@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/01/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 35
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
03/13 LZ: TOM SWIFT by Victor Appleton II (Juvenile SF)
04/03 LZ: Book Swap
_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.
03/09 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
03/16 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 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 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!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. There are mysterious forces in nature--forces that go beyond
mortal understanding. But every once in a while you get some
insight into these forces. They behave in a surprisingly human
manner. They do get angry. I think I got them angry at me.
As readers of this notice may know, two years ago it became
Evelyn's turn (for the first time ever!) to take responsibility for
clearing the driveway. Now, there are forces that protect Evelyn.
If I say marshmallows are white, Evelyn will say no, they are
black. Then when we take a look, we will discover our marshmallows
have molded over and are indeed black. It is a phenomenon I have
known about, but have been reticent to accept. In any case, two
years ago there was no snow to shovel.
THE MT VOID Page 2
I realized I had happened on to one of the great undiscovered
forces of the universe. There are strong and weak nuclear forces,
gravity, electromagnetism, and Evelyn's luck. So ....
Last year Evelyn's responsibility became the driveway and ending
world tyranny. Again, not enough snow to shovel fell. What did
fall was the Berlin Wall. And the KGB. And much of apartheid. It
was amazing! Then the question came to mind how to put this really
to the test. Curing AIDS? Curing cancer? No, those might be done
with single breakthroughs. I wanted something complex. I wanted
something that really went beyond the laws of chance. For the
winter of 1991 Evelyn was given 1) taking care of the driveway, 2)
ending world tyranny, and 3) ...
Peace in the Middle East
And something beyond time and space said, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
FORGET IT. ALL DEALS ARE OFF."
And war has broken out in the Middle East. And the KGB has been
reinstituted. There are crackdowns in Eastern Europe.
Yup! And we had to shovel the driveway.
2. Here are this year's Nebula nominations:
- Novels:
- Le Guin, Ursula: _T_e_h_a_n_u: _T_h_e _L_a_s_t _B_o_o_k _o_f _E_a_r_t_h_s_e_a
(Atheneum)
- Martin, Valerie: _M_a_r_y _R_e_i_l_l_y (Doubleday)
- Morrow, James: _O_n_l_y _B_e_g_o_t_t_e_n _D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r (Morrow)
- Simmons, Dan: _T_h_e _F_a_l_l _o_f _H_y_p_e_r_i_o_n (Doubleday/Foundation)
- Stith, John E: _R_e_d_s_h_i_f_t _R_e_n_d_e_v_o_u_s (Ace)
- Yolen, Jane: _W_h_i_t_e _J_e_n_n_a (Tor)
- Novella:
- Bujold, Lois McMaster: "Weatherman" (_A_n_a_l_o_g)
- Cadigan, Pat: "Fool to Believe" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Haldeman, Joe: "The Hemingway Hoax" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Kelly, James Patrick: "Mr. Boy" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Murphy, Pat: "Bones" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Novelette:
- ab Hugh, Dafydd: "The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His
Larinks, A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Chiang, Ted: "Tower of Babylon" (_O_m_n_i)
- Le Guin, Ursula: "The Shobies Story" (_U_n_i_v_e_r_s_e _1)
- McLeod, Ian: "1/72nd Scale" (_W_e_i_r_d _T_a_l_e_s)
- Resnick, Mike: "The Manamouki" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
THE MT VOID Page 3
- Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: "A Time For Every Purpose"
(_A_m_a_z_i_n_g)
- Shwartz, Susan: "Loose Cannon" (_W_h_a_t _M_i_g_h_t _H_a_v_e _B_e_e_n, _V_o_l
_2)
- Soukup, Martha: "Over the Long Haul" (_A_m_a_z_i_n_g)
- Short Story:
- Bisson, Terry: "Bears Discover Fire" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Cadigan, Pat: "The Power and the Passion" (_O_m_n_i)
- Fowler, Karen Joy: "Lieserl" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Murphy, Pat: "Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates"
(_A_l_i_e_n _S_e_x)
- Robinson, Kim Stanley: "Before I Wake" (_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s)
- Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: "Story Child" (_A_b_o_r_i_g_i_n_a_l _S_F)
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
Man is without any doubt the most interesting fool there is.
Also the most eccentric. He hasn't a single written law,
in his Bible or out of it, which has any but one purpose and
intention--to limit or defeat a law of God.
-- Mark Twain
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A dark and fascinating thriller
that is a genuine departure in the depiction of the
psychopathic killer on the screen. Hannibal Lecter is a
screen villain as memorable as Norman Bates. Rating:
high +2 (-4 to +4).
Since 1959 the psychopathic killer has, perhaps unfortunately,
become a staple of popular film. Most films that had psychopaths before
that point really blurred the distinction between your garden variety
murderer and the actual psychopath. Perhaps one notable exception was
_T_h_e _B_a_d _S_e_e_d, which suggested that there could be something like a
"congenital evil." Extreme criminality and madness were very much
equated. That was very much what was meant with "mad scientists" of the
old horror films. There was an urge to deny the existence of evil or to
relegate it to the supernatural. How many people even today deny the
culpability of Adolf Hitler and say instead that he was simply mad.
