@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/20/91 -- Vol. 10, No. 12
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
10/09 LZ: THE QUIET POOLS by Michael Kube-McDowell (Hugo nominee)
10/30 LZ: MINDBRIDGE by Joe Haldeman
11/13 MT: THE RED MAGICIAN by Lisa Goldstein (Jewish SF)
11/20 LZ: EON by Greg Bear
12/11 LZ: MIRKHEIM by Poul Anderson
12/18 MT: "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (Christian 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.
09/21 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
09/25 Readings: Richard Curtis, Sharon Jarvis, Barry Malzberg
(Barnes & Noble, Route 17, Paramus, 7:30 PM) (Wed)
10/12 Autographing: Margaret Bonanno, Michael Friedman, Janet Kagan
(B. Dalton, Willowbrook Mall, Wayne, 1-5 PM) (Sat)
10/12 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County:
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
10/29 Readings: Michael Flynn and two other authors TBA
(Barnes & Noble, Route 17, Paramus, 7:30 PM) (Tue)
11/09 Autographing: Ellen Datlow, Janet Kagan, Ellen Kushner,
Melissa Scott, Jack Womack (B. Dalton, Willowbrook
Mall, Wayne, 1-5 PM) (Sat)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpb!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: Rebecca Schoenfeld HO 2K-430 949-6122 homxb!btfsd
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. I know that you folks depend on me to keep you informed about
what is happening in the real world. You live your wretched lives
oblivious to what is _r_e_a_l_l_y happening until I come like the pony
THE MT VOID Page 2
express bringing news from the _r_e_a_l American culture. Well, there
is what could perhaps be construed as good news this time. I see
it as an optimistic sign; let me see what you think. For a long
time, the general public has had a diminishing interest in history.
Perhaps that is not quite accurate. Perhaps it is more a
refocusing of historical interest. There is less of a focus on
"What was the Hundred Years War and why didn't people get tired of
it sooner?" and more of an interest in "How did the Rolling Stones
come to be formed?" and "What was it like in the formative period
of the Grateful Dead?" The historical films being made were less
in the spirit of, say, _A_n_n_e _o_f _a _T_h_o_u_s_a_n_d _D_a_y_s and more like _T_h_e
_D_o_o_r_s. People used to be interested in "How did the world get in
the awful state it's in?" and now it is more "How did rock music
attain its current state of such unexcelled perfection that every
music store wants to play it at sound levels usually reserved for
taxiing 747 engines?"
Well, anyway, that was I felt yesterday. What a difference a day
makes! There was an ad on television that totally changed my
viewpoint. Can you imagine, it was an ad on regular commercial
television and it opened with pictures of people like Napoleon and
Tutankhamen. These are people you haven't seen on commercial
television for the last decade or so. And now they are featured in
a commercial! How edifying! This is the reincarnation line. It
is a 900 number that you call and answer questions with a Touchtone
(tm) phone and it tells you who you might have been in a previous
life. At least it can be an educational medium. If I was told I
was a reincarnation of somebody named Moliere (I wish!), I'd
probably make sure I knew who that was. Of course, it would be
somebody famous, because why be a reincarnation of somebody non-
famous? Actually, I was intrigued and discovered I was actually
someone fairly obscure in my last life. At least the encyclopedia
didn't list him. Maybe someone out there could help. Anyone know
who Jim Morrison was?
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he
attributes to mankind.
-- William Shenstone
23RD INTERNATIONAL TOURNEE OF ANIMATION
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Since 1969 the International Tournee of Animation has been an
annual event produced by a company that calls itself Expanded
Entertainment. A very limited number of theaters will get this
feature-length compilation of animated films as short as a few
seconds long or as long as this year's 22-minute "Grey Wolf & Little
Red Riding Hood." Usually the films are winners of obscure prizes
like "First Prize at the Hiroshima Animation Festival." As the
years have passed the technique has improved, but there but there
have also come to be several competing compilations each year. At
the same time the _2_3_r_d _I_n_t_e_r_n_a_t_i_o_n_a_l _T_o_u_r_n_e_e is playing in New York,
so is the _F_e_s_t_i_v_a_l _o_f _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n _1_9_9_1 (at another theater). A few
months earlier, the _B_r_i_t_i_s_h _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n _I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n was playing in New
York and there is also something called the _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n _C_e_l_e_b_r_a_t_i_o_n.
Sad to say, this much demand for animated films means that more
mediocre films get shown. Usually the International Tournee would
have the Oscar-winning and the also-rans. Invariably, there would
be some nominated film that would seem (to me at least) more
creative and better than the actual winner. Ironically, this year,
when I think the Oscar winner is really excellent, it showed up in
both the _F_e_s_t_i_v_a_l _o_f _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n and in the _B_r_i_t_i_s_h _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n
_I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n, so "Creature Comforts" is not included in the _T_o_u_r_n_e_e.
And it is sadly missed, being far superior to anything in the
_T_o_u_r_n_e_e.
As is usually the case I throw out my usual scale and rate the
animated films poor, fair, good, very good, or excellent. This year
the _T_o_u_r_n_e_e had nothing poor, but nothing excellent either. Now to
the individual films.
- "Fast Food Matador" (Vincent Cafarelli & Candy Kugel; U. S. A.;
4:15): This is a continuation of the trend towards including
animated music videos. It is unclear whether what we should be
reacting to is the music or the animation. Neither was greatly
noteworthy. The song seems to be about a deli delivery boy who
either is metaphorically a matador or imagines himself to be a
matador. Though there is a humorous note at the end, overall
this one is just passable. Rating: fair.
- "Getting There" (Paul Driessen; Canada; 1:36): This seems to
come down to a homily that being home is better than travel. A
man inspired by a travel poster actually travels but keeps
ending up where he started. Rating: fair.
- "At One View" (Paul & Menno de Noojier; Holland; Grand Prize--
Stuttgart International Animation festival; 6:27): This is a
23rd Int.Tour.Animation September 16, 1991 Page 2
Dutch film that combines animation with live action somehow
modified to look like animation. It is a little long at six
and half minutes of technique, and while it is not a story with
a plot, it does say some interesting things about animation.
Rating: very good.
- "Big Bang" (Bruno Bozzeto; Italy; 4:10): This piece, by the
animator of _A_l_l_e_g_r_o _n_o_n _T_r_o_p_p_o, is a message story telling of
the evils of pollution. The story is trite and didactical
(unless you think that any anti-pollution message is deep).
The cartoon builds to a pun in English, which leads me to
wonder how the end was handled in the original Italian.
Rating: good.
- "The Breakdown" (Klaus Georgi; Germany; Audience Award--
Stuttgart International Animation Festival; 3:25): This is a
short little blackout sketch that may or may not have an anti-
government sentiment. It does not work very well on the most
obvious level. Rating: good.
- "Arnold Rides a Chair" (Craig Bartlett; U. S. A.; 1:00): This
is a very short piece done for "Sesame Street," though Arnold
seems to be dressed in the uniform and cap of an English
school. Also, Arnold looks a little half-witted, which works
against the point. Arnold sits in his chair and imagines it
takes him to a magical land. Rating: good.
