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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 10/05/90 -- Vol. 9, No. 14
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
10/24 LZ: THE WORM OUROBOROS by E. R. Eddison (Classic Horror)
11/07 MT: WANDERING STARS ed. by Jack Dann (Jewish Science Fiction)
(MT 4A-229)
11/14 LZ: WAR WITH THE NEWTS by Karel Capek (Foreign SF)
12/05 LZ: EQUAL RITES or THE LIGHT FANTASTIC by Terry Pratchett (Humorous SF)
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
10/13 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
10/20 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3E-301 949-4488 hotld!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. One of the leading purveyors of cheap hooch is currently
running a series of ads for their product implying that their
particular brand of cheap hooch is more basic and staple than other
brands of cheap hooch. The theme of this campaign is "You always
come back to the basics." In the ads they have a series of
pictures of some type of thing, such as sandwiches. They will
start with a picture of a hamburger, dated 1952. Then they will
show you a club sandwich, dated 1954. They will show you an
evolution of sandwiches through various styles of bread making the
sandwich looking absurd until you have a pita pocket in 1986, and
in 1990 you once again have a hamburger. Not only do you once
again have a hamburger but if you look at it closely you have the
THE MT VOID Page 2
exact same hamburger you had in 1952. So coming back to the basics
here means eating 38-year-old meat. I think if you get that
burger, you will find yourself returning to the basics.
I think the ad was inspired by the old pictures _L_i_f_e magazine ran
showing our ape-like ancestors, starting with some troglodyte that
looks more ape-like than human and evolving into Neanderthal, Cro-
Magnon, then in an upright man of the Fifties, and finally a Bruce
Springsteen fan. It too was labeled "You always come back to the
basics."
The ad was, I suppose, intended to imply, in self-congratulatory
tones, that society is finally getting back to a state we were in
in the early Fifties when all of the silliness had been pushed
aside and we were getting back to the real nitty-gritty. I think
we finally achieved this realness back at the Harmonic Convergence.
The National Beef Council is also on the same bandwagon, labeling
their stuff "Real food for real people who really don't care if
their arteries get real clogged." James Garner is spear-heading
the ad campaign now that he is working again after his heart
attack.
Thanks, Jim. It's been real.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
False and doubtful positions, relied upon as
unquestionable maxims, keep those who build on them
in the dark from truth. Such are usually the
prejudices imbibed from education, party, reverence,
fashion, interest, et cetera.
-- John Locke
ConFiction 1990
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Evelyn C. Leeper
(Part 2)
Panel: SSSSFFFF iiiinnnn tttthhhheeee TTTThhhhiiiirrrrdddd WWWWoooorrrrlllldddd
Friday, 4:30 PM
Brian Aldiss (Great Britain) (mod), Elizabeth Ann Hull (USA),
Jaroslav Olsa (Czechoslovakia), Frederik Pohl (USA)
Aldiss started this off by showing a copy of his collection _F_o_r_e_i_g_n
_B_o_d_i_e_s, published in Singapore and available only there. (I'll have to
look for a copy--if it's still in print.) Pohl said that when he had
gone to South America, "We found no vestige of science fiction in Peru,"
but was corrected by Hull (his wife) and changed that to "We found _a
vestige of science fiction in Peru." However, there was more in
Argentina and Brazil (two vestiges, perhaps?), though the problems of
hyperinflation there (2% per _d_a_y) tend to make book buying difficult.
In Brazil, short stories are published in book form for subway riders.
(Here, Waldenbooks and others have expressed interest in novellas
published in book form as a way to beat the rising cost of books.)
Someone observed that there was certainly a "First/Second-World-
Centrism" in science fiction, when even as careful an author as Arthur
C. Clarke, who lives in Sri Lanka, sets _R_a_m_a _I_I there and talks about
the summer of 1998 and the winter of 1998-1999 (the years may be off,
but you get the idea). (Actually, Sri Lanka is above the equator, but
just barely, and the whole concept of winter and summer seems
inappropriate.)