There were some films that suggested that there was something more to
criminal insanity than just extreme criminality, but it was Alfred
Hitchcock's _P_s_y_c_h_o that turned the cinematic view around. Norman Bates
was himself a victim as well as the perpetrator of his acts. Bates was
a normal person twisted by his past and driven by forces he could not
control. This is a marvelously egalitarian view of the criminally
insane. It assumes that all men (and women) are created equal. This is
probably an equally invalid view of the criminally insane. When John
Hurt played Caligula in _I, _C_l_a_u_d_i_u_s, he described his character as
"congenitally bonkers." In all probability that was fairly accurate.
It is at least my belief that Caligula was genuinely insane and Hitler
was not. This view of the pitiful victim-psychopath became the dominant
view in films with _P_s_y_c_h_o and it has remained dominant. With John
Carpenter's _H_a_l_l_o_w_e_e_n (1978) there was a new view, or perhaps an old
view harkening back to medieval beliefs, that the psychopathic killer is
a supernatural force. Fortunately, few films have picked up on this
idea and most that have have large Roman numerals in their titles.
Thomas Harris has a different concept of the psychopathic killer
which, if no more credible than the supernatural force, s at least more
intriguing. He created the idea in his novel _R_e_d _D_r_a_g_o_n, which Michael
Mann adapted into his 1986 film _M_a_n_h_u_n_t_e_r. The idea was expanded in his
_S_i_l_e_n_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b_s, which has been adapted into a film by Jonathan
Demme. Harris's concept is that psychopaths have a distinctly different
form of intelligence. Their reasoning power is consistent and logical,
but alien to our own. If you cannot bridge the gap and think like a
psychopath, you are at a distinct disadvantage in dealing with them. In
addition, the psychopath often has superhuman sensory powers. For
example, Harris's Hannibal Lecter, in addition to a super-intellect,
Silence of the Lambs February 19, 1991 Page 2
apparently has a heightened sense of smell. I believe these are ideas
that owe their origin more to Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart" than to actual
case histories. But where Harris is really superb is in being able to
make Lecter's reasoning really seem brilliant. It is extremely
difficult to write a character who is supposed to be brilliant. To see
how poorly it can be done, try going back and listening to Lex Luthor's
reasoning about Kryptonite in _S_u_p_e_r_m_a_n (1978). Lecter's reasoning is at
once perverted and brilliant.
_M_a_n_h_u_n_t_e_r and _T_h_e _S_i_l_e_n_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b_s are two of what have to be
at least four stories involving Hannibal Lecter. And they are probably
the two least interesting. When _R_e_d _D_r_a_g_o_n begins, Lecter has already
been captured by Will Graham, who made himself into a psychopath in
order to catch Lecter in the first place. Graham needs Lecter's help to
capture another psychopath. In _T_h_e _S_i_l_e_n_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b_s, fledging FBI
agent Clarice Starling (no pun intended) (played by Jodie Foster)
similarly must enlist Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins's) help to find a
killer. This time, however, Lecter thinks he can work his own deal.
While this story does conclude, there is still a major loose end that
really demands yet another story.
In this story the primary villain is a killer whom the press has
dubbed Buffalo Bill. The killer not only murders his victims, he later
skins them. Starling is chosen to talk to Dr.~Lecter about the crimes
with an eye toward getting his unique insight into how to capture
Buffalo Bill. Starling, however, has her own personal demons inside and
Lecter is just the person to turn those demons against her. In the book
the main story is how Starling catches the killer, with the Lecter story
being a major subplot. The film reverses the importance of the two
plots by leaving the Lecter plot intact, if not actually expanded, and
cutting drastically the Buffalo Bill plot.
The character of Lecter seems calculated to play off every anti-
intellectual prejudice in the audience. The man is an ice-cold,
emotionless intellect. He listens to ice-cold, emotionless music. Even
when he kills we are told that he is ice-cold and emotionless. In one
chilling detail the character is defined. We are told that he attacked
and partially ate a victim without his pulse ever going over 80.
Stylistically the film is well handled generally. At times the
music is a bit overly dramatic in underscoring the mood as if Howard
Shore, the composer, did not trust Hopkins's acting to convey a mood of
menace. If that was the case, the composer was misguided, since
Harris's villain will probably be as memorable as Norman Bates and
Michael Meyers. The photography uses a filter to subdue the colors. If
that was not downbeat enough, Starling is really the only sympathetic
character in the whole story. She seems to go from one man to the next
who tries to bed her.
For the sake of completeness at least two nits should be mentioned.
Starling is first seen climbing a steep hill in the rigorous FBI
Silence of the Lambs February 19, 1991 Page 3
training school. When we see her in close-up, she is wearing earrings.
For her own safety, at least, you would think they would insist on no
jewelry. Also, certain scenes are supposedly seen through an infra-red
snooperscope and at least one time the subject is in total darkness. As
seen through the scope, even items that do not emit heat are easily
seen. In the total darkness scene the subject can not only be seen, but
also to be seen is the subject's sharp shadow on the wall.
_T_h_e _S_i_l_e_n_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b_s is as unpleasant and hypnotic as watching
a cobra. This is one heavy thriller. I give it a high +2 on the -4 to
+4 scale.
The Old-Timers Are Back
by Dale L. Skran Jr.