- "The Lift" (Alexander Tatarsky/Pilot Studios; U. S. S. R.;
First prize--Hiroshima Animation Festival; 9:00): One of the
more amusing pieces of the _T_o_u_r_n_e_e is for the U.S.S.R.,
surprisingly. I say "surprisingly" because it has been
suggested that the Soviet Union's only Twentieth Century sense
of humor left the country with Yacov Smirnov. This is a set of
short and often fairly funny blackout sketches seen from the
inside of an elevator. Each time the doors open we see one of
the six or seven pieces. Rating: fair.
- "I Should See" (Paul & Menno de Noojier; Holland; 2:00): This
is more of the same things the de Noojiers did with "At One
View." Not very interesting this time around. Rating: fair.
- "Photocopy Cha-Cha" (Chel White; U. S. A.; First Prize--USA
Film Festival; 3:30): Everything here is made on a photocopy
machine. This is an entirely new technique in animation and in
210 seconds we see this new medium pioneered, mature, and
become over-used and finally exploitative. Now that this
medium has been fully explored, new filmmakers can move on to
something else. Rating: fair.
- "The Potato Hunter" (Timothy Hittle; U. S. A.; Most Popular
Film--Seattle Film Festival; 7:11): A little man, animated in
23rd Int.Tour.Animation September 16, 1991 Page 3
clay, lives a life like a lone American Indian, hunting the
herds of buffalo-like wild potatoes. It is, of course, a
dangerous life battling these huge and mean potato beasts. You
can never be sure when a tormented tuber will turn on you.
This one is quite enjoyable and one of the better pieces, even
if it is reminiscent of a film done several years ago about a
fork catching wild peas. Rating: very good.
- "Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions" (Henry Selick; U. S. A.;
5:30): A three-legged girl with two heads looks through a
keyhole to see Slow Bob go off on a weird adventure that does
not make a whole lot of sense. There are more weird images
than logic, well-suited to MTV (for which it was made).
Rating: fair.
- "Capital P" (Stephen Barnes; Canada; 3:30): Probably the best
piece in the _T_o_u_r_n_e_e is a contribution from Canada. "Capital
P" brings back all those terrors we felt as children and have
since forgotten. Our only character is a little boy who on a
dark and stormy night must walk down a long and scary corridor
to get to a toilet. It walks a very fine line between comedy
and horror. Rating: very good.
- Luxo Jr. in "Light & Heavy" and "Surprise" (John Lasseter &
Andrew Stanton/PIXAR; U. S. A.; 1:15): [Personal note: This is
the first time I have ever reviewed the work of an actual
acquaintance. Many of you on Usenet will recognize the name of
Craig Good. I was even fortunate enough to have dinner with
him after he saw for the first time _W_h_o _F_r_a_m_e_d _R_o_g_e_r _R_a_b_b_i_t? I
would have liked to have been more positive here.] This piece
was done for "Sesame Street" and is intended to teach basic
concepts of reality to children. Those of us who already know
the difference between "light" and "heavy" will find this fare
pretty light. "Luxo, Jr." a previous effort, entertained
mostly because of its technique. "Light & Heavy" just repeats
that technique. I think this piece was appropriate for "Sesame
Street" but not entirely appropriate for the _T_o_u_r_n_e_e. I think
that is more a reflection on the people who did the choosing
than it is on the piece itself. Rating: fair.
- "Oral Hygiene" (David Fain; U. S. A.; Winner--Sinking Creek
Film Festival; 3:17): This is a fairly funny piece of tongue-
in-cheek about teeth. It is essentially a music video for
... well ... oral hygiene. It will show you several good
reasons to keep your teeth clean, saving the best for last.
Rating: good.
- "The Wrong Type" (Candy Guard; U. K.; 4:14): Candy Guard
features what sound like very ordinary people in very ordinary
situations and then draws bird-like people (or perhaps just
people with huge noses) as her characters. Several of her
23rd Int.Tour.Animation September 16, 1991 Page 4
pieces showed up in the _B_r_i_t_i_s_h _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n _I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n. This one
deals with a woman failing to learn to type and failing to hold
onto a good job as a result. Rating: good.
- "Ode to G. I. Joe" (Gregory Grant; U. S. A.; Student Academy
Award Winner; 4:55): The title is the cleverest thing about
this stop-motion story of toy G. I. Joe dolls having a party
and dancing. The same dancing was a lot funnier in "Electric
Funky Disco Chicken." It combines that with the old idea that
toys are only themselves when nobody is around. That one goes
back at least as far as "The Gingham Doll and the Calico Cat."
Rating: fair.
- "Grey Wolf & Little Red Riding Hood" (Garri Bardin; U. S. S.
R.; Grand Prize--Annecy International Animation Festival;
22:00): This is about the longest piece I have seen in a
_T_o_u_r_n_e_e. It is a retelling of a fairy tale (guess which
one!) as a sort of elliptical allegory. What it is
allegorizing is less clear, though these days it is safe to
guess it is anti-totalitarianism. Little Red Riding Hood (who
is _n_o_t a Little Red) wants to take a Russian pie to Paris. The
wolf wants to eat Riding Hood. Riding Hood sings a Russian
song. The wolf sings a charming "Mack the Knife." It is all
reasonably enjoyable to watch, but the political message is
muddled and open to conjecture. Rating: good.
- "Push Comes to Shove" (Bill Plympton; U. S. A.; Best Short--
Cannes Film Festival; 4:41): Bill Plympton's blackouts often
are funny. This set of blackouts did not appeal and has a sort
of "Three Stooges" quality. Two stodgy-looking men take turns
doing violent things to each other. The victim just stands by
passively and lets the violence be done. Then he retaliates
while the first stands by stoically. The sort of attack is one
drops a cat and mouse inside the victim's mouth and they fight
it out inside the victim's head. It all does build up to a
point, albeit a banal one. Rating: fair.
Overall, I would have to say this was a below average _T_o_u_r_n_e_e.
Rumor has it that the _F_e_s_t_i_v_a_l _o_f _A_n_i_m_a_t_i_o_n _1_9_9_1 is better and I
will be seeing that soon.
BARTON FINK
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Very strange but supremely
well-crafted film from Joel and Ethan Coen. The Coen
Brothers have the best batting average in Hollywood.
They have made four films and each of the four is
highly recommended. During a bout of writer's block
(which they obviously got over) writing _M_i_l_l_e_r'_s
_C_r_o_s_s_i_n_g they wrote this strange film about a young
playwright facing writer's block in Hollywood. Great
performances, great photography, strange film.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4). (Spoiler follows the main
body of this review.)
Joel and Ethan Coen have managed to do what no other American
film makers have been able to do. Even Woody Allen turns out the
occasional misfire. Allen is extremely creative and the really
creative take chances. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose.
