 {{  Our fourth issue again brought in lots of
mail, Starting off, here are some comments on Maurine Dorris's article on Neos, which
seemed to generate the most interest from readers...}}- - - - - - - - - -
Marc Ortlieb, Forest Hill, Victoria, Australia Thanks for the live fanzine. It was
an absolute delight to read, even if it did reinforce my sense of mortality -- I
refer to your introduction to Maurine Dorris. You speak of her as a "long-time
Nashville fan" and, in her piece, she describes her first convention in 1979.
I've never thought of myself as a long-time fan, yet I published my first zine in
1975. (Then I look at the latest YHOS from Art Widner, and feel much better.)I'm afraid that Maurine's piece {{ "Of Neos and Neo Hunting" }} set off a whole string
of vivid mental images in my mind -- of dirty old fans in overcoats, approaching
starry-eyed neos and saying, "Hello, little neo. Would you like to see my fanzine
collection?"My own experience was rather different. I
went to my first convention with a friend -- some neos travel in pairs -- and we enjoyed
the con (the first Aussiecon) without really making many personal fannish contacts. We
didn't even discover room parties. I came away with a couple of John Bangsund fanzines
from a freebie table and was hooked on the spot. By my second convention, a smalf
relaxacon in Adelaide four months later, I'd already published two fanzines and had
joined ANZAPA. My friend, though hovering on the edge of fandom, wasn't smitten in the
same way.Thus I tend to have a more traditional
Darwinist approach to neos -- I figure that fannish apathy to them is a useful way of
weeding out those less fit.{{ We tend to agree wtth you that neos either find
their way into fandom and become fans or they don't. In recent times at Southern cons,
we've noticed that small groups of young people will go from con to con, not as fans,
but to be with the friends they came with, They aren't fans in that they don't know our
traditions and don't interact with us. They buy in the huckster room and roam the halls.
They have their own closed parties and occasionally come to ours. It's rare that we
find a neo who is very interested in fandom. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Mike Glicksohn, Toronto, Ontario, Canada I'm pretty sure Martha Beck learned to
look out for lost neos at conventions from Walt Liebscher, a legendary old-time fan who
made a habit of doing so for forty years. Fan hlstorians will know Walt left his mark
in other ways as well (Chanticleer, "The Rooster Who Wore Red Pants", and,
probably most famous of all, "Rosebud!") but perhaps his understanding of what it's like
to be lost at a convention and his abillty to alleviate that feeling will be his most
lasting legacy. Martha is certainly one of his outstanding disciples and it's great to
see the influence spreading to other fannish generations. Good for Ms. Dorris and long
may she remain so considerate. Maurine Dorris's article should prod the
conscious of established fans everywhere. If everyone did take her advice to heart, you
can imagine what fandom would be like in the year 2000. Trouble is, it might be
stratified, with little groups of people who were taken under Avedon Carol's wing
studiously feuding with students of Greg Pickersgill, and understudies of D. West lying
in little drunken heaps all over the con. And think of what would happen if enough
neos were indoctrinated by Michael Ashley... um, maybe this adopt-a-neo scheme isn't
such a whizzy idea after all. Maurine Dorris' account of her first
convention ties in so closely with my own that I wonder how universal it is. After
reading SF for a dozen years, I found a flyer advertising a Chicago Convention called
Windycon III in an SF book at a paperback store. After being dismayed at obviously
having missed two conventions already, I decided to take the plunge and see what fans
were like in the flesh.It was my fortune that George Price (one
of the founders of Advent Press) saw me doing the wall-blending act, and very graciously
introduced me to a number of pros & well known fans. Throughout the convention whenever
he'd see me he'd point out people and perform introductions, and treat a neo with
kindness I've remembered for over fifteen years. I don't know if I would have found my
way into fandom myself; I suspect so. But now at cons I always remember myself in `73
when I see that diffidence reflected in someone who's obviously at his or her first con
and try to carry on the tradition, whether it's an introduction to someone or just a
moment of friendly conversation.Also at that first convention, I attended
a panel called "The Neofan's Introduction to SF Fandom". Someone sat down next to me
and asked the title of the panel. After I told him, he said, "This sounds like something
I could really benefit from." The name on his badge was Tucker.He looked like promising material. Anyone
know whatever happened to him?{{ Speaking of Bob Tucker, his retelling of his first
meeting with Lee Hoffman, as expected, was well received. There was one letter in