Copyright 1991 Dale L. Skran Jr.
It may seem odd to refer to David Brin and Greg Bear as oldies in
the same fashion as Poul Anderson, but they are now such widely
recognized Icons of the SF field that the comparison is justified. Bear
has won the Hugo for "Blood Music" and Brin for _S_t_a_r_t_i_d_e _R_i_s_i_n_g, both
solid Anderson-like works of hard SF. Together, Brin and Bear instill a
lot of the remaining vitality in the hard SF field. Each novel they
write is new and different, with better realized characters than a
Forward could ever produce, combined with prose that goes one step
beyond Heinlein's workperson-like English.
Further, one of the greatest challenges in SF is the creation of
believable novel of the next 50 years. Brin does this in _E_a_r_t_h and now
Bear has added a companion novel in _Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s. Poul Anderson has
also delivered a new novel of his Time Patrol, _T_h_e _S_h_i_e_l_d _o_f _T_i_m_e. All
will be eligible for the 1991 Hugo so I felt it appropriate to discuss
them together.
_T_h_e _S_h_i_e_l_d _o_f _T_i_m_e is the lessor of the three by far. Anderson has
really lumped together three novella-length stories. The first follows
Manse Everard, Unattached Agent, as he hunts down the last of the
Exaltationists, a group of gene-engineered superhumans from the future.
This 50s style adventure is of only modest interest. The second novella
follows Wanda Tamberley (Manse's love) through her early experiences as
a Time Patrol agent. This section runs at a lower pitch, focusing on
the impossibility of saving or helping anyone who's fate is already a
certainty. The third section returns to history-shattering events, but
with the interesting twist that random quantum fluctuations are
responsible for wiping out the Time Patrol's future rather than the
machinations of the Exaltationists or other criminals. Overall, a
modest non-novel, not on the scale of Anderson`s recent and excellent
_B_o_a_t _o_f _a _M_i_l_l_i_o_n _Y_e_a_r_s. Recommended only for time-travel and alternate
history buffs.
_Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s makes a solid attempt to put the reader about fifty
years in the future (2047). Unlike Brin's world-shattering _E_a_r_t_h, _Q_u_e_e_n
_o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s has an almost microscopic focus on several characters and a
police-procedural plot updated to include nano-technology.
Unfortunately, Bear makes the mistake of having one of the characters be
an AI coming into self-awareness after arriving in a distant star
system. The plot posits that the AI was launched in 2032, an event I
consider unlikely in the extreme given the current moribund state of our
space program. Although _Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _A_n_g_e_l_s has many interesting ideas, I
enjoyed Brin's rock-um sock-um _E_a_r_t_h (which also had many interesting
ideas) far more. Still, both Brin and Bear deserve special attention
for daring to write that most difficult of SF novels -- one that takes
place about 50 years in the future. Recommended. Has a better shot at
the Nebula than the Hugo due to large amounts of stylistic
- 2 -
experimentation, stream-of-consciousness writing, and detailed
characterization.
Brin's _E_a_r_t_h has the best shot at the Hugo. Although a vast tome,
it becomes increasingly engaging as the reader gets toward the end, and
builds toward one of Brin's patented "comic-book" style conclusions. By
"comic-book" I mean that it features the clash of mighty forces using E.
E. Smith style weapons that would not seem out of place in a Stan Lee
comic. Another Brin novel with a "comic-book" ending is _T_h_e _P_o_s_t_m_a_n
which has two super-strong cyborgs duking it out like pagan gods in the
final pages. As always with Brin, the science is well thought out and
the society carefully considered. He has clearly been thinking about
_E_a_r_t_h for a long time. Recommended. Strong Hugo contender.
SCENES FROM A MALL
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: If you think it is funny to see
adults argue in public, perhaps this comedy is for you.
Then again, if you do think so, who knows what else you
would like? Another Beverly Hills comedy that makes this
Easterner wonder if he is missing the point. Rating: -1
(-4 to +4).
Somebody once told me they thought they could listen to and watch
Woody Allen reading white pages out of the phone book and it would be
funny. His facial expressions are just so funny that anything he does
is just naturally hilarious. Bette Midler can also be very funny. So
the question is, how long can this couple play a loving and quarreling
couple walking around a mall and still carry the film on their innate
cuteness. Well, based on the results in Paul Mazursky's _S_c_e_n_e_s _f_r_o_m _a
_M_a_l_l, the two of them might be able to carry the premise for up to about
ten minutes. After that, they definitely need an assist from a script
and the script in _S_c_e_n_e_s _f_r_o_m _a _M_a_l_l by Roger Simon and director
Mazursky does little to help. At least it does little unless you think
that everything connected with Beverly Hills is really cute. If your
idea of a good joke is seeing a line of cars with each driver talking on
a cellular phone, perhaps you will enjoy this film, but I would bet you
will find far more on-target and funny in _L._A. _S_t_o_r_y.
On their sixteenth wedding anniversary, lovey-dovey couple Nick
(played by Woody Allen) and Deborah (played by Bette Midler) go to a
mall on an errand. There they get into a fight over fidelity and decide
to break up. They reconcile and decide they still love each other.
