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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/26/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 39
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
03/31 STEEL BEACH by John Varley (Near-Future Uptopias--
Or Are They?)
03/31 Deadline for Hugo Nominations
04/21 ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
(If This--AI, Virtual Reality, Nanotech--Goes On)
05/12 THOMAS THE RHYMER by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy in a Modern Vein)
06/02 WORLD AT THE END OF TIME by Frederik Pohl
(Modern Stapledonian Fiction)
06/23 CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks
(Space Opera with a Knife Twist)
07/14 SIGHT OF PROTEUS by Charles Sheffield (Human Metamorphosis)
Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 hocpb!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 quartet!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgpfs1!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Our next discussion book is _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h by John Varley, and of
it Rob Mitchell says:
I've been a fan of John Varley for almost twenty years,
particularly of his shorter works. His short stories, such as
"Press Enter" and "Persistence of Vision", were dizzyingly
creative, and yet plausible, looks at what if? (e.g., What if
THE MT VOID Page 2
people could buy customized bodies as easily as we can buy
customized automobiles?). His longer work, though, was generally
verbose and dull. After a promising first book, his "Titan"
trilogy quickly bogged down, and his award-winning novelette,
"Millenium," suffered when when expanded into a novel. I had my
doubts that Varley could sustain the creativity and pacing of his
shorter works. With his new book, _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h, Varley proves he
can write an outstanding novel.
Many years in the future, humanity has colonized the Moon and (by
implication) several other satellites or planets in the Solar
System. Earth has been lost, however, decades ago when
essentially-omnipotent aliens landed and eliminated all human life.
These aliens do not further affect the humans off-Earth, but the
loss of the planet has scarred the psyches of the survivors. In
Luna, the colony on the moon, lives Hildy Johnson, an ace reporter
for one of Luna's most respected newspapers, a sleazy tabloid.
Hildy lives in a near-paradise; people live virtually forever,
science has cured most physical ailments from cancer to bad breath,
and the Central Computer keeps the climate comfortable and is
available to talk to people or otherwise entertain them. Although
there is a vaguely capitalistic economy, one's needs are easily
satisfied. You can even change your sex if you're bored with your
present one.
Hildy's not happy, though. In fact, he's rather depressed, and
survives several suicide attempts only through the prompt action of
the benevolent and ever-monitoring Central Computer. Hildy talks
to the Computer (on several levels), and learns that he's not
unique; other people are increasingly feeling anxiety, stress, and
suicidal impulses. In fact, the Central Computer admits it itself
has been feeling rather depressed lately... Meanwhile, Hildy comes
across a bunch of "anarchists" who have their own vision of where
the human race should be going.
It's a tense roller-coaster of a ride, full of exotic characters,
imaginative situations, and believable extrapolations. Varley
excels at taking us into an environment quite different from our
own, but within our grasp because that environment is a plausible
and detailed extension of human society and psychology. In this
book, Varley wrestles with the big questions, such as "What makes
Life worth Living?" as well as lesser questions such as "What if a
cult made Elvis Presley a saint?" _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h has already been
nominated for a Nebula, and I'm sure it will also be nominated for
a Hugo. It deserves both nominations, and quite possibly is the
best book published last year. [-jrrt]
2. From the Department of "The More Things Change the More They
Stay the Same, Only Different": I cannot help but notice how old
plots are being seen in new lights. John Ford made his Westerns in
which the cavalry was pitted against the Indians. In about two-
THE MT VOID Page 3
thirds of these films the bad guys were the Indians. Occasionally
Ford would throw in a plot where the real bad guy was the commander
of the fort (_n_e_v_e_r played by John Wayne) who just did not
understand the tenuous relations between the cavalry and the
Indians and messes them up. Then of course the Indians spring like
a mousetrap. Today the political climate is different but what
really has happened is that the political pendulum has swung from
one extreme to the another. Any reasonable reading of history
tells you there were a lot of times the Euros were wrong, some
times the Indians were wrong, and a whole lot of times when either
there was more than enough blame to go around or you just cannot
tell.
Then there were a bunch of films of the variety "Boy meets girl.
Boy likes Girl. Girl does not like Boy. Boy is persistent.
Girl still does not like Boy. Boy is more persistent. Girl falls
for Boy. Boy gets Girl." That was the plot of _T_h_e _G_r_a_d_u_a_t_e. Mike
Nichols's film was considered to run counter to the establishment
of the 1960s. But for a lot of different reasons it is even more
counter to today's establishment.
What makes me think of all this is that I see a made-for-TV movie
coming up called _I _C_a_n _M_a_k_e _Y_o_u _L_o_v_e _M_e. Sounds like an old-
fashioned love story, doesn't it? But the subtitle is "The
Stalking of Laura Black." The description is, "A Silicon Valley
engineer cannot escape from a co-worker who has become obsessed
with her." It sure sounds a lot like the plot of _T_h_e _G_r_a_d_u_a_t_e,
doesn't it? But it is just slightly different in tone.
If you made _T_h_e _G_r_a_d_u_a_t_e today it would have to end with Elaine
Robinson shooting Benjamin Braddock. Benjamin gets up. Elaine
pushes Benjamin under the bus. Bellowing, Benjamin gets up.
Police arrive with guns. Bus is hit by stray bullet and explodes.
Toasted Benjamin drags himself out of the flames, cries, "Elaine!",
and dies. Happy ending. Roll the credits for six and a half
minutes.
3. REMINDER: Hugo nomination ballots must be postmarked by March
31, 1993, and reach the convention by April 6, 1993.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper
There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us
in touch with the ignorance of the community.
- Oscar Wilde
ISAAC ASIMOV'S CALIBAN by Roger MacBride Allen
Ace, ISBN 0-441-09079-6, 1993, $9.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
Although this is called _I_s_a_a_c _A_s_i_m_o_v'_s _C_a_l_i_b_a_n (and _A_s_i_m_o_v'_s
_C_a_l_i_b_a_n on the spine, though merely _C_a_l_i_b_a_n on the page preceding
the title page) and was written "with his cooperation," one suspects
Asimov's involvement was limited to authorizing Allen to write this
and to approving the general story line. Still, Allen has kept many
Asimov trademarks: the female roboticist, the police robot, the
apparent violation of the Three Laws, and so on.
Unfortunately, he's also kept the too-simple mystery: I figured
out "who-dun-it" well before the police. Also, the whole sub-plot
of the secret affair seems more in keeping with Asimov's attitudes
toward sex than any consistent set of societal mores. In fact,
another similarity to Asimov's style is that although the story
takes place "untold thousands of years" in the future, everything
seems very much like today. For example, the police force and
police work are structured exactly as now. But our police procedure
has certainly changed from that of thousands or even hundreds years
ago.
Allen has added his own contributions: a deeper discussion of
the Three Laws than Asimov ever attempted (though hardly the
"searing examination" the back cover promises) and a somewhat
topical ecological theme, as well as other current issues, thinly
veiled. The result is not optimal: Allen's attempts to examine
issues are blocked by the necessity to write in Asimov's style, but
the issues remind us we're not reading an Asimov novel anyway.
Allen is a good writer in his own right. I would rather see
him writing his own books than trying to shoehorn his style into an
Asimov copy.
MY TOP TEN FILMS OF 1992
A film article by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
1. LORENZO'S OIL: How did two parents with no medical background
find a cure for the previously terminal disease that afflicted
their son? You actually will understand, step by step in this
true story part intellectual puzzle, part political statement
about the medical community, part story of a family medical
tragedy. We need more films like this. Rating: +3
2. THE CRYING GAME: An IRA kidnapping leads to a chain of events
that keeps both the characters and the audience guessing.
MONA LISA director Neil Jordan has equaled or surpassed that
film in one of the best movies of the year. Rating +3. See
it before someone spoils it for you.
3. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS: Little more than just a filmed stage
play, but a very compelling one. David Mamet's play is a
tense story of people caught up in the real estate game. The
play is both suspenseful and at the same time makes a bitter
piece of social commentary. See this one just for the sheer
joy of hearing rich and powerful dialog. Rating +3. Rating:
+3
4. FAR AND AWAY: A really big film with impressive historical
sweep. The sort of epic storytelling that films do so well
and just have not done very often in recent years. Tom Cruise
and Nicole Kidman star in a story of Irish immigrants coming
to the Irish slums of Boston and then to the Oklahoma land
rush just about one century ago. This is the most enjoyable
film I have seen in 1992. Rating: low +3.
5. UNFORGIVEN: A film to debunk most of the myths in other
Western gunfighter films. Perhaps Eastwood made UNFORGIVEN as
an act of contrition for glorifying violence in so many of his
previous pictures. In any case, this is a very adult and
intelligent Western about myth and reality. Rating: high +2.
6. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS: Michael Mann's LAST OF THE MOHICANS
is finally available and while James Fenimore Cooper might
cavil, this is still a film that teaches a lot about a
little-dramatized chapter of history. In some ways it is more
intriguing in concept than the source novel. Technical
credits are good across the board including remarkable
stylistic restraint coming from Mann. Rating: high +2.
7. PRELUDE TO A KISS: Romance, comedy, fantasy, and even a little
softcore horror combine in an intelligent and thoroughly
Top Ten of 1992 January 31, 1992 Page 2
enjoyable film. PRELUDE handles an old idea, but at the same
time says a lot about life and human relationships. Even the
acting by minor characters is good. (This is one of those
films whose actual premise comes as a surprise well into the
film. I will be very vague below rather than spoil the plot.)
Rating: high +2.
8. DEAD AHEAD: Some subjects are just intrinsically difficult to
adapt to film. There were no human deaths and little visually
spectacular in the Exxon Valdez disaster. There WAS a lot of
political fighting in the wake of the disaster with a large
number of players. DEAD AHEAD compares favorably with films
that had similar obstacles such as ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.
This HBO-BBC co-production is remarkably compelling watching.
Rating: high +2.
9. HOWARD'S END: One of the best, indeed probably the best, of
the recent run of film's based on E. M. Forster's novels. It
takes a long time before the audience knows for sure where
this story is going, then it turns out to be a story that is
subtle and complex. Very good performances all around.
Rating: +2.
10. ENCHANTED APRIL: This is a light and VERY pleasant comedy that
could be used as an ad for the Italian Tourism Board. It
starts like E. M. Forster's indignant social dramas and then
unwinds under the warm Italian sun into a rich romantic
comedy. It features beautiful settings and people you would
love to meet. Rating: +2.
Boskone 30
(Part 2 of 3)
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
Short Science Fiction: The Cutting Edge
Saturday, noon
Sheila Williams (mod), James Patrick Kelly, Steven Popkes,
Darrell Schweitzer, Connie Willis
People as usual promoted their latest books. Willis said the
new collection of her short fiction, _I_m_p_o_s_s_i_b_l_e _T_h_i_n_g_s, would be
coming out in December, at which time _F_i_r_e _W_a_t_c_h would also be re-
issued. (This, by the way, explains why someone thought Willis had
a collection called _A_r_t_i_f_i_c_i_a_l _T_h_i_n_g_s, which is actually a Karen Joy
Fowler collection which had originally been titled _T_h_e _L_a_k_e _I_s _F_u_l_l
_o_f _A_r_t_i_f_i_c_i_a_l _T_h_i_n_g_s.)
Regarding the "cutting edge," someone quoted George Bernard
Shaw as saying, "Everything changes but the avant garde." While the
panelists talked mostly about the "cutting edge" of science fiction
in terms of cyberpunk et al, I thought the title of the panel mean
that short fiction _w_a_s the cutting edge of science fiction. (I
certainly find it easier to find Hugo nominees among the short
stories than among the novels; in fact, it seems the longer the
stories get, the harder it is to find Hugo nominees.) Williams
seemed to think that rather than being the cutting edge, most of
what she gets for _A_s_i_m_o_v'_s _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n is the "cutting sponge,"
by which I assume she means it just soaks up whatever ideas are
hanging around. Kelly thought the whole idea of the cutting edge
was somewhat anti-artistic in that once a cutting edge has been
declared, it silences dissent.
Going back to older ideas of the avant garde, the "New Wave,"
and the cutting edge, Schweitzer said that Barry Malzberg felt that
the golden age of science fiction was from 1948-1955 because that
was when ground-breaking work was done. On the whole, though, the
panelists agreed that trends and movements were dangerous and
counter-productive, not only because they silence dissent, but
because they lead to too much "copy-cat-ism." As one panelist said,
"Unique voices don't fit into a history of science fiction." (This
person had been talking to an academic who was teaching a course on
the history of science fiction and mentioned that R. A. Lafferty [I
believe] was not included. The response was that Lafferty didn't
start any trends and influenced no specific authors in any
noticeable fashion, so he was irrelevant to the course.)
Secular humanism was described by Willis as "decaying
decorations on an already moldy wedding cake of literature." (I'm
not sure what that means, but it sounds great.) Most of science
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 2
fiction seems to be in the direction of "minor works by junior
authors," franchise works, and general land-fill material. Where
are the great "patterning works" the panel mentioned: H. Rider
Haggard's _S_h_e, Bram Stoker's _D_r_a_c_u_l_a, J. R. R. Tolkien's _L_o_r_d _o_f _t_h_e
_R_i_n_g_s? (My guess is they're scheduled for next year's Boskone's
"Neglected Authors" track--after all, two years ago they did Jules
Verne.)
Luckily, there is hope. Magazines are forced to buy fiction
from new writers to survive, so there is a chance to see new, fresh
fiction. This is why short fiction is the cutting edge, I guess.
(I might claim the golden age of short stories is now, in fact.)
What they are seeing could be described as the "Third Wave" of
cyberpunk. The First Wave was William Gibson's _N_e_u_r_o_m_a_n_c_e_r. The
Second Wave was all the rip-offs that came out of that. The Third
Wave are the works which deal with the use of real-world technology
from authors like Greg Egan, Alex Jablokov, Jonathan Lethem, and
Vernor Vinge. Schweitzer pointed out in this context that John
Varley's _S_t_e_e_l _B_e_a_c_h, for example, is full of matter-of-fact sex,
technology, and genetic engineering that would have made the book
revolutionary in 1968. (The sex alone would have gotten it bounced
by a number of publishers.) Now, it's considered "straightforward"
science fiction--nothing ground-breaking. And the "ground-breaking"
works of the 1960s were all copies of literary ground-breakers that
had gone before: John Brunner's _S_t_a_n_d _o_n _Z_a_n_z_i_b_a_r was the child of
John dos Passos's work; Brian W. Aldiss's _B_a_r_e_f_o_o_t _i_n _t_h_e _H_e_a_d was
heavily influenced by James Joyce. Still, Williams emphasized that
"the best authors have their own voice." While any author will be
influenced by other literature, good authors try to set trends
rather than follow them, try to write their own works instead of
copying others. Willis agreed, saying that this was what kept the
science fiction field fresh while other genres stagnate: "Romances
imploded into a neutron star; science fiction is like a blob that
keeps growing." (Someone noted that the fastest growing sub-genre
in romances is the time-travel romance.)
Willis also observed that the new voice is what can revive an
ailing field. "An author like a Stephen King can come along and
rejuvenate a dead and decaying [!] field."
Brief mention was made of short fiction for children. Most
markets for this are very unreasonable regarding republication
rights (according to Schweitzer, who thought only _C_r_i_c_k_e_t was a
worthwhile market to sell short children's fiction to). Because of
the limited number of outlets, few authors find it worthwhile to
write a children's story that they can send to only one or two
publications, and have no chance of resale income.
Asked what were the problem areas in science fiction today,
Schweitzer said he was tired of the proliferation of "elfy-welfy"
fantasy. Willis attacked "horrible, ghastly 82-volume trilogies."
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 3
There is no dearth of stories per se, but often it seems that the
bad drives out the good. Schweitzer closed by saying that "90% of
today's science fiction wouldn't have been published in 1940." (Of
course, a lot of it couldn't have been written then either.)
SF Origami
Saturday, 1 PM
Mark R. Leeper
I didn't attend this, but I did look in and see that there were
about twenty people folding origami. In fact, Mark got asked to
come to the con suite Saturday night and teach some more, and ended
up spending another couple of hours there.
Responsibility and the Arts
Saturday, 2 PM
Ellen Asher, A. J. Austin, Michael F. Flynn, Charles Ryan, Jane Yolen
The issues posed to the panelists beforehand to be thinking
about dealt in part with the question of whether the panelists
censor themselves. Austin's response was, "Self-censorship? My mom
reads my stuff!" Asher said the real problem seemed to be that the
trend was to call any form of selection censorship. (Certainly the
recent discussion of John Norman on Usenet seems to fall into this
category.) The panelists never completely agreed on a definition of
"censorship" but seemed to agree that it included physical sanctions
of some sort. As long as someone was free to publish his or her own
works and sell them, then censorship per se was not being exercised.
One can certainly argue this--an entire hour could be spent without
ever deciding whether the refusal of two or three major book
distributors to carry some work constituted some form of _i_p_s_o _f_a_c_t_o
censorship, for example. Yolen said the problem in trying to arrive
at such a definition was that some people are defining censorship in
terms of commerce and some are defining it in terms of art. (Is the
NEA's refusal to fund certain artists censorship?)
Another issue these days is the credentials of the author.
This is not merely the question of their technical knowledge of
whatever they are writing about, but whether, for example, a
biography of Malcolm X is as valid when written by a white author as
by a black author. The best-known example of this was _T_h_e _E_d_u_c_a_t_i_o_n
_o_f _L_i_t_t_l_e _T_r_e_e, a book about Native Americans widely praised until
it was discovered that Forrest Carter, the "Native American" who
wrote it, was actually a white racist (some say a former racist).
Does a people have the exclusive rights to their story? Yolen said
she would not want to see a situation where only Jews could write
about Jews, only blacks could write about blacks, and so on, in part
because if that is the case, then you can never have a book that
includes people from many groups. What people seem to forget, Yolen
said, was that writers _c_r_e_a_t_e. That's what writing is about.
Writers are _s_u_p_p_o_s_e_d to be able to write characters other than
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 4
themselves. Shakespeare may or may not have been Francis Bacon, but
he was not a Jew _a_n_d a Moor _a_n_d a teenage girl _a_n_d a Danish prince
_a_n_d an aging king .... This gets into the whole question of cross-
racial casting in films. Could a white man successfully play Martin
Luther King? (Yes, Olivier played Othello, but does that apply?)
Could Whoopi Goldberg play Juliet?
Ryan pointed out that the artist is supposed to challenge
society, and that it is impossible to do so without offending
someone. The whole issue of political correctness often seems to
center around a distrust of imagination. (In fairness, it seems to
me that if "political correctness" is the left-wing of the spectrum,
then the right-wing also distrusts imagination and wants to control
strictly what children can see and read.) A well-known literary
example of challenging society was Henrik Ibsen's _A_n _E_n_e_m_y _o_f _t_h_e
_P_e_o_p_l_e, and panelists pointed out that similar problems occur even
today when newspapers discover facts about toxic waste that
governments want to conceal.
The panelists left themselves and the audience pondering the
question of what the difference between self-censorship and moral
cowardice was. For example, bookstores that carried Salman
Rushdie's _S_a_t_a_n_i_c _V_e_r_s_e_s were threatened. In some cases, the stores
would have the employees decide for themselves whether to carry the
book. If a company decides that it is not fair to minimum-wage
employees to put them on the front line, is this censorship? Is
this moral cowardice? If a school librarian fights to keep a book
on the shelf and wins, when the next year's decisions roll around,
is she more likely to play it safe and select less controversial
books? Is this selection or censorship? Yolen said that the
artists should be quicker to praise the clerks and librarians who
support them, and much slower to condemn those who have to decide
whether to put their jobs and lives on the line for someone else's
art.
Biblical Themes in SF and Fantasy
Saturday, 3 PM
Evelyn Leeper (mod), Jeffrey A. Carver, Anne Jordan,
Mark Keller, Josepha Sherman
There was no specified moderator for this panel so I
volunteered, on the theory that the moderator gets to ask the
questions rather than having to come up with answers.
I started by saying that I had begun to suspect that there was
a growing trend towards Biblical themes in science fiction and
fantasy, having read in short order Norman Spinrad's _D_e_u_s _X, Thomas
Monteleone's _B_l_o_o_d _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b, Gore Vidal's _L_i_v_e _f_r_o_m _G_o_l_g_o_t_h_a, and
Jack Womack's _E_l_v_i_s_s_e_y. I thought this might be attributable to
millenialism, but the other panel members seemed to think that this
was just part of an oscillating trend, and noted that the Bible,
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 5
particularly the Old Testament, has always been a major source of
literary as well as spiritual inspiration. The stories of Esther,
David, Moses, and others lend themselves to retelling in various
times and places, including science fictional settings. Mark
Keller, in fact, thinks that all of _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _T_h_e _N_e_x_t _G_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n
is a retelling of I Kings, with various characters representing
Saul, David, Jonathan, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, and so on.
One person asked if all these characters didn't represent
Jungian archetypes, but the panelists seemed to feel that while they
were archetypal, attaching Jungian significance to them was probably
over-kill. People also discussed deuterocanonical and semi-Biblical
influences (_T_h_e _B_o_o_k _o_f _M_o_r_m_o_n for prophetic figures and especially
in the work of Orson Scott Card, for example). Some thought that
recent discoveries regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hamadi
Library, and other semi-Biblical and pseudepigraphal works might
lead to more obscure borrowings. Andrew Greeley is known to rely
heavily on Biblical sources, and Harold Bloom's _F_l_i_g_h_t _f_r_o_m _L_u_c_i_f_e_r
was also mentioned (though I can't recall the context).
There was some question as to whether one found more Biblical
influences in science fiction or fantasy. At first guess, you might
think fantasy, but it turns out that most fantasy is influenced by
various other mythologies rather than Biblical, and that it may very
well be true that Biblical sources and imagery are used more in
science fiction.
Regarding millenialism, it actually began much earlier than the
end of the 20th Century, with William Miller preaching the Second
Coming of Christ first in 1843, then March 21, 1844, and finally
October 22, 1844. As _G_r_o_l_i_e_r'_s _A_c_a_d_e_m_i_c _E_n_c_y_l_o_p_e_d_i_a says, "The
failure of these predictions was a serious setback to the movement
[founded by Miller], but Miller and some devoted followers continued
to preach the imminent return of Christ." The Seventh-Day
Adventists grew out of this movement. Just this past year, in fact,
another group predicted the end of the world. If it happened, I
didn't notice it. (Then again, there was a group that predicted the
end of the world around 1918, and when the time passed, they
published a book explaining that the world _h_a_d ended but no one had
noticed.)
Someone noted that science fiction used to be about science,
but now was perfectly willing to be about religion instead. Someone
else said that the two were not unconnected: predestination is
basically the religious version of Newtonian mechanics, free will is
more related to Einsteinian theories, the Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle, and the recent theories of chaos.
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 6
Religious Intolerance in SF and Fandom
Saturday, 4 PM
Elisabeth Carey (mod), Janice Gelb, Alex Jablokov, Melissa Scott
Carey was worried that this panel would turn into a flame war
and so said that the panelists would discuss the topic for a half-
hour before taking any questions from the audience. While the
discussion may have gotten lively at times, I don't think it was
ever near problem proportions.
Jablokov said that the most obvious intolerance was toward
religion in general: when one sees religious characters in science
fiction or fantasy, they are either "decadent voluptuaries or
fanatical fundamentalists." Scott added a third category: Zen
masters. The latter at least tend to be portrayed in a non-negative
light; at worst they seem to be treated as harmless cranks rather
than evil forces. Scott said that one reason for this somewhat
slanted view is that religious institutions make easy villains.
Also, the most obvious religious people are the most annoying, since
they are the proselytizers et al. Frequently the author may have
his or her own prejudices against certain organizations. One must
be careful not to assume this is always the case, however, since
characters in a story may have prejudices independent or even
contradictory to those of the author. Still, this provides multiple
levels for prejudices to appear in a story. Of course, science
fiction must also follow through on its premises (Jablokov gave the
example of Donald Kingsbury's _C_o_u_r_t_s_h_i_p _R_i_t_e). Add to this that
writers work with a shared set of assumptions that the readers may
not share, and you can see that misunderstandings are almost
guaranteed.
Someone (Jablokov, I think) said that all this is what
mainstream science fiction fans see, but he noted that there are a
large number of science fiction novels published by religious
publishers and marketed only in religious bookstores in which
religious people are the heroes. One example he gave was a
cyberpunk novel in which Southern Baptists are targeted for
genocide, but the religious Christian uses his talents to defeat the
plot. (Sorry, he didn't give the title or author.)
There is also a tendency to make aliens just like us, only
shaped different. Jablokov described this for a story of
intelligent dolphins by saying that "dolphin religion is
Christianity filtered through several miles of water."
One of the distinctions I asked about was the dividing line
between irreverence and intolerance. One response was that to be
irreverent one must be a believer, which was not quite what I was
asking. Later Gelb said that she drew the line somewhere around the
point where people started saying things like, "How can you or any
rational person believe such garbage?"
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 7
Some people suggested that fandom is an ideology or a religion.
I doubt that most people would agree, but to many fans there is
definitely a sense of shared beliefs. Of course, one of these
beliefs is that openness is good, so fans say what they think, and
this is where the statements such as, "Only an idiot could believe
such garbage" come from. Jablokov summed it up by saying that the
question is not what is true, but what is polite.
Reading
Saturday, 5 PM
Connie Willis
Willis started by giving the audience the option of hearing
part of her novella "Uncharted Territory" (which she was delivering
to Bantam), or her novelette "Death on the Nile" from the March
issue of _A_s_i_m_o_v'_s _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n. But first she talked about a
story that came from her Nebula nomination for "Even the Queen,"
which appeared in last year's April issue. Apparently people often
send out copies of their nominated stories to all SFWA (or is it
SFFWA now?) members, with cover letters saying, "In case you missed
this, here's a copy in case you might want to consider voting for
this for the Nebula award, etc." Usually the copies are extra
copies of back issues of the magazines the stories appeared in
(though sometimes photocopies were sent if there weren't enough back
copies). Anyway, the warehouse in which the back issues of _I_s_a_a_c
_A_s_i_m_o_v'_s _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e were stored burned down (making
all your back issues more valuable in the process), so Willis was
looking forward to sending out letters saying, "In case you missed
this, here's a copy in case you might want to consider voting for
this for the Nebula award, etc.," and enclosing a tablespoon of
ashes. However, the copies of "Even the Queen" were sent out before
the fire, so she will have to wait until next year's nominations and
see if "Death on the Nile" gets nominated.
Anyway, the audience voted in favor of the first part of the
novella, so she read that, first explaining that it arose out of
what she called her "_D_a_n_c_e_s _w_i_t_h _W_o_l_v_e_s rant," which started before
the credits on that film had even finished rolling and ended only
when her husband threatened to leave her if she didn't stop. (She
says the couple who went to the movies with them will never go with
them again.) This rant can also be found in abbreviated form in the
_L_o_c_u_s interview mentioned earlier (July 1992 issue). She talked
about the fact that Sitting Bull became friends with Buffalo Bill
Cody shortly after the Battle of Little Big Horn and toured in
Buffalo Bill's road show, which Willis finds hard to comprehend.
(In an interesting piece of coincidence, Sitting Bull was killed in
the Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee in 1890; the Ghost Dance arose from
a millenial cult; we had just discussed millenialism an hour
earlier. Okay, so it's _n_o_t an interesting piece of coincidence.)
Willis recommended Evan S. Connell's _S_o_n _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_r_n_i_n_g _S_t_a_r: _C_u_s_t_e_r
& _L_i_t_t_l_e _B_i_g _H_o_r_n (Harper Collins, 1991, 464pp, $10.95) as a good
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 8
book about that period of history. In addition to objecting to some
of the content of _D_a_n_c_e_s _w_i_t_h _W_o_l_v_e_s, she also objected to the
pedestal that the movie was put on. Western movies were _n_o_t all
one-sided, she pointed out, and films such as _S_h_e _W_o_r_e _a _Y_e_l_l_o_w
_R_i_b_b_o_n made the white men as much or more the villains than the
Indians. In any case she emphasized that the West was not simple.
While there was some mis-information in older images of the West,
she continued, "you correct a stereotype with the truth, not with
another stereotype." What happened in the settlement of the West
she describes as "a tragedy, not a crime."
Another film that she disliked for its distortion of facts to
make a "politically correct" statement was _F_a_t _M_a_n _a_n_d _L_i_t_t_l_e _B_o_y,
which claimed that everyone involved with the atomic bomb knew all
about radiation poisoning and other effects of the bomb but used it
anyway, rather than the truth, which was that while some people had
some idea of the effects, most people thought of it as just a more
powerful bomb.
In regard to political correctness, Willis made some additional
comments (see also the "History in SF" panel). She said that there
are any number of trends and fads in social theory, and that
political correctness was one of them. Others she mentioned were
the "100th Monkey Theory" and the belief that the American public
are sheep. A book she recommended was _F_r_e_e _S_p_e_e_c_h _f_o_r _M_e--_B_u_t _N_o_t
_f_o_r _T_h_e_e: _H_o_w _t_h_e _A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n _L_e_f_t & _R_i_g_h_t _C_e_n_s_o_r _E_a_c_h _O_t_h_e_r by Nat
Hentoff (Harper Collins, 1992, 384pp, $25), which discusses the
censorship by the Left. In this regard she mentioned the people who
want to ban Mark Twain's _A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _o_f _H_u_c_k_l_e_b_e_r_r_y _F_i_n_n because it
uses the word "nigger." In fact, she said, it was removed from the
school library of a high school named Mark Twain High School! (She
didn't said what town or state.) Willis said that it is important
to break the ice around ideas, not enshrine some and ban others.
Willis also talked about writing in general. She said she
could never understand writers who say their characters get away
from them and take on a life of their own. "They're my characters,
by God! They will do what I tell them to!" She also said that
people say that a book should be about the most important day in a
person's life, which would seem to imply that most people should
write only one book (unless their lives are on a constant up-track).
Complimented on "Even the Queen," Willis hinted it was her
response to people who were big on the idea of celebrating
womanhood, but hoped it didn't start a genre of "menstruation-punk"
even though it could be considered the "bleeding edge" of science
fiction. (I have a great idea for the beginnings of an anthology in
the "menstruation-punk" genre if anyone is interested.)
The story itself (remember the story?) seems to be of humans
arriving on a "primitive" planet and trying to explore it, except
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 9
that the indigenous peoples have somehow discovered political
correctness, and use it to stymie even the most trivial efforts.
For example, driving a vehicle gets the explorers fined for
"disturbing planetary surface." I will certainly look for it when it
comes out (but then I'm an unrepentant Willis groupie); it will be
the first of three novellas Willis does for Bantam in their novella
series. In addition, she has another novel set in the _D_o_o_m_s_d_a_y _B_o_o_k
universe, tentatively titled _T_o _S_a_y _N_o_t_h_i_n_g _o_f _t_h_e _D_o_g, but much
lighter in tone than _D_o_o_m_s_d_a_y _B_o_o_k, with no deaths--except maybe a
cat that everyone keeps trying to kill.
War of the Worlds
Saturday, 8 PM
This consisted of a fifteen-minute radio interview with
H. G. Wells and Orson Welles, followed by the famous broadcast. I
had heard the broadcast many times, and was interested in the slide
show they put together to go with it, but that turned out to be a
bit of a disappointment, since there weren't very many slides (they
tended to leave a slide up for two or three minutes), they reused
slides (the same farm picture showed up about five times), and the
slides weren't always in focus. It was a good idea, though, and
with a bit more effort on the visual side could be quite good.
After all, it's basically what Ken Burns did with his "Civil War"
series (and all his other documentaries, for that matter).
The Cross-Time Bus: A Comic Play by Joe Mayhew
Saturday, 10 PM
Bruce Coville, Esther Friesner, Joe Haldeman, Chip Hitchcock,
Suford Lewis, Joe Mayhew, Greg Thokar, Mike Zipser
Waiting for this to begin, I found out that somewhere there is
a betting pool going on how long my next convention report will be.
I just want to mention that for the right price, I can adjust the
length to suit. :-)
The play itself was _n_o_t an alternate history (which I had
thought it might be), but was just a comic play about someone
building a time travel machine (bus, actually), then taking a bunch
of Dungeons & Dragons players back to King Arthur's time. Amusing
enough, though some of the characters got wearisome after a while.
Maybe I was just tired.
At the end they brought out a big birthday cake and everyone
sang "Happy Birthday" to Suford Lewis, whose birthday it was. (She
had agreed to pinch-hit for Jane Yolen, who was originally supposed
to be in the play but was not feeling well.)
After the play, I dropped into the Baltimore in '98 party. As
I said before, I was _n_o_t impressed. Time will tell; there are still
more than two years before the site selection for 1998.
Boskone 30 March 11, 1993 Page 10
The Green Room
One of the interesting things about the Green Room is the
conversations one overhears. Sunday morning I came in just in time
to hear Esther Friesner say, "Do you have any idea how big a
walrus's penis is?!" I'm sure she had a good explanation....
She also donated Laura Kinsale's _T_h_e _S_h_a_d_o_w _a_n_d _t_h_e _S_t_a_r (from
one of the racier lines of romance novels) to the Green Room reading
material supply. Most people stuck to the Sunday _T_i_m_e_s instead.
(End of Part 2)