particular about the piece we were happy to receive, and here's a portion of
it... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Lee Hoffman, Port Charlotte, Florida Re Mimosa 4, for the record the
other fan with Shelby Vick and me at Tucker's door was Paul Cox. I expect Tucker thought
of the name Oliver because Paul was associated with J.T. Oliver, who claimed to be
Tucker's Number One fan at the time. I think they both lived in Columbus, Georgia, but
only Paul made it to the con.{{ Thanks for setting things straight. Bob has often
said he doesn't let facts stand in the way of a good story, but that omission was
obviously a memory slip. Still not too bad, though, for something that happened
37 years ago. They say that memory is the first thing to go, so that must mean
that yau and Bob are good for another century or so, at least! }}- - - - - - - - - -
Greg Hills, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Boo, hiss! I'm gonna submit your name to
the SMOF Board of Censure. Last issue you talked about an Irish fan named Walt
Lewis; this time, you have Bob Tucker talking about a fanzine named
'Quandary'! You fakefans...you...you... chindribblers! What have you got
against Sixth Fandom?{{ OK, what's a 'chindribbler'? You're right, of course;
it's Quandry, and apologies to Lee Hoffman (again, several people caught
us on this one). In defense, though, we think this was caused by one of the insidious
features of the microcomputer age -- you live by the spelling checker; you die by the
spelling checker, Now then, speaking of "Walt Lewis"... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Walt Willis, Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom I was tremendously impressed by the dramatically
unexpected appearance of Julius Schwartz in your pages, in a metaphorical pillar of fire,
and I liked his story {{ "The Amazing Flying
Wollheims" }}. I have been wondering what on earth I myself could have
produced by way of anecdote from fandom's history, and his mention of the Wollheims
reminded me that when Don and Elsie moved to their current address on Clyde Street in
New York, Forrey Ackerman headed the CoA note in his fanzine with "WHEN WOLLS CLYDE".
The last time I met Don and Elsie, at Leeds in 1986, I thanked them on behalf of fandom
for steadfastly preserving this joke by not moving for the past 30 years. What an
example they set to all these people who keep flitting about the country like the
proverbial elephant in the rhubarb tree, to the despair of conscientious faneds. The
worst af all in my time was a fan named Ed Noble, and I cannot remember whether it was
Dean Grennell or Bob Shaw who called him The Roamingest Noble of Them All.I also liked very much Pat Molloy's account of
how he became involved in convention running. It was all strange and fascinating to me:
I've never got involved in any kind of convention running myself, believing the Irish
Sea was put there for some good purpose.- - - - - - - - - -
Thomas D. Sadler, Adrian, Michigan I very much enjoyed reading the various
reminicences of oldtimers in fandom and frequently regret that I missed out on all that
by not trying to become involved in fandom twenty or twenty-five years earlier. But
that's neither here nor there. The really important thing is, there are still plenty of
oldtimers around, and good fanzines, too. Reading about the different people in
Mimosa makes me long to meet them. I don't share your opinion, as expressed
in the Mimosa #4 lettercol, that fandom is still young enough that it's
still possible to document stories and anecdotes from the earlier years of fandom. Those
around at the beginning, the 1930's, are already dying off in increasing numbers. If
you don't start digging for what you're interested in now then you won't get another
chance. When Vin¢ Clarke and I were researching them we had one old `30s fan die
while a letter from us was on its way to him with questions about those days. One more
avenue closed, one less in the diminishing number that can still be explored.{{ You'll notice in this ish, as we always try to do, we
have some fan history from the people who made it. Maybe we have more of First Fandom
alive here in the States then you do in England, but we agree with you that it is very
sad when we lose a fan who was part of fannish history, as was Doc
Barrett. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Harry Warner, Jr., Hagerstown, Maryland One recent addition to the fan history
shelf is The Story So Far, Rob Hansen's "A Brief History of British Fandom" from
its start to the present. This is the only source for a summary of what happened over
there during the past quarter-century. It doesn't devote much space to the earliest
years of British fan history, but Rob is making amends by amplifying that booklet with a
series of mimeographed publications entitled Then, the first of which contains
many previously unknown facts about early British fandom.It's doubtful if anyone will ever
- - - - - - - - - -
