 J.R. Madden, Baton Rouge, Louisiana Your editorial regarding various conditions of five years past
when Mimosa first appeared {{ "The Passage of Time" }} got me thinking about my own
status at that time: I had been married for about one year to Daphne Grady. I had only two
videocassette recorders. No personal computer. The large addition to the house which would be my crowded
office/library and which I cannot imagine functioning without these days had not even been conceived. Now,
five years have passed, Dick still has more hair than I. I have a son, PauI Grady Madden, almost three.
And I still have yet to "pub an ish" of my very own.Bob Tucker's article on "The Bad Old Days of Science Fiction"
ranks as my favorite out of the whole ish, mostly from my interest in the history of science fiction and
fandom. Sometimes, I feel like I have missed out on the "golden era" of fandom by not having gotten involved
until the mid-seventies. But, through the efforts of folks like Joe Siclari and Harry Warner, Jr., I am
able to enjoy almost as well those "golden" days. Along that line, I would like to recommend to your readers
Archie Mercer's The Meadows of Fantasy, a self-published zine about British fandom in the sixties
available from LOCUS PRESS for $5 plus shipping; it is a most enjoyable read and, for the truly fannish sort,
captures a mood of fandom that we can seldom experience these days.{{ If it were only possible, Dick would challenge you to a hair growing contest; no matter what
happened, there wouldn't be a loser. But on to your comments on fan history... Would we have been happy
to be part of fandom 50 years ago? Hard to say -- fandom was a lot closer-knit then, but there were also
some vicious feuds that make any of today's fan feuds seem mild in comparison. In any event, fandom is
still quite young, and many of its founding fathers are still around and attending conventions. Since we
can't relive the past, there's still time to at least archive it; we'll try to do our part by printing
something of historical interest each issue. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Walt Willis, Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom Many thanks for Mimosa #2. Ignoring an unworthy
weakness for Troll Bridges, my favourite item was Tucker's "Bad Old Days of Science Fiction". It had all
the surface simplicity and underlying subtlety, adding up to memorability, that have made him perhaps the
best fan writer of all time. It's wonderful to see him still going strong; I hope I'll be the same at his
age... I was happy to see Bob Tucker's speech in print. It's nice to
know the good ol' days weren't so good, though I marvel at the thought of Worldcons without membership
fees. And while I think Bob is being vain to claim to have invented the crudzine, someone had
to, and why not the same man who discovered sex and humor? Or was that humorous sex?{{ We think the crudzine is like the wheel -- people keep re-inventing it. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Garth Spencer, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada This issue was a hoot, particularly Bob Tucker's
description of the Tucker Hotel and the Joe Celko piece {{ "Porno
Wars" }}. Maybe Celko ought to hold panels at Worldcons -- "Urban Survival and
Worldcon Applications", "How to Spot Mafiosi and Offer a Deal They Can Accept", and "Self-Defense
Orientation: This Hurts You and Doesn't Bother Me In the Least".{{ Sounds like these would go over better at WeaponsCon than at Worldcon. }}- - - - - - - - - -
George Inzer, Montevallo, Alabama Mimosa #2 was chock full of good ol'
Southern fan lore. The story of how Guy's goat was got {{ "It Was a Dull and
Stormy Night (or) How Guy's Goat Was Got" by John Guidry and Justin Winston }} has got
to be the latest legend. Like Tucker's, this will undoubtedly grow in the re-telling. I can't
wait to embellish it myself, and I wasn't even there!{{ Thus are new legends created. We first heard the story directly from
John Guidry, outside the New Orleans suite during their victory party at ConFederation. It's the
type of story that comes across better by telling than by reading, so we'll be interested to see
if it eventually does become a lesser fan legend. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Milt Stevens, Reseda, California The cover on Mimosa #2 looks familiar.
It may be the fifties-style space helmet that brings back memories of another era. I guess Mark
Maxwell may have used that style to promote nostalgia and old time sense of wonder.Killing both Dave Locke and Guy Lillian in a single issue
is some sort of an accomplishment. It's a good thing that you revivified both of them or you
could become known as the most dangerous fan publishers in the country.{{ Well, Dave gets his turn in this issue. As for Guy, his response to last
issue's Guidry/Winston article was: "All lies, of course. False in bold face.
