File 770

Issue 99 -- January 1991

name another -- stepping out of the booth wrapped in a print skirt -- there's Ellen Datlow. Melinda admitted, "We can't all look like Pat Cadigan -- how about Lew Shiner?" -- and she tied a red ribbon around her neck which Shiner had given her earlier. Melinda used several more props, as when she took fishing pole in hand to introduce Chad Oliver.

Melissa said others, not singled out by fashion, are known for their nicknames and backstories -- and tried to point out "Piglet", George Alec Effinger, but George spent Friday night holed up in his room to complete a short story in time for the last Federal Express pickup.

Melinda's introduction to Debbie Hodgkinson, fan Guest of Honor, was modest compared with Effinger's extravagant description of her in the program book:

"Yes, you may be saying, but what is Debbie really  like? That is more difficult to put into words. For one thing, she dislikes baseball. She hates the fact that you can't turn left in New Orleans. She has no use for any music that predates Buddy Holly. She barely tolerates Coke. And she loathes 'Days of Our Lives.' In other words, we have virtually nothing in common. On the other hand, she is extremely knowledgeable about botany and science fiction. You can't pass a tree or shrub without Debbie telling you its Latin name, which can be very educational. And her taste in SF is broad and, I must say, very forgiving. She reads books by people you've never heard of, and won't throw a book across the room because the author spelled 'all right' as one word. In some ways, Debbie is the science fiction world's perfect audience -- sophisticated, intelligent, well-read, and living with someone who gets dozens of free books every week."

From the attendee's perspective the cornucopic Armadillocon program is a delight, starting early and running late. From a participant's standpoint it seemed to me the bane of having any notoriety as a faneditor is that the flattery of being invited to join in programming was more than offset by being scheduled in the shadowing hours of the convention. For example, I was on a panel that ended 11:00 PM Friday, and had to come back for a panel that began 10:30 AM Saturday. But that is a minor creeb, because both programs were interesting experiences.

At "Fan Communications" I was surprised to learn that Bruce Sterling and I shared virtually identical opinions about the significant differences in the reading and editing experiences of printed fanzines and computer bulletin boards.

The next morning at "So You Want To Be A Convention Chairman" Robert Taylor offered the delightful advice that a convention committee should be required to watch Treasure of the Sierra Madre  well in advance of their convention so they will  understand the value of setting policies for handling convention profits and what the consequences are if you don't. I quoted Mark Olson's point that for all the attention to moneyhandling, fans are more likely to overcommit labor than money -- people understand money better than they understand labor. Scott Dennis joked about the convention staffing algorithm that made it possible for 5 people to run a con for 50, while it took 50 to run a con for 500, and 500 to run a con for 5000. Would it take a committee of 50,000 to run a con for 50,000? Tom Hanlon speculated that con chairmen are like intercontinental ballistic missiles -- you hope you never have to use them."

Some fans brag that they never attend programming; others bestir themselves to see a few panels with their friends or favorite pros. I was merely trying to get a good seat for Armadillocon's "Family Feud", when I stumbled into the last 20 minutes of "Tumbling Dice Meets Godzilla: The State of the Gaming World." One earnest game designer expounded that there were two schools of gamewriting: "the empty-the-clip" school and the "rip-off-his-head-and-shit-down-his-throat" school. A TSR writer moaned his company "not only operated under the Comics Code, but we operate under the 1950's  Comics Code! I tried explaining this to DC and they only said, 'Oh, my God!'" But another fan paid TSR a left-handed compliment, calling its gaming systems the "background static" against which everyone else plays," except the companies on the West Coast who aren't worried about selling to Toys'R Us or Waldenbooks.

Modeled on the tv game show, Armadillocon's "Family Feud" is Pat Cadigan's annual star turn. She wore mirrorshades, an "Exterminator Chili" t-shirt, and leather pants; she carried a bullwhip, and looked like a graduate of the "Cool Hand Luke School of Prison Guards." Cadigan downplayed the whip, declaring, "This is only for the prevention of disease."