The Coen Brothers have made four films: _B_l_o_o_d _S_i_m_p_l_e, _R_a_i_s_i_n_g
_A_r_i_z_o_n_a, _M_i_l_l_e_r'_s _C_r_o_s_s_i_n_g, and now _B_a_r_t_o_n _F_i_n_k. Each has been a
totally original film and each has been spell-binding. They have
made four winners out of four. If they made _T_e_x_a_s _C_h_a_i_n_s_a_w _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e
_6, every tuxedoed film critic in the country would be waiting in
hushed excitement to see _T_e_x_a_s _C_h_a_i_n_s_a_w _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e _6. Well, the
concept of a chainsaw film at least sounds like it might have some
action. But the idea of a comedy-drama about writer's block sounds
like it is asking too much of even the Coen Brothers. What could be
less cinematic than writer's block? It is something that is
internal and creates no visual sparks for the viewer. Well, believe
it or not, the Coen Brothers have made a fascinating and
entertaining film about writer's block.
In the early 1940s, a great new social playwright, Barton Fink
(played by John Turturro) has had his first play produced. It is a
moving story about the sort of fishmongers he saw around his home on
Fulton Street in New York. For a moment he has fame and that is
just what he does not need. A Hollywood studio chief who has never
seen his play wants the status of having Fink writing his pictures.
With the force of big money he plucks Fink out of New York and lays
him down in Hollywood. Fink has a tremendous fire in his belly to
help humanity ("What do you do for a living?" "I try to make a
difference."). But instead of a social drama he is given the task
of writing a wrestling film for Wallace Beery, much like Clifford
Odets wrote _G_o_l_d_e_n _B_o_y.
Fink looks at Hollywood like a baby looking through the bars of
a crib, with a combination of amazement and a lack of comprehension.
Barton Fink September 18, 1991 Page 2
It was as if he had suddenly been transported to another world. So
that he will not lose touch with the common man he decides not to
stay in glitzy Hollywood hotels, but at the economical and just
slightly sleezy Hotel Earle. The Earle is just beginning to fall
apart and boasts a staff that looks like the living dead. There in
his room Fink sits trying to write a great film to make a difference
for the common man--which will also be a wrestling picture for
Wallace Beery.
One paragraph comes out of his typewriter and then nothing.
His overwhelming drive to write is blocked by a symphony of
minutiae. His room seems to become a living breathing creature.
Some law of conservation maintains always exactly one mosquito in
the room. The walls digest the glue that holds on the wallpaper.
Then there is Charlie Meadows. John Goodman plays Charlie Meadows,
who starts as a distraction, a noisy neighbor, and becomes Barton's
only friend and confidante. Barton writes about the common man, but
we get the feeling he has never really known one, in spite of his
Fulton Street origins. Barton's play was literary and eloquent, but
not very realistic. Charlie _i_s the common man. The two make a
stark contrast. Barton pulls everything he has inward in a tighter
and tighter ball--even his hair seems tense. In contrast, Charlie
lets everything out. He is outspoken; he oozes sweat and
occasionally pus. His belly bulges and casually rolls out and over
the top of his pants. And Barton is fascinated by the casual,
unashamed animalness of his new friend. The scene shifts from his
hours in the hotel trying to write and talking to Charlie to the
weird alien world of the Hollywood studio. The studio life is
back-stabbing politics (it is Barton's bad luck that the studio boss
likes him, we are told and later come to believe). At the studio we
meet weird people with whom Barton hilariously fails to connect.
And Barton meets W. P. Mayhew, one of America's great writers, who
has in recent years been sucked dry by Hollywood like a fly in a
spider web. He meets and is attracted to Audrey Taylor, Mayhew's
highly personal secretary. And thereby hangs a tale.
Many of the faces in _B_a_r_t_o_n _F_i_n_k will be familiar to most
viewers. Turturro is here in his second Coen Brothers film. His
role as Bernie in their _M_i_l_l_e_r'_s _C_r_o_s_s_i_n_g will probably be the one
for which he will be best remembered in years to come, though this
performance probably equals that one. Another respected film maker,
Spike Lee, has featured Turturro in no less than three films. John
Goodman is also a repeat Coen Brothers actor, having played Gale
Snopes in _R_a_i_s_i_n_g _A_r_i_z_o_n_a. He is, of course, well known for
theater, film, and television work. Michael Lerner and John Polito
(the latter of _M_i_l_l_e_r'_s _C_r_o_s_s_i_n_g) are incredibly boorish and weird
as the studio chief and his favorite yes-man. Judy Davis of _M_y
_B_r_i_l_l_i_a_n_t _C_a_r_e_e_r, _A _P_a_s_s_a_g_e _t_o _I_n_d_i_a, and the recent _I_m_p_r_o_m_p_t_u plays
Audrey Taylor.
Barton Fink September 18, 1991 Page 3
Coen Brothers' films are strong on good dialogue, but they also
have a marvelous visual style that perfectly creates an atmosphere.
As with _M_i_l_l_e_r'_s _C_r_o_s_s_i_n_g, their period feel in _B_a_r_t_o_n _F_i_n_k is
almost too rich to be believed. Here they bring us a sepia-toned
1940s worlds. The credits are shown over brown 1940s wallpaper that
prepares us for the claustrophobic story to come. When we see the
hotel room itself, it is decorated with perfectly placed slabs of
light--sunlight reflected off dust in the air. It is a pleasure to
watch a film as carefully crafted as this one. Peculiarly, there is
one very bad continuity error and one it is hard to imagine was
missed in the editing. Toward the end of the film we see a man in a
military uniform. The ribbons on his chest seem securely in place
and falling off in alternate shots. That one surprising fluff
aside, this film is a visual marvel. Academy Awards are really
deserved here.
_B_a_r_t_o_n _F_i_n_k really is the best new film I have seen this year
and well worth seeing. I give it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
[SPOILERS FOLLOW.]
My first reaction after seeing Barton Fink was that watching
this film was like watching an expert gymnast on a trampoline who
jumped just perfectly but came down wrong. When this story seems to
be slowing down late in the film, it is only to allow it to make an
acute left turn, one shockingly unexpected. On consideration, I
think that is a sort of self-referential touch. The most common and
banal of genres in Hollywood today is the psychotic killer film.
_B_a_r_t_o_n _F_i_n_k is a psycho-killer film as it would have been written by
Barton Fink. Fink knew he was writing a wrestling film all along
but kept the wrestling to a minimum and even then wanted to do a
different take on wrestling. That is just what the Coen Brothers do
with the psycho-killer plot. Alfred Hitchcock showed a psycho-
killer film could become a genuine classic. It took the Coen
Brothers to make one good enough to win the Golden Palm at Cannes.
SPECTREWORLD by Isadore Haiblum
Avon, 1991, ISBN 0-380-75858-X, $3.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
There is no evidence on the cover that this book is a sequel or
part of a series, but it certainly reads like one. Characters are
introduced as if we had met them before, and halfway through the
novel a totally bizarre invention shows up which is either a very
bad example of _d_e_u_s _e_x _m_a_c_h_i_n_a or something from a previous novel.
(I had this awful feeling it was the former, but actually it was the
latter; shortly after finishing _S_p_e_c_t_r_e_w_o_r_l_d and a first draft of
this review I went to Chicon V and ran across _I_n_t_e_r_w_o_r_l_d at a used
book dealer's table. _S_p_e_c_t_r_e_w_o_r_l_d is the sequel to _I_n_t_e_r_w_o_r_l_d which
is, naturally, out of print.)
The story itself is a hard-boiled detective yarn, though in
this case the detective is actually the head of a robotic security
force. Someone is attacking all the sites they guard and the robots
turn out to be fairly useless, being mostly cowards who seem
remarkably like Marvin of _T_h_e _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r'_s _G_u_i_d_e _t_o _t_h_e _G_a_l_a_x_y. It
turns out that this is all leading to an attack from parallel
universes, but given the bizarre Balkanization of our own into rival
city-states, this twist seems superfluous by the time it is
introduced (along with the aforementioned invention allowing travel
between universes).
I really wanted to like this book. But the annoying robot
portrayals, combined with my having come into this series in the
middle, prevented me.
(I would like to mention a note placed on the copyright page
stating that if you bought this book without a cover, you were
purchasing stolen property. Whether this will cut into coverless
book sales remains to be seen, but at least it is informing more
people--I hesitate to say "the average reader"--about where
coverless books come from. I have since seen at least one other
publisher put in a similar notice, so this could be a new trend.)
Chicon V 1991
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
(Part 1 of 3)
Chicon V, the 1991 World Science Fiction Convention, was held
August 29 through September 2 in Chicago, Illinois. The attendance
was quoted to me by Registration as approximately 5500, with a
registration of about 6400. This is just a rough estimate; at no
time did the convention newsletter announce the figures, nor did the
information desk have any idea, and other sources have claimed that
only half of the 5200 pre-registered members attended, plus 400 at-
the-door members (totaling 3000, for the mathematically impaired).
The latter figure sounds far too low, but the state of the economy
certainly made a dent in attendance. (And in sales--Andy Porter
said that I was the only person to buy a _t_w_o-year subscription to
_S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e rather than a one-year.) The lack of
information is a far cry from last year's convention when the
statistics by country were in the daily newsletter. The European
contingent was much less in evidence than at last year's convention
in the Hague, which shouldn't surprise anyone. One attendee from
the U.S.S.R. said he left there the day of the coup and in fact
spent the first night of the coup in the Moscow airport. The
U.S.S.R. fan table was selling science fiction buttons and also old
Lenin and Communist lapel pins. I think everyone is trying to
unload those.
We arrived in Chicago Wednesday morning and spent Wednesday
afternoon at the Oriental Institute and the Museum of Science and
Industry, as well as in a couple of bookstores. Thursday morning
was the Field Museum of Natural History. However, I will confine my
description to the convention itself. But I will mention that the
"five blocks" mentioned in the progress reports from the rapid
transit to the hotel was really eight--directions should be double-
checked and miles or kilometers are a much more universal measure.
Facilities
The convention facilities were quite reasonable. I don't know
about the overflow hotels, but the two main hotels and main
convention facilities were all connected by tunnels, malls, etc.,
meaning one never had to go outside. (As someone pointed out, the
domed city of the future _h_a_s arrived.) If you did go out, there
were many restaurants within a fifteen-minute walk, so even though
most of the mall's restaurants were closed Sunday and Monday, there
was no problem eating.
My only major complaint would be that a ballroom was used for
the masquerade and the Hugo ceremony rather than a theater-type room
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 2
(which provides much better visibility). Yes, the two were
broadcast into the sleeping rooms in the Hyatt, but I sort of felt
obliged to be physically present at the Hugo ceremony. :-) Having
the events broadcast is a good idea; the line waiting for the
masquerade Saturday night convinced me I didn't want to stand in it
to see the masquerade and so I could go back to my room and watch in
comfort. But more about the masquerade later.
Another complaint was that although the Dealers' Room and Art
Show adjoined, the connection was blocked off (except for
handicapped access) and to get from one to the other required going
up an escalator, down a hallway, through the main programming area,
and down another escalator. The plus side was that the Art Show was
easy to get to from the programming, which may have helped boost
attendance.
Registration
We registered Wednesday night and got our Program Books and
Pocket Programs. Chicon used the now-standard technique of putting
program participants' schedules on labels on the backs of their
badges, but for some reason did not have ribbons for Hugo nominees
(and the pins weren't available until the next day). Staff and
program participants both had red ribbons; dealers and artists both
had green. Staff had red borders on their badges instead of white,
but it was still confusing.
Registration managed to run out of Program Books for several
hours on Thursday (the books were locked away somewhere), and
friends said the procedure was somewhat slow.
Other odds and ends: the badges had clips only--no pins. This
is fine for shirts with pockets or lapels, but not so great on T-
shirts. The newsletters were late--Thursday's came out between
midnight and 3 AM Friday morning and was gone from most spots by 10
AM. Even skipping one of the issues in an attempt to catch up
didn't help. The drop-off points seemed to be at the freebie tables
which were quite a ways away from all the programming, etc. (though
near the Con Suite) and mixed in amongst all sorts of other flyers
which were on high counters wrapped around pillars in registration,
high enough that I couldn't just glance over but had to make a real
effort to see what was what.
There were lots of flyers on the freebie tables, but the days
of freebie books and magazines seems largely to have passed, no
doubt a victim of the current economic conditions.
Program Books
The Pocket Program, though done by computer, had no index by
participant. (Funny how something can become expected only two
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 3
years after its introduction. This was specifically mentioned in
last year's gripe session and ConFiction's excuse was a database
crash shortly before the convention. Wasn't Chicon listening?) In
keeping with last year's convention, the descriptions of the various
panels were not in the Pocket Program, though at least the titles
were a bit more descriptive than last year. The descriptions in the
Program Book were not in alphabetical order, but in semi-
chronological order(!), making it almost impossible to find a
description for a given panel, or the time when an interesting
sounding would happen. And, of course, since the Program Book went
to press a while ago, some of the described panels had been canceled
and others added in the interim.
In addition, there were other, more substantive errors. The
"Phantom of the Opera" panel was listed as "literary" in the Pocket
Program, but its description in the Program Book made it clear it
was intended as "media" (about the Lloyd Webber play, of course)--or
at least that's what the Programming Staff thought. Of course, even
there, it was listed as "illusion" (the only item on the "illusion"
track, in fact). When I got to the panel, it turned out that they
didn't understand the description at all ("The play-within-a-play
philosophy of the show and its SFX, physical (real) and
psychological"), so it turned out to be somewhat about the book
after all. Of course, one panelist wanted to talk about the many
versions, several about the many different Lloyd Webber versions
only, and one was on because he knew about the special effects in
one production! But more of that later.
On the plus side, all major tracks were collated within the
Pocket Program (unlike last year, when there was no easy way to see
the primary track and the secondary tracks side by side); only
children's programming and gaming were separately listed. Most
items occurred as scheduled, though items scheduled for two of the
six sections of the main ballroom for Saturday and Sunday had to be
canceled or moved when those sections were "commandeered" for
technical run-throughs of the masquerade and Hugo ceremonies.
On the other hand, some people thought there were more problems
with scheduling, cancellations, and maps than I did: Alayne
McGregor asked, "Has anyone else noted the similarities between
Connie Willis' story 'At the Rialto' and the meeting room
assignments at Chicon? I'm thinking particularly of the
disappearing L2 floor in the Swissotel."
The maps were adequate, though the print was very tiny, and the
connecting path between the two main hotels not shown.
Green Room
The Green Room at Chicon was perhaps the convention's worst
feature (though the masquerade runs a close second). It seemed to
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 4
in the morning; at no time after 10 AM could one find all three of
lack everything a Green Room needs: a complete schedule, an informed
staff, refreshments, organization. Coffee was set out first thing
coffee, cups, and cream (though sometimes you could get two out of
three). When one participant told the staffer there were only two
cans of soda left in the tub, the staffer brought out _o_n_e six-pack
of cola! (Consider that there were supposed to be a couple of dozen
people in there each hour preparing for panels, as well as the usual
other participants looking for a quiet place to think.) The Con
Suite, on the other hand, was amazing well stocked. If they had
just brought some of the stuff from there.... (I'm all for giving
the convention at large the goodies rather than hoarding them for
the participants, but when I arrived for a late-night panel and
couldn't get a cup of coffee to improve my alertness level while con
goers in the Con Suite were sucking down the suds non-stop, I think
that's carrying it a bit far.)
There was no master schedule indicating what panels were when
or where (O NESFA, where are you when we need you?), and the staff
said that wasn't their bailiwick--ask program operations (in a
different, locked room). Name cards also came directly to the rooms
from program operations, so it was always in doubt whether they
would arrive either. (They were nice name cards though.)
Dealers' Room
The Dealers' Room (a.k.a., the Hucksters' Room) was very large,
with a lot of books, but also a lot of non-books. Most of what I
found, though, was for friends rather than off my own want list--
maybe I'm just too selective or something. It was somewhat off the
beaten path, being a level down from the Hyatt programming and two
levels down from the connecting corridor between the two parts of
the Hyatt, but it was centrally located rather than off to one end.
The aisles were large enough that you could walk around (and
wheelchairs could negotiate as well). I found one book I was
looking for, but it was $100.
Someone pointed out that the index to the Dealers' Room was by
dealer's name, not by business' name, so you couldn't look up
"Hippogriff, Inc.,"--you needed to know it was owned by "Wu,
Juanita." (I made these names up as examples--can't you tell?)
Art Show
Many people liked the art show a lot. I found that as usual,
there was too much cutesy fantasy and "humor" for my tastes (maybe
they should set aside a separate area for Star Trek cartoons with
punch-line captions, and then I won't go there). The room was large
enough though, and it was possible to see the art without tripping
over everyone else. The bidding seemed very light (the economy
strikes again!) and the auction scheduled for Saturday was cancelled
(but that may have been because of the function space muck-ups--see
my comments under "Programming").
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 5
Con Suite and Exhibits
As I said before, the Con Suite was well stocked with soda and
beer, as well as chips, pretzels, and popcorn. They sometimes had
coffee, and occasionally brought in surprise treats (petit fours and
such). It was, however, noisy, crowded, and pretty messy--which
probably means it was a success. Rumor has it that the free beer in
the Con Suite kept the crowds down at the open parties.
The exhibits (History of World Bidding, SF Around the World,
and History of the Worldcon) were down the escalator from the Con
Suite, near the bidding tables. The Message Board was conveniently
located near the main programming area.
Programming
Given that it's impossible to see everything at a Worldcon, I
will cover just the programming I attended. I hope I got all the
panelists right, but I foolishly failed to write down the names in
the rooms, trusting I could get them from the Program Book later.
Bad move--I _k_n_o_w the "Phantom" panel had closer to seven people than
the four listed in the book.
For comparison, the Pocket Program lists about 520 program
items, while ConFiction had 337 and Noreascon 3 had 833, not
counting films or autograph sessions. The breakdown by type would
be roughly 25% readings (123) (honest!), 20% science (102), 17%
literary (90), 15% art (73), and the rest distributed among fan
(29), academic (18), filk (14), costuming (13), late night (12),
media (11), cities (8), and trivia (3), as well as WSFS, SFWA, and
other meetings, various ceremonies, and other special events.
There were also 86 films and a full schedule of television
programs in their television retrospective (which claimed to have an
episode from every televised science fiction show--it didn't, but it
was very close).
By the way, this analysis would not be possible (or would be
much more difficult) without the help of Bill Higgins, who sent out
an electronic copy of the schedule to people a week before the
convention. Thanks, Bill!
Opening Ceremonies
Thursday, 3 PM
These were well-attended, but considerably less classy than
last year's (when classical music was played as a platform rose from
below the stage revealing the Guests of Honor). Instead, they
decided to do the whole thing in a very large ballroom with no
microphones (or only one badly placed microphone). They may have
tested the acoustics first, but what may have been audible from the
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 6
back of an empty, silent room was inaudible even part way back in a
room full of moving, talking fans. Since the visual part consisted
of half-naked men carrying people in on litters, I decided to leave
early.
Panel: SSSSeeeeeeee YYYYoooouuuu oooonnnn tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeetttt:::: CCCCoooommmmppppuuuutttteeeerrrr CCCCoooommmmmmmmuuuunnnniiiittttiiiieeeessss TTTTooooddddaaaayyyy aaaannnndddd TTTToooommmmoooorrrrrrrroooowwww
Thursday, 5 PM
Evelyn Leeper (moderator), Chris Dunn, Michael Kube-McDowell,
Robert Sawyer, Clifford Stoll, Chuq Von Rospach
Official Description: "Thanks to computer networks, millions
now participate in social and professional exchanges using
electronic mail. What effect is this having on society? What will
happen when the Net is available to almost everybody?"
I was the moderator of this and had contacted most of the
panelists ahead of time (via electronic mail, of course), but was a
bit worried when four of the five panelists hadn't checked in
shortly before the panel and three didn't show up in the Green Room.
When we arrived at the room, two of the three missing panelists were
there, and Chuq Von Rospach had already sent his regrets because he
was arriving too late. Well, we were (mostly) all there, but the
microphone wasn't working. I announced finally that the loudest
panelists would introduce themselves while we waited for the
microphone to get fixed. Someone called out to me, "Use the mike!"
so I grabbed the dead microphone, lifted it to my mouth, and said
loudly, "Okay. Is this any better?" which got a big laugh. This
helped put me much more at ease about moderating a panel.
Well, eventually we got everything working and proceeded with
the panel. Though the description said we would be discussing what
happened when almost everyone had Net access, we agreed this was
unlikely on a global scale--most people don't even have telephones
(or television). But we thought it likely that most people who have
things like VCRs today would have Net access soon. Stoll described
the Net as being populated by people "all the way from chemists to
physicists" (which reminded me of "she runs the gamut of emotions
from A to B"). This got a laugh--Stoll seemed to have intended it
seriously--but it isn't far off in the sense that people with Net
access do form a less than totally diverse class (just as the
literate did several hundred years ago). Even the non-scientists
among them tend to embrace science and technology rather than reject
them. Within this subclass, however, there is a diversity of
personalities, cultures, and perspectives. We agreed that one of
the advantages of the Net is how it provides the ability to
communicate with all sorts of people all over the world. (The
telephone doesn't do that, especially considering the time
differential--when _d_o you call someone ten time zones away? And the
telephone is intrusive, while bulletin boards and electronic mail
wait for you. The postal service is too slow, and neither the
postal service nor the telephone has the broadcast capabilities for
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 7
you to meet these people in the first place.) Stoll, for example,
said he received 10,000 to 20,000 messages in response to his book
_T_h_e _C_u_c_k_o_o'_s _E_g_g.
Wider Net access, then, would seem to imply fewer voice phone
calls (though more data calls), and fewer pieces of paper mail (even
now, fax is cutting into this area). By not having to handle paper,
more information can be transmitted faster. For example, Mark and I
do a weekly fanzine with an average of 6 pages a week and a
distribution of over two hundred. On paper, this would involve
collating, stapling, mailing, etc. Electronically, it's much
easier, not to mention the trees being saved. And for those who
want a paper copy, they can print it at their end rather than our
having to mail the paper. Saul Jaffe does three issues of _S_F-_L_o_v_e_r_s
_D_i_g_e_s_t a _d_a_y, a number I think would be impossible if he had to
print them, especially considering its circulation. (By the way,
Nick Simicich (scifi.uucp) has announced a general availability
service for _S_F-_L_o_v_e_r_s _D_i_g_e_s_t; he will send you paper copies of the
digest for postage and copying fees; send a check of at least US$10
to Nick Simicich, P.O. Box 1214, Peekskill, NY 10566 USA and he will
send you the Digest until your account runs out. Non-USA residents
should send at least US$20. Get further details from him.)
Given the conclusion that Net access would not be universal
soon, we talked more about the pros and cons of life on the Net now,
along with some problems of scale. As you might expect, all this
has its bad side too. The Net can be a real time sink, especially
for authors making their own schedules (according to Kube-McDowell).
And the quantity of data--particularly on the unmoderated part of
Usenet--can be overwhelming, or as Stoll put it, "a firehose in
[your] eyes." Were this all useful data, it would be bad enough,
but the signal-to-noise ratio is nearer 10% than 100% (some might
say 1% is even closer).
In addition, the relative anonymity of the Net makes "flaming"
(violent or abusive criticism of an individual) easier. Even the
traditional print media include a columnist's picture at the top of
a column or an author's photograph on a dust jacket. This serves to
make the author a person and probably tones down the sorts of
letters received. The Net has no such capability yet. (One can
transmit pictures, but not easily and not in a format everyone can
use.) But every cloud has a silver lining and this lack of visual
cues also makes the Net very egalitarian. Age, race, sex, handicap-
--all are unknown (many users use "handles" similar to CB radio that
conceal any clues a name might give.).
However, before we all become one big happy Net community, we
still have to overcome a few obstacles, such as multiple
inconsistent and incompatible networks (people on GEnie can't send
electronic mail to people on the Internet, and vice versa) and what
one person described as "lousy user interfaces." In regard to the
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 8
latter, Stoll said his biggest problem was that he used six
different networks, each with a different interface. An analogous
situation would be if you owned six VCRs, three Beta and three VHS,
and all had different ways to program and use them. (Come to think
of it, that's not far off the mark. We have three: one requires
on-screen programming, one has both on- and off-screen, and one uses
a display screen in the hand-held control. One has a timer button;
the other two use the on-off button to activate the timer. On one
(two?) a second press of the fast-forward button returns the tape to
normal speed; on the other(s) you need to press the play button.
And so on.)
Of the three hundred or so in the audience, about 60% had
"free" access to networks through school or work and about 60% used
a pay network such as CompuServe or GEnie. Obviously some had both-
--20%, since everyone seemed to be hooked up somehow. This was not
the case at all panels, though, and a convention with a lot of
programming about networking might do well to schedule a "Electronic
Networks 101" panel early on to define such terms as "modem,"
"bulletin board," "sys op," and so on.
It must be mentioned that whatever the limitations of
networking may be, the Internet and Usenet were instrumental in
helping defeat the recent coup attempt in the Soviet Union, so
networking affects even those who are not directly hooked in.
Panel: HHHHoooowwww ttttoooo UUUUnnnnffffaaaaiiiirrrrllllyyyy JJJJuuuuddddggggeeee aaaa BBBBooooooookkkk bbbbyyyy PPPPaaaaggggeeee 111111117777
Thursday, 11 PM
Theresa Nielsen-Hayden (mod), Evelyn Leeper, Laurie Mann,
K. Massie-Ferch, Robert Reed, Amy Thomson, Chuq Von Rospach
Official Description: "Would your favorite novel hold up if you
judged it by the first page? How about page 117" (By the way, this
description appeared on page 117 of the Program Book!)
There was some discussion beforehand about whether the title
meant judging a book on the basis of what was _o_n page 117 or what
was up to and including page 117. Luckily one person had been on
the original Readercon panel which inspired this and was able to
confirm it was the former. The technique used was to read all of
page 117 of a book and then let the audience and panelists make
observations about the book: category, quality, etc. The fact that
none of the six of us (alas, I cannot remember which of Massie-
Ferch, Reed, or Thomson was not present) had a book with us meant
that we had to borrow books from friends in the audience. We
started with a couple of mysteries, William Marshall's _T_h_e _F_a_r_a_w_a_y
_M_a_n and Sara Paretsky's _I_n_d_e_m_n_i_t_y _O_n_l_y. Next was Dave Wolverton's
_S_e_r_p_e_n_t _C_a_t_c_h, which did not fare as well in the quality area. I
think it was the reference to the Mastodon Men that lost it points.
(This was lent to me by a friend whose name will be concealed to
protect the innocent--he bought it in the airport and decided early
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 9
on it was pretty bad.) After I returned home I read that Wolverton
had just handed in the _s_e_c_o_n_d _h_a_l_f of the novel--not a sequel--to be
published soon. I wonder if this was the book that Budrys was
talking about in his recent _F&_S_F column.
Then came Eluki bes Shahar's _H_e_l_l_f_l_o_w_e_r, written in an odd
mixture of high-flown language and colloquial dialogue. Full of
words such as "baldric," it prompted me to reminisce that when I was
in school we used to get twenty "Word Wealth" words a week and we
had to write a story using all of them--I hadn't realized these
stories were getting published now.
Jennifer Roberson's _S_w_o_r_d-_B_r_e_a_k_e_r was described as reading like
a high school production of a Shakespeare play, or as Theresa
Nielsen-Hayden described it, it had too many speeches of the type "I
say thee, nope!"