I didn't get down on my knees to listen through the bathroom door -- I could hear better standing
up." }} I greatly enjoyed your nicely presented zine, though to
be honest some of the repro was a bit faint and on coloured paper that is difficult for my poor
eyesight. The work of Charlie Williams is excellent.Concerning [George "Lan" Laskowski's] "Troll Bridges in
America": At certain times of the year the roads in Cyprus have notices warning "Drive Carefully
-- Roads Slippery, Grape Juice". I wonder what Lan would make of that?{{ Thanks for the compliments to us and Charlie. Both we and he came back
from retirement in Mimosa #2, and plan to be a little more active from now on. In fact,
the long layoff might have been one cause of the faint repro last time -- we were long out of
practice in using both the electrostencil machine and mimeo! Since then, the old e-stencil
machine died and we bought a new one, so we're hoping faint repro won't be a problem this
time. }} I have to take my hat off to Charlie Williams; the
bloke is one hell of a talent. He seems to be at home doing either serious full page drawings or
smaller, humourous pieces. I could rave on and on about Charlie's stuff, but the easiest way to
explain my adoration is to say that out of all his pieces in Mimosa #2, I couldn't
pick my ten favourite let alone my outright favourite. My one fear is that as the dates on
Charlie's illustrations are from the late `70s and early `80s, Charlie may not be doing much if
any fanart these days -- please prove these fears groundless.Less seriously, I love the idea of a fan-owned
travelling con hotel. If Bob Tucker could have it set on a rotation device so every room would be
guaranteed a good view, the idea would be perfect. Mind you, the rotation would have to be in the
same direction and at the same speed, as people's rooms spin after a good drinking session.{{ A mutual friend introduced us to Charlie about ten years ago; as far as we
know, we were the first to publish his art and illustrations in a fanzine. A lot of his work
appeared in our earlier fanzine Chat, a clubzine/newszine that ran for 40 issues in the late
`70s and early `80s. Maybe we'll reprint some of the best of Chat in a future Mimosa.
Anyway, as you can see, Charlie's back again this issue. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Lloyd Penney, Toronto, Ontario, Canada The Tucker speech reprint was great. I hear
references to fandom's good old days, and I've read Sam Moskowitz's book on fan history in the first
years. I would, however, like to find more books on fandom's genesis and its history in later ages.
It seems fans expect you to know fannish history, while there aren't many sources to explore to find
the info. Many of us date back only to the `60s and `70s, so we need the battalion of fanhistorians
out there to stop wearing the title, and start earning it.{{ Another good book to read about the early days of fandom is Harry
Warner's A Wealth of Fable. Fandom has grown enormously in the past 30 years, and it may
no longer be possible to write a definitive history of it. Still, we'd like to see someone attempt
one, even if it isn't all encompassing. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Stiles, Baltimore, Maryland Concerning Tucker's "Bad Old Days": unable to resist
the Old Fart temptation to wallow in timebinding, I'll mention that at my first convention,
Lunacon `59, artwork by the likes of Cartier, Emsh, and Freas were being auctioned off at prices
that averaged under five dollars. I had already squandered my five buck budget on old fanzines and
prozines, and was in high mental agony when I realized what was slipping past me. All I had left was
fifty cents for subway fare and that's what I bid -- over and over again. Fortunately, the auctioneer,
bless her, had a strong streak of mercy and let me close a bid at my half buck for a double page Wally
Wood illustration from Galaxy. I had to walk the two miles home, of course, but insomuch as
I was floating for most of the trip, considerable shoe leather was saved.By the way, Tucker didn't mention one feature of the
Tucker Hotel. To my mind it's one of the most important essentials to any good convention hotel --
the nets on the roof to catch unsullied neofen after they meet their "hero" pros, and the springboard
to help those same pros to clear the nets after meeting their readers.- - - - - - - - - -
Buck Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana I don't remember as far back as Tucker; my first
convention was in 1952. But there are a few things about the "Bad Old Days" he left out. Convention
hotels with one bathroom per floor and bats in the lobby. Conventions with the con suite in the hotel
basement. Walk out the far door and you were in this concrete tunnel leading to the boiler room.
(That's where the filksing was -- in the tunnel.) Convention hotels where guests were charged extra
for a poolside room, when the pool was outdoors and had snow on it. (To borrow a quote from Anna
Russell, "I'm not making any of this up, you know.") Conventions where fans were trapped in the hotel
basement for hours before being eventually rescued. Matter of fact, I believe Tucker was present at
all these marvelous events.By the way, I almost forgot to comment on Celko's
"Porno Wars" and it's one of the best things I've seen in a fanzine in quite some time.{{ Not much we can add to your and Steve Stiles' reflections on
fandom's "Bad Old Days"; we're sorry that they were before our time, but not that sorry. As
for "Porno Wars", most of the comments in letters we received were complimentary, like yours. In
fact, there was only one fan who had negative things to say about it at all, and that was about the
subject material and not the article itself. Coming up next is a letter which has the reaction to
it we hoped most people would have. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Lon Atkins, Costa Mesa, California It's a pleasure to see Mimosa's return.