The Fan team of Debbie Hodgkinson, Ben Yalow, L. Bishop and Spike Parsons was given a large cowbell. The Pro team boasted Dell Harris, Susan Allison, Lew Shiner and George Alec Effinger: they were given a small cowbell. Said Cadigan, "Those with little bells should definitely keep their tempers."

Computer bulletin board users were polled for responses to such questions as, "Name a robot" and "Which character on Star Trek or ST:TNG should be the next to die?"

After both teams had weeded through a list of "failed civilizations" including Rome, Human, Krell and Slavers, Cadigan advised, "Maybe we should stop and take a look at the names on this list: whatever you do, don't model your civilization after them."

George Alec Effinger wished they would ask contract questions, while Cadigan mercilessly quick-drew the committee's question cards from her back pocket, like a gun. When the Pros lost Lew Shiner said, "There weren't any sex questions, that's why we lost." Effinger agreed, "Lew stayed up all night studying for that one." Pat Cadigan scoffed, if the fans surveyed knew anything about sex would they spend all their time on USENET?

After the toastmaster's opening and Cadigan's performance in "Family Feud", the third pillar of the Armadillocon program is the Howard Waldrop Reading, the last item of the weekend. Waldrop boasted his reading used "fewer props this year, but one of them is a special effect that will dazzle you in inverse proportion to your intelligence."

Waldrop began, "If you've been foolish enough to follow my career, instead of somebody who actually produces books you can buy..." then alerted the audience to several of his books in the publishers' pipeline. Waldrop wants the recognition accorded to novelists, and has been frustrated by his proclivity to write short stories. Typically, he laughed it off, blaming it on "the Lew Shiner procedure: if you have an idea for a novel, you think about it for a long time and it turns into a novella," and reductively to the point where if you have an idea for a short story...you shouldn't think about it at all.

Waldrop read several story fragments, brilliant parodies that draw on 19th century French history and literature. Everyone enjoyed them, especially those most familiar with the period. I had delayed my getaway flight to allow me to hear the Waldrop reading, but as I left for the airport, dozens of others headed for the con's ultimate last gasp, barbecue dinner at the County Line.

HUTTCON   (November 23-25, 1990)
Notes by Adrienne Losin

This year I went to Huttcon in Melbourne. I was okay, just exhausted, but it was great to catch up with people who thought I was still in the U.S., etc. Curiously this convention was supposed to be the National Media con, but was run by sf fans -- what a disaster. Worst con I've ever been to: minimal and poorly arrange program in a real rabbit warren of a hotel with no service. However, I've no complaints about this hotel: their attitude was laissez-faire. The cardinal sin was committed by these sf fans running the show. They went off to the banquet and forgot their guest of honor! He was rescued by us Melbourne Star Trek fans and shown a really good time for the rest of his stay!

Denny Lien was first to notify File 770, "Minicon 1991 has followed Wiscon's lead in Politically Correct Fandom and has decided to stop supplying beer and blog in the party suite (and to ball all alcohol brought thereto.) This is described as an 'experiment.' Who said Mad Scientist plots weren't relevant in contemporary skiffy? Ah well, I had plans to do my laundry that weekend anyway."

Karen Cooper wrote in September: "Reading File 770:86, with its con reports and letters about Noreascons minded me to write about what is happening with Minicon. I'm on the Executive Committee again this year and have been watching a trend within the committee that I don't much like and can't determine any way to change.

"Though Minicon is the annual fundraiser for the Minnesota Science Fiction Society, this year we have had to put together a Minicon committee directory because so many of the concom are not active members of Minn-Stf. This is symptomatic of the new blood on the committee: the new, eager faces we have to have to run Minicon as we have in the past are coming from the five Star Trek clubs here, from four Doctor Who clubs, from SCA and the Mythopoeic Society, and the Space Frontiers Society and from offbeat little groups like Of Things That Are Not And Should Not Be. This is not inherently awful, but it is a problem.

