the Scala, and a character got quite graphically (for those days, anyway) blown up by a landmine – whereupon various Teds in the audience started gleefully shouting "Hamburger" and slashing adjacent seats in graphic reenactment.

TRICHINOPOLY – Tara & Barry

Yes, I think you've probably got a good point about fans sticking to one form of fandom – "are people afraid that they'll be a fan of all fandoms, smof of none?" – but it also depends on the amount of energy/time/cash one can expend on a hobby. Like your personal approach to it.

Interesting on the net. Is the output actually printed out? I mean, if it just appears on the screen you might just as well be talking in a pub, all that wit and wisdom lost with the turn off/chuck out.

The nearest thing to an APA which I've met in print has been Notes & Queries, which I mentioned in the last 'K' – answers to queries by Guardian readers, now in PBs and, of course, the Clive Anderson/Carol Vorderman TV show. Similar to the net, I imagine – various answers to the same problem.

Applauded every word of your dissertation on crime and the criminal.

Dunsany; I'm not sure that you're correct that 'Dunsany's fantastical works number but eight.' My old (1948) edition of The Checklist of Fantastic Literature lists 34, but this includes plays and the Jorkens books of short stories, many but not all of which have a high fantasy content.

Also, being published in a far country (USA) and long ago, there may be a few errors – it's hard to imagine eg. The Story of Mona Sheehy (1939) being hard fantasy.

The Sime illustrations add to the atmosphere of course (just as Papes added to Cabell) ((literature, anyone?)), and I was lucky enough to come across, sometime during the '80s, SIDNEY SIME, Master of the Mysterious by Heneage & Ford (Thames & Hudson,'80), which is a card-bound book with over 80 illustrations in it plus a biography. And joy! Many of the illos. are bigger than they appeared in the books. If I have space I'll put one below, tho Sime's overall shading and delicate lines won't reproduce well on the failing copier.

Illustration by Sidney Sime for TALES OF WONDER by Lord Dunsany

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Vince Clarke's APAzines
Contents

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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