Olsa was an expert on Arabian science fiction and talked a bit
about that. An Egyptian author, Hakkim, wrote a couple of science
fiction stories, one about a time machine and one about returning
cosmonauts (Olsa's term, though whether the returnees were Soviet
cosmonauts or just space travelers was not clear). Another author's
story, "The Spider," has been translated into English, but isn't any
good. There is Libyan science fiction (_D_i_a_r_y _o_f _a _M_a_n _W_h_o _H_a_s_n'_t _B_e_e_n
_B_o_r_n _Y_e_t) and Syrian science fiction commentary (Imram Tali's _O_n _S_c_i_e_n_c_e
_F_i_c_t_i_o_n, published in Beirut). In Tunis, _R_e_v_o_l_u_t_i_o_n _o_f _t_h_e _A_n_i_m_a_l_s, a
re-write of _A_n_i_m_a_l _F_a_r_m, has been published. A magazine(?) called
_S_i_n_g_a_p_o_r_e _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n exists, as well as a book by Singaporean Hanna
Mei (_S_t_a_r_s _o_f _F_i_r_e).
Olsa also talked about a company in Zaria, Nigeria, which published
_T_h_e _C_o_m_e_t (about UFOs) in the Hausa language in an edition of 500
copies. There was also an edition of _1_9_8_4 re-written from Nigeria (see
my comments about Pohl's Chinese translation, above). The multiplicity
of tribal languages means that editions of books in these languages will
have very small print runs.
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 2
(As an aside, Olsa said that Czechoslovakia was still training the
Iraqis in chemical warfare, and that he didn't think this was bad. This
did not make him very popular with the audience.)
One obstacle to science fiction in the Third World is that folk
tales are more popular than science fiction in areas trying to maintain
their own culture. Hull also thought that there were other cultural
forces at work, and postulated that Islam is not a culture that opens up
to new ideas easily. (I think I would tend to disagree and would claim
she is looking more at a part of Middle Eastern Islam than Islam world-
wide.) Aldiss followed this up by saying that it was Western nations
which opened up the world, rather than vice versa, and that science
fiction reflects this.
Again, the problems of translating a book for an audience that
doesn't understand the culture were mentioned (see previous panel).
Pohl, in describing a translation of one of his works in Chinese (the
same one as above?) said, "He had taken out idioms that were hard to
understand and replaced them with idioms that weren't worth
understanding." One example he gave from a translation from Chinese
into English was the change of a chapter heading from "Two Gourds on the
Same Bitter Vine" to "Two Alike." The audience agreed that the former
was _n_o_t too difficult to understand and much preferable to the latter.
Panel: TTTThhhheeee DDDDeeeetttteeeeccccttttiiiivvvveeee iiiinnnn tttthhhheeee SSSSFFFF FFFFiiiieeeelllldddd
Friday, 6 PM
David Kyle (USA) (mod), Evelyn Leeper (USA)
We had planned on attending the Rijstaffel, but this panel
conflicted with it, so we canceled our seats at the dinner. It turned
out that two of the three original panelists (including the original
moderator) failed to show up, so David Kyle volunteered to step in and
moderate. Thank goodness! I do not think I could have run this panel
on my own.
Most of what we talked about, at least at first, was more the
overlap between the mystery and science fiction fields in terms of
authors who wrote in both genres: Anthony Boucher, Robert Bloch, Arthur
Conan Doyle, Fredric Brown, Edgar Allan Poe. I suggested that the
reason for this "cross-fertilization" is that both science fiction and
mysteries require logical thinking, the former to extrapolate from an
assumption, the latter to construct a convincing mystery whose solution
satisfies the reader. Kyle also observed that the mystery field has its
equivalent awards: the Tony (named for Anthony Boucher) is similar to
the Hugo and the Edgar (named for Edgar Allan Poe) is similar to the
Nebula. Coincidentally, both mystery awards are named for writers who
also wrote science fiction.