You've assembled a nice line-up of faanish stuff. Joe Celko's "Porno Wars" was a funny piece. It
brings back those days of Freedom of Expression vividly. I recall that half of Ellay fandom was
publishing smut with Essex House, and that half of those books were full of fannish references. There
was also the Victorian Digest (VD), a local pornographic apa devoted to playful
character assassination. Crazy days of naughty innocence.Also, allow me to clarify Reinhardt's Theorem {{ from Lon's article on Hearts last issue }} by quoting from the glossary of
A Hearts Primer: "Reinhardt's Theorem: A method of predicting the outcome
of the game to come by examining the skills of the players. It goes thusly... No fish; good game.
One fish; poor fish. Two fish; too much chance. Three fish; utter chaos. Reinhardt uses this
theorem to explain his poor results."{{ Thanks for the clarification; maybe we can rename what we thought
might be Reinhardt's Theorem as the Lynch Corollary. Lon's fanzine A Hearts Primer, by the
way, is recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn more abut the strategy and tactics of the
game. }} Dave Locke is one of the people I like and admire
most in fandom and one of the two or three people I enjoy sitting down to drink and talk with the
most. Over the years we've devoted quite a few pages, a number of minutes, and several brain cells
to ridiculing and insulting each other in print, the way good friends often do. So nothing could please
me more than to read this article about him falling on his face (only a short distance as those who
know Dave will attest) heartswise. Strangely enough I've never played Hearts with Dave despite the
fact that I quite like the game. I imagine this has to do with the fact that when we get together the
table is so cluttered with bottles of whiskey, glasses, and beer cans that there's never room to deal
out the cards. But it does not surprise me that Dave is/was somewhat of a maven of the game. His
mind definitely works that way. This, of course, makes Lon's "Great Hearts Shootout" article all the
more delicious and enjoyable.{{ We were wondering how many readers would be familiar enough with the
game of Hearts to comment on the article. Perhaps surprisingly, many were and did. Southern fandom
has claimed Hearts as its official pastime; maybe we'll have to concede it to fandom as a
whole. }}- - - - - - - - - -
G. Patrick Molloy, Huntsville, Alabama An opinion here that is strictly personal, and will
probably be disputed by much of Southern fandom -- the only thing more boring than playing Hearts is
reading a four-page story about someone else playing hearts. (Now if you want to talk poker...){{ But then again, maybe we won't. }} I wish I could have heard Bob Tucker deliver that
speech. Reading it was pleasant, of course, and encountering it in printed rather than oral form
provided me with a chance to think of other ways in which the the bad old days contrast with today.
I can't imagine a fan who goes to a con in 1987 travelling by riding the rods (hanging onto the
undercarriage of a car on a freight train), the transportation method of a few fans for the first
Worldcon or two. And how many of today's fans have ever exploded a flash bulb to take a photograph
of another fan or pro? Today many fans can use existing light without flash for their picture taking,
and those who can't utilize electronic flash tubes. But in the late 1930s and early 1940s, each
flash picture involved the immolation of a separate flash bulb, whose cadaver then needed to be
disposed of somehow before another drunken fan mistook it for a radish and ate it.{{ It's a good thing that Worldcons were always within the continental United
States back then; we're afraid to even guess what the analogy of riding the rods is for a
Boeing 747. }} In the beginning, I suppose, I was surprised to
find a regular trickle of foreign fanzines across my desk. In the end I had no other explanation
but to put it down to the fact that I was editor or co-editor of the Australian newszine Thyme.
People must have read reviews of it, or maybe even just had it as one of the few fannish addresses in
Australia, bearing in mind that this was in the years leading up to the Australian WorldCon in `85...I can't say I minded receiving all these foreign
fanzines -- and in fact I was at that time sending an average of 80-100 copies of the pseudo-monthly
Thyme overseas, so some of the response was expected -- and if something arrived from Portugal
in Portuguese, well then that was a good part of the fun. I've had hours of enjoyment leafing through
Swedish zines such as Fanyth ("Fanews") with my dictionary in one hand, wistfully remembering
the days when my Swedish was up to par.The American zines were something different, however.
