K49

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K49 – An APAzine for Pieces of Eight, December 1994, from A. Vincent Clarke, 16 Wendover Way,

Welling, Kent, DA16 2BN

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UPDATE

A slight setback to the 16WWW publishing empire this last month – the Amstrad printer started to put a thin white line through all the characters. I had huge pangs of guilt about this, as only an hour before I'd cleaned the printer – that is, I ran a page through with streaks of WD40 on it, thus removing accumulated gunk from the pins of the printer head. I then – and I suspected this was the trouble – cleaned the platen with meths., but foolishly used a paper hankie, which started to disintegrate.

I strongly suspected some of it had been caught in the pins, contacted a local repairer who advertised in the local free paper, and was charged for a whole new printing head. I said I suspected that it had been my cleaning, and was poo-pooed – it was a solenoid, he said. After all, this was the first major repair in seven years.

The thing is in operation again, as you can plainly see, but I still harbour suspicions. A lot easier to replace the head complete rather than muck about in the interior. As it happens, he gave me back the defective part, so one of these days I look forward to picking it to pieces, to find out if I'm just being a bit cranky.

What do you mean – "Sure"?

RADIO FOUR – ptooh!

Anyone else catch the Radio Four piece on Science Fiction Poetry during November? This particular sub-section of the genre has been accumulating material for 50+ years, but Radio 4 decided to pad out the programme with an Orson Welles/Close Encounters hybrid, a series of pseudo-news flashes about a flying saucer landing. The latter piece of crockery turned out to contain none other than Glen Miller.

The whole thing was deeply embarrassing, not made any better by a brief interview with Arthur (Ego) C. Clarke. No, he hadn't written any poetry ( there was a brief mention made of an article he'd written on it once, pre-war, and the date they gave was a couple of years out), but he'd just received a CD Rom encyclopedia where He was cited as an authority on something or other. By this time my ears were trying to curl back into my scalp through sheer embarrassment, so missed details. A pretty horrible experience.

I did take a tape, tho, if anyone's interested.

BOOKSY STUFF

Reading has been a bit variegated, ranging from Asimov (The Complete Stories Vol.1) to Aubrey's Brief Lives. The Asimov volume was obtained really to reassure myself that I was reading the title correctly. Complete? The man wrote over three hundred books, I believe. What a project! Sort of thing where the current editor hands over his task to his son – and so on. Tho' in actual fact there's no mention of an editorial name. Curious.

The Brief Lives was a gossipy series of potted biographies written by John Aubrey in the 17th. century. This particular edition (edited by Oliver Lawson Dick, pub. by Secker & Warburg) has a 110p. biography of Aubrey and 300-odd pages of his writing, comprising 134 'lives' (he wrote 426 altogether, some extremely short).

I must say that I have a small sense of disappointment, because through years of reading out-of-the-way stuff I've picked up several anecdotes from Aubrey, some of them gruesome – of John Colet, Dean of St. Pauls, for example: somebody made a little hole towards the upper edge of his Coffin, which was closed like the coffin of a Pye and was full of Liquour which conserved the body. Mr. Wyld and Ralph Greatorex tasted it and 'twas of a kind of insipid tast, something of an Ironish tast.... but all the best quotes, on Shakespeare, etc., seem to have been reprinted. But there's a nice sense of how life was lived then.

Here is Aubrey on Sir William Petty, a piece I don't remember reading before: I remember about 1660 there was a great difference between him and Sir Hierome Sanchy, one of Oliver's knights. They printed one against the other: this knight was wont to preach at Dublin. The Knight had been a soldier, and challenged Sir William to fight with him. Sir William is extremely short sighted, and being the challengee it belonged to him to nominate place and weapon. He nominates, for the place, a darke Cellar, and the weapon to be a great Carpenter's Axe. This turned the knight's challenge into Ridicule, and so it came to nought.

COMMENTS ON NOVEMBER MAILING

OMNIFORMIA – Tanya Brown

Pity about the needle phobia – a left-over from childhood I'd suspect. Never had any difficulty myself (just as well considering what the NHS have done to my poor little torso), but I can still remember years 'n' years back going for a Services medical, and grown men in the queue fainting before they'd even gone inside to face the dreaded n....e. Nice writing, Tanya. I do hope you can keep on the crew.

MARAUDER 56 – Ken Cheslin

Nice easy style, not a lot to add (RYCT Carne on Keats, you've surely got a Palgrave's Golden Treasury knocking around?), as I fully agree with all the political comments, etc.