Eventually we drifted more into the topic, and discussed authors
who had written mystery stories set in the science fiction genre. John
D. MacDonald was one. Others included Randall Garrett (for his Lord
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 3
D'Arcy stories), and of course, Isaac Asimov. I offered H. Beam Piper's
"Omnilingual" as another example, but several audience members felt it
was _n_o_t a good mystery and didn't like the solution at all. A related
sub-genre is mysteries set in fantasy genres (one could argue Garrett
belongs here, I suppose), of which the best-known is probably the Jules
de Grandin series by Seabury Quinn. A current author working in this
field is Glen Cook.
I also suggested an in-between stage: mysteries set in the world of
science fiction writing and fandom. Examples of this would be Boucher's
_R_o_c_k_e_t _t_o _t_h_e _M_o_r_g_u_e, Peter Isaac's _I'_l_l _C_r_y _W_h_e_n _I _K_i_l_l _Y_o_u, Sharyn
McCrumb's _B_i_m_b_o_s _o_f _t_h_e _D_e_a_t_h _S_u_n, and several other more forgettable
works.
There is also the concept of the "scientific detective," of which
the best known is Sherlock Holmes. Dover Books publishes many other
works of this sort, mostly from the Victorian era.
Panel: UUUUSSSS BBBBooooooookkkkssss oooonnnn tttthhhheeee CCCCoooommmmmmmmoooonnnn MMMMaaaarrrrkkkkeeeetttt AAAAfffftttteeeerrrr 1111999999992222
Friday, 7:30 PM
Ashley Grayson (Great Britain) (mod), Kathy Gale (United States),
Toni Weisskopf (Great Britain)
There was much confusion about this topic, in part because the
audience was not well-informed about the ins and outs of international
publishing. For example, are rights for books sold by country, or are
they sold by region (e.g., Europe)? The answer is, sort of.
One audience member kept complaining (rather vehemently) that the
markup on British books in Germany was well above the exchange rate, and
why were they so expensive? Other fans said that in their countries,
the same was true of books imported from other countries, but the first
fan was extremely persistent in trying to find out who was ripping him
off. (He never got an answer--I suspect the answer is everyone.)
No one discussed the possibility that with trade barriers down,
publishers in Turkey (for example) could produce books cheaper than
publishers in Britain and still pay authors the same royalties. Of
course, authors may feel that British publishers will have better
distribution channels for their books, but I am curious to see what does
happen.
Other odds and ends: Britons are prohibited by law from discounting
books. Britons don't like seeing "X writing in the universe of Y" (who
does?). Grayson said that V. C. Andrews's last four books were
completely ghost-written after her death. Gale said she had to take
official exception to this, but unofficially she would shut up.
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 4
@@@@ PPPPaaaarrrrttttyyyy
Friday, 10 PM
The @ party was held in a function room of the Bel Air Hotel. We
arrived late, because we had gone back to Scheveningen to eat dinner and
see the first set of fireworks at 10 PM. Because the room was much
larger than the usual hotel room, the party was much less crowded and
less noisy than in previous years. Also, because the room was reserved
only until midnight, the party broke up much earlier than normal. We
got to meet quite a few fans we had only met electronically before, and
a different set than had shown up at previous Worldcons (in the United
States). Leo did a good job of organizing the party (thanks, Leo), but
on the whole I think the room parties may be better--the cramped
quarters force you to meet everyone instead of breaking into little
groups!
Panel: HHHHoooowwww IIII SSSSttttooooppppppppeeeedddd WWWWoooorrrrrrrryyyyiiiinnnngggg AAAAbbbboooouuuutttt tttthhhheeee RRRRoooocccckkkkeeeetttt
Saturday, 10 AM
Andrew Porter (USA) (mod), Pat Cadigan (USA)
As was typical of ConFiction, this panel was moved from its
original room. Even the Hugo Awards Ceremony was been listed with three
different starting times! (And no one had the slightest idea of what
the nominees were supposed to do or where they were supposed to be.) So
the audience went one place and the panel went somewhere else.