"There are so many new people about that they are changing Minicon rather than letting Minicon change them. The fine fannish sense of tradition that makes Minicon such fun for me is something these folks are unaware of an uninterested in. Committee votes show this. Minicon will not be serving bheer or blog in the consuite next year. While this vote has the honorable intention of discouraging those who come to Minicon because it is a good party not because of any great love for SF in any of its forms, it has had the backfire effect of alienating lots of Minn-Stfers who have worked hard on Minicon for years. Not only does it sadden me that they don't want to come to Minicon next year, I know their spots on the concom are going to be taken by people whose sensibilities of hospitality, fun and fannishness are unproved. It's a self-perpetuating phenomenon.

"Partly in response to the untenable atmosphere in last Minicon's consuite, we are going to do what some of those quoted in your Baycon report would cringe at: we are going to subsidize open room parties. We only just managed to find a volunteer to head the Parties Dept. -- up til now, no one has been willing to run the consuite. In order to take the pressure off that department, then, we are allocating all suites with an eye to those hosting open parties. We are planning to seed them with some dollar amount of party supplies, again to encourage con members to party throughout the hotel.

"This means we are taking all our nuts out of one basket and it scares me.

"Minicon hasn't been totally overrun by media types, however. Any conventions that features a Minneapolis in '73 suite hosted by Geri Sullivan has a real viable spark of Trufandom (hell, it's a conflagration!) Our Fan Guests of Honor next year are to be Jerry Kaufman and Suzanne Tompkins, and the Lunch GoH will be Jon Singer. The media fen hereabouts don't actually want to do media programming. Truth to tell, they came up with some well- attended, well-put-together, fascinating panels that were among the best programming Minicon offered last year. Most departments are still headed by Minn-Stf members whose Minicon participation goes back ten or fifteen years or more. This is the local manifestation of the changing face of fandom, though, and I doubt there is anything one can do to reverse the trend.
"All of the above is my personal opinion, by the way, not the opinion of the Minicon Execy, or of the general committee." [Karen Cooper, Minneapolis MN]

((Karen's report is slightly modified by the statement in the November issue of the clubzine Einblatt, "While Minicon will not be serving alcohol [in the consuite], individuals may BYOB into the consuite. According to latest Minicon minutes, like policy in effect for the gaming area: 'Beer brought in is ok, but should bring enough to share.'"))

A PERSONAL MEMOIR BY LEN MOFFATT: This is a personal memoir. Rick loved fanzines. He might accept a more formal obit in a prozine or semi-prozine but he would not expect -- and might even be disgruntled -- if I were to write such a piece for any fanzine, even a Hugo-winning fanzine like this one.

I first heard from Rick Sneary during World War II. I was on Saipan at the time, and my mother had forwarded a letter from Rick. He wanted permission to reprint something from a fanzine I published shortly before I went into the service.

I wrote and told him how to get in touch with the author of the story he wanted to reprint in his Fmz Digest. I also remember thinking to myself: "This kid will never get anywhere in fandom if he doesn't learn how to spell!" -- but I didn't put that in my letter.

I didn't know that Rick had come into this world "with some parts missing and faulty plumbing", as he described his condition in a biographical note back in the Forties. The faulty plumbing referred to his respiratory system. It never got better. The older he go the more hunched over he became, crowding his lungs and his heart, making it more and more difficult for him to breathe properly.

I met him at the 1946 Worldcon in Los Angeles, Pacificon I. Shortly thereafter we got together, along with Stan Woolston and a few other fans who lived on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The Outlander Society came into being. We published a popular fanzine, sponsored the third Westercon in 1950, and sponsored the Westercon combined with the Worldcon in 1958.

Rick, who had come into fandom as a letterhack in the prozines, had not been able to attend regular school and his tutoring at home failed to teach him correct spelling. He often wished that the pro and fan editors would correct his spelling before publishing his letters or articles, but few of them did. Some thought of it as creative spelling, dubbed it "Snearyese" and would not change it at all lest the fannish ghods punish them.

Rick was among those who kept the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society going during the Fifties, serving as president (then called director) and as treasurer. Trained as an accountant, he took the latter job seriously, as he did when he was treasurer for more than one convention. We wanted him to chair the Solacon in 1958 but he insisted that he would do more good as treasurer, and of course he was right. It was the first Worldcon in two years to make enough money to pay its bills and pass on money to the next convention.
He started Young Fandom, and held offices in the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) and the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA), and probably some clubs I have forgotten about. He and Stan Woolston joined me in publishing Moonshine for FAPA, a zine I had started in the Forties.