Richard Brandt, El Paso, Texas Charlotte Proctor hit a responsive chord
with her article {{ "Restaurants at a Slightly
Greater Distance from the End of the Universe" }}. At our last local con,
we decided to take the GoH to Juarez for Sunday dinner. This wound up as an excursion
into the Juarez red-light district. GoH had to be forcibly restrained from leaning out
the window and yelling, "Hey, chickie chickie," and other antics, the likely outcome of
which he aptly summed up with, "You'll read all about it in Locus." We ended up
in a show bar where he insisted on sending a drink over to one of the working girls --
who came over and attached herself to me all evening. Fortunately, we were all
able to keep a straight face when we crossed the frontier and the customs guard asked,
"Bring anything back with you?" Re "Star Trek 101": I admit to
enjoying ST/TNG, even though half the actors were stolen from soap operas. I
have to wonder about Trek fans -- are they looking towards a utopian future, or a
nostalgic past when it comes to Trek? Do they like the rosy picture it presents, or
do they just get off on `60s television?- - - - - - - - - -
Ladislav Peska, Slany, Czechoslovakia Fanzine Mimosa was a very pleasant
surprise for me. I read your fanzine with great interest, and I liked it very much.
The article by Nicki Lynch {{ "Like a Car", in
Mimosa 3 }} about problems in American fandom and about
Corflu IV interested me the most of all. I am interested in fanzines, and it isn't
by chance that our club (SFK Slany) has organized the 3rd "Seminar about Fanzines" this
September. The fanzine seminar isn't really a con, it is three days discussion about
various questions considered with Czechoslovak fanzines.Fanzines in Czechoslovakia are very much
different from American fanzines. At least I think so, because I only know Anvil
and Mimosa from American fanzines. About 30 fanzines are published in
Czechoslovakia at the present time. Most of them are intent on SF; they print stories
and novelettes by Czech and foreign authors. The main reason for it is that no
professional SF magazine is published in Czechoslovakia. Our fanzine Slan is
half and half: 50 percent SF stories and 50 percent other articles. I can send
you a copy if you take interest in it. But it is true Czech, and will be unintelligible
for you.{{ We've taken the liberty af fixing the grammar and
spelling in your letter, so we hope you won't take offense. Actually, we get some
English language fanzines that are pretty unintelligible, so there's no need to
apologize, Yes, we'd like to get an issue, and thanks for the window onto Czech
fandom. }} Another article that drew lots of comments was Anthony
Scott King's "At Home Pet Neutering" guide. As we expected, readers either loved it or
reviled it, with no middle ground. Here are some typical comments. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Marc Ortlieb Anthony Scott King is yet further proof
that Americans are basically whimpy. As any Aussie brushie will tell you, the only
instruments necessary for castrating (let's have fewer euphemisms, huh?) animals are a
good pair of incisors. Quick bite through the scrotum, fish the balls out, throw them
to the dog, and then a slap of tar over the wound...{{ After reading your description, we've come to the
conclusion that you're right; Americans are basically whimpy. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Martyn Taylor, Cambridge, United Kingdom I couldn't bring myself to like Anthony
Scott King and his guide. There's enough of that crap going on for real out there
among the sickies to laugh when it is brought into our charmed circle. No doubt it came
over better live than on the page.- - - - - - - - - -
Dorothy Tompkins, Knoxville, Tennessee There was one article I didn't like --
"At Home Pet Neutering" by Anthony Scott King. I realize that it was all meant to be
just in fun, but the animal lover in me cringed at the black humor he presented. It
went several steps too far for my taste. I disagree with the neutering information
given. I always use a .30-06 loaded with tracer ammo, myself. This allows you to skip
the anesthetic, since you can stay far enough away from the animal to avoid being bitten,
and the flame from the tracer does the cauterizing for you. A .38 Special with tracer
ammo will also work if you're a good enough shot, but the ammo for it is harder to find;
you can get .30-06 tracers at most gun shows and now and then at flea markets. (You want
gross, I'll give you gross.)By the way, I disagree with Carolyn
Doyle's letter {{ about the incursion of
media fans into SF fandom }}; the media fans do read. And they put
out fanzines, and actually sell them at cons, which is more than most fanzine fans do
anymore. Media fans have these fanzines 200 pages thick that they call novels, and
others only 60 pages thick that tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Star Trek uniforms, and stuff like that. And
they sell! Ever try to get people to buy a stf fanzine at a convention? {{ What you say about media fans, we've noticed, too.