Eventually the two joined.
The panel being as small as it was, the conclusions were of
necessity idiosyncratic. They also expressed a certain cynicism about
awards. For example, Porter said, "To win a Nebula you have to be
nominated and then die," to which Cadigan replied, "Yes, but you can
only do it once."
Even winning, they concluded, was not always great. Larry Niven
broke the base on one of the Hugos which he won. When he tried to crash
the Losers' Party later, claiming that anyone who broke his own Hugo
_m_u_s_t be a loser, he was still refused.
The panelists talked about other awards as well. And each award
has its drawbacks. Hugos are subject to altitude (lower air pressure
brings out bubbles on the surface). Nebulas are subject to cold (if you
bring them into a hot room from a cold outside, they can crack). And
even the Skylark Award, designed as a lens, has one major drawback: it
can set your coat on fire (ask Jane Yolen, to whom this actually
happened!).
Porter revealed some of the deep, dark secrets about the Hugos.
For example, when they arrive, sans engraving, the committee finds the
least pitted and scratched one and uses that for the Best Novel award.
The second-best is used from Best Novella, and so on down the line--the
Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist gets the most pitted and scratched
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 5
ones. That settles it, I'm going to write a novel next time!
(Actually, the word count on many of my trip logs and convention reports
is within the word count--they're just not fiction. I'll have to lie
more....)
There are other drawbacks to winning a Hugo, of course. (This is
the sound of one fan rationalizing that the grapes are probably sour
anyway.) If you fly to the convention, you have to bring it back
through airport security (you would never trust the airline enough to
check it). And if you win one overseas, you have to figure out its
monetary value to declare on the Customs Declaration. So not only will
I write a novel next time, but I will not do it in a year right before
the convention is outside the United States.
The University of Kansas has a Theodore Sturgeon Award, but the
winners can't keep it--there is only one and it stays at the University
of Kansas. (I hope they at least get a letter.) Cadigan said the
Balrog (given by Johnson County Community College) was the ugliest award
she had ever seen, 85 pounds of plaster, though the World Fantasy Awards
are also ugly. Either she or her significant other has won a Balrog and
people who come to their house constantly comment on how good their
taste is but why ever did they buy _t_h_a_t thing?! (I probably should know
who the other was, but I'm not up to date on all this sort of stuff.)
Cadigan also said she won't spend time jockeying for position in
the Nebulas. She recognizes that self-promotion is important and
valuable, but it can be carried to extremes.
Porter observed that one way _L_o_c_u_s wins year after year is by
staying in the semi-prozine category, and that it does this by limiting
its print runs to under 10,000--as its subscription base goes up, its
bookstore distribution is cut. What happens when more than 10,000
people want to buy paid subscriptions should be interesting.
Somehow the panelists got off topic (maybe talking about _L_o_c_u_s),
and ending up discussing hyphenation. The "rules" are no more that two
or three hyphenations in a paragraph, and no two consecutive lines
should be hyphenated.
Porter also mentioned that he has Ed Ferman's 1970 Hugo, which Ed
gave him because of the work Porter had put in while working for him.
Among Porter's discoveries were Vonda McIntyre and Suzette Haden Elgin.
Panel: WWWWhhhhaaaatttt''''ssss aaaannnn AAAAPPPPAAAA???? AAAA FFFFaaaannnnnnnniiiisssshhhh LLLLiiiiffffeeeelllliiiinnnneeee!!!!
Saturday, 10:30 AM
David Schlosser (USA) (mod), George "Lan" Laskowski (USA),
Pascal Thomas (France), Amy Thompson (USA)
I came to this mostly to see Lan (who only arrived this morning,
and was leaving Monday morning), but I did discover that there is a film
APA called _C_a_p_r_a. (If anyone knows a contact name or address, I'd
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 6
appreciate it.)
I then did some odds and ends, including buying a T-shirt parody of
Van Gogh's "Starry Night" with a rocket in it, and escorting Geoff Ryman
to his autograph session, since he had no idea where the Dealers' Room
was.