The question of whether all this was a valid way to judge a
book was raised. The consensus was that you have to have some way
to judge a book in the bookstore (unless you have infinite money to
buy everything and infinite time to read it) and that page 117 was
at least as reliable as trusting the cover blurbs or the critic's
quotes. I pointed out that this method was only valid with novels,
not with non-fiction and not with anthologies or collections. We
suggested that if page 117 looked bad, pick another page at random;
assuming that page 117 is about one-third of the way through, try
one at about 234 or so. I said that there was a series that started
out good, but by book seven or so I could pick up a volume, read ten
pages at random, and not find the plot being advanced on any of
them. (After the audience tried unsuccessfully to guess the series,
I admitted it was John Norman's "Gor" series.)
Panel: PPPPrrrroooojjjjeeeecccctttt CCCCaaaannnncccceeeelllllllleeeedddd:::: GGGGlllloooorrrriiiioooouuuussss TTTTeeeecccchhhhiiiieeee DDDDrrrreeeeaaaammmmssss ooooffff YYYYeeeesssstttteeeerrrryyyyeeeeaaaarrrr
Friday, 10 AM
Arlan Andrews (mod), Laurie Mann, Ken Meltsner,
John F. Moore, John Maddox Roberts, Dave Stein
Official Description: "'A man's reach should exceed his grasp,
or what's a heaven for?' A look at what might have been, from the
Analytical Engine to damming the Mediterranean to the nuclear
airplane."
The panel started by having the panelists list their "favorite"
failed dreams--the ones they would most have liked to see come true.
Moore stuck close to real-life projects: MISS (Man in Space Soonest)
and a space program called "Dinosaur." Roberts said he missed
holograms and "the city of the future" (though as someone pointed
out, we were in it in the Illinois Center, what with the Hyatt's
skylight lobby and the enclosed mall surrounding the hotels).
Andrews (a former Bell Labs person) wanted fusion power, which the
papers had said was forty years in the future. The problem was that
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 10
it was _a_l_w_a_y_s forty years in the future (though someone said that
now they were saying it was twenty years in the future). Meltsner
missed robots, especially the "man-mate" sort, including a centaur-
like one in which you stand in the front and the back half is
robotic. Mann, ever the activist, missed good, reliable, safe birth
control.
Stein yearned for walking machines (which he remembered being
described under the slogan "Wheels Are Dead!"). Of course, the ones
built needed a semi-trailer full of hydraulics to run and could only
be operated by women experienced in balancing on high heels
(probably even stiletto heels at that time). Even then, they were
extremely tiring to use. All sorts of investigations were made for
them. For example, the walkers tended to sink into the walkways, so
a team was sent out to study moose in the north woods and why they
don't sink in the mud. The answer? The moose don't sink in the
mud, because the moose don't walk in the mud--they walk around it.
Other failed dreams mentioned included underwater cities
(Stein), cities on Mars (Mann), and Arctic cities under glass.
Meltsner mentioned cheap and efficient air travel, but said even
cheap and efficient postal service would have been nice. (Andrews
wanted efficient and swift elevators.) Meltsner also mentioned
someone's idea to recycle manure into cattle feed, an idea that
failed when the bad bacteria tended to overwhelm the good bacteria
used in the process, resulting in a large, smelly mess. Large
atomic aircraft failed when not only did the radiation make the
entire plane radioactive, but no one would let them land anywhere
either. Solar energy and artificial intelligence were also
mentioned as dreams of yesterday that did not blossom as people
expected. But Mann pointed out that even though traditional AI has
failed, almost every home has a computer (if one includes all the
electronic watches, calculators, etc., that people of yesterday
would certainly have called computers). Maybe it is true: "You
can't always get what you want, but sometimes you just might find
that you get what you need."
Roberts mentioned the Picturephone (is that still an AT&T
trademark?). Others pointed out that video-conferencing is
basically Picturephone, and Andrews said that Picturephone itself
was making a comeback.
What were the panelists' techie dreams of today that they
thought would fizzle out in the next nine years? Moore named the
super-conducting collider, and Stein named fusion power. Roberts
cited "wetware," and Meltsner thought nanotechnology in general
would not achieve expectations. Mann thought the biosphere
experiment in the Southwest would not achieve its goals. Everyone
agreed that all these failed projects would have spin-offs that we
couldn't even dream of now--every cloud has its silver lining.
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 11
There was also a discussion of failed economic and political
systems (I wonder why?). That Raisa Gorbachev spent twelve years
getting a Ph.D. in Marxist/Leninist philosophy was taken as an
example of how the future can make obsolete political training as
well as scientific training. What else has appeared to fail (or
failed to appear)? Controlled anarchy said Stein, and Communism on
a large scale said Mann (that's too easy, Laurie). Moore said that
the current breakdown of Communism seemed to be the "people
asserting their fundamental right to kill other ethnic groups." It
was pointed out that the techie dream of networking was part of what
killed the coup: the Soviet Union can't shut down just the civilian
phone lines, because they are inter-connected with the military
ones, so all the networking traffic couldn't be stopped. And hand-
held video cameras can be expected to bring about more cases such as
that of Rodney King in Los Angeles.
Andrews pointed out some interesting things about _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k in
this context. It had been claimed to him that science fiction on
television was making people more liberal or even libertarian, but a
close examination of _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k showed him that:
- everyone works for the government,
- everyone wears uniforms,
- no one votes in any sort of elections,
- there is no money, and
- the examples of free enterprise (no pun intended) we see are
Harry Mudd and the Ferenghi, neither held up as great examples
to follow.
In short, _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k was reactionary rather than revolutionary.
Returning briefly to the issue at hand (from which we had
clearly drifted), two more failed techie dreams of today were
mentioned: body sculpturing and major changes in family structures.
Though some change in the latter area is in progress, it seems
obvious that major changes involving the recognition of group
marriages, marriages for a limited time period (at least officially
recognized as that from the start), etc., are not in the near-
future.
The panelists' want list for future techie dreams was
intelligent conversational computers (Stein--I suppose the
observation that it's getting harder to find intelligent
conversational _p_e_o_p_l_e would be considered catty), matter
transmission (Mann--especially for transporting equipment to a con),
decent apartment heating and a moderated Usenet (Meltsner),
nanotechnology (Andrews--though on another panel someone said they
wouldn't trust nanotechnology because "would you want a hardware
crash in your pancreas?"), a weight loss pill and a baldness cure
(Roberts), high efficiency recycling (Moore). Moore also wanted
involuntary education, possibly by injection, which led another
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 12
panelist to comment that aside from all the civil liberties issues,
you would have scenarios where the teacher calls the parents in and
says, "I'm sorry, but little Billy is allergic to
mathematics" ... and means it!
The mention of L5 colonies led one panelist to observe that
most of the people pushing for them, especially at conventions,
would never qualify, because in such a small space colonists would
need to be clean and polite.
Afterwards, I asked if the modified SCUD missile was a failed
techie dream of (Saddam Hussein's) yesterday.
