Loc on Vanamonde 1014, 1015 and 1019 (John Hertz, ed.)

Dear John:

Over the last little while, you’ve sent me individual issues of Vanamonde, and I did pick up an issue of APA-L 2480 wile at the LASFS clubhouse this past November, so I have three issues outstanding, 1014, 1015 and 1019. Time for a letter of comment!

1014…I think most of us with morals will say I want to work for a living, but thank Ghod for a social safety net should I be laid off or unable to work. This is socialism up here, and in most other places, too, and I rely upon it. I certainly have relied upon it in the past, especially when I had my eye operation about five years ago now. It would be disingenuous of me to say the operation was free, but with health premiums paid to the provincial government in the past, the operation was already paid for, and I was not subject to years of paying off what was certainly a very expensive procedure. What some may label as socialism, I would call prudence.

How terrible that an English professor might object to science fiction because it relied on imaginative readers. To me, that says little about other genres who might cater to unimaginative readers, and even less about readers themselves. These days, in this passive consumer age, anyone reading anything should be praised and encouraged.

As a Canadian, we are subject to both American and British vocabulary, so perhaps our grasp of English is even wider than most. I can go for a bag of chips, and then have fish and chips for dinner, and know what I’m getting each time. Then again, my Scottish mother, God rest her soul, would have called what goes in the bag tattie crisps. To the best of my knowledge, Canadian bacon isn’t Canadian, either. It’s back bacon?

Indeed, Loscon 39’s newsletter was the ZomBee. What a wonderful early Christmas present that week was, and such a good time.

1015…Never question authority! They don’t know the answers either…  Not far away from where I am is a bar called The Office. “Don’t wait up for me, I’ll be stuck in The Office all evening…”

Give how the art on the front of a science fiction novel might seem a little cheesy, or in a recent case, deemed unimaginative and repetitive, I would think we’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover, and open its pages for a clearer judgment. However, given the truism of “So many books, so little time”, you might need to make the judgment of the cover to find the books truly worth reading.

I think a sizable percentage of the population of the Reno Worldcon sat on that Throne of Swords. Indeed, I hope to never fit in that chair; it was certainly meant for wider posteriors than mine.

The game Trivial Pursuit has an interesting story as the product of a couple of friends from Montréal trying to come up with a game they could sell. They designed the board and questions and pieces…the originators were Scott Abbott and Chris Haney, and they made their fortune with the game. We need a definitive fannish version, a large box of fannish questions, but these days, the fannish community is dying and dissipating, and have my doubts it will survive the next couple of decades. I hope I’m wrong!

1019…The Loscon issue! Yes, Christian McGuire made sure that we were the Fan Guests of Honour, the British/Canadian spelling. Honestly, we were treated like king and queen, our gifts were spectacular, our workload modest, and we tried to be everywhere as much as we could, and as time goes on, I am not sure how well we succeeded. We heard that many people who promised to volunteer and help out never showed up, so Yvonne helped Jerome Scott out with the set up of the art show paperwork (Betty K-L is now out east with work responsibilities), and I schlepped about a dozen trolley-loads of stuff from the truck at the loading dock to registration, the Green Room, and the con suite. The work had to be done, and better to be busy than just sitting around, doing some thumb-twiddling. Happy to help out. We passed out Loscon Hall Costume buttons/ribbons, and we made several people extremely happy, as they said they’d been showing off costumes at Loscon for years, and had never won one.

I spoke a little to Melissa Conway there, and I wonder if I should just ship my own fanzine collection down there? I am not sure if there are any organizations or universities who’d want them, and Murray Moore has more than enough zines to keep him entertained in his retirement. We were exhausted the Saturday night, and took in a couple of parties before we headed to our room to collapse for the night. We did panels on fanzines, Harry Potter, steampunk and for me, thank you Craig Miller, voicework, and finding more to do