They fight again and break up. Then they get together again. Can you
figure the plot from that point on? Yes, I thought you could. All this
fighting and loving is done in front of random strangers. That's what
there is. It is a film with a beginning and a middle, but no end. It
is just arbitrarily cut off at the end of a cycle. It would be one
thing if these people were at least great conversationalists. But this
is no _M_y _D_i_n_n_e_r _w_i_t_h _A_n_d_r_e. About all you learn from the conversation
is that these are two very ordinary and superficial people. Do you
really care where they got their roll-top desk and which of them is
going to get it in the divorce settlement? I know I do not. You could
easily save the admission price by going to your local mall and
eavesdropping on the people there.
There are some things that Mazursky is more anxious to show us than
others. We do get to see the names of a lot of stores at the mall, many
of which--surprise! surprise!--are chains that you might find at your
own local mall. How fortuitous for the financing of the film!
Considerably less care is taken to show us what the characters are doing
Scenes from a Mall February 24, 1991 Page 2
with their packages. At one point each has bought a complete change of
clothes which they are wearing. No explanation is given for what
happened to the clothes they had been wearing. I guess in Beverly
Hills, everything you own is considered disposable.
If you genuinely find great humor in the awkward situation of
seeing adults argue in public, this predominantly one-joke comedy might
be for you. If not, it offers you surprisingly little considering the
names involved. I give it a -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Boskone 28
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
[Part 1]
Well, the weather conspired against us, and we ended up driving
through four separate blizzard conditions before finally arriving in
Springfield at 8 PM. (A large accident and construction along I-91
didn't help, but then, there's been construction along that stretch of
I-91 for the past twelve years.)
Registration for panelists was in the regular registration area,
rather than the Green Room, and this worked well, since all the flyers
and such were there also, and the people had no problem finding the
additional packet for each of us with our schedules.
Hotels
The easiest way between the Tara and the Marriott way was out the
door and across the street. The only problem with this was that it was
(again!) very cold and windy and unless you carted your coat around with
you it was not inviting. With the smaller size of Boskone, there is no
crowding in the hallways or other common areas any more, and it's
possible to find places to just sit and talk.
Dealers' Rooms
Last year I had said, "The setup of having a dealers' room in each
hotel continued, and will for the forseeable future. There just isn't
enough space in any one room to put all the dealers there without
seriously impacting the programming." So they made me a liar. Well,
only partly. There was only one dealers' room, but they didn't put all
the dealers in it. Rather, they put about 75% of the dealers in it; the
rest got no space. This didn't make dealers happy either. As far as
content, there were several book dealers, but an increasing number who
don't alphabetize their stock--making them worthless to me, since I'm
always looking for specific things. There was still too much peripheral
stuff: jewelry, T-shirts, etc. (My personal opinion--I'm sure others
disagree.) Dealers still complained about low sales--the recession is
probably as much a culprit as the smaller space or anything else NESFA
has control over. I found some items I was looking for, including some
rare Anne Rice novels one friend wanted, a Crowley book for another
friend, and even some stuff for me. We also bought some old pulps in
Treasure Island, a comic store in the mall just outside the Marriott,
and a couple of books in Johnson's Bookstore, the main book store in
town, and an old favorite from twenty years ago when I lived in the
area.
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 2
Art Show
This was better than last year, and there seemed to be more
affordable items. It could be that having Worldcon in Boston put a dent
in the pieces still around at the time of last year's Boskone.
Film Program
The film program was again very small: _T_h_e _T_h_i_n_g (the original),
_C_a_t _P_e_o_p_l_e (the original), _W_i_c_k_e_r _M_a_n, _T_h_r_o_n_e _o_f _B_l_o_o_d, _N_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e
_L_i_v_i_n_g _D_e_a_d (the original), some short subjects, and an "Ed Emsh Film
festival" (which I would have been interested in, but was busy both
times it was shown). Ed Emsh was the Artist Guest of Honor, though
sadly he died last July, after he was chosen but well before the
convention itself.
Programming
I want my science track back! Boskone used to have a science
"guest of honor" (called "featured science speaker," actually), and now
they don't even have a science panel. They were supposed to have one on
cold fusion, but it was canceled. Well, so was cold fusion, so I
suppose it was fitting.
The First Night
After registering and making a first pass through the dealers'
room, I went to the "Meet the VIPs" Party, where I spent most of the
time talking to Mike Godwin about Usenet and copyright, and Usenet in
general. I tried to convince him to start a "rec.arts.books.reviews"
group (with little success, I'm afraid). We also had a discussion with
Saul Jaffe about whether or not Internet rules allowed him to include
the cover price of a book in a review. I brought this up because he did
allow a whole discussion about the $1.95 pricing on Pulphouse short
story booklets. Though Mike and I both argued this was inconsistent,
Saul did not appear to have changed his mind any, and he is the
moderator, so I guess that's that.
I also had a chance to talk to Michael Kandel and tell him how much
I enjoyed his _S_t_r_a_n_g_e _I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n (which I had meant to bring to get it
autographed, but forgot).