Re. comics (RYCT Mike Gould), I remember that years 'n' years ago there used to be a Man giving away the pull-out Comic supplements of American papers to us schoolkids outside the playground. There may have been some nasty motive in his doing so, but I and friends never thought about it. These days he'd probably be lynched. From those times I have vague memories of Terry & the Pirates, Prince Valiant, the Katzenjammer Kids, Dick Tracy, Li'l Orphan Annie...they must have been directly aimed at my 12-year old psyche to make such an impression, but they all washed off, leaving a few stains. The later 'adult' comics (pardon – graphic novels) were lumped in the same category by me – possibly unjustly – but one has only so much leisure time.

WATCHER FROM THE SHADOWS – Jenny Glover

Interesting as usual. Re. smoking, in American fandom it seems to be a definite minority Thing – I remember when Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden came here a few years ago they, unasked, went out on to the front door steps to have a drag. Courtesy at its highest.

It's a bit late now, but if you or other Committee members want to borrow US Convention programme books from previous World Cons, let me know – have several of them.

LITTLE BITS OF ZERO – Carol Ann Green

RYCT Ken: Facing up to fear is a complex process, because if you stop to think about it – get introspective – it paralyses. This is why Services discipline is often so rigid. I had a good example of both sides of this when in the RAF. Down on the range a new recruit, clumsy with fear, dropped a live grenade at our feet. The Sergeant dived for it and threw it away before it exploded. He didn't allow himself any introspection. Of course, the aftermath can be hairy, but it's helpful to ponder on the fact that the same set of circumstances are very very unlikely to occur again.

THE MOON-DRENCHED SHORES – Darroll Pardoe

Grim about Rosemary – sincerely trust that the mid-Nov. op. turned out OK.

THE WAR OF THE FLOWERS. As Rosemary says, very relevant to present day Britain, especially in view of recent Bills and the kerfuffle in East London. The writing is awkward in spots, but the central theme is powerful indeed. Thanks for providing an extremely interesting look into the past, D & R., and also for providing some points to think over.

Re. disinclination of OMPA organisers to get involved (the Introduction), this may be so, but checking the official organ I see the relevant people produced at least 100 quarto pages between them in that particular mailing (Jan. '70, was it not?), so they do appear to have had a legitimate point. But many thanks.

AN AFTERNOON OF PASSION – Dave Thomas

Welcome, Dave, and excuse me if I'm less passionate about football than you, but then I'm less passionate about Cats, Caves, Comics, Canals and other things not even starting with 'C' that the crew, individually, care for. Shall I illustrate my depths of feeling about football? I once lived for two years or so in Drayton Park, which is so near to Arsenal Stadium that you could hear the cheers on Saturday afternoons. I never visited it.

TRICHINOPOLY – Barry Traish

Interesting about Ron Bennett packing it in, and also the list of Leeds bookshops appreciated for whenever I'm in the vicinity (fat chance, but you never know). Do you mind if I copy this for a London fan? He has a Thing about Lists, and was overjoyed when I raked up some fanzines put out in the late '70s by a US schoolmaster, (Gil Gaier), who published lists of fan's preferences with some statistical weighting. The London fan even wrote to the States and had a reply from Gaier, who hadn't been into fandom for a dozen years due to bad eyesight.

The list-enthusiast has already published a booklet on SF dealers – mostly, I understand, in the States! I told him once that it was more or less a waste of time in this country – either a particular shop was within 5 miles or so and you'd know of it anyway, or it was in some place you went to for a Convention, and you wouldn't have time to explore.

Tho' giving my feeling about holidays in general – ignoring those quaint unexplored back-streets where treasures may lie – this may have been a bit unkind.

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General APPRECIATION of those zines not mentioned, but I'm trying to bring this in under two sheets for various reasons. But I must mention BRIAN JORDAN, who, seeing my comment in the last 'K' on the awfulness of the font used on a couple of his last ROPE OF SAND sheets, very very kindly sent them to me in a different font. Brian – I really appreciate you being two-faced!

Re. now-readable remarks on Boot sales: living as I do on the outskirts of London (the Greater London area stops a couple of miles or so down the road), here boot sales have tended to drift from school playgrounds and the like into fields etc. in the near country-side of Kent. Which is OK, except that most of them are outside the areas of public transport. As it happens I have so much junk in the house (including books!) that I've hardly made the effort this year. Only specific items I've looked for lately have been stationery – copier and duplicator paper, the odd packet of envelopes.

Finally, for anyone interested (anyone?), the first stage show of Star Trek was presented at a Bromley theatre a few miles away in November. It had lousy reviews in the local press.