One of my own proudest achievements in fandom was putting together and publishing The Selected Writings of Rick Sneary just a year or so before the Solacon. Another was talking the Mayor of South Gate into getting the Mayor of Los Angeles to agree to make the site of the Solacon (the Hotel Alexandria in downtown LA) a part of South Gate during that weekend. So it really was South Gate in '58! The slogan had started as a joke (from Rex Ward, one of the original Outlanders) but it kept popping up in fanzines and in time we knew we would have to bid for it.

The Solacon was marred for Rick and the rest of us by the antics of the feuding parties in the WSFS hassle. I don't want to talk about that now, but hindsight tells us that we put on a pretty good fannish convention despite the fussing, thanks to some good advice from the late, great Tony Boucher, and to the steadfastness of Rick Sneary, who -- at the end of the con -- marched across the stage bearing a sign that read: "South Gate Again in 2010!" And, as he was to add later on, not a moment sooner!

After living most of his 63 years in South Gate, he moved to Henderson, Nevada, to be near his sister and family because of his failing health. He lived only two weeks in his new house over there and then had to go into the hospital where the specialists tried but failed to find a way to help him. So they sent him home where he died peacefully in his sleep, Friday night, November 30.

With him in his last hours were his family and Toni Anderson, a long time friend of which he had so many all over the world. June and I wanted to go over there to see him before he died but my own bronchial problems prevented it. We did talk to him once on the phone while he was still in the hospital. He sounded completely exhausted and I think we knew then although we didn't want to think about it.

We still can't quite believe that he is gone -- or even that he moved out of South Gate. I still think of him as Sir Richard, Knight of St. Fantony, sitting over there in South Gate, typing a loc or writing an article like the one he did on the care and feeding of young fans.

When I first met him at that 1946 Worldcon he looked at my badge which told him I was living in Bell Gardens. "Hah!" he said. "You live just across the river from me!"

In later years he told me that he thought of me as his brother. I was four years his senior but to me he always seemed like my older, wiser brother.

When we moved to Downey we still lived just across the river from him. Then he moved to Nevada -- and beyond. I would like to believe that he is still "just across the river." Maybe he is.

One day we will know -- or know nothing.

In the November issue of Don-o-Saur  Colorado fan Don C. Thompson informed readers, "During the Holland/England trip, I found myself getting much tireder sooner than I thought I should. It wasn't entirely due to advancing age or the general flabbiness of my physical condition." One evening on the trip he found the source of the sharp pain in his left side was a swollen lymph node in his armpit. "I knew what that meant, but there was nothing I could do about it at the moment, so I simply insisted on a much slower pace for myself during the remainder of my visit."

Tests revealed the cancer involved other places in Don's body, and he made it clear he was against a long course of treatment, particularly since it was unlikely to be effective against the variety of melanoma he had.

Don passed away in late January.

Long-time NESFA member Harold Zitzow passed away this summer. As announced in the August 22, 1990, Instant Message, "A long time fan, NESFA member and Life Member of Boskone, Harold worked on many a Boskone and was a welcome face around NESFA. He looked like Jim Blish and had a T-shirt he wore which said, 'I look like him but I'm not him.'"

Member of Nova Odysseus, the Panama City, FL, science fiction club, Keith Whitehurst died October 8 at the age of 39. Whitehurst was born with hemophilia and had many other health problems, in spite of which he earned a reputation among club members for his cheerfulness and wit. According to Anne Davenport, editor of Transmissions, "Sadly, the funeral was not appropriate for Keith. The minister was just a bit too evangelical and at one point in the service he said, 'With all of his health problems, at least he didn't have a chance to do much sinning.' Obviously this man had never met Keith. Hopefully a more fitting send-off can be arranged with continuous showings of Star Trek videos, sake, and some of his other favorite vices. He was buried [wearing] his headband and his samurai sword."

