EAST FANGLIAN TIMES TO CONTINUE PUBLICATION!
IT WAS CONVENTION TIME ONCE AGAIN when the British National
Convention was held at the Bull Hotel, Peterborough, Northants.,
from Good Friday 12th April to Easter Monday 15th April. This was
the best attended. British Convention to date, with over 130 avid
fans gathering to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the British
Science Fiction Association. Once again there were many new faces,
always a healthy sign, whilst the exceptionally large number of
professional writers and editors present was an autograph collector’s
dream. If the programme itself tended to lag at times (mainly because
of the small hall and the inadequacy of the public address system)
this was easily overlooked and a darn good time was had by all.
The weekend was too short. Conventions like this one should last
a month.
IT’S PETERBOROUGH AGAIN NEXT YEAR. The old-guard fans
present declared that it was the end of the world and shook their
heads but it was true! The Management of the “Bull” asked us to
come back again next year and at an extraordinary meeting on the
Sunday evening a Committee was formed and registrations were collected.
The number has already reached the sixty mark, a fantastic state
of affairs in itself.
THE CONVENTION was well-covered by the local and national
press, radio and television and interviews with professional personalities
present were recorded for later use.
THE CONVENTION WAS OFFICIALLY OPENED on the Friday evening
by Committee Chairman Kenneth F. Slater who spoke against a superb
backcloth painted by Oxford’s Marcus Ashby and depicting a scene
from Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse. Aldiss himself was introduced and he
interviewed some of the personalities present.
THE SATURDAY MORNING PROGRAMME opened bright and early
at ten with the address given by the Guest of Honour Edmund Crispin.
Brian Aldiss introduced him briefly by saying that he was “incredibly
handsome.” Crispin remarked that he was attending as a member of
the BSFA who had been lucky enough to do a few anthologies. After
what he had seen the previous night one’s life span is shortened
if one is a practising member. He moved on to his talk - Science
Fiction: Is It Significant? - by saying that he had noted five main
points, the first of which was that S.F. is rather taken with “the
above.” Most stories reach out to the stars. More people in this
country are writing S.F. than ever before, he said, and this can
be a danger in itself. A parallel was drawn between crime fiction
of the early thirties and it was noted that there is a strong attempt
to “jockey the genre into the mainstream of literature.” This led
on to the second point which was that S.F. has become more generally
recognised because established writers have occasionally produced
S.F. He would not comment on these books, he said, as his remarks
might lead to an action for slander, but later he did say that On
The Beach was poor. In the main, established writers have not taken
the trouble to acquaint themselves with the conventions and special
problems of writing science fiction. The danger to the field is
that a non-SF addict may pick up such a book, read it and after
seeing that it is bad decide that all S.F. is similarly bad.
Crispin’s third point was the influence of “the Telly.” On T.V.,
he said, “there is little differentiation between merit and lack
of merit.” Anything with spaceships or aliens will do. He moved
on to his fourth point which was that people are generally becoming
more aware of the “cosmos” which of course has a general association
with the S.F. field. He mentioned satellites, projectiles (launched
in the general direction of the planets) and the fact that even
the Astronomer Royal has stopped saying,”... ..........“ His fifth
point was that space travel is usually used as a presupposition
and not as a theme in itself.
He concluded by saying that S.F. writers are generally underpaid,
to which remark Harry Harrison shouted "Hear hear!” Many S.F.
writers use novel length ideas for short stories, said Crispin,
and noted that thanks to Ken Slater there were 60 titles he could
not mention, either favourably or unfavourably, a reference to the
Convention’s novel competition. He closed a most stimulating talk
with the note that people do not like to be told that Man is unimportant
and that S.F. is the major revolution which has occurred in literature
since Marlowe and Shakespeare.
In answer to questions Mr Crispin said that he had chosen his
pen name from “Crispin” meaning curly haired and “Rufus” meaning
red. He did not like “Rufus” so substituted “Edmund” from King Lear.
He was once asked to write a SF story and he had sent it to F&SF
but it had been rejected with “a long, cautious and courteous letter.”
He said that because of main stream writers entering the field the
name of SF was becoming debased in the eyes of the general reading
public. He deplored the success of that which is bad and also the
state of affairs which allows the bad to be successful.
HARRY HARRISON presented some new slants on the old theme
of’ Sex & Censorship in Science Fiction. He spoke first on profanity.
The hero of his story Deathworld struggled and clawed his way through
70,000 words yet the word “damn” was cut from the Analog version
of the story. Harrison said that Campbell was not aware of this,
and mentioned the sub-editing rules and taboos of that magazine.
He spoke of the now-famous example of over-riding this censorship
when George O. Smith wrote of the original ball- bearing mousetrap
machine. He held up a cover from the Regency paperback Damn It which
appeared on all newsstands. Children can read this word, but readers
of Analog can’t. He quoted further examples from the British and
American editions of Aldiss’ Non-Stop, which dealt differently with
a reference to some near-innocent sex-play.
Harrison then went on to talk of chamber pots. As he showed a
mention of this utensil is widely accepted in Danish advertisements,
but when he attempted to refer to a pot in mature, adult S.F. he
again met with this ridiculous censorship. His conclusion, he said,
was that although SF was trying to present a mature image it had
not as yet thoroughly grown away from the old taboos of its pulp
origins.
Ted Carnell said that he himself publishes the word “bastard”
which offends him personally but deletes other references which
offend him. He said that we were entering a world of sickness and
quoted as an example the TV programme That Was The Week That Was
which depended basically upon sick humour and yet which still receives
good reviews. He said that 20% of thc stories received by Nova from
new or unknown authors were in the “sick” category.
Tom Boardman agreed with Ted Carnell that a publisher has to
have a set of rules and mentioned that he always changes the profanity
“Jesus Christ!” to “God!” in order to sell a book in Ireland.
Ted Tubb said that S.F. is trying to break away from its association
with the pulps and by association is linking itself with mainstream
literature but that it still possesses these taboos.
PETER HAMMERTON of the Lincoln Astronomical Society who
has attended conventions previously presented a Saturday afternoon
slide show called Journey Into Space. Although the facts it covered
were somewhat basic for the old guard fans the coverage was extremely
thorough and the slides themselves were excellent.
A FOUR PIECE BAND and T.V. cameramen were in attendance
on the Saturday evening for the Fancy Dress Party. The theme of
the fancy dress this year was “After The End” and monsters were
certainly in evidence. It was good to see the support given this
venture by new convention attendees and Ted Tubb - hardly a newcomer,
really, - caused quite a stir by rushing into the hall clothed in
a costume made up sheets of manuscripts. Harry Nadler of Salford
was adjudged “Best Monster of the Year” and another special prize
went to cat girl Janet Shorrock, whilst Tony Walsh won first prize
for his costume which was simplicity personified - a sandwich-board
man toting the slogans “Prepare to Meet Your Beginning” and “The
Beginning is At Hand.”
JACK WILSON won the art competition’s award for best colour
work and was also presented with the special award donated by the
Science Fiction Club of London. Runner up in the colour section
was Terry Jeeves. Eddie Jones won the award for the best black and
white work and Terry Jeeves took the cartoon award. Philip Harbottle’s
artwork on themes of J.R.Fearn was highly commended and Marcus Ashby’s
backdrop was judged to be perfect and greatly contributing to the
success of the convention.
THERE WAS QUITE A GOOD TURN OUT on Sunday morning for
the fairly early talk on TAFF by 1962 Delegate and Present Adminstrator
Ethel Lindsay who was supported by Eric Bentcliffe and Ron Bennett.
Ethel defined TAFF and said that there was over $500 in the kitty
at the moment. In a general discussion on the Fund Ted Tubb suggested
that votes should be able to be bought, 2/6d for the first vote,
an additional 5/- for the second, an additional 10/- for the third
and so on. Bobbie Gray suggested a limit to the number of votes
which could be bought. Ella Parker suggested that the voting fee
should be doubled. It was now 2/6d in the UK to 50cents in the USA.
This point had been brought up five years ago, but the time was
now probably right to double these fees. A vote was taken on this
suggestion and a majority voted in favour. ((Note that the vote
was in favour of this suggestion being made to those controlling
the Fund.. No attempt was made at any time during the discussion
to dictate to the Administrators.)). Ken Slater suggested that the
fund might be liable to income taxation. Archie Mercer said that
he was against the open election and that possibly a panel of selectors
might be formed to choose the TAFF delegate. Eric Bentcliffe and
Frances Varley pointed out that interest in the Fund would so drop
and that less money would be collected. Ted Tubb suggested that
the host country choose the delegate but Ron Bennett pointed out
the differences between American and British fandoms which possibly
precluded this suggestion being taken up. Ted Tubb also suggested
that it should not be obligatory for a delegate to produce a report.
The discussion was cut short by Ken Slater who reminded the gathering
that it was time for the BSFA AGM.
AT THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH
SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION Chairman Terry Jeeves outlined the
schemes inaugurated during the year and mentioned that Vector, the
official journal, hoped to go on to printed covers shortly. It had
been a year of “solid slog,” he said, mentioning the year’s crises
when Association Editor Ella Parker had to give up her post and
when the BSFA Library had had to be moved to Liverpool. Round-robin
letters were being started and there was a scheme in hand for encouraging
aspiring writers. Chris Miller asked how new members were being
recruited and Brian Aldiss muttered “thumbscrew.” Peterborough was
voted in as next year’s convention site and next year’s BSFA Committee
was decided upon, as follows: Chairman - Phil Rogers. Vice-chairman
- office jointly held by Bobbie Gray & Tony Walsh. Secretary
- Maxim Jakubowski. Treasurer - Jill Adams keeps her post. Publications
Officers - Archie Mercer & Michael Rosenblum. -
PETER MABEY, who for personal reasons could not attend
the Convention, but who has in the recent past given up much time
and devoted much energy to the successful running of the BSFA Library,
was the first recipient of the beautiful cup presented in memory
of Dr. Arthur R. Weir, the “Doc Weir” Memorial Award. Congratulations,
Peter, upon an honour so well deserved.
GEOFF DOHERTY, editor of the anthology “Aspects of Science
Fiction” spoke on anthologising SF for schools. Should SF be stuffed
down the throats of children, he asked, mentioning that many people
had a dislike for the literature they had had forced upon them at
school. He did not feel that this criticism applied to SF, however,
for the children liked SF - he mentioned Tom Godwin’s Cold Equations
as a good example - and they even asked for more. Doherty said that
writing about human emotional experience is nothing new. This cannot
be otherwise for any writing springs from experience either known
or imagined. He mentioned SF-type imagery in non-SF, quoting Browning,
Bunyan and Milton. Outsiders write material which resembles SF,
he said. There is an affinity of manner of thought. Huxley, for
example, is moved by a different view of mankind from the accepted
and this fits into SF. He spoke of the pattern of mankind in stories
since Darwin and said that more and more will write stories which
sound like SF and that this has been so since gadgets were impressed
as images in the public mind.
THE PRO PANEL was this year organised on novel lines.
There were so many professionals present that they appeared in relays.
Four speakers answered two or three questions from the audience
and then two of these were replaced by two others. A cross section
of the session is as follows:
Question “What would you write if you didn’t write science fiction?”
John Brunner: Old and neglected civilisations. Brian Aldiss: Sex.
Mike Moorcock:- mountain climbing. Geoff Doherty:-Sex plays.
Question: “How do-you write?” Harrison said he wrote notes when
writing a short story but a novel involved long correspondence between
himself and his editor. He wrote short letters to John Campbell
and got back 4,000 word letters. Mike Moorcock said that ideas were
often in his mind as long as two years before the stories were written.
Edmund Crispin said that he attempted to write regular hours when
working on a novel, from 9.30 to 12.30. He wrote in long hand on
lined paper and usually gave up to go out to the pub at 11.30.
On the question of sequels to stories, Harry Harrison said that
if a book is written “right” it doesn’t need a sequel. Brian Aldiss
said. “For those in peril on the sequel.” Edmund Crispin said that
there was the occasional exception to the rule about sequels.
The panel agreed that it would be a good thing for authors to
receive royalties from lending library sales but that there did
not appear to be any working scheme.
Question: “Have you ever taken your scenes or characters direct
from life?” Harry Harrison: Never. Dan Morgan agreed that a writer
does not use people from life but perhaps uses an amalgam. Edmund
Crispin said that he had used odd details and agreed with Kingsley
Amis who said that he had once put a character directly into a book
and that that character had rather liked Amis’ interpretation of
the type, without recognising himself. Amis said that he felt “I’d
failed there.”
Question:”What was the first SF story ever to make an impression
on you?” Edmund Crispin: “The Silver Locusts.” Kingsley Amis said
that he remembered two stories, one in which a creature was created
in a laboratory - “It grew!” - and one in which there was a moon
weed which ran after you. Dan Morgan remembered “A Journey to the
Centre of the Earth” and Asimov’s Foundation stories. Harrison spoke
of being seven years old and alone in the house reading a story
in which the hero had travelled to the Arctic to find himself back
in the age of the dinosaurs. He also remembered “The Princess of
Mars.”
The panel was asked about Russian SF and Kingsley Amis said that
it lacked action dependent upon a crisis in the story. “In a well-planned,
well-run economy one does not find crises. He told of soviet stories
in which aliens are intelligent and therefore socialist. Max Jakubowski
who is now living in London but who has sold SF in France said that
Russian SF “is very heavy”. John Carnell drew a parallel with the
early German SF. Ken Bulmer and Mack Reynolds who spoke on background
in SF also made up the panel which was Cut off in full stride -
aren’t they always? - by lack of time.
ERIC BENTCLIFFE pre-sented a fannish slide-show, The Gafia
Show which included shots of the August 1962 Liverpool party and
of visits by himself and Liverpool fans to the Black Sea coast,
Yugoslavia, the 1960 Pittcon, New York, Venice and the Lido di Jessolo
(Archie Mercer: “Take Me to Your Lido.”)
AT AN EXTRA-ORDINARY BUSINESS MEETING on the Sunday evening
in the Wakeford Lounge a goodly proportion of the attendees gathered
to discuss plans for holding next year’s convention in Peterborough.
Ken Slater pointed out that he could not afford the time away from
his business to put on next year’s convention but was willing to
take charge of professional displays. George Locke said that he
would be willing to produce the convention’s newsletters and Ken
Slater said that he would also be willing to look after the hotel
bookings. At the end of the meeting Ethel Lindsay staggered out
to find herself in charge of the 1964 programme. She was supported
(yes, held up) by Tony Walsh who looked shaken himself - he will
wake up to find himself Convention Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer,
a formidable combination. Peter West offered to provide and put
on the films and is asking anyone to suggest titles of both professional
and/or amateur SF films they would like to see next year. (Peter
West, 12 Riffel Road., London NW 2) How about The Trouble With Harry,
Peter?
ERIC JONES spoke on behalf of the Cheltenham Circle and
said that the group had recently lost one of their leading members,
Bob Richardson. Eric said that Bob had been responsible for starting
the Order of St. Fantony and that it had been suggested that members
of the Order might wish to show their regard for Bob in some way.
It was suggested that the Order (and anyone else who so wishes)
presents Bob’s daughter, Linda, with some premium bonds. This idea
was readily seized upon and several donations and pledges were made
on the spot. Eric is to circularise members of the Order within
the next few weeks.
THE OFFICIAL PROGRAMME closed with the traditional film
show which this year featured two full length films. The first to
be shown was Jean Cocteau’s sub-titled fantasy Orphee which was
reasonably well attended. The hall, however, was packed out for
the second film, Fritz Lang’s pre-war Metropolis which, a British
Convention tradition in itself, was last shown in fan circles at
the 1951 London Convention at the Royal Hotel. The general SF effects
and the depiction of the city of the future were generally fabulous
though the silent medium of the film led to outmoded film conventions
like overacting. The film was thus viewed on two distinct levels
and there were many impromptu remarks from the audience. These frankly
made the film even more enjoyable and several convention attendees
mentioned that this was the best part of an extremely witty, varied,
stimulating and fabulous programme.
THERE WERE TWO AUCTIONS during the convention with Ken
Slater and Ted Tubb taking the hammers. Ted, as most fans probably
know, is an entertainment in himself once he gets into full stride.
Holding up four magazines he asks for a bid of 2/6, gets it and
smoothly asks the bidder for ten shillings. “Oh, yes, two and six,”
he says, “Each!” He reads extracts from books, improvising wildly.
He jokes, he bullies. It's all in good fun for a good cause and
he draws the crowd. More Tubb auctions next year, please.
THE CONVENTION PROGRAMME BOOKLET was again fantastically
designed and produced by Eddie Jones and Norman Shorrock who have
set, over the past three conventions, a standard it will to hard
to live up to. This year a feature was the supplementary section
which gave programme items in extremely handy pocket size.
THE CONVENTION RAN A NOVEL COMPETITION. Guest of Honour
Edmund Crispin chose 12 books which he would like with him were
he wrecked on a desert island. The winner with 10 correct (4 entries,
10 correct titles in each entry) was G.M.Webb of Ealing. The 12
Crispin-chosen titles were: Rogue Moon by Budrys, The Silver Locusts
by Bradbury, More Than Human by Sturgeon, The Kraken Wakes by Wyndham,
The Space Merchants by Kornbluth & Pohl, The Dragon in the Sea
by Herbert, Tomorrow Sometimes Comes by Rayer, A Fall of Moondust
by Clarke, The Syndic by Kornbluth, The Asimov Foundation series,
The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut and Hothouse by Aldiss.
THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE CONVENTION is not to be ignored.
The Hotel staff was extremely friendly and. special praise is given
to the night lounge waiter who should be employed to travel with
conventions. Parties were in abundance of course, with one party
thrown by Ella Parker and Ethel Lindsay being of special note. At
one time there were 53 people crowded into their bedroom. Harry
Harrison made a spectacular entry, being forced almost to the floor
by the weight of numbers, yet the drink in his hand remained steady.
Brag, poker and solo were the card games in evidence this year.
Headline for Skyrack: - Bennett lost! The photo competition was
won by Jhim Linwood for his picture in the “After The End” section.
The Los Angeles SFS sent a cable of good wishes which was scrambled
slightly in its passage and was interpreted by Arohie Mercer who
noted that amongst the names of those who had signed it was Jack
Harness twice. The food at the hotel was agreed to be good but expensive
and most fans ate out at either the Minster Grill or the definitely
favoured Chinese restaurant ‘The Great Wall’. The auction for artwork
on display brought over £9.
“Five teas and send them to bathroom four.” - “You know where
it is, don’t you?”
TOM BOARDMAN is to publish SF Horizons, described as science
fiction’s first professional magazine of serious criticism and comment.
Published twice yearly, the first issue will be on the stands early
June and will include a transcription of a tape conversation between
C.S. Lewis and Kingsley Amis, a 10,000 word article on Jack Williamson’s
Legion of Time by Brian Aldiss and The Use of Language in SF by
Geoff Doherty as well as material by James Blish and Robert Conquest.
Editors will be Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss and SF Horizons
will sell at 3/6 d.
CONVENTION ATTENDEES HAVE LUCKY ESCAPE. Bobbie Gray and
Sandra Hall received minor injuries during their drive home from
the convention in Peter West’s van. Caught at the end of a traffic
jam just over the brow of a steep bridge on the A11 outside Newmarket,
Peter’s van was stationary when it was rammed in the rear by a motor
cycle travelling at high speed. Both the motor cyclist and pillion
passenger also received minor injuries but both vehicles are total
wrecks and broken glass was scattered through the van. Sandra was
badly jarred, Peter got away with a grazed knee and Bobbie sustained
a cut shin which required three stitches. All agree that it could
have been far worse.
IT IS UNDERSTOOD that as Atlas will shortly be losing
their BRE Analog (it is shortly to be imported by another firm)
they are contemplating bringing out a magazine called Venture which
will be made up of stories previously not reprinted in this country
and taken from old American issues of F&SF.
The paper Boy’s World is to commence serialisation of Harry Harrison’s
Death World in July. This will run over twenty instalments.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS, Germany has its own regular
professional sf magazine. The first-issues of the German edition
of F&SF are on the stands. In pocket book format and featuring
a selection from the original American editions. The first issue
included stories by Asimov, de Vet, Wyndham, Clarke. / Clarke’s
novel.A Fall of Moon Dust has been published in Germany in the Reader’s
Digest series of book selections nextdoor to A.J. Cronin which seems
to bear out something about the image of sf these days.
THE FOURTH NIEDERRHEIN CON was held over 23rd/24th March
weekend and T.V. coverage invited those present to speak on sf.
“Even lines from Shaw and Heinlein about the important traits of
literature were quoted,” says attendee Tom Schlueck, but results
were nightmarish with the label “Juvenile scatter-brains” given
to the T.V. newscast in which the interviews appeared.
THE MAY US F&SF is the long-awaited Bradbury appreciation
issue (with two new stories by Bradbury, a complete bibliography
and an article on Bradbury by William F. Nolan who was responsible
some dozen years ago for the Ray Bradbury Review. The May F&SF
also includes a story by Jim Ballard, Mike.
NINE AWARD WINNING SHORTS have been collected together
by Asimov and will be published by Dobson in July under the title
The Hugo Winners (18/-). / Penguin are bringing out monthly sf titles,
and the long-awaited second Aldiss anthology will appear as the
August. selection.
BRIAN ALDISS thanked me for the Skyrack poll winner’s
scroll and was even inspired to poetry but lack of space precludes
publication of the epic. / Ed Meskys (c/o Norman Metcalf, PO Box
336, Berkeley 3., California) requires copies of Skyrack 42 &
47 and also of the Freeman-Lindsay produced Skyreck. / One-time
London visitor Jim Caughran married 23rd March. / Bruce Pelz now
a definite TAFF candidate to run against Marion Bradley and Wally
Weber and there is a good chance of a fourth name to come yet. /
It looks as though Bill Morse will be emigrating to Canada. / Ethel
Lindsay spent two post-con days in Yorkshire visiting Colin Freeman,
editor of Scribble. / Ella Parker, Ted Forsyth, Jim Linwood, Terry
Jeeves and Ken Cheslin sent a con tape.
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