Panel: AAAA HHHHuuuuggggoooo ffffoooorrrr aaaa NNNNoooonnnn----EEEEnnnngggglllliiiisssshhhh NNNNoooovvvveeeellll
Saturday, 12:00 noon
Rick Katze (mod) (USA), Wolfgang Jeschke (West Germany),
Sam Lundwall (Sweden), Peter Schaap (The Netherlands),
Pascal Thomas (France)
This year an attempt was made to award a Hugo for a novel in a
language other than English. The category never made it to the final
ballot, though, and this panel discussed why.
On the easy level, it didn't make the ballot because it didn't have
enough nominations. Nominations in general were very sparse (it's
embarrassing to admit how few nominations it took me to get on the
ballot--so I won't), and European nominations even sparser. Only 14% of
the eligible voters sent in nomination ballots at all, compared to 16%
last year, and the membership figures were much smaller, making the
absolute numbers about half what they were last year. Of the 3400
people eligible to vote, 50% were from North America--read that
"monolingual" (except for the Canadians)--33% were from the United
Kingdom, and 11% were from the Netherlands. Of the 480 ballots
received, only 120 (25%) were from Europe and that includes the United
Kingdom.
And when people did nominate in this category, they nominated only
one book, not several as is common in other categories. The only books
with multiple nominations were the Dutch novel _D_e _w_o_l_v_e_r by Schaap and
the German novel _M_i_d_a_s by Jeschke. (Note that both authors were on this
panel.) The languages one would expect to see nominations from were
strangely absent; where were the Italian, French, and Spanish novels?
For that matter, where were the Japanese novels? If they have enough
activity to warrant awarding the Seiuns, it seems inconceivable that
nothing was nominated in this category.
On the more difficult level, one must ask _w_h_y there weren't enough
nominations. Well, for one thing, the ballot itself is in English.
Obvious, perhaps, but I suspect until it was pointed out by the
panelists, no committee had really considered the issue. While I don't
expect to see a fifty-language ballot in the near future, printing
ballots in Spanish (perhaps with the English as well) for South America
and Spain, in Japanese for Japan, in German for Germany, and so on, is
not unreasonable.
Another problem was that many voters felt that they had to fill in
the entire ballot, and knew nothing about many of the other categories.
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 7
It was suggested that future ballots start out by saying "You do not
have to vote in every category" or words to that effect.
And even if you get nominations, how do you deal with the problem
of books in different languages competing with each other? If you have
one French book, one German book, two Japanese books, and a Spanish
book, how can you ever expect to find a large enough voting constituency
that can read all of them, or even more than one of them? You could
have a juried award, but how do you select the jury? And if you have a
situation, as in the Netherlands, where only two science fiction novels
in Dutch were published in 1989, where is your base to choose from?
It was observed that the Nobel Prize for Literature _s_e_e_m_s to work,
though Lundwall said that the Swedish Academy is composed of eighteen
old, stupid people. Harry Martinson basically gave himself the Nobel
Prize, and he remains the only science fiction author ever to win one,
though if you look at fantasists in general, you also have Isaac
Bashevis Singer, William Golding, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (Many
other winners have at least dabbled in the field--even Winston Churchill
wrote an alternate history story once!) Still, a "Lifetime Achievement
Award" for a body of work in a language other than English is "less
unworkable," as Thomas put it.
Thomas told an anecdote, the point of which escapes me now, but it
was somewhat interesting. He went from France to Germany by train in
the middle of a heat wave. The air conditioning was broken in the
train, but in France, the conductor insisted on having the windows
closed. In Belgium, the conductor opened the windows. In Germany, they
repaired the air conditioning.
The panel itself was rather sparsely attended. It seemed
appropriate.