Known to fandom in the early 1970s for his sercon genzine, Notes From the Chemistry Department, Denis Quane died September 28 of kidney failure. Quane passed away in Dallas at the age of 54. He was a chemistry professor at East Texas State University for 25 years. Notes, one of several fanzines of its era trademarked by its "Energumen-blue" Gestetner mimeograph stock, was one of the best editor-written review and criticism fanzines published over the past two decades. [Obituary data from Science Fiction Chronicle.]

DIANE DUANE: May I respond briefly to Allan Burrows? There definitely was monetary loss involved: the fake "me" (her name turns out to be Diane Muir) was writing bad checks to fans and fan organizations in Hawaii and Denver, in my name -- taking orders for t-shirts and other Trek goods which were never delivered to the people who had ordered them. Those people, dealers and others, were cheated out of some four or five hundred dollars which they never recovered. Does it necessarily have to be "my" money that's lost for me to be concerned? Especially since it was in my name that they were cheated.

Regarding "enlisting fandom as unpaid sleuths", Mr. Burrows seems not to have seen much or all of the text of the open letter in which I informed people about what this woman had been doing. My concern was primarily that she not cheat anyone else by pretending to be me. If anyone came across her, naturally I was interested to hear about it, but that's as far as it went. I started out faanish, and remain that way: I had a problem, and went to my friends for help. And they did help, to my great joy.

In response to Taral, I can only say that if he really believes I just made the story up to get my name into print, well, I have to laugh. My name's on more than one million books at the moment: that should be enough to keep me happy for the time being. ...Anyway, I was going to suggest that Taral call the nice lieutenant in Military Intelligence who spent three years chasing the woman around the USA, and ask him whether the fake really exists. I should love to hear a tape of that conversation! Either way, since Taral clearly doesn't know me at all well enough to make such a statement, the accusation is an irresponsible one; and if it was intended as a joke, it was a poor one indeed.

ALLAN BURROWS: Mike, please let me tell your readers, for the record, that my intention in writing the paragraph in question was to voice my opinion, not to accuse anyone of anything, and that my opinion, first and last, was that the whole Diane Duane Impostor business was unpleasant. If I gave the impression that Diane Duane is and of herself either sleazy or cheesy, then it was due to poor wording on my part and not out of malice, spite or any attempt to besmirch her good name. I apologize for any damage I might have done to Ms. Duane.

DAVID BRATMAN: I went to Baycon, but I avoided the open parties; now I know why. The number of non-fannish, party-hearty teenagers running around even during the daytime (mostly playing videogames) boded ill. Yes, I'm prejudiced. I keep thinking of Patrick Nielsen Hayden's dictum, "Fandom is being filled with the sort of people I went into fandom to get away from."

ALEXIS GILLILAND: The phenomenon of fanarchists noted at Baycon seems to be pretty general around the country. The attitude of the young men involved seems to be the very essence of 'punk', that THEY are going to have a good time at your convention, which they haven't the slightest interest in, or the least intention of supporting, and if YOU lose anything because THEY had a good time trashing the hotel, TFB. Part of the problem is one of scale. If one percent of the con is apt to make trouble, a 200 person con has 2 people, but a 2000 person con has 20, which is enough to get organized and even to have a leader, who may or may not be charismatic.

What to do about them? Advertise, perhaps, displaying false colors to repel the unwanted. As, for example, "Our forthcoming con will have authors reading from their latest works, critical discussions of literary theories, and panels discussing 'Sentence Structure in Contemporary Fiction.'" With care, you will discourage the yob who doesn't already have the con on his calendar, and you won't pick up more than the usual number of hopeless nerds who tend to be the mainstay of fandom anyway. Another possibility is pre-emption. Ask them to help. Which isn't going to do much if you don't have anything for them to do. But it's about all I can think of.

HARRY WARNER JR: It's not surprising that Baycon has joined the list of cons troubled with vandalism and misbehavior by kids pretending to be fans. However, I can always hope that this problem will become so severe and so universal at cons that real fans will stop going to cons and will instead express themselves by publishing and writing and drawing for fanzines, and thus I'll find myself in my dotage in the fanzine-dominated fandom that I entered so long ago. I don't think the troublemakers should be called fanarchists, as Lex Nakashima suggested, because that name is sacred to a group of New York City fans, none of whom ever pulverized a concrete ash receptacle.