Mark went to the "Neglected Authors: Jules Verne" panel, but not
the "How Fandom Has Changed in the Last 15 Years" one. His observation
on the latter was that one way fandom has changed is that Jules Verne is
now a neglected author. He also said that he was disappointed that the
panelists seemed to be familiar only with Verne's more popular works, by
which I assume he means _A_r_o_u_n_d _t_h_e _W_o_r_l_d _i_n _E_i_g_h_t_y _D_a_y_s, _F_r_o_m _t_h_e _E_a_r_t_h
_t_o _t_h_e _M_o_o_n, _J_o_u_r_n_e_y _t_o _t_h_e _C_e_n_t_e_r _o_f _E_a_r_t_h, _M_a_s_t_e_r _o_f _t_h_e _W_o_r_l_d, _T_h_e
_M_y_s_t_e_r_i_o_u_s _I_s_l_a_n_d, _T_o _t_h_e _S_u_n, _O_f_f _o_n _a _C_o_m_e_t, and _T_w_e_n_t_y _T_h_o_u_s_a_n_d
_L_e_a_g_u_e_s _U_n_d_e_r _t_h_e _S_e_a. No mention was made of even the works which Ace
published in mass market paperback twenty years ago: _T_h_e _B_e_g_u_m'_s
_F_o_r_t_u_n_e, _T_h_e _C_a_r_p_a_t_h_i_a_n _C_a_s_t_l_e, _C_i_t_y _i_n _t_h_e _S_a_h_a_r_a, _I_n_t_o _t_h_e _N_i_g_e_r _B_e_n_d,
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 3
_T_i_g_e_r_s & _T_r_a_i_t_o_r_s, _T_h_e _U_n_d_e_r_g_r_o_u_n_d _C_i_t_y, _T_h_e _V_i_l_l_a_g_e _i_n _t_h_e _T_r_e_e_t_o_p_s,
and others.
The Tribble in the Microwave: Fannish Urban Myths
Friday, 10 PM
Tony Lewis (mod), Chip Hitchcock, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Mike Resnick
The panel started by defining urban myths (a.k.a. urban legends)
and mentioning Jan Harold Brunvand's books along these lines (_T_h_e
_V_a_n_i_s_h_i_n_g _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r and others). In response to a question as to why
Brunvand was working in Utah, someone said it's because Mormons lead
boring lives and need urban legends to liven them up. Nielsen Hayden
responded, "Mormons do not lead boring lives, but they're in love with
faith-promoting stories." Having defined urban myths as stories passed
around as true which aren't, the panelists then proceeded to ignore this
definition and tell true (but boring) stories about filling other fans'
rooms with helium balloons and such. Admittedly, the story of Rick
Katze and another large fan load-testing the runway at Conspiracy by
skipping down it did at least provide a humorous image to the audience,
but yet another telling of how Harlan Ellison collected money for a
damaged screen and then wanted to give the excess to Clarion did nothing
for me. (This, by the way, was the origin of the Worldcon Emergency
Fund, but eventually someone decided that having Worldcons actually buy
insurance was probably a better idea.)
Resnick claimed he got Bob Tucker to give him a cover quote for a
novel (something Tucker never does) by refusing to give Tucker
directions to the bathroom in his (Resnick's) house unless Tucker
provided the quote. This probably really is an urban legend, or at
least an exaggeration--I can't imagine that a house could be so confused
that someone couldn't find a bathroom on their own.
Someone told the story of when Alexei Panshin came to a NESFA
meeting and was asked to help collate (that being a traditional thing to
do at a NESFA meeting). He supposedly got all huffy and said he didn't
collate fanzines--he was a professional author! Just then Isaac Asimov
stuck his head out of the door into the collating room and said, "I'm
running out of page four." Well, it _m_i_g_h_t be true.
And several people talked about one hotel which had elevator
problems that they refused to fix. So one person, who was in an upper-
story room, called the fire department to say they were trapped in their
room (since none of the working elevators went to his floor). Another
called the town's safety inspector, who closed the hotel down for a few
days. A third wrote the hotel's insurance carrier, and caused the hotel
yet more grief.
They even drifted into the topic of recursive science fiction
(science fiction about science fiction authors and conventions). The
fact that Lewis just published _A_n _A_n_n_o_t_a_t_e_d _B_i_b_l_i_o_g_r_a_p_h_y _o_f _R_e_c_u_r_s_i_v_e
_S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n may have had something to do with this.
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 4
At the end of the panel, everyone sang a surprise "Happy Birthday"
to Lewis, and Resnick read an appreciation of him (of which Resnick
said, "If this lacks a certain felicity of expression it's because I
didn't write it").
We then went to the Con Suite--a large room with soda and munchies.
It seemed very empty, but that's probably better than having it over-
crowded. (This was the room in the Tara that was used as a dealers'
room the last two years. Come to think of it, maybe they could offer
overflow dealer space here for dealers willing to bring their stuff in
when they want to sell it and pack it up and removed it when they aren't
there.) I picked up a T-shirt from last year's Boskone (always on the
look-out for bargains, and they discount them heavily after the con is
over).