Non-Hugo Awards
Saturday, 4 PM
Last year I commented on the ratio of Hugo awards to non-Hugo
awards at the "Hugo" ceremony (just about even), and suggested (along
with many other people) that the time had perhaps come to have a
separate awards ceremony for the non-Hugo awards. So this year they
did, in part because they announced many more European awards than
normal for a Worldcon. Unfortunately, the ceremonies were very poorly
attended, even by the European fans, and rumor has it that some of the
Japanese contingent left in a huff because the Seiuns ("the Japanese
Hugos," though of course they are not associated with the Hugos, nor are
they officially allowed to use the name "Hugo") had been relegated to a
separate and largely ignored program item. The convention, on the other
hand, arranged for Robert Silverberg to be Master of Ceremonies, so they
at least were not totally writing it off.
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 8
Anyway, for your edification, here are the various awards
announced:
- GGGGiiiiggggaaaammmmeeeesssshhhh AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss (Barcelona)
+o SF Novel: _T_h_e _S_h_a_d_o_w _o_f _t_h_e _T_o_r_t_u_r_e_r by Gene Wolfe
+o SF Collection/Anthology: _B_e_y_o_n_d _t_h_e _W_u_b, _V_o_l_u_m_e _1 by Philip
K. Dick
+o SF Short Story: no award
+o Fantasy Novel: _M_y_t_h_a_g_o _W_o_o_d by Robert Holdstock and _T_h_e _C_o_l_o_u_r
_o_f _M_a_g_i_c by Terry Pratchett (tie)
+o Fantasy Collection/Anthology: _S_w_o_r_d_s _A_g_a_i_n_s_t _M_a_g_i_c by Fritz
Leiber
+o Fantasy Short Story: "The Lord of Quarmall" by Fritz Leiber
and "Old Ghosties" by Richard Matheson (tie)
+o Horror Novel: _C_o_n_j_u_r_e _W_i_f_e by Fritz Leiber
+o Horror Collection/Anthology: _D_a_r_k _D_e_s_c_e_n_t by David Hartwell
+o Horror Short Story: "The Hospice" by Robert Aickman, "The
Ancient Mind at Work" by Suzy McKee Charnas, "The Unicorn
Tapestry" by Suzy McKee Charnas, "Night-Side" by Joyce Carol
Oates, and "Quiet Voices in Passenham" by T. H. White (tie)
+o Best Magazine: (none in Spain)
+o Best Series: Gran Fantasy
+o Special Mention: Destino/Alvaro Conquiero Library;
Olaneta/Tale of Wonder Library, and Cristina Macia
(translator) for _T_h_e _C_o_l_o_u_r _o_f _M_a_g_i_c
- SSSSeeeeiiiiuuuunnnn AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss (Japan)
+o Foreign Novel in Translation: _C_o_l_l_i_s_i_o_n _C_o_u_r_s_e/_C_o_l_l_i_s_i_o_n _w_i_t_h
_C_h_r_o_n_o_s by Barrington J. Bayley
+o Short Story in Translation: "Think Blue, Count Two" by
Cordwainer Smith
+o Non-Fiction in Translation: _F_u_t_u_r_e _M_a_g_i_c by Robert L. Forward
- KKKKiiiinnnngggg KKKKoooonnnngggg AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss (The Netherlands)
1. "The Winter Garden" by Paul Harland
2. "The Mound" by Jan Ber Landman
3. "The Desirable Lot of the Slender Ones" by Thomas Wintner
4. "Knowfather" by Gerben Helinga, Jr.