FRANZ C. ZRILICH: As to Baycon and the problems with punks, I offer a series of fascistic proposals -- inspired by the same fear as George Jumper that we'll wind up with a severe blow to fandom from a sloppily-run con one of these days -- this is for all future cons.

     (1) Flatly ban all booze at SF cons. Even beer.

     (2) No local advertising or media coverage. Don't even run the Masquerade on the local cable system until after the event is gone.

     (3) Charge higher admission rates. Pinekone II and the three western Canadian cons would have been able to survive if they had charged enough for the unexpected, and to provide for kitties for future cons to work with. Most local cons still charge about $25 for admission. A charge of $100 that would cover a banquet, set aside, and a few freebies -- such as pizza at the consuite -- would discourage punks.

     (4) Ban people under the age of 18, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

     (5) Examine the types of locations where cons have problems with assholes. Possibly they have something in common, such as easy access from a university, downtown vs. suburban location, etc. Avoid locating future cons in places similar to those where past cons have been troubled.

HELGA TRAUTWETTER: I think your vulgarity detector is on the blink. Am I talking about nudity? Do I mean you should rethink your quota of naked women? (2.5 per issue by my count -- two full frontal, one in profile)? Perhaps you should. But my complaint doesn't have anything to do with T or A.

My complaint is with cartoons like the one on page 17 of F770:83. But then maybe Peter Larsen has no sense of humor either: in issue #36 of Cube  he loudly praises your tenth anniversary issue but comments that "A Sinking Feeling" is "the weakest offering in the issue, possibly because this is the type of humor that the reviewer finds a bit dreadful." I didn't find "A Sinking Feeling" dreadful. I reserve that sort of epithet for jokes about Hugo award winners that drop their balls.

And cartoons like the one on page 17 of F770:83. It offends me because it is in poor taste. It is offensive for more than that -- it doesn't serve any discernible purpose. Even the risqué can be okay if it supports larger goals like insight into the human condition, or clever language play.

I've applied every editorial criterion I can think of to justify including that illo in you zine: illustrate the text, comment on fandom, present some truth about life, make clever use of language.

How about this editorial justification for an illo: be funny. It isn't. It fails. And on top of that, it offends. Get it checked.

MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER: I found your position about First Fandom quite sensible. I well remember the First Fandom coverage at Nolacon, where the fans of the past spend one hour giving each other prizes, causing the whole convention considerable irritation. If First Fandom wanted to present themselves to fandom at large as a bunch of boring old farts who constantly tell each other who wonderful they are, they could not have done a better job than their Nolacon II ceremony. If First Fandom awards must be given at Worldcons, the concom should limit them to one award. And remember, first fans: holding the Hugo audience hostage does your organization little good.

HARRY WARNER, JR.: As a First Fandom member, I've felt its awards should be moved from the worldcon to some other regular con where the atmosphere is more fannish and the recognition to those receiving the awards would be more noticeable. On the other hand, I sort of hate to see the worldcon lose First Fandom's awards, because if they go there won't be anything at all fannish remaining to the worldcon, except in the years when a fan actually wins one of the fan Hugos. I'm sure First Fandom would have no difficulty finding a place on the program of every worldcon if it went pro and spent a lot of money in one way or another at the con. Nobody questions the right of a dealer in the huckster room to sell any particular type of merchandise, because the dealer has paid for that right.

((Even now, First Fandom has no trouble finding a place on the Worldcon program to present its awards: the trouble is its unwillingness to accept that most Worldcon committees don't consider the Hugo Awards ceremonies to be that place.))

MARJII ELLERS: Years ago I heard about First Fandom. Just about all my contemporaries among the fans were members and I wasn't. I could no establish my credentials as a fan. Little girls like me did not write letters to magazines. All I did was to read s/f and as Rick Sneary says, a reader is the lowest form of fan.

However, First Fandom has lowered its standards to include me and I am now one of the dinosaurs. Now I can get together with the other Old Pharts and remember "Revolt of the Pedestrians" and "Skylark of Space" -- when they were first published!

WILSON TUCKER: I don't object to a price increase, but it sure is a far cry

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