Okay, by the time I'd been at this business for a year, I was pretty much up with the genenal run of
fannish affairs in the U.S., although grossly ignorant in spots (as I still am). But as most Americans
seem unaware of aspects of U.S. fandom (e.g., non-Southerners of Southern fandom), this wasn't a great
problem. And I was getting to know names.Some progress came in leaps and bounds. Unbidden,
such treasures as Trapdoor would come my way, and these were like diamonds in the coal to me,
brief flashes of brilliance from American fandom. On the other hand, there was the coal, the
stock-in-trade fanzine that was -- to be fair -- interesting in its own way. A fanzine doesn't have
to be of the first water to hold my interest, or make me want to keep in touch with the people, but
when it comes to American fanzines, there's been an odd phenomenon -- purely from the point of view
of an outsider -- that others apart from myself have noticed and commented on...When I received my first copy of Bill Bowers'
Outworlds, I was overjoyed (well, pretty happy, anyway). Here was a zine I'd heard
much about years ago, and it was beautifully produced, well laid out, and it was all rather
encouraging, except for the fact that it dealt almost exclusively with a set of concerns that were
not mine. Bill had, long ago, settled upon the sort of fanzine he wanted to produce, and he and much
of his audience went back a ways, had shared experiences and conversations in common, and everyone
was pretty comfortable with the arrangement. It sort of left me looking around at the scenery, if
you get my meaning.Now it happens I think this all rather praiseworthy
-- the fact that Bill & friends & audience all get on pretty well and keep in touch, and understand
one another. When I get around to doing a proper fanzine myself, that's probably the sort of zine
I'll produce also. And if it could be half as well-done as Outworlds I'd be very pleased.But there isn't much in Outworlds that I've
ever been able to identify with. I've been more than happy to receive it, but I've never felt
there's anything I could contribute to it that would much relate to its contents. I've said as
much to Bill, as have others not from America. I mention Bill & Outworlds as the best
example to hand of a classy midwest fanzine that has little emotional appeal for me. And as I
continued doing Thyme, that trickle of fanzines I mentioned earlier turned into a slow-moving,
broad-banked river. My reaction would often as not be, upon opening an envelope and seeing an
American fanzine I'd not heard of, "Oh, that's nice (I guess), another American fanzine with a nice
cover and good production values and probably nothing inside that I can relate to."I stress now that this is something I see as
completely inadvertent and to an extent unavoidable, and I don't feel I've been left out on purpose.
It's nobody's fault that I come from around the other side of the world, and I don't think that
anyone should change what they're doing to make it easier or more fun for me. That would be as
silly as me trying to change who I am to fit in with those fanzines.Having said that, then, you can imagine my initial
reaction upon opening up the envelope and finding Mimosa. Instead... what a surprise!I was very impressed by Mimosa #2.
Before it arrived in the P.O. Box I'd heard neither of you nor it, and had no high expectations.
But almost from page one you had me sucked in, and I read the thing straight through. The artwork
was delightful -- hats off to Charlie Williams, Mark Maxwell for his cover, John Mayer and the
rest -- and the articles were great. One of the things that surprised me was the way that, when
an article just ran one into the next page, another article would follow on seemingly without
effort, on and on 'til the last page of credits and addresses (which I'd already checked out a
few times because I wanted to see who was doing the artwork).Mind you, as I said before, if I hadn't particularly
enjoyed the pieces, then much of the layout would have counted for naught, but the Tucker piece
was a delight, Laskowski's puns were acceptably horrible, and Charlie Williams' NorthAmericon con
report...I was glancing through the issue again and realized
that I hadn't commented on it specifically. I know I've already generally praised Williams' work,
but this piece of his really does bear further mention as it was not only interesting and entertaining,
but instructional. I say instructional because I found that the cartoons helped make what was
probably just an ordinary run-of-the-mill report an entertaining article to read and see. What could
be shown in one cartoon or caricature would have needed many, many words to describe, and would
have been very hand to write in a way that would be interesting. I refer, for example, to the
skeleton-outside-the-lift panel -- a typical Worldcon complaint, normally not worth mentioning, but
here made into an interesting and funny observation. Excellent stuff.What a zippy little fanzine you two have put
together!{{ Basking in positive feedback like this is going to spoil us! Seriously, this was by
far the longest LoC we'd received on either issue of Mimosa. There was so much of interest
in it, we decided to publish it just about intact. We won't be surprised if we get as many comments
on this letter as some of the articles in this issue. So is fanzine fandom becoming too in-groupish?
Like you, we get a lot of fanzines, and manage to write LoCs on only a very few. The fanzines are
usually interesting to read but quite often difficult to comment on. And as a result, we've
undoubtedly left some fan editors with a bad impression due to our non-response. And it's not because
we're not interested; we're just not close enough to the material or the writers to be able to offer
more than a quick once-over type of LoC that serves little except to gain mention in the 'We Also
Heard From' column. }}- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: Eve Ackerman, Harry Andruschak, Sheryl Birkhead, Bill Bowers, Richard Brandt, Brad W. Foster, Wade Gilbreath, M.E. Gray (formerly Tyrell), Joan Hanke-Woods, Teddy Harvia, Lynn Hickman, JoAnn Montalbano, Marc Ortlieb, David Palter, Curt Phillips, Sarah S. Prince, Vicki Rosenzweig, Rickey Sheppard, and Sheila Strickland. Thanks also to everyone who sent fanzines (we're still digging out from under them). Illustrations by Brad Foster and William Rotsler |
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