 {{ 
Perhaps not quite so many letters this time, but the ones we did receive had many
good comments -- our thanks to everybody who wrote! The two articles that received
the most comments were the longest in the issue: the third installment of Mike
Resnick's look back at the worldcons he's attended and Richard's closing comments
remembrance of people and places. Here's a sampling of the M24's mail,
starting with Nicki's Opening Comments about an evening we spent at a sporting
event... }} - - - - - - - - - -
Milt Stevens, Simi Valley, California Reading Nicki's "A Night at the Ball Park,"
made me realize I'd never thought much about the risks of attending a baseball game.
Of course, I'd heard the hot dogs served at baseball games would be forbidden by the
Geneva Convention if they were ever used in warfare. There are also those dark
rumors about Dodger Dogs being made out of former Dodgers. However, I'd never
envisioned medics with stretchers and red cross arm bands rushing into the stands to
retrieve the bodies of wounded spectators. Maybe baseball fans should take up the
practice of yelling some appropriate comment like "INCOMING!" Knowing the
government's tendency to pass laws protecting everybody (and particularly insurance
companies) from everything, it's a little surprising we haven't seen any baseball
game helmet laws. Considering the amount of beer baseball fans are said to consume,
maybe there should also be baseball game seatbelt laws to keep the fans from falling
out of the stands altogether.Mike Resnick's comments
{{in "Worldcon Memories (Part 3)" }} that
each of the Nycons was a bit of a disaster started me thinking. Fans would have
had a hard time determining that the first Nycon, in 1939, was a disaster, since
they had no other worldcons with which to compare it. Maybe suffering a lot was
just part of the worldcon experience. From later conventions, we have learned that
some convention attendees would even enjoy being beaten with whips. Since the first
three worldcons had a constantly declining number of attendees, Nycon I may have
been considered the pick of the litter. I've seen some comments in fanzines from
after the third worldcon expressing grave doubts about the future of science fiction
conventions. Without the development of commercial air travel, science fiction
conventions would have at least remained very small and possibly ceased entirely.Finally, reading accounts of using a
hectograph such as Dave Kyle's
{{in "Phamous Phantasy Phan" }} are like
reading an account of going over the top in World War One. I'm perfectly willing
to read about either activity, but quite glad I never had to engage in them
myself.- - - - - - - - - -
Roy Lavender, Long Beach, California Mike Resnick's article brought back memories
of the 1977 Worldcon, at Miami Beach, though for me, the most vivid memory of all
was of that convention's close. Picture, if you will, two huge marble lobbies at
the Fontainebleu Hotel, filled with massive amounts of luggage that costume fans
bring. The fans themselves, many still in remnants of costumes and looking very
much like they attended most of the previous night's parties. At the same time,
members of the incoming convention began to arrive -- Southern Black Baptists, each
and every one dressed in their Sunday Go-to-Meeting best clothes. Talk about
culture shock!- - - - - - - - - -
Ted White, Falls Church, Virginia I read through Mike Resnick's 'memory' of
NyCon 3 (1967) with some interest, since I was co-chair of that con and I handled
the programming. He says "the programming was overwhelmingly fannish. Very few
panels with or about pros," but in simple fact, there was less fannish
programming at NyCon 3 than at most previous worldcons, and all of it confined to
the first day of the con. The remaining three days were nothing but pro programs.
I gather Mike had no interest in the dialog between hot new writer Samuel Delaney
and Roger Zelazny, for example, and that was only one of the half dozen Dialogues
set up between two pro participants.Also, no pro panel at NyCon 3 had "Should
One Man Be Editing Three Prozines" as a topic, much less as its announced title.
Mike wasn't selling SF to prozines in those days or he'd have appreciated more the
fact that too few editors were running the remaining magazines. The fewer the
editors, the narrower the chances for selling a story. (For what it's worth, Harry
Harrison announced his new editorship of Amazing and Fantastic from
the stage at NyCon 3.)There's a strange arrogance behind Mike's
memories, which perhaps would disturb me less if I weren't the unwitting object of
his condescension and scorn. 1967 was a long time ago, and most of what he
remembers is a meeting with an editor and spending too much money in a restaurant.
But I will agree with him that the hotel situation in New York City was not -- and
still is not -- on par with that of most other large American cities. Mike Resnick's con-going memoir reminds me
that, for some reason, there is long history of SF cons being thrown together with
Scientology or the clergy. At Philly in 1953, for instance, there was a famous
encounter in the elevator between Sprague de Camp and a Scientologist. The kid was
gosh-wowing Hubbard to his friends and Sprague, tall, superbly dignified and
self-possessed, was heard to say loudly, "I knew L. Ron Hubbard when he was just a
small time crook."Mike mentioned the long Star Wars
movie line at LAcon II; it was supremely depressing to me, and I like Star
Wars. I knew when I saw the contrast between the smaller Hugo Awards Ceremony
audience and the film crowd that the game was over. Mike also mentioned the Autry
museum in L.A. as a Good Thing. Let me also throw in the Miniature Museum and the
Peterson Car Museum, both within walking distance from there. The Miniature museum
is truly amazing -- don't think doll houses; think instead of replicas of famous
buildings and great houses. The Peterson is heaven for car buffs and also features
a history of the auto. Which brings me to Curt Phillips and his day at NASCAR.
{{"Nights of Thunder" }} What a terrific article!
Did you know that beneath this modest exterior beats the heart of a NASCAR junkie?
I can't picture Curt not recognizing King Richard Petty at the track, but I forgive
him because of the sheer enjoyment of reading the article.Finally, in Dave Kyle's memoir he mentions
Siegel and Schuster of Superman fame. Hidden in the back of my mind a memory
leapt out. Sometime around 1940, one of the local (Cleveland) movie theaters had
them in the lobby on a Saturday afternoon, drawing for the kids. They were both
Cleveland guys and impossibly young at the time. Little did I know I was in the
presence of greatness.- - - - - - - - - -
Sam Long, Springfield, Illinois I enjoyed Ron Bennett's remembrance of
Vincent Clarke {{"Memories of Vin¢" }}
even though the memories were tinged with sadness. Alas, when I was a British fan
in the 1970s, Vin¢ wasn't active so I didn't get to know him except as a
fannish legend.Mike Resnick's "Worldcon Memories" series
continues to be enjoyable, and now I can comment by telling a bit about the sole
worldcon experience of my fannish life, viz., 1974's Discon II. My congoing
experience had been at smaller British Eastercons and a few American regional
conventions, and I found the sheer size of Discon (over 5,000 attendees) rather
off-putting. I can attest to the maze of the Sheraton, but I heard no Martha Beck
bongos, so my room must have been a ways away from Mike's. One of my favorite
memories of that convention was sitting next to and chatting with Susan Wood at a
room party, she in an electric blue dress and holding her Hugo, as happy as she
could be. And I was happy for her. Ever since Discon I've limited my congoing to
comparatively small local cons like Midwestcon and Chambanacon, which have a few
hundred attendees at most!Finally, Curt Phillips' "Nights of Thunder"
was easily the most unusual article in the issue, and a very well-written one, too.
I found it fascinating, and I don't even care for car racing!- - - - - - - - - -
Marty Cantor, North Hollywood, California Vin¢ was one of those people I hoped to
meet when I went to the Brighton Worldcon. I did converse with him at some length;
of those of his generation of fans with whom I spent some time talking at that con,
I spent more time talking to Walt Willis and ATom (who were staying at the same
hotel where Robbie and I were domiciled). I seem to spend more time with 'younger'
fans when I attend cons; so, at Brighton, I talked at greater length with many of
the other contributors to and recipients of Holier Than Thou than I did with
Vin¢. My loss, indeed, as I never got back to England. He is a lost friend,
as your lead-off to Ron Bennett's says. I thank you for printing this; even though
I would have preferred Vin¢ being still alive (and out of hospital), writing
his memoirs. This is the time-binding nature of our hobby -- as long as we continue
as some sort of extended family, our elders will still live in our memories and on
paper when they pass to a different level of fanac. At least, I hope that they have
still have access to computers/typers and drawing paper -- otherwise, the place to
which they have gone is no version of heaven in which I would like to abide.- - - - - - - - - -
Ruth Shields, Jackson, Mississippi I was impressed with Richard's closing
comments {{"Non-Stop Parking and Other Remembrances" }}
which combined his postcards from Eastern Europe with remembrances of those we have
lost in recent times. It was an odd combination, but it worked.The various other articles and essays were
excellent. You guys have a talent for finding and encouraging writers who both
inform and entertain, and the mix of humor and pathos is effective. Curt Phillips'
"Nights of Thunder" was probably my favorite in this issue; I have never had any
interest in auto racing, but I gained an insight from this piece. Not to mention
the parts about EMT work. The story about the woman who had the heart attack was
quite an object lesson in priorities! I should express dismay over your
semi-intention to fold Mimosa (as reported in Richard's closing comments).
Couldn't you compromise with yourselves and reduce it to a more moderate size,
perhaps 24 pages per issue? I prefer it the way it is, but half a loaf is better
than none, as the clich‚ says, and this is probably the first time anyone has ever
thought of a fanzine as a loaf. It is a particularly bad time for fandom to lose a
large fanzine like Mimosa because we seem to be losing about half of the big
general circulation fanzines. There will be no more Lan's Lanterns,
Mainstream has apparently seen its final issue, and the length of time since
the last The Reluctant Famulus is ominous. If Guy Lillian should get a
Supreme Court appointment, what would be left other than FOSFAX?{{ We were happy to find
a new issue of The Reluctant Famulus in the mail recently, so we hope your
fears of a drastic contraction in the number of general interest fanzines ultimately
prove unfounded. As for us, we will be publishing a 26th issue but the
statement we made last time is still in force: we do not plan on continuing
publication past issue 30. We'd rather not decrease our page count as a compromise;
a smaller page count reduces the amount of content, and we'd lose the mix of
historical and contemporary articles that seems to work well for us. }}As for the issue itself, again I found much
pleasure in Mike Resnick's "Worldcon Memories" series. He does a bit too much name
dropping toward the end of this installment, but that seems to be an occupational
hazard of fans who have achieved big professional success. Terry Carr used to do
the same thing in fanzine writing.Eve Ackerman's article {{"Reading for Fun and Non-Profits" }} left me
wondering why this commendable project of reading via radio broadcasts for the
blind should not be improved to permit the seeing to enjoy it, too. I'm sure there
are lots of sighted people who would enjoy listening to something more than the
rock and call-in shows that clutter up both the AM and FM dials today. Maybe there
would be a fear of illegal taping and selling of these broadcasts, but I don't
think the market for spoken word cassettes has inspired this sort of piracy so
far.{{ But there's more to
radio than just that. National Public Radio, for instance, has two very good news
and commentary shows: Morning Edition, during the morning commute, and All
Things Considered, for the evening commute. At any rate, the big trend for
people with long commutes is to listen to something very similar to the RRS
broadcasts that Eve mentioned in her article: 'audio books', spoken-word editions of
best-seller books often with Big Name Actors as the readers. We're surprised you
haven't run across any of them; these have become a booming business. They cover a
wide range of genres, including science fiction, and are sold in book stores (and
are usually available from the public library). }}Finally, I'm afraid I can't share Curt
Phillips' involuntary fascination with auto racing. There is a dirt track six miles
west of Hagerstown which I've never felt the least urge to visit. After all,
Interstates 81 and 70 cross one another only three miles from my home and they offer
all the speed, crashes, injuries, and noise that racing ovals imitate, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.- - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland Like Richard (in his closing comments), I
was sorry to learn that Lan Laskowski had died. It's true that his fanzine Lan's
Lantern had its problems; it kept getting larger and larger, and Lan usually
only had forty pages of good material in a 150-page zine. But there was always
something worth reading in every issue. Lan was particularly good at getting
travelogues from pros, such as Mike Resnick's many Africa stories. His special
issues devoted to 50th anniversaries of pros' first appearance in print were a bit
uneven (doing a special issue to William F. Temple was certainly quixotic) but
usually had valuable reminiscences and criticism. Lan was a good editor, and
Lan's Lantern deserved its Hugos. An appallingly disappointing article on
Russia and China by Forry Ackerman! {{"Through
Time and Space with Forry Ackerman (Part 9)" }} Disappointing of
course because it was far too short. Just getting into his stride when...whoops,
there it was... Gone! Go over there and chain him to the Mimosa word
processor!Mike's Resnick's article was, as ever, most
enjoyable. Lengthy, too. Heavens, a half-dozen articles in one! I do wish, though,
he'd have been able to give some examples of the Ellison-Asimov slandering contests
or of the Bob Bloch witticisms when acting as convention toastmaster. And it was
nice to see Mike mention James White so favourably. A lovely man, James, and his
passing is a great loss. He was always a true gentleman, a mensch, so
quietly spoken, with a great dry wit, fond of outrageous puns and with a marvelous
sense of humour altogether. Last time we met was at the Blackpool convention about
a half dozen years ago when we spent some little time at a party comparing our
eyesight problems and, of all things, how they affected our driving!Interesting piece on the Radio Reading
Service by Eve Ackerman. Reminds me of my nastier side. When, some years ago, I
was officially registered as partially sighted, a kind lady from the local Social
Services came to visit. She brought me a white walking stick and a bulking looking
tape recorder. "We have this Speaking Book Service," she told me. "We have some
wonderful authors, like D*** F******.""Hell," I said, with some feeling, "I
wouldn't read D*** F****** if I were paid!" She got up without a word, picked up
the tape recorder and walked out. Never heard another word from Social Services
after that. They must have thought me ungrateful and that I didn't appreciate what
was, after all, a most kind offer. Far from it. I'd have loved to have the luxury
of someone reading a worthwhile book to me. Still, it could have been worse. She
might have said Jeffery Archer.Anyway, it was interesting to see that a
professional broadcaster found challenging the reading of a character's death and
having to remember which voice to ascribe to which character -- exactly the
difficulties one encounters when reading a book to a class of children. That was a
particular difficulty I kept encountering when taking over a class on a temporary
basis and continuing the reading of a novel which had been begun by the regular
teacher, and where certain characters cried out for an accent, like Jan in The
Silver Sword.Ah, Dave Kyle. One of my favorite writers
and certainly my favorite 'reminiscent' writer. I've had several copies of that
August 1928 Amazing Stories pass through my hands during my years as a comics
dealer and had of course known that Phil Nowlan didn't call his hero 'Buck', but the
story about the cover illustration is new to me. And Alex Raymond -- were I a comic
collector myself, it would be the Flash Gordon pages which would head my
list. (Hal Foster's beautifully arranged pages for Prince Valiant would come
a close second.) Interesting to see that Dave still had some of those full pages of
the Gordon strip. I sold the second page, on its own, for £50 about
fifteen years ago. Sadly, interest in the Sunday supplements had declined
remarkably over here in recent years, a sad reflection on the appreciative qualities
of the modern comics fan who is more interested in the latest empty-headed glitz put
out by the profits-oriented comics industry of today. Those old Sunday supplements
had a wonderful dramatic sweep, completely different from the insipid offerings of
today.I see that you're toying with the notion of
(seems a more relaxed way of saying that you're contemployting... sorry,
contemplating) ceasing publication of Mimosa. Because of more of your time
being involved with "International and cultural communities." Aw, come on now! Get
things into perspective! Where are your priorities? Saving the world is all very
well in its place, but to put it above fan publishing, I ask you? Rethink, rethink!
Seriously, having been in a fairly similar position, I can understand the conflict
between different interests and the demands each place upon available time. The
answer, of course, is to give up sleep!- - - - - - - - - -
Todd Mason, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The thing about being a 'serious' or perhaps
sercon young reader of horror, mythology and folklore, and sf (other fantasy came
later) is how many interesting alleys they'll lead you down; the similar thing
about reading Mimosa is how often one can find oneself reintroduced to
aspects of life that are dormant -- Eve Ackerman's piece on working with the reading
service for the visually-impaired reminded me of my own year or so recording with
Washington Ear, the local radio/phone-in service in your (and my former) parts. I
learned of it one day by tuning into Channel 32, the junior DC PBS station
associated with Howard University, on Arlington Cable, only to find that the clever
folks at AC had replaced the WHHM (now WHUT) soundtrack with the Ear's radio feed.
While this mistake was rather blatant, they kept it that way for the better part of
a month. With evidence of the local agency's existence, I went down and volunteered,
and was immediately asked if I would do the phone-in reading of the Washington
Post (only the veterans did the radio magazine and book reading during the
weekdays, and the range was rather restricted -- Time, Newsweek,
New Yorker if I recall, and a few other very non-obscure magazines
predominated). On the Saturday shifts I could make, usually as the last volunteer
in (I'm not a morning person), I was often the voice of Dave Barry and of other
articles in the Washington Post Magazine and Parade from the
early-delivery section of the Sunday paper, and would be the only one willing to
tackle the Saturday Chess column most weeks (the first readings were utter disasters,
because although I can play poorly, I didn't know the notations used to describe the
games, and so dutifully and meaninglessly named every symbol used until I could find
out what they meant). Reading Doonesbury was pretty easy, as it's so
text-heavy ("the waffle which represents President Clinton levitates behind the
podium, as he continues with his speech..."), and reading the more inane strips,
with necessarily arch-sounding descriptions of the images, probably left those
comics more amusing as read, but the better visually-oriented strips certainly
suffered (I usually felt bad about a good Tank McNamara, for example).
Reading scattered selections from the Sunday ad circulars was probably the worst of
the duties.As a dedicated Robert Bloch fan, the bit of
Mike Resnick's reminisces that struck the loudest chord was his suggestion that
Bloch was the best of toastmasters/MCs in SF. I wonder if anyone has any kind of
concordance of available recordings, audio, video, or transcript, of such events?
Have such items been collected with his papers in Colorado? The one time I spoke
with Harlan Ellison, he knew of no one with plans to reissue Bloch's recordings on
the Alternate Worlds label (which had some other interesting masters, with only
Ellison's rerecordings of the stories available from AW now in press, as far as I
know) -- does anyone keep fannish multimedia items available?Concerning the on-going discussion in the
letters column about good and bad science fiction on television, I, too, have seen
most if not all the episodes of the underachieving (in all senses) Mercy
Point, and we who have confessed to doing so in Mimosa may have been the
total audience for the show (ask your nearest moaning UPN executive). I hope James
White's Sector General stories didn't involve doctors who were so intimately
familiar with a wide range of alien species' physiology, a feat that puts the most
diverse veterinarian or even the most ridiculously knowledgeable Star Trek
doctor to shame. Perhaps time has softened the pain for Martin Morse Wooster, who
forgives if not forgets such ornaments as Space:1999 and Land of the
Giants (to say nothing of the mercifully short-lived E.A.R.T.H. Force and
the Bionic People shows) in his haste to nominate The Burning Zone as
the worst skiffy tube we've endured -- it's a strong candidate, but perhaps
disqualifies itself with one rather good, almost null-sf episode involving an
infectious disease breaking out on a jetliner which is, as a result, not allowed to
land anywhere. Much more hyped, and much worse, similar made-for-tv movies followed
on larger networks. Even a Tamlyn Tomita fan has little else good to say about this
misbegotten series, which wasted its potential with a Fantasy Island level of
abandon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-files do an often
excellent job of rummaging around among horror and sf tropes, usually carrying them
a bit farther along than Rod Serling often chose to; some of the other speculative
fiction shows have at least something to recommend them, even if originality is
sparse.- - - - - - - - - -
Alan Sullivan, Stratford, London, United Kingdom Malgorzata Wilk's article
{{
"Science Fiction Under Martial Law" }} was a fascinating picture of fan life
in Poland before the fall of communism. To me, the life sounds pretty grim, but
with moments that brighten the whole thing up. Times have changed indeed. Going by
her final paragraphs, Poland is starting to sound as if it has inherited several of
the ills of Western Society (rat-race working conditions, multiplex cinemas, etc.,
etc.) Still, I suppose that is the price of progress (I'm not going to speculate on
whether or not this is good progress, or bad). It does seem a shame to gain
freedoms, whilst losing the time and peace to enjoy them.As for Forry Ackerman's article, he does get
around and about, doesn't he? It's just a shame that he doesn't always get a
friendly reception. (That customs inspector might have been following the rules,
but then again, he could have done what he did for personal gain. Corrupt officials
are everywhere, especially in any country with a thriving black market.) It's also
interesting to hear that the Chinese may be using science fiction to interest
children in Real Science. I hope it works out for them; after all, a fair few
western-world scientists claim that SF influenced their choice of career. At least
the Chinese seem to have gotten enthusiasm stirred up in the younger generation,
which can't be all bad.- - - - - - - - - -
Rodney Leighton, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Canada I have often thought, and mentioned to one
or two people, that it is too bad David Thayer doesn't do more writing since he is
very good at it. His article {{"A Cartoonist Remembers Ian
Gunn" }} epitomized this. This reader, at least, was totally captivated by
the sheer joy that Teddy had in meeting Ian and their marvelous friendship. The
fun they had at the first meeting and thereafter was evident; the humor was dominant
throughout. Yet, there was an undercurrent of extreme sadness. I was laughing
throughout while almost crying reading most of the article. Teddy expressed the
joy of knowing Ian exceptionally well while also sublimely expressing his great
sorrow at the loss of his friend.- - - - - - - - - -
Henry Welch, Grafton, Wisconsin I fondly remember the last evening at
Intersection with Teddy, Ian, and Benoit and our families. I let my children sleep
on the floor right there in the hall and I firmly believe that if there were more
than 24 hours on a day that the conversation may have gone on for much longer than
it did. As it was, we managed a few hours of sleep before we had to check out of
our hotel and then head south to catch a flight in London two days later. It's days
like this that make fandom worth all the time, expense, and effort. Wonderful article by Ron Bennett on
Vin¢ Clarke. Like BoSh, I never met him or even corresponded with him, and
this usually brings back feelings of still being an outsider, looking in through the
window at the fun happenings going on inside. Still, at least, I can take benefit
from Vin¢'s later kind attitude towards fandom, even if he had gafiated once,
and I can learn more about what made him return to fandom after some harsh
experiences. Our own experiences in fandom are often mixed, but even if experiences
are bad, the people in fandom are for the most part good, and it's the people who
are keeping me in fandom, I hope for a good long time.As with Vin¢, I never met Ian Gunn, but
at least I was able to correspond with him through the pages of Ethel the
Aardvark, the clubzine of the Melbourne SF Club, and through the pages of his
own publications, including his perzine Mind Wallaby. Ian was that magical
combination of silly and creative, a rare combination that is gone all too quickly.
Ian's work was seen by many fans in the Toronto area, not only in fanzines but also
on name badges for local conventions. If only fandom didn't suffer from a surfeit
of geography, we'd all know one another, and there'd be no strangers.- - - - - - - - - -
Irwin Hirsh, East Prahran, Victoria, Australia The letter from Mike Resnick had me pulling
out the previous two issues, to check both his original remarks about ConFrancisco
and the response it generated from Kevin Standlee and Tom Becker. This lead to me
reviewing all three installments of Resnick's Memories. A few recurring themes
stand out, the main one being that the most enjoyable Worldcon time Mike has is when
he is a fan at the Worldcon and not a pro. Also, I couldn't find any mention of fan
fund delegates; of the seven worldcons mentioned in this issue, five had DUFF and
TAFF delegates in attendance, but none rate a Resnick mention. I know that the fan
funds are an important part of my fannish experiences, and I'm wondering if this
suggests that, were we to attend the same conventions, Mike and I would hardly ever
interact?{{ Our guess is that you probably would; Mike is by
no means stand-offish, and has often mentioned that the purely professional aspects
of worldcons aren't nearly as fun as the other parts. At any rate, we expect that
Mike probably has shared many conversations with fan fund delegates. That
these didn't make it into his "Worldcon Memories" might be more of a factor of the
oversimplification that usually occurs when condensing a five-day convention into
three or four paragraphs. We are guilty of the same thing in some of our worldcon
reports (such as the one in this issue, which makes scant mention of DUFF delegate,
Janice Gelb, even though she was a very visible presence at Aussiecon Three). }}In regard to Eve Ackerman's article: I
assume that there are a lot of radio stations across the broadcast range, and to
allow each to have open broadcast would diminish the transmission of each.
Subsequently services like the RRS network are required to be heard via a special
receiver. Down here in Melbourne we don't have such problems, so that every radio
can pick up 3RPH 'Radio for the Print Handicapped'. This is good for me as I'm not
part of 3RPH's primary target audience but I don't have to make any special effort
to listen in. I have my car radio channels preset to 3RPH, as it is a favoured
station. On the longer car trips or when stuck in slow-moving traffic it is nice to
have the contents of a newspaper or magazine read to me.Of the other articles, I appreciated Ron
Bennett's and Teddy Harvia's memories of departed fans, particularly for their own
specific, personal interactions with the friends described. And I liked Curt
Phillips' article for its terrific word picture it gave of an event I'm otherwise
not interested in. I know it is cruel to say this, but if ever I was forced to
attend a motor race I'd be likely to fake a heart attack in order to get the hell
outta there! My favorite parts of this issue are Ron
Bennett's memories of Vince Clarke, Teddy Harvia's recollections of Ian Gunn, and
Richard's marathon closing editorial touching on everyone who's passed away recently.
The intermixing of your postcards from Eastern Europe in the latter was an
interesting touch; it would've seemed out of place except for the bridge you provided
between the mangled use of English in parts of Europe and the 'language' of fandom,
fanzines.Curt Phillips' article on his adventures at
the Bristol Motor Speedway provided another side to the auto racetrack phenomenon
that I wasn't aware of: his experiences as a paramedic in an activity where death or
extreme injury lurks around every turn. I live near the Sears Point Raceway, which
also hosts NASCAR events, and I have another perspective. The track is situated at
the junction of two state highways wholly inadequate to handle the increased traffic
the larger events generate. The noise from the track causes sound pollution that
under some weather and wind conditions affects the city of Sonoma, ten miles away.
And to me, in the context of having lived through the energy crisis of the 1970s,
there's something unseemly about an activity that involves the heedless consumption
of non-renewable fossil fuels.Malgorzata Wilk's article is certainly a
mixed bag. While it was interesting to read her recollections of childhood in
Poland when it was still under Communist rule and one can sympathize with her
personal sense of loss of those allegedly "good old days," her closing paean to
"those communist days, when life was easy," is pretty weird. How can she be
sentimental, I wonder, for the days of food shortages and rationing she describes
elsewhere in her article?{{
Probably in the same way people can fondly remember the Depression when they were
growing up or why Angela's Ashes was a best seller. Growing up in 'the West',
we were told how we had the best of everything and behind the Iron Curtain life was
horrible beyond belief. Now, years later, we can't understand how anyone could be
anything but terribly scared from living under the Soviet rule. The reality is that
people live through hard times as children and look back at them fondly as they grow
to adulthood and life changes. }}You say at the end of your editorial that
the next issue of Mimosa might be the last, or surely the 30th will be. Let
me observe that thirty issues is something of a 'standard' for fanzines: that's how
many issues Quandry and Oopsla! managed, to name two prominent
examples. But I can understand your desire to Do Other Things, and wish you well
whatever your decision.- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Sneyd, Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom The piece about Poland was particularly
interesting, as I used to get sent the Gdansk SF Society's publication Red
Dwarf, an amazingly posh publicaion with beautiful illos -- though I can't read
Polish and only had a vague idea of its contents!Also, the remembrance of Ian Gunn was
well-written, but there is one small factual error. Glasgow doesn't have the last
working Tardis-style police box in the U.K. -- local patriotism forces me to point
out that there's one here in Almondbury, and it's still in use! It's a 'listed
building' (a small one) that can't be demolished, though a bit in need of repainting
at the moment. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem to get Whovian pilgrims. The BIG problem with people dying is that
they don't give advance warning: you're always left feeling "If only I'd..." Here
at least you give us fair warning of the imminent potential demise of Mimosa,
so we can mourn and commiserate while it's still around. Frankly I've often felt
out of my depth as a Mimosa-reader, and this was frequently exacerbated as my
LoCs were always wahfed; I was going to write this time and say, "OK, cut me off
your mailing-list, I'm not worth the cost," but I guess I'd like to be around for
the Heat-Death of Mimosa.{{
This seems a good place to mention that all comments on specific articles in the
letters or emails we receive (even including the 'We Also Heard Froms') are copied
and sent to the respective writers of those articles. So any comment on an article
that you make, whether or not it sees print in our letters column, does make
it back to the writer. In other words, we want to encourage you to keep writing us;
your words are not wasted! }}- - - - - - - - - -
Roger Waddington, Norton, Malton, North Yorkshire United Kingdom Every picture tells a story? I think that's
enough for a novel on your wraparound cover, maybe even a series of sequels as well,
and I for one would cheerfully buy it. My congratulations to Charlie Williams.Harking back to Marty Cantor's comments in
the letters column, I too would like to see the James White's Sector General
stories as a television series. There's one small snag; that most probably you, me,
and Marty will all have a different idea on how the characters look in our mind's
eye, and the director's eye will be just as different again. In fact, I might stick
my neck out and suggest that there's no film or television series based on an sf
novel, or series of novels, that's been entirely satisfactory to everybody. It must
be far better to start from something original, such as Star Trek or Dr.
Who, without any preconceived notions about the characters, and then see them
grow.On being transported to other times and
places, my 'sensawunda' hasn't always been in the future, archaeology was a
childhood passion, well before science fiction. Even now, half of my spare time is
given over to local history, to exploring the lives and the centuries of the country
village where I was born and brought up. My interest isn't so much satisfied by
history books, but by the contemporary accounts of the people and the events in
letters and diaries. Of course, it mostly happens that those are written by the
rich and famous -- the only ones with enough time and with the interest of
bequeathing their version to posterity. But just occasionally, I can come across
one ordinary person, moved enough to leave an account of his life and surroundings
which has survived the centuries. That, to me, brings the past more to life.And exploring my own personal past as well,
I can point to Journey Into Space as one of my introductions to sf; there was
also that best-selling author of the Fifties, John Wyndham. I know he served his
apprenticeship even earlier, but with The Day of the Triffids and The
Kraken Wakes he was able to reach an audience that wouldn't even consider
reading science fiction. My family included; along with the output of Nevil Shute
(of On The Beach fame), we snapped up each new John Wyndham title as it was
published.However, the real start of my obsession with
sf must have been the discovery that there were whole magazines devoted to science
fiction, which printed nothing else and which came out every month. That came
relatively late, round about 1964; it was sparked by a pile of Worlds of If
in a secondhand bookshop in York, followed by finding the latest issues of
F&SF and Analog on the railway station bookstall. And then it really
took off the next year, when I went down to London to work and found all the
magazines, American and British, in profusion. (Which is another story.) It's a
time that I've been vainly trying to relive; I suppose, like my youth, it's gone for
ever, but I still have some of those original magazines and taking them out,
browsing through them, there's still a whisper, a very faint hint.Although I can claim to have served my
apprenticeship in science fiction, I've never been so certain about fandom; it's why
I often feel I'm receiving Mimosa under false pretenses. There's all these
people I've yet to meet outside the pages of fanzines, slices of life I've yet to
experience and accounts of unattended conventions; but then, isn't that the primary
purpose of fandom, to share all these experiences? Still, I can add my voice here
to mourn the passing of Buck Coulson, someone else I never met but could still love
dearly. He was there back in the mid-sixties, in one of Lin Carter's articles about
fandom in If, where Yandro was one of the fanzines mentioned, and I decided
to test the water. He encouraged me by printing my LoCs, which must have been
pretty halting at the time; but then, even after Yandro was laid aside, we
still carried on corresponding. He may have tried to give the impression of not
suffering fools gladly, but I never came across that side. I suppose sharing some
of the same interests helped; but even so, he was never anything less than kind.{{
Maybe Buck was just good at judging who was a fool and who was a trufan who needed a
little encouragement. }}Have to say, there's going to be another gap
in my life when Mimosa folds its tents and quietly steals away. False
pretenses or no, it's a fanzine I've always enjoyed, not least for those glimpses
into other times and places. Although I suppose like the rest of us, fanzines must
have a natural lifespan; some are destined to die young, others (like Yandro)
become old and respected, but there eventually comes an end to them all. Although
two decades is a record to be proud of, isn't it? I might say, a la Bob Hope,
"Thanks for the memories." But not yet -- not till that ultimate issue!- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: William Breiding, Michael A. Burstein, Ray Capella, Chester Cuthbert, Gary Deindorfer, Rich Dengrove, Carolyn Doyle, Brad Foster, Nick Grassel, Jim Goldfrank, Simon Green, Ben Indick, Terry Jeeves, Bob Kennedy, Irv Koch, Hope Leibowitz, Joseph Major, Miguel Martˇnez, Mark Olson, Elizabeth Osborne, Spike Parsons, Scott Patri, Robert Peterson, Dave Rowe, Marc Schirmeister, David Shallcross, Steve Sneyd, Gene Stewart, Art Widner, Charlie Williams, and Malgorzata Wilk.  Title illustration by Sheryl Birkhead Other illos by Alexis Gilliland & William Rotsler, Joe Mayhew, and William Rotsler |
|