5. "Their Descriptive God, Softly Weeping" by Jan J. B. Kuipers
- KKKKiiiinnnngggg KKKKoooonnnngggg SSSSeeeerrrrvvvviiiicccceeee MMMMeeeeddddaaaallll: Jan Vedhoen
- AAAASSSSFFFFAAAA CCCChhhheeeesssslllleeeeyyyy AAAAwwwwaaaarrrrddddssss
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 9
+o Best Cover Illustration (Hardback Book): Keith Parkinson for
_R_u_s_a_l_k_a
+o Best Cover Illustration (Paperback Book): Stephen Hickman for
_G_r_y_p_h_o_n
+o Best Cover Illustration (Magazine): Frank and Laura-Kelly-
Freas for _M_a_r_i_o_n _Z_i_m_m_e_r _B_r_a_d_l_e_y'_s _F_a_n_t_a_s_y _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e, Autumn
1989
+o Best Interior Illustration: Todd Cameron Hamilton for _T_h_e
_D_r_a_g_o_n_l_o_v_e_r'_s _G_u_i_d_e _t_o _P_e_r_n
+o Best Color Work (unpublished): Tom Kidd for "Winsor McKay
City"
+o Best Monochrome Work (unpublished): Ruth Thompson for "The
Guardian"
+o Best Three-Dimensional: Arlin Rubins for "Wave Born"
+o Award for Artistic Achievement: Don Maitz, body of work
+o Award for Contribution to ASFA: David Cherry for his work in
establishing ASFA as a recognized and respected organization
+o Best Art Director: Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert, DAW
Books
Silverberg commented that the presenters of the Baghdad Science
Fiction league's Golden Camel Awards were unable to make the convention.
(It's a joke, son.)
It was noted that "Seiun" means nebula, but that the awards were
named for the first Japanese science fiction magazine, whose first (and
only) issue was in December 1954. The King Kong Award is a juried award
that carries a cash prize as well, and is being ended after this year.
There was no announcement of the Prometheus (Libertarian) Awards.
Silverberg closed by saying that all this proves "there is much
more to science fiction than I read about in _L_o_c_u_s."
I immediately went out and bought the anthology of the King Kong
Award winners. Then Mark, Kate, and I returned to Scheveningen for
dinner on the boardwalk (I had Biefstuk Pepersaus), and I changed into
my tuxedo for the Hugo Awards. (I am definitely more the tuxedo type
than the fancy dress type--trust me!) Oddly enough, people stared at me
on the tram going back to the Congress Centre--you'd think they had
never seen a woman in a tuxedo riding the tram before.
Hugo Awards
Saturday, 8 PM
First the awards:
Novel: _H_y_p_e_r_i_o_n by Dan Simmons
Novella: "The Mountains of Mourning" by Lois McMaster Bujold
Novelette: "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another"
by Robert Silverberg
Short Story: "Boobs" by Suzy McKee Charnas
Non-Fiction: _T_h_e _W_o_r_l_d _B_e_y_o_n_d _t_h_e _H_i_l_l
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 10
by Alexei and Cory Panshin
Dramatic Pres.: _I_n_d_i_a_n_a _J_o_n_e_s _a_n_d _t_h_e _L_a_s_t _C_r_u_s_a_d_e
Pro Editor: Gardner Dozois, IASFM
Pro Artist: Don Maitz
Semi-Prozine: _L_o_c_u_s (ed. Charles N. Brown)
Fanzine: _T_h_e _M_a_d _3 _P_a_r_t_y (ed. Leslie Turek)
Fan Writer: Dave Langford
Fan Artist: Stu Shiffman
John W. Campbell Award: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Original artwork: _R_i_m_r_u_n_n_e_r_s, cover by Don Maitz
First Fandom Award: Robert A. Madle
Edd Cartier
Alex Schomburg
Big Heart Award: Jay Kay Klein
(The last four are not Hugos.)
Now the comments: C. Howard Wilkins, the American ambassador,
opened the ceremonies and presented the Best Novel Hugo. His speech was
entertaining without being patronizing. He talked about the search for
intelligent life in outer space, commenting that there didn't seem to be
much evidence for it on earth--present company excepted, of course. He
also talked about "science fiction" instead of "sci-fi." (Later Saul
Jaffe said that Wilkins really was a fan, and when he was being shown
around earlier, they had a hard time getting him out of some of the
panels--he wanted to stay and listen!) At the end of his opening
remarks, he looked upward and said, "Scotty?" which got a big round of
applause. The only negative note was the strict (and rather brusque)
security his staff insisted on.
I am now convinced that First Fandom has embarked on a "let's award
everyone before they die" campaign--they gave out four awards two years
ago, three this year, and three this year. Jay Kay Klein looked at a
loss without his camera--and the big question was, who would take _h_i_s
picture receiving the award? (Someone did.)
The lack of rehearsal showed--Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was reading the
list of nominees much faster than they were changing the slides, meaning
the names never matched the pictures. Of course, they put Lan's name on
slide with the picture of the fanzine _P_i_r_a_t_e _J_e_n_n_y and the editor of
that was matched with _L_a_n'_s _L_a_n_t_e_r_n! Still, it was a thrill to see my
picture up there, even if it was only about two seconds before Yarbro
announced that Dave Langford was the winner.
After the ceremonies, I found a phone booth and tried to call a
friend back in the United States. We had made an arrangement whereby I
would call his answering machine at work and read the winners off into
it. Then he could call up his messages and transcribe them, backing up
as necessary, thereby making it keeping the call as short (and cheap) as
possible, and then send them electronically to everyone in the Science
Fiction Club at AT&T. The one thing we hadn't allowed for was that the
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 11
computer running his answering machine might be down. It was. Twenty-
seven rings later, I gave up.
I then went to the Hugo Losers' Party, sponsored by the Chicon V
committee, who gave us all flowers and coasters with rockets
needlepointed onto them. (Hey, they're easier to carry through security
and Customs!) I volunteered to be on the Chicon V program and indicated
that Mark would probably not be adverse either, but they should check
with him. David Brin congratulated me on being nominated (he saw my
lapel rocket pin, I guess) and pointed out that just making the ballot
is honor enough. But this party, and all the others, were very hot and
eventually I left and went back to the room, meeting Mark and Kate, who
had gone to a panel. I tried the answering machine again, and it
answered this time, so I left my message and went to sleep. Ah,
technology!
WSFS Business Meeting
Sunday, 10 AM
Bruce Pelz (chair)
The first order of business here was the announcement of the winner
of the 1993 bid: San Francisco. This was a tight race between them and
Hawaii; Phoenix and Zagreb were distant contenders (Zagreb placed ahead
of Phoenix, though). There was much dispute over Hawaii's use of pre-
printed ballots with their bid written in and marked first--nothing
prohibits this, but Phoenix felt it was a bad thing and should be
prevented in the future. I suspect what kept Phoenix from formally
protesting was that since Hawaii lost anyway and Phoenix placed fourth,
it was pointless. (If you care, the vote counts I heard were 193 votes
for Zagreb, 324 for Hawaii, and 520 for San Francisco. 329 ballots were
cast by mail and 759 were cast at the convention.)
The rest of the business meeting swung between the extremely boring
to the wryly amusing ("This actually appears to be a simple and elegant
wording." "Mr. Sacks, are you speaking for or against?"). When Magicon
was asked if they had arranged for a simultaneous shuttle launch, Pelz
interjected, "It's up in the air." On the whole, it was at least as
entertaining as many "humorous" program items.
Film: _M_a_l_e_v_i_l
Sunday, 12 noon
This was a post-holocaust film none of us had seen, so Mark, Dale,
Kate, Kate's friend, and I all went to see it. Unluckily, it was in
French. Luckily, it was subtitled. Unluckily, it was subtitled in
Dutch. Luckily, it had very little dialogue. Only Dale and I stayed
for the whole film. He could pick up some of the Dutch because it was
like German, which he knew, and I could recognize some of the French and
some of the Dutch, and he remembered the story from the book fairly
well, so between us I think we pieced together what was going on. But
ConFiction September 9, 1990 Page 12
we did agree that we didn't remember a train in a tunnel from the book
and suspect that was added for dramatic effect.
The photography was also odd--almost black-and-white in its use of
filters to provide a washed-out look to the film after the bomb.
The film room was one of the best at a convention--it was actually
a movie theater layout, with banked seating and all.
(end of Part 2)