Panel: FFFFaaaannnnzzzziiiinnnneeeessss oooonnnn tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeetttt???? ((((TTTThhhheeee FFFFuuuuttttuuuurrrreeee ooooffff FFFFaaaannnnzzzziiiinnnneeeessss))))
Friday, 12 noon
Tony Ubelhor (mod), Evelyn Leeper, Dick Smith,
Leah Zeldes Smith, Chuq Von Rospach
Official Description: "Alternatives to the written word for fan
publications."
(What a silly description! Fanzines on the Net are done almost
entirely in the "written word," as artwork is still difficult to
transmit. Of course, if they mean _r_e_a_l_l_y written, as with a pen and
ink, no fanzine is done that way that I know of.)
Someone on this panel referred to "organized fandom," which was
immediately leapt upon as an oxymoron, but it seemed as if the major
objection to fanzines on the Net was that fandom there was even less
organized than outside the Net. But the major obstacle to
communicating on this panel was that the non-net people seemed to be
talking about newsgroups, bulletin boards (BBs), special interest
groups (SIGs), and so on--not about fanzines. It was difficult to
explain in this setting that there were _f_a_n_z_i_n_e_s--magazines edited
by someone, having distinct issues, sent out on a schedule, and so
on. I tried to use the _M_T _V_O_I_D (our clubzine) as an example: I
produce some paper copies for those who have no computer access, but
mostly I send out electronic copies that people can print at their
end (if they want) rather than having me print them at my end and
sending them the paper. The end result is the same, only faster and
more convenient.
Newsgroups, on the other hand, are on-going discussions with no
deadlines, no editing, and often no content. They merely serve as a
useful way to divide up the discussions by topic. I described them
as a sort of Dewey Decimal System; Von Rospach said they were more
like Dewey Decimal on Drugs.
All this confusion between newsgroups and fanzines merely
underscores the need for the "Electronic Networks 101" panel I
mentioned earlier.
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 13
When we finally did get down to brass tacks, there were a
couple of issues raised. One was the motivation for writing in a
fanzine. We all agreed, I think, that many people on the Net write
more for quantity than for quality, but those of us familiar with
electronic fanzines believe (I think) that in the _f_a_n_z_i_n_e_s the
quality is basically equal to that of "traditional" fanzines. (I
would observe in passing that two of the six nominees for Hugo for
Best Fan Writer this year are known for their electronic writing as
much as for their writing for "traditional" fanzines.) The other
problem raised was that of archiving electronic fanzines. But I
pointed out that first of all, many are designed to be printed--the
electronic medium is only for the faster transmission and the
fanzines are unreadable unless you actually print them. Second,
many paper fanzines probably suffer the fate of being lost because
no one has saved a copy. (Okay, I have the first issue of the
UMassSFS fanzine, but I'm an unrepentant pack rat. How many other
copies are there around? Yet I suspect that between disk archives,
and people who archive paper copies, there will be a lot of
electronic fanzines around. The _M_T _V_O_I_D is two-thirds electronic,
yet there are at least four sets of full archives of it.)
I think a more real (and usually unspoken) concern is that now
that networking is so wide-spread, electronic fanzines may
completely overshadow "traditional" fanzines. Yet no one (well,
hardly anyone) objected when photocopying replaced mimeo or even
hectograph. It is much easier to distribute several hundred copies
of a fanzine electronically than it is using hard-copy, and
circulations in the thousands are not unheard of. It is also true,
however, that many of these recipients are not currently in fandom,
so fears of electronic fanzines "taking over" the Hugos are, as yet,
unjustified. I see these fanzines as enlarging fandom and the
fannish community, and I think this is a good idea. I suspect there
are those who want fandom to remain small enough for everyone to
know everyone else, but I'm afraid it's too late for that. But
there will be more commentary on this as this report proceeds.
WSFS Preliminary Business Meeting
Friday, 1 PM
This began with a lot of procedural stuff, followed by a long
apology from D A. Martin about why the ballot got released in two
pieces. (A preliminary ballot with only three names in most
categories was released to _L_o_c_u_s and CompuServe, then a subsequent
ballot with five entires on all categories (and six in one) was
released.) The explanation seemed to boil down to the committee
saying they gave the preliminary ballot to _L_o_c_u_s so that Charlie
Brown could verify that all the candidates were eligible, but it
wasn't made clear this was only a preliminary ballot. Then someone
explained to the ballot-counters that they had misinterpreted the
rules and there were really more eligible candidates than they said,
but by then the news was out. Why the ballot was posted to
Chicon V September 1, 1991 Page 14
CompuServe, and why it is necessary to have an outside source--which
as a news magazine has an interest in publishing the list of
nominees as soon as possible--verify the ballot was not at all
explained, and I hope that in future the committees get their act
together on all this.
The meeting then proceeded to set discussion times for various
motions, which would actually be discussed at the business meeting
on Saturday. First were five amendments passed on from ConFiction
(amendments must be ratified by two consecutive worldcons before
taking effect). There were also eleven proposed constitutional
amendments submitted this year and six standing rule amendments.
The debate time for the old amendments was set at times varying from
six minutes to thirty seconds (well, they were already debated at
great length last year). Of the new constitutional amendments
proposed, several were killed outright (including the "Life Hugo for
Non-English Language Writing," "A Year Delay on the Hugos," and the
"Hugo Fanzine Proposal" regarding electronic fanzines); others had
their debate times set for the next day's meeting. Several of the
standing rule amendments were also killed ("Partiers' Rights,"
"Defining 'Session,'" "Editorial Changes," and the "Shut Up
Amendment"--don't ask). I didn't stay for the whole session; when
the "Hugo Fanzine Proposal" was defeated, I decided to skip the rest
and see something besides a business meeting.
This seems like a good place to comment on the "Hugo Fanzine
Proposal." It is spoken of as allowing electronic fanzines, but in
actual fact the amendment would also have extended fanzine status to
audiocassette fanzines for the blind, videocassette fanzines, and so
on. The wording, we realize now (and knew even at the time) was
awkward, and tried to do too much in one stroke. So next year we
will probably try again. To the argument that an electronic fanzine
would require a recipient to buy special equipment, I would reply
that the same is true of an audiocassette fanzine, a videocassette
fanzine, or for that matter a paper fanzine that the publisher would
only fax, not mail. You can rent a fax machine at the library or
the corner drugstore these days, true, but you can also rent a
computer at many libraries. Where does one draw the line? I think
most fans would say that an audiocassette fanzine for the blind
should be eligible. This alone means that terms have to be
redefined. For example, "professional" versus "non-professional"
publications are defined strictly in terms of "press run," a concept
meaningless when applied to an audiocassette. One part of the
proposal, which probably should be split off, would have defined
"professional" as having a _c_i_r_c_u_l_a_t_i_o_n of over 10,000, and in
addition paying either its contributors or its staff in other than
copies of the publication. (This is in line with the SFWA
definition of "professional.") Stay tuned for further developments.
(To be continued)