Whither Criticism: The Purpose and Direction of Criticism
Saturday, 11 AM
Peter J. Heck (mod), Samuel R. Delany, Thomas A. Easton,
Evelyn C. Leeper, Gordon Van Gelder
Well, since fools rush in where angels fear to tread and all that,
I was perfectly willing to answer the opening question: "What is the
difference between reviews and criticism?" I said that criticism
assumes the reader has read the book; reviews assume s/he hasn't. Now,
I admitted even then that this was a very rough cut at an answer, and
other people did offer variations or differing opinions. Delany quoted
D. H. Lawrence: "The purpose of critics is to save authors from
themselves." (I can't recall if this was in the specific context of
criticism versus reviews, or just in general.)
We also discussed negative reviews, pro and con. I was in a unique
position on the panel in that I could review what I chose--the rest had
books assigned to them. So while they sometimes _h_a_d to write a negative
review, I had the option of just writing no review. I did say, however,
that in my fields of (semi-)expertise (Sherlock Holmes and alternate
histories) I did feel some obligation to review everything I ran across,
if only to warn other aficianados against wasting their money.
The constraints we worked under also influenced our reviewing in
other ways. Easton and Van Gelder review for monthly magazines (_A_n_a_l_o_g
and _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _R_e_v_i_e_w _o_f _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n respectively), meaning a
several-month lead time between when they write the review and when it
appears. Delaney talked about reviewing for the _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _T_i_m_e_s (Sunday
edition) and how it was more likely to affect sales because of its
timeliness. I said that my reviews took not months or even days to
appear, but hours. However, my lead time was greater--they all get
review copies before publication, while in most cases I can't review a
book until it's been published and I buy it.
In response to discussion about whether people read reviews for
books they've already read (separate from the review versus criticism
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 5
issue), Mark Leeper mentioned from the audience that he likes to put
"information bombs" in his reviews, little facts that take on more
meaning after the reader has read the book. For example, he included
some information about the parallels between _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r _P_a_r_t _I_I_I and
_C_a_v_a_l_l_e_r_i_a _R_u_s_t_i_c_a_n_a (which was used in _T_h_e _G_o_d_f_a_t_h_e_r _P_a_r_t _I_I_I) which
was more meaningful to people who had seen the film and would suddenly
become clear to others when they did see it.
Small press publishers in the audience talked about the problems
they have. With such small press runs they can't afford to send out a
lot of review copies, but then this means they won't get reviewed.
Delaney suggested sending a copy to the _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _T_i_m_e_s as he says their
method for selecting the books to be reviewed is the most likely to
result in a small press item being chosen.
Alternate Histories: The Way We Weren't
Saturday, 1 PM
Mark Olson (mod), Elizabeth Carey, Mark Keller, Evelyn C. Leeper
This is starting to become one of the obligatory panels at science
fiction conventions. (Well, at least they didn't have a Sherlock Holmes
panel as well!) Keller talked about getting into alternate histories
through his study of regular history--historians apparently write these
things called "counter-factual speculations" for historical journals.
They're alternate histories in which the historians change one variable
and try to predict the outcome. For example, what if Julius Caesar had
survived the assassination attempt? This sounds very familiar, right?
The book Patricia Crone and M. Cook's _H_a_g_a_r_i_s_m: _T_h_e _M_a_k_i_n_g _o_f _t_h_e
_I_s_l_a_m_i_c _W_o_r_l_d was mentioned, which I gather at least covers some
possibilities for an alternate history of religion.
Keller (who by the way will be publishing an annotated bibliography
of alternate histories late this year or early next) mentioned some
recent "mainstream" alternate histories, including Oscar Lewis's _T_h_e
_L_a_s_t _Y_e_a_r_s and George Bernau's _P_r_o_m_i_s_e_s _t_o _K_e_e_p and _C_a_n_d_l_e _i_n _t_h_e _W_i_n_d.
One variation we touched upon, if only to distinguish it from
"true" alternate history, was that of the "secret history," in which
history turns out to be not what we had thought. An example might be
that Hitler was really assassinated in 1933, and a substitute was put in
his place, or that Elizabeth I was really a man, or whatever. The
various Illuminati conspiracy novels would also fall into this category.
Another distinction we made was the "change-war" story versus the
straight alternate history. While I (and the other panelists, as far as
I could tell) accept both as alternate histories, there are some who
don't, or at least want the distinction retained. "Change-war" stories
assume time travel, and someone going back and changing the past. (I
don't think they necessarily require two sides competing about how the
past should be, even though the term "change-war" would seem to imply
that.) Non-"change-war" stories just assume a different timeline arose
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 6
naturally.
Someone asked about the competing theories that "The man makes
history" and "History makes the man." Though much alternate history
assumes the former, some have been written with the latter as a guiding
principle. This led us into a discussion of chaos theory and Mark
Leeper's contention that chaos theory says that even if Lincoln just
sneezed in a different direction, things now would be _v_e_r_y different.
Olson said that chaos theory had caused a lot of ripples (so to speak)
in science fiction and pointed out that Isaac Asimov's _P_r_e_l_u_d_e _t_o
_F_o_u_n_d_a_t_i_o_n attempted to reconcile psycho-history with chaos theory (not
entirely successfully, to his mind).
The usual question of "Which are the best alternate
histories?" arose. Answers included Ken Grimwood's _R_e_p_l_a_y, John
Brunner's _T_i_m_e_s _W_i_t_h_o_u_t _N_u_m_b_e_r, James Hogan's _T_h_r_i_c_e _U_p_o_n _a _T_i_m_e, and
Keith Roberts's _P_a_v_a_n_e. If I were restricting my nominations to book-
length works, I would also add Len Deighton's _S_S-_G_B; Harry Harrison's _A
_T_r_a_n_s_a_t_l_a_n_t_i_c _T_u_n_n_e_l, _H_u_r_r_a_h!; Ward Moore's _B_r_i_n_g _t_h_e _J_u_b_i_l_e_e; Robert
Sobel's _F_o_r _W_a_n_t _o_f _a _N_a_i_l; and Poul Anderson's "Time Patrol" stories.
There are also a few anthologies edited by Gregory Benford worth
investigating: _H_i_t_l_e_r _V_i_c_t_o_r_i_o_u_s, _W_h_a_t _M_i_g_h_t _H_a_v_e _B_e_e_n _1: _A_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e
_E_m_p_i_r_e_s, and _W_h_a_t _M_i_g_h_t _H_a_v_e _B_e_e_n _2: _A_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e _H_e_r_o_e_s. (He has another
couple of volumes scheduled for the next year as well.) Philip Mackie
wrote an excellent alternate history teleplay, "An Englishman's Castle,"
which occasionally shows up on PBS. In the short form, the top
contender seemed to be H. Beam Piper's "And He Walked Around the
Horses," though any attempt to list the best stories would result in a
very long list indeed. The anthologies mentioned above at least give a
good start.
Other books mentioned as being of interest were Graham Holderness's
_S_h_a_k_e_s_p_e_a_r_e'_s _H_i_s_t_o_r_y, a "counter-factual speculation" written as if
everything Shakespeare wrote in his histories (and other plays?) was
fact. (Or maybe it was an expose of how it wasn't--I wish my notes were
better!) In this regard, Poul Anderson's _A _M_i_d_s_u_m_m_e_r _T_e_m_p_e_s_t was
recommended as well. History books of use to alternate historians
include Edward N. Luttwak's _T_h_e _G_r_a_n_d _S_t_r_a_t_e_g_y _o_f _t_h_e _R_o_m_a_n _E_m_p_i_r_e: _F_r_o_m
_t_h_e _F_i_r_s_t _C_e_n_t_u_r_y _A._D. _t_o _t_h_e _T_h_i_r_d; William H. McNeill's _P_u_r_s_u_i_t _o_f
_P_o_w_e_r, _V_e_n_i_c_e: _T_h_e _H_i_n_g_e _o_f _E_u_r_o_p_e, and _P_l_a_g_u_e_s _a_n_d _P_e_o_p_l_e_s (and for
that matter, anything else he wrote); and James Burke's _C_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_o_n_s. In
regard to the last mentioned, Keller said that though it provided a lot
of ideas on how history might have been different, many were not
viscerally exciting. Writing about how a slight change in farming
technology made a difference in the settlement of Europe is not likely
to arouse great interest, Leo Frankowski's "Cross-Time Engineer" series
notwithstanding.
Someone said that they thought they had a great idea for an
alternate history--what if the Vikings settled America? (Or rather,
what if they settled it somewhat more successfully than they did?) But
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 7
then he discovered this had been done already by John Maddox Roberts in
_K_i_n_g _o_f _t_h_e _W_o_o_d. This led me to ask Keller what the most common change
points were. The most common (in English-language science fiction,
anyway) was "What if Germany (Japan) had won World War II?" (over a
hundred that he found). The next most popular was "What if the South
had won the Civil War?" (about eighty)--this shows the American
influence for sure, as I doubt many of these were written by Britons or
Australians. Third was "What if the Spanish Armada hadn't been
defeated?" The most popular in French was "What if Napoleon had not
been defeated?" which Keller said usually resulted in a better world
than we have, while most American alternate histories show things as
being worse. When someone in the audience asked why, Olson replied, "We
look at this as the best of all possible worlds, but the French know it
isn't, because most people speak English."
(Keller frequently referred to alternate histories as "uchronias,"
a good Greek term that maybe 10% of the audience understood.)
The North Shall Rise Again: Alternate Civil Wars
Saturday, 2 PM
John Barnes (mod), Mark Keller, Michael F. Flynn
Through the sort of scheduling cock-up that one does _n_o_t expect to
see at Boskone, this alternate history was scheduled back-to-back with
the last one--in the other hotel! (Pity Mark Keller if no one else--he
_h_a_d to be on time.) Be that as it may, this was equally well-attended-
-I wonder what the overlap was? Keller started by mentioning that this
was the second-most popular topic in English-language alternate
histories, so it was reasonable to have such a panel. (And of course,
all the recent interest in the subject stirred by the PBS series may
have had some influence on the choice of the topic.) However, since
historical opinion is that the only question about the outcome of the
Civil War (or the War Between the States, if you prefer) is how long it
would take for the North to win, and why it took as long as it did, the
panel had to explain how a writer could postulate the South winning.
(Only even worse Northern generals--and the panelists agreed this was
hard to conceive of--would have made the war last longer, and even then
the North couldn't help but win by 1866 or 1867.) The only way the
panelists could see to have the South win was by postulating some sort
of massive outside intervention, though they had difficulty finding any
that seemed likely given the actual world situation. Britain was
unlikely to come in on the side of the South--they wanted a strong
United States to promote the Monroe Doctrine and keep the other European
powers from expanding their empires into the Western Hemisphere.
France, in fact, did set up a protectorate in Mexico while the war was
going on. After the war, we turned our attention to that area and
France quickly withdrew. Still, the panelists thought this might be a
fruitful area to work in for a believable alternate history.
As to why the South thought the British would support them, Keller
said that the South thought Europe needed their cotton to keep their
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 8
mills going. But France and England had both just discovered new
sources: Egypt and India. Several possibilities for alternate histories
were thrown out from the audience in response to this. What if the
South and spread the boll weevil to Egypt and India to destroy these
sources? What if the South had shipped all their cotton to warehouses
in England before the blockade so that they could sell it and get hard
cash? What if the South had tried harder to hold on to New Orleans and
the large banks that were there?
A discussion of battle techniques followed. There was not much
alternate history content here. There was some discussion of how the
Virginia was built from the Merrimac because that was the fastest way to
build an iron-clad. This led to speculation about the outcome if the
North had worked harder on capturing Virginia, both because that was the
commercial and governmental center of the South and because of the
Tredigger Iron Works, which were the South's only iron works. (One
interesting fact: the South had experimented with "cotton-clad" ships,
whose sides were covered with bales of cotton. While they did stop the
bullets and shells from piercing the hull, the heat of the projectiles
meant that after a while your ship would start to smolder!)
Much abuse was heaped upon General George McClellan (probably
deserved). Speculation about how things would have been different were
he out of the picture much earlier led only to a much faster Northern
victory.
Other factors affecting the outcome were the constant flow of
immigrants into the North, where if they joined the Army for two years
they got "forty acres and a mule," as well as $75 and citizenship. To
starving Irish peasants, this was a pretty good deal. Even if they
didn't join the Army, there were jobs. In the South, there were no
jobs, and not much of a future if you joined the Army either. One
person mentioned the theory that the Civil War was the last great battle
between the Anglo-Saxons (North) and the Celts (South). This was
laughed at by the panelists, especially in light of the large influx of
Irish to the North during the war. Barnes later noted that our view of
the South as someplace full of the Celtic heritage (a` la _G_o_n_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e
_W_i_n_d) was almost totally inaccurate, and that our impressions all came
from the movie version. "From _T_h_e _B_i_r_t_h _o_f _a _N_a_t_i_o_n to _G_o_n_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e
_W_i_n_d is when the Old South was established," he explained. (For those
not up on their history, that's 1915 to 1939.) And the reason all those
Southern mansions look alike was that they were all built within a
twenty-year or so period. There was no long tradition of huge
plantations in the South; most of the farms were small and unimposing.
Another interesting fact brought out was who was really on which
side. That is, the mountainous regions of the South in Tennessee and
Arkansas, which were not cotton-growing areas, often supported the North
and provided most of the backing for the Peace and Constitution Party.
The mountainous areas of Virginia supported the North so much, in fact,
that they broke away from Virginia and formed West Virginia, and Texas
Boskone 28 Feburary 24, 1991 Page 9
almost seceded from the South as well. Well, logic says if the Southern
states could secede from the Union, why couldn't some of those states
then secede from the Confederacy?
Trying (one suspects desperately) to get the panel back on track,
Keller said there were really three directions a Civil War alternate
history could take: no war at all, a Southern victory, or a shorter war
leading to a Northern victory. (The latter would result in less
destruction and disgrace of the South--no Sherman's March, for example.)
The most highly recommended alternate history in this area was Ward
Moore's _B_r_i_n_g _t_h_e _J_u_b_i_l_e_e. The worst were Terry Bisson's _F_i_r_e _o_n _t_h_e
_M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n (an opinion from an audience member), and Mark Keller's
personal choice for worst alternate history ever (not just Civil War
alternate history): John Jakes's _B_l_a_c_k _i_n _T_i_m_e, which had, among other
things, blacks driving black-and-white spotted cars with large curved
horns in front which were called "Masai 6" cars, all as a result of a
black time traveler trying to improve the position of blacks. Other
lesser-known alternate histories of varying quality included James
Thurber's "If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox," Sir Winston
Churchill's (yes, _t_h_a_t Winston Churchill) "If Lee Had Not Won
at Gettysburg," and Howard Waldrop and Stephen Utley's "Custer's Last
Jump." In regard to the latter, Keller said it had zeppelins and after
all, "If it's an alternate world it has to have zeppelins--that's rule
one." Now there's an idea for an alternate history panel--"Alternate
Histories with Zeppelins." This brought mention of "Quit Zoomin' Those
Hands Through the Air, Boy" by Jack Finney, but that may have been
zeppelin alternate history rather than Civil War alternate history.
One interesting alternate history (title and author not given) had
as its focus a document that proved that the South had a legal right to
secede, and attempts by competing time travelers to get or destroy this
document. The consensus of the historians present was that the South did
in fact have this right, but the North had the guns. The victors write
the history books. Someone also pointed out that before the Civil War
people would say, "The United States are ..." and only afterwards did it
become "The United States is ...." (This was cribbed from the PBS
"Civil War" series.)
[end of Part 1]
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK