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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 10/29/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 18
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
11/17 BRIAR ROSE by Jane Yolen (Nebula Nominee)
12/08 STAND ON ZANZIBAR by John Brunner (Classic SF)
01/05 A MILLION OPEN DOORS by John Barnes (Nebula Nominee)
01/26 Bookswap
02/16 Demo of Electronic Hugo and Nebula Anthology (MT)
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 MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 holly!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 holly!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. Hey, folks, the times they are a-changing. I love all the talk
about how this is a "New Age" with all the discussion of things
like the Harmonic Convergence (not to be confused with that
convention in St. Louis of all the street musicians--that was the
Harmonica Convergence). You see whole bookstores devoted to
crystals and guides to angels, histories of the lost continent of
Lemuria, that sort of thing. I went to a local bookstore and
somebody had put up a notice that they were going to have a psychic
party and they wanted local psychics to attend. And it gave the
time and place. Now my question is, why bother telling the time
and place? Won't that just attract people who are not real
psychics? If they are genuine psychics, won't they already know
the time and place? In fact, why bother to announce the party at
THE MT VOID Page 2
all? Why not just buy the goodies and set up and wait for the
psychics to arrive? Shouldn't the real psychics know about the
party without being told?
We went to the Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, New York, and New Age
people were there in force. They had stands selling New Age books,
they were selling crystals, they were reading palms and tarot, and
in general they were just having a high old time. Literally an old
time. So if "New Age" is so new, why does it fit so well with
medieval things? Well, because "New Age" is really a return to
age-old superstitions. A more accurate name would be "Recycled
Age."
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
The tendencies of democracies are, in all things,
to mediocrity, since the tastes, knowledge, and
principles of the majority form the tribunal of opinion.
-- James Fenimore Cooper
ConFrancisco 1993
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
(Part 4 of 5)
Panel: HHHHaaaavvvveeee SSSSppppeeeecccciiiiaaaallll EEEEffffffffeeeeccccttttssss TTTTaaaakkkkeeeennnn OOOOvvvveeeerrrr????
Saturday, 5:00 PM
Martin Brenneis (m), Daryl Mallett
"Have character, concept and story taken a back seat to splashy
SFX?": Yes.
Oh, you wanted a bit more than that?
The panelists did point out that many special effects are not
obvious, and gave the television series _T_h_e _Y_o_u_n_g _I_n_d_i_a_n_a _J_o_n_e_s
_C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_s as an example. It uses photo collages instead of matte
paintings, but it does use a lot of them, and people don't think of
the show as a "special effects" show. The same is true of a lot of
films as well. (By the way, the feeling is that what killed _T_h_e
_Y_o_u_n_g _I_n_d_i_a_n_a _J_o_n_e_s _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_s was not its "academic" nature, but
the fact that it never had a consistent time slot or schedule. I
enjoyed watching it--when I could find the damn thing.)
Even though the panelists liked special effects (and Brenneis,
at least, is involved in producing them), they agreed that special
effects are not the meat of films. The analogy I used was that
special effects are like the rides at an amusement park: there's
nothing wrong with them, but they shouldn't replace libraries.
Too many films rely entirely on special effects and want to use
everything available. This gives them a look not unlike the flyers
and fanzines one sees done on PCs by beginning "publishers" which
use every font available and look like ransom notes. Now that
$10,000 can get someone started in the special effects business with
the "video toaster" everyone wants more special effects. And with
outlets such as MTV for special effects people (and others) to
experiment with different techniques without risking a large-budget
film, we will start to see more varied effects. (This is not unlike
what was observed in the "Short Story" panel, where it was pointed
out that authors can experiment more freely in a short story than a
novel, because the time investment is less.)
Of course, the computerization of special effects and animation
has led to an interesting rip-off. Those animation cels that are
sold in dealers rooms and shops at Disnetyworld and other places for
recent films such as _B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t are produced (according to
Brenneis) solely for those markets. No one does animation cels for
the actual production of an animated film anymore.
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 2
And the fact that special effects are taking over (or appear to
be) is due in large part to the audiences. As big a flop as _L_a_s_t
_A_c_t_i_o_n _H_e_r_o was reputed to be and as successful _A _R_o_o_m _w_i_t_h _a _V_i_e_w
was reported to be, the fact remains that many more people went to
see _L_a_s_t _A_c_t_i_o_n _H_e_r_o than _A _R_o_o_m _w_i_t_h _a _V_i_e_w.
One audience member felt that people continued to see special
effects films in theatres because theatres provided the "total movie
experience." Perhaps, but all too often the "total movie
experience" includes sticky floors and rowdy audiences. One good
reason to see films like _A _R_o_o_m _w_i_t_h _a _V_i_e_w is that the etiquette of
the audience tends to be much higher than that of the audience at
_L_a_s_t _A_c_t_i_o_n _H_e_r_o.
(J. Michael Straczynski had been scheduled for this panel, but
he had also been scheduled for a presentation immediately preceding
this and got detained there. In general, conventions should not
schedule people on back-to-back panels, especially if they are
likely to find themselves involved in a lot of questions afterward.)
MMMMaaaassssqqqquuuueeeerrrraaaaddddeeee
Saturday, 8:00 PM
As I noted earlier, there was a 2000-person limit on attendees.
We waited in line from 7:30 PM to 8:15 PM to get in, and were
somewhere around #1500. One good thing was that they were counting
the line so that once it reached 2000 people, they could tell late-
comers not to waste time standing in line. They also announced how
many places/seats a person could save in line, saving embarrassing
incidents (although 4 seats per person in line seems a bit high to
me). The VIP seating was not announced ahead of time, which
probably should be done if there are in fact seats set aside.
There were fifty costumes. The _N_o_r_t_o_n _R_e_a_d_e_r (the daily
newsletter) the next day listed forty-six awards. The costumes were
almost uniformly (no pun intended) excellent, but that's far too
many awards. With that many, they're more certificates of
participation. I would suggest perhaps first and second place in
each category (Novice, Journeyman, and Master), first and second
place workmanship in each category (Novice, Journeyman, and Master),
and Best of Show. Caveat: I am not a costumer. If you are, your
mileage may vary.
There were also a few costumes listed as original that I would
have described as "re-creations": "The Wedding" (based on the
Charles Addams cartoon characters), "Vulcan Barbarian," and "Klingon
Ceremonial" (both from _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k).
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 3
It was also unnecessary to have a fifteen-minute intermission
(which of course stretched to a half-hour) for only fifty costumes.
Having the Moscone Center lights randomly cycle on and off during
the second half was interesting, but not actually desirable.
After the first run-through, there was supposed to be a
videophone hook-up with Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka, but this was
preceded by a couple of short films and a lot of waiting.
Eventually we left before it was finished. I heard that the final
judging and awards ceremony wasn't done until after 2 AM!
My basic suggestions for the Masquerade would be: big enough
room, theater seating, entries limited to around fifty, no
intermission during the first run-through, fewer awards, and faster
awards.
Panel: NNNNoooorrrrtttthhhheeeerrrrnnnn CCCCaaaalllliiiiffffoooorrrrnnnniiiiaaaa iiiinnnn SSSSFFFF////FFFF
Sunday, 10 AM
David Bratman (m), Don Herron, Pat Murphy, Diana L. Paxson
"The where and why of using real world locations in speculative
fiction, with examples drawn from the world right outside the
convention's doors": I arrived a little late to this, and mised the
beginning, but Paxson was comparing using northern California to
using Britain as an inspiration. In Britain, she said, there are a
lot of structures, ancient and not so ancient, that can be used, and
northern California lacks those. But northern California does have
legends, and those can take the place of buildings. One of the
stories set in the area that she talked about was Ursula K. LeGuin's
_A_l_w_a_y_s _C_o_m_i_n_g _H_o_m_e, set in the Napa Valley in the far future after
an earthquake has changed the contours of the land. To get the
geography right, LeGuin had a cartographer friend of hers (George
Hirsch) construct a three dimensional map of the area, then tilt the
appropriate sections and flood it with water to see what the new
shapes of the bodies of land and water would look like.
Many authors have used San Francisco as a setting. But do they
really have that "sense of place" that is so important? Philip
K. Dick had it in _M_a_r_t_i_a_n _T_i_m_e-_S_l_i_p and other stories, according to
the panelists, but Dean R. Koontz's _S_h_a_t_t_e_r_e_d (written under the pen
name K. R. Dwyer) made it obvious that Koontz had never been in San
Francisco. _T_h_e _N_e_t by Loren J. MacGregor did a good job of
describing the bars south of Market Street. Perhaps the classic use
of San Francisco in science fiction/fantasy is Fritz Leiber's _O_u_r
_L_a_d_y _o_f _D_a_r_k_n_e_s_s, though Pat Murphy's own _T_h_e _C_i_t_y, _N_o_t _L_o_n_g _A_f_t_e_r
certainly ranks up there.
Regarding her work, Murphy said that her work in the
Exploratorium trained her to observe and "see beyond the surface,"
and that is what lets her see the potentials of settings. Someone
apparently mapped out all the places mentioned in _T_h_e _C_i_t_y, _N_o_t _L_o_n_g
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 4
_A_f_t_e_r, though Murphy says that the map would probably be a
disappointment to try to follow; for example, the vacant lot where
the refrigerator sculpture is in the book has no such sculpture in
real life (yet!). Regarding this, one of the joys I find is walking
around a new place and finding the settings that were described in
literature or even other travelogues. And I am not alone--when we
were on a boat of about ninety passengers in the Galapagos Islands a
few years ago, at least five of us were reading _G_a_l_a_p_a_g_o_s by Kurt
Vonnegut. Murphy also warned that she and other authors often
change some details (such as house numbers) to protect the people
who live in the houses. You can claim that room 1247 of the
Marriott is haunted--it's a public building and "fair game." But if
you claim that 1726 Fairlawn Drive is haunted, the people who live
there may not like the reputation their house gets. (Does the name
"Amityville" ring a bell?)
And of course this sort of desire has spawned the "literary
tour" movement, which has two subcategories: tours that visit places
mentioned in books, and tours that visit places connected with the
authors of these books. Some tours combine both, perhaps showing
you where Dashiell Hammett lived and also the places he wrote about.
The places connected with authors are often a disappointment--
someone said that you go to some house where a famous author wrote
his first novel, and you discover that it's being inhabited now by a
Vietnamese family who can't understand why you are standing on the
street taking pictures of their house. (It's sort of like going
back to your childhood home years later. People think you're casing
the joint.)
Panel: TTTThhhheeee HHHHoooollllooooccccaaaauuuusssstttt iiiinnnn FFFF &&&& SSSSFFFF
Sunday, 11:00 AM
Eve Ackerman (m), Esther M. Friesner, Lisa Goldstein, David
M. Honigsberg
"Does SF/F serve as a useful forum to discuss the Holocaust?":
Well, the first question asked was whether you can write about the
Holocaust in fantasy or science fiction without trivializing it.
Elie Wiesel has claimed that any fiction about it will trivialize
it, but Friesner said any fiction about it will keep it alive, and
that's important. (The actor Robert Clary, a Holocaust survivor,
had also said that it is up to people to make sure it is known that
it happened.) As for using science fiction or fantasy, others
thought that maybe you needed to approach the Holocaust through
metaphor (as in _M_a_u_s) rather than head-on. (This sounded liked
Connie Willis's comment on the "Time Travel" panel about using time
travel to look at something with peripheral vision. Similarly,
someone said that even though we know what's going on in Bosnia, we
can't quite grasp it in the present and will only understand it in
retrospect.) Goldstein thought fantasy had a particular virtue to
bring to a story about the Holocaust, because "fantasy deals with
archetypes and deep emotion and can get to places realistic fiction
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 5
can't." Fiction about the Holocaust tends to be somewhat unpopular,
panelists said, because people want to be comforted, not disturbed,
but Honigsberg said that "fantasy and science fiction readers have a
greater capacity for reading disturbing works."
Ackerman said that in her classes she used _T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l'_s
_A_r_i_t_h_m_e_t_i_c by Jane Yolen to teach teenagers about the Holocaust.
She said that it helps American teenagers to connect with that
period and those events. The "traditional" book, _T_h_e _D_i_a_r_y _o_f _A_n_n_e
_F_r_a_n_k, doesn't work as well, because it doesn't have any characters
like American teenagers today--American teenagers just don't
identify with Anne Frank. Outstanding writers can make events
personal to the reader, and that is what is important. Can a writer
who has no personal connection write a Holocaust book? Well, at
Boskone, Jane 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, she continued, 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 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 .... And here
Friesner also pointed out that a writer needs to be able to write
about people other than herself or himself.
Members of the audience noted that there have been other
holocausts. (I was surprised no one had mentioned Jane Yolen's
other Holocaust book, _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e, notable for showing other victims
of the Nazis besides Jews. One of the main characters, for example,
is a gay Holocaust survivor.) In addition to the non-Jewish victims
of the Nazis, there have been holocausts in Cambodia and other parts
of the world. _T_h_e _U_n_c_o_n_q_u_e_r_e_d _C_o_u_n_t_r_y by Geoff Ryman is an allegory
for the Pol Pot era in Cambodia, but on the whole these have been
overlooked by science fiction and fantasy writers. (Someone else
mentioned _Y_e_a_r _0 as a good non-fiction book about Cambodia. Though
I am reasonably sure that's the correct title, I couldn't find it
listed in _B_o_o_k_s _i_n _P_r_i_n_t.)
Honigsberg decried the trend toward books about "Nazi
vampires," feeling that they take the blame off human beings. He
felt that one of the lessons to be learned from the Holocaust was
"the banality of evil." Perhaps, but the message can also be read
that the monsters we invent and the evils we attribute to them are
no worse than ourselves and the evils we do. It's all in how it's
written, and in whether the reader can make that jump in
understanding. The book _P_a_r_i_s _T_r_o_u_t by Pete Dexter was given as a
work that studied the matter-of-factness of an evil person.
Friesner said that to some extent people had foreseen the
possibility of the Holocaust. Jerome K. Jerome at the turn of the
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 6
century said that "the German people will follow anything in a
uniform," and that this was fine if they had a good leader, but what
if they got a bad one? Other people, however, then reminded us that
it was important in all this to talk about or show individuals, not
"the Nazis" or "the Germans," or we are guilty of the same faults.
People were also looking for something that could explain why
or how the Holocaust happened. (This is equally true outside of
science fiction and fantasy, of course.) There have been some
studies done on this. One was the "Milgram Experiment" in which
subjects were asked to inflict an electric shock on a person in an
isolation booth who couldn't see them. (Unknown to the subject, the
person in the isolation booth was actually one of the team
administering the test, and there was no electricity flowing in the
wires, but the "victim" would simulate a reaction when the subject
pressed the button.) The subject had a dial that could set the
intensity of the shock and was told that a maximum-intensity shock
would kill the "victim." Even so, a surprising number of subjects
would follow the instructions given them by the tester to increase
the intensity, regardless of the screams of the "victim" and
regardless of the warnings given them ahead of time, even up to
inflicting the maximum intensity. The conclusion of the testers was
that people are conditioned from early childhood to follow
instructions, particularly instructions given them by someone in
authority (including people in white lab coats), and this often
over-rode any "common-sense" morality they might feel. There was
also an experiment in a high school in which some of the students
were formed into an "elite" group and were indoctrinated as to their
"superiority" to the other students. This experiment was ended
ahead of schedule when it got out of hand, with the elite students
beating up some of the other students who didn't show them the
"proper respect."
There have also been studies about why some places fought
against the Holocaust. The film _W_e_a_p_o_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _S_p_i_r_i_t is about the
village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in France, which hid as many as
five thousand Jews during the Holocaust (and its population was only
about five thousand!). The Italians also were more protective of
their Jews than other countries. On the other hand, the United
States turned away the ship St. Louis, full of Jewish refugees who
could find no country to take them in and which eventually returned
to Germany, where most of its passengers perished.
Other books recommended included Janet Gluckman and George
Guthridge's _C_h_i_l_d _o_f _t_h_e _L_i_g_h_t, Steve Lipman's _L_a_u_g_h_t_e_r _i_n _H_e_l_l: _T_h_e
_U_s_e _o_f _H_u_m_o_r _d_u_r_i_n_g _t_h_e _H_o_l_o_c_a_u_s_t (about the use of humor during the
Holocaust as a means of fighting back) and Thomas Keneally's
_S_c_h_i_n_d_l_e_r'_s _L_i_s_t (based on the true story of an industrialist who
saved many Jews by concealing them on the employment rolls of his
factory).
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 7
(In addition to being an interesting panel, this was also when
we ran into Chuck Belov, Mark's distant cousin and about the only
other member of his family in fandom.)
LLLLeeeeccccttttuuuurrrreeee:::: """"MMMMyyyy FFFFeeeelllllllloooowwww SSSSaaaavvvvaaaaggggeeeessss ooooffff tttthhhheeee SSSSaaaannnnddddwwwwiiiicccchhhh IIIIssssllllaaaannnnddddssss""""
Sunday, 12 noon
Mark Twain
"Mark Twain was famous not only for his writing, but for his
tour on the lecture circuit. Come see him give his most popular
speech 'in the flesh'": This was in many ways the easiest for
Mr. Twain of all his appearances. All he had to do was prepare a
two-hour speech and deliver it. (I missed the second hour, so it's
possible he had a question-and-answer period.) Compiled from the
best of Twain's speeches and writings, it was enormously
entertaining, but I will not attempt to relate large sections of it.
One representative quote I noted down was his observation that
"chamomile tea has nothing on the _C_o_n_g_r_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l _R_e_c_o_r_d for
restfulness." For the rest, ... well, go read all the Mark Twain
you can lay your hands on. (If someone videotaped this, let me know
if there's some way to get a copy.)
HHHHoooogggguuuu RRRRaaaannnnqqqquuuueeeetttt
Sunday, 1:00 PM
It's hard to explain the Hogus. Originally the "Hogu Ranquet"
was designed by Elliot (Elst) Weinstein as an alternative to the
"Hugo Banquet." As conventions got larger, the notion of combining
the Hugo Awards ceremony with a banquet lost favor--it was simply
impossible to seat anywhere near the number of interested people
banquet-style. But the Ranquet continues, held at a McDonald's (or
comparable restaurant if a McDonald's is not available). The awards
are honestly bought: to get something on the ballot, you send in
money with your nomination; to vote for something costs you a dollar
a vote. (Most awards, however, were granted by acclamation, with no
vote-buying needed.)
Since I was nominated in one category I felt obliged to attend.
It was a lot of fun, even though I had to miss the second half of
Mark Twain's speech and another panel. Whether I would go every
year is not clear; it depends on its competition. It did give me a
chance to eat lunch--a rare event for this convention.
And the awards were:
- The DeRoach Award: given for putridity in every day life,
inspired by Edward DeLoach, LA City worker who held his
testimonial dinner at McDonald's: Barney the Dinosaur
- The Aristotle Award: commemorating the Greek Tycoon, Aristotle
O. Nessus, the elusive founder of putridity and the originator
of the phrase, "Ook Ook Slobber Drool!" For Grand Master
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 8
Lifetime Achievement in Putridity: Geraldo Rivera
- Best New Feud: Starting 1992 or later to qualify. Tag Team
Action: Carrier vs. Sacks vs. ConFrancisco (write-in)
- Best New Feud: Starting 1992 or later to qualify. Singles
Action: Boston in '98 vs. Boston in '01 (write-in)
- Best Traumatic Presentation: Neverending Masquerade Part Deux
(write-in)
- Best Religious Hoax: "Pro-Lifers" Who Kill Doctors and the
Priests Who Love Them
- Best Hoax Awards: ConFrancisco Hogu Nominations (write-in)
- Best Type Face: ConFrancisco Dingbats
- Best Professional Hoax: Hoaxing as a profession: Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
- Fandom's Biggest Turkey: Chris Carrier (write-in)
- Worst Fanzine Title: No Award
- Best Dead Writer: Must be living to qualify: The Battlecrock
Galacktica Award: William Shatner
- Best Hoax Convention: I-95 in '95
- Best Pseudonym: Noah Ward
- Devo Award: To who has done the most to HARM science fiction:
William Shatner (write-in)
- Best Has-Been: (Deposed Dictator's Award): Chief Daryl Gates
- Best Fan Hoax: Any and all New York Worldcon bids (write-in)
- Cusinart Award: (Worst Editing TV, Movies, Fiction, etc.):
_M_y_s_t_e_r_y _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _T_h_e_a_t_e_r _3_0_0_0
- Special Grand Bastard Award: Bill Gates (write-in)
- Most Desired Gafiation: Winner to get Mid-Atlantic Fan Fund
(MAFF): Chris Carrier
- Free for All: "Impeach Clinton, and Her Husband, Too!"
- Special Bagelbash Award: Poultry Geist
- Best New Disease: Con Chair Sudden Death Syndrome (a.k.a. Bid
Death)
- Most Bizarre Hall Costume: Real or Imagined: Miss Catonic
- Best Alien Music Video: Koresh Family Singers, "We Didn't Start
the Fire" (write-in)
- Mixed Media: The Amy Fisher Story--Times 3
- Closest Encounter of the Third Kind: Gay Elves in Bondage
- Space Geek of the Year Award: Evelyn C. Leeper
- Traffic Jams, Jellies, & Preserves Award: Parc 55 Elevators
- Banger Award: (Most Inappropriate Con Guest of Honor): Robert
Socks Clinton
- Most Erotic Line from _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _D_e_e_p _S_i_x _N_i_n_e: "The spots
don't go all the way down, Julian."
For "Space Geek of the Year" I beat Dan Quayle, Admiral
Stockdale, and Steve Urkel. Part of this was no doubt due to heavy
campaigning on the part of Matthew Tepper for me--I wonder why?
Also awarded were the Blackhole Awards:
- Standard Blackhole: Jesse Helms, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson,
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 9
Prince Charles
- Invisibility Award: For conspicuous absence: Mars Observer
(write-in)
- Incompetence Award: Political Refuse Award: Janet Reno and ATF
- Publisher's Award: Bridge Publications
- Greed Award: Creation Cons
- Half-Assed Con Officiousness: The "Connie" Award: ConFiasco
- Brown Hole Award for Outstanding Professionalism: Chris Carrier
It was decided to have a filksong category, which would always
be awarded "the _n_e_x_t year."
"Hogu Nominee" ribbons were given to all the attendees,
courtesy of the ConFrancisco committee. It seems someone suggested
to the committee that among all the ribbons they print, they should
include "Hogu Nominee" ribbons as a joke and sell them for fifty
cents each. Whoever heard this didn't realize that there really _w_a_s
such a thing as a Hogu (even though Weinstein had received a special
Committee Award from Chicon V in 1991 for creating them), and it was
only after Weinstein saw a bunch of people wearing the ribbons that
he found out what was going on. At that point he went to the
committee to protest and someone who knew what a Hogu was stopped
the sales and gave him the entire remaining stock of ribbons.
(Note in passing: I wasn't at the WSFS Business Meeting, but
clearly Chris Carrier managed to annoy a _l_o_t of people to get
elected in _f_o_u_r negative categories.)
Panel: GGGGeeeettttttttiiiinnnngggg AAAArrrroooouuuunnnndddd tttthhhheeee SSSSoooollllaaaarrrr SSSSyyyysssstttteeeemmmm
Sunday, 2:00 PM
Jim Baen, Suzanne Casement, William S. Higgins,
Gentry Lee, Jonathan V. Post (m)
[written by Mark R. Leeper]
The panel started with the members introducing themselves.
Gentry Lee was director of scientific analysis on the Viking Mission
and a co-author with Arthur C. Clarke. Bill Higgins is from Fermi
Labs. (Personal note: He also put together the science program at
Chicon which in my humble opinion was the best at any Worldcon I
have ever attended.) Jon Post works on research into nano-
technology, worked on the Magellan space mission and also Voyager 2.
Suzanne Casement is a graduate student at UCLA. (In general Lee is
more an advocate of unmanned robotic information-gathering missions.
Higgins, active in the National Space Society, wants man to become a
space-faring race and would much rather see manned missions than
mechanical proxies.)
Post suggested that the first half of the discussion
concentrate on what is currently being done in space and what will
be done for the next thirty to fifty years. Later they would get to
longer term. Lee thought that on the short term the emphasis would
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 10
be on unmanned missions mostly. Manned missions would be mostly be
"Antarctica-type" colonies. With robots we can do a lot more.
Decisions have to be made who will pay for space exploration where
are we going to go. The Challenger disaster was a real tragedy for
the program and now engineering foul-ups, like on the recent Mars
mission are making things worse for funding. The Mars Observer was
an important lynch-pin and would lead to a lot of future planning.
Losing it will cause a huge problem in deciding on new missions
needed. We are now going for smaller craft that will have smaller
ranges.
Post asked what major changes did members see coming. Higgins
said there will be more of a push from the NSS to make hardware that
is small and smart. He suggested that there would also be a look at
other methods of propulsion. We still seem to be using the same old
chemical propulsion rockets and we are nowhere near trying some
other propulsion. He expanded on the National Space Society's
position saying that they are working to create a space-faring
civilization and that they will really push for anything that will
forward that goal. Particularly favored are plans to do prospecting
on the moon and asteroids. However, the NSS is not particularly
pushing for the missions to map Venus since it seems unlikely that
Venus will be a near-term source of resources.
Casement said that in November a wide-field camera will be put
in the shuttle for the Hubble telescope. It will be used to look a
the planets and design missions. However the problem with the
Hubble is that its designs were frozen about ten years ago in order
to be able to build it and it would be much more effective with up-
to-date technology. From there the discussion moved to Post's work
experiences. He talked about his work on the Titan 34D. They
worked to improve designs on that. His group made basic
improvements to the shuttle like using multicolor displays. They
also worked on error detection to predict component failure. Among
the things that he worked on were a proposal for advanced launch
systems including single-stage to orbit. One scheme he proposed
included using a huge ground-based laser to power a craft. However,
he feels that even if there is research into other propulsions, it
will be a long time before rockets have much competition for sending
things into orbit. He did discuss using solar sails once equipment
is in space. Also he said he had invented a magnetic sail using
magnetic field to push huge loop of wire. One of the long-term
proposals was to build a craft out of solid hydrogen, cryogenically
frozen, so that when it gets to its destination the entire structure
could be used as fuel. If there is ice at Mercury's poles, he
suggests that we purify the water and use the poles as a fuel depot
near the sun.
Lee considered all the possibilities and said we are in a sort
of Burgess Shale point in technology. In the period of the Burgess
Shale being formed there were many and very diverse life-forms.
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 11
Some seem very strange to modern eyes. Evolution pared them down to
a few successful types of life-forms and the rest died out.
Technology is at a similar stage when there are many baroque ideas
for how to solve problems of space travel. The vast majority of
these will be discarded. With all the different possibilities for
powering cars we have basically one kind of car, one powered with
the petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine. We have basically
one kind of rocket, and we will find which of the current weird
ideas for space travel are the best of the lot and the rest will all
be discarded. There will be one or two space transportation systems
in the future. There will be one or two kinds of propulsion. Lee
thinks that in the future we will be seeing primarily robot-control
in space in the future. People will fly but not be doing the
driving. He sees no compelling reason to put people into space.
Higgins responded with a defense of placing people into space.
He said that we are in a time of rapid technological evolution.
There will come a time when it will be cheaper and more convenient
than today to send people into space. At that point far more people
will want to travel in space. Scientists would like to be near what
they study. And the biggest product from space will be information.
A lot of people on earth will want to learn about new places.
Post asked the panel what is it that calls to us from beyond
the solar system and how will we answer that call.
Casement said that people have an interest in finding other
solar systems. JPL is already investing in interstellar
exploration. But if there is an explorer mission to stars it will
take a long time to get data back. Closer to Earth there is Voyager
and Pioneer sending data back about more distant destinations and
they are still finding interesting things.
Post observed that Gentry Lee sees no compelling reason to send
people to the stars, but that does not mean that people will want to
go anyway. Post asked what it is that pushes people. Why did
people in the United States head west? Most were not looking to get
rich, they were fleeing a society they could not stand.
Lee countered that they could breathe in California--they will
not be able to do that in space.
Post asked if price came down, would people go? In the days of
the Western expansion the cost of a covered wagon and the provisions
to go west would be about $300,000 in modern money. If the cost
comes down to $300,000 to go to Mars, he expects people will go.
And everything said in this panel assumes nothing big is going to
happen. If we find proof of alien intelligence, everything changes.
If things get so bad on Earth that we will have to escape that will
also push us into space.
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 12
Lee did not envision a massive move into space. He polled the
audience as to how many people they thought would be living off
Earth in 500 years. Most said they expected the number to be more
then a million.
Panel: TTTThhhheeee PPPPaaaasssstttt SSSSeeeeeeeennnn TTTThhhhrrrroooouuuugggghhhh FFFFiiiiccccttttiiiioooonnnnaaaallll EEEEyyyyeeeessss
Sunday, 3:00 PM
Stu Shiffman, Susan Shwartz (m), S. M. Stirling,
Harry Turtledove, William F. Wu
"How historical fictions (including alternate history ones)
really reflect present day concerns": The panel did not really
address the specific topic, though the first observation here was
that xenophobia is the most universal human value, and that's what
we see the most of. We have a tendency to see most victories in the
past of one group over another as good, and the losers as wrong in
their beliefs or attitudes, but that is because the victors write
the history books, and as L. Sprague deCamp said, they write it with
"satanic gusto." Perhaps we realize this, because Stirling claims
that "there's a tendency these days to go overboard on the cultural
relativism thing" in compensation. For five hundred years, Columbus
was great and the native Americans were savages; now the native
Americans are great in spite of their many flaws (such as human
sacrifice) because "that was right for their society." Oddly
enough, the cultural relativists aren't so forgiving of the
Europeans and their cultural quirks, such as imperialism. Then
again, someone pointed out that it's easy for the victors to
flagellate themselves symbolically and say how guilty they feel.
After all, it costs them nothing once they've won to say how sorry
they are.
Regarding the whole issue of non-interference in other people's
customs, Stirling cited Napier's comment when he tried to ban suttee
in India and was told that suttee was the custom there and he
shouldn't interfere. Napier said that it was an Indian custom to
burn widows, and it was a British custom to hang people who burned
widows. They could carry out their custom and he would carry out
his. (In science fiction, Sheri Tepper's _S_i_d_e_s_h_o_w is set on a
planet where cultural relativism and non-interference are carried to
an extreme, and should give cultural relativists some pause.)
But in spite of this theoretical trend toward cultural
relativism, it is still very difficult to make a culture with very
different values sympathetic to the reader. Stirling can certainly
relate to that; in attempting to portray his Draka fairly, he's
managed to convince a large number of people that he is a fascist,
when he's trying to say the Draka are the _b_a_d guys.
The panel warned against imposing our values on other cultures.
By this they were not suggesting cultural relativism, but rather
saying that when we study a period or a people we should understand
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 13
that those people had different beliefs than we did. For example,
during the Inquisition, people thought that torturing people to get
them to accept the Church was reasonable, because that would save
their souls from eternal torment, and what was a short period of
pain on earth compared to what they would suffer if they didn't
accept the Church? We may not agree with this, but we need to
realize that the people of that time frequently were acting out of
what they saw as love, and not from an innate cruelty. This doesn't
make them right, but it does affect how we view them.
The panelists also warned against historical revisionism. They
were not talking about the obvious things (like those who claim the
Holocaust never happened, though these are the first people that
come to mind when the term "historical revisionism" is mentioned),
but also such books as Jean Auel's _C_l_a_n _o_f _t_h_e _C_a_v_e _B_e_a_r, in which a
single character discovers just about everything of value to
civilization. Or as Stirling expressed it, "A rock. A rock. If I
put them together--a porch!" (Turtledove is guilty of this in his
"Agent of Byzantium" series, where in each story the main character
discovers or adopts from barbarians some amazing new invention: the
telescope, inoculations, etc. He at least has the defense that this
is an _a_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_e history, but I find it stretches the bounds of
probability.) People agreed that it was okay to change some details
(especially in an alternate history, as I noted), but (as Stirling
put it), "you have to know when you're not being true."
Someone asked what historical periods we were especially
interested in. Turtledove said that World War II and the Civil War
seemed to be the most popular; Shiffman added the period of our
expansion westward across the continent, and Shwartz added the
Vietnam War era. As for who or what would be remembered from our
time two thousand years from now, the only person the panelists
could agree on was Adolf Hitler.
For a good book that talks about how to look at history, I
would recommend Josephine Tey's _D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r _o_f _T_i_m_e.
(End of Part 4)
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