One reason we enjoyed Corflu so much was because there were so many fanzines available.
We've noticed that at Worldcons, there are usually several tables of media fanzines for
sale in the hucksters room, but the only SF fanzines for sale are in the fanzine room,
which few people seem to know about. Some faneds use cons for distributing fanzines,
but it's rare to see sample SF fanzines on a freebie table. However, we have seen media
fanzines on freebie tables on many occasions. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Mark Manning, Seattle, Washington To start the LoC, I've got to admit that
Mimosa is one of my favorite current genzines. For a while, I've enjoyed reading
Holier Than Thou, Mainstream, and Outworlds most. Now I'm adding
your zine to my fannish Pantheon.Mimosa #4 was a different kind of
zine, rather like its obvious model, the Outworlds that Bill Bowers did at
Corflu 4, but populated with much shorter pieces. I figure the difference was that
Bill's live zine was Corflu 4, while your live zine was more sort of a
tolerated part of Chattacon, the lot stuffed into two hours.{{ You're right, Corflu 4 was much smaller than
Chattacon 13, but Outworlds 50 had a larger attendance than
Mimosa 3.5. What you read in Mimosa #4 was edited down from a
two hour live fanzine we had at Chattacon, so you didn't get to read all the pieces we
actually had. We guess people liked it because we keep getting asked if we plan to do
another one at Chattacon 14, but we have no plans for that. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Milt Stevens, Reseda, California Living fanzines do have some advantages
over the other well-known form of real-time fanzine communication, the one-shot. In
living fanzines, the participants appear to be sober. This is probably the direct
result of the necessity of standing up while you are participating. This apparent
sobriety reduces the physical risks of living fanzine production. With a one-shot, you
always have the chance of catching your nose in the typewriter platen. If the
typewriter is electric, this can result in dire consequences.- - - - - - - - - -
David Palter, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Thanks for Mimosa #4. It was a
bit shocking for me to discover that once again I had failed to make it into print.
Although I pour forth my eloquent and inventive commentary, with my customary and
much-practiced skill, my comments on issues 1-3 remain (apparently) unworthy of
publication. Will I do better with #4? God, Mimosa is a tough nut to crack!- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: Harry Andruschak, C.S.F. Baden, Mervyn Barrett, Sally Beasley, Martha Beck, Lloyd Biggle, Sheryl Birkhead, Pamela Boal, David Bratman, "Gary Brown", Stven Carlberg, Avedon Carol, Carolyn Doyle, Brad Foster, David Haugh, Craig Hilton, Lucy Huntzinger, Don Lee jr., Krsto Manzuranic, Jeanne Mealy, Pat Mueller, Janice Murray, Rick Norwood, John Purcell, Warren Saloman, Leland Sapiro, Rickey Sheppard, David Singer, Garth Spencer, Erwin Strauss, Taral, David Thayer, Roger Weddall, George Wells, and Donald Wileman. Illustrations by Charlie Williams, Brad Foster, Craig Hilton, Alexis Gilliland, Teddy Harvia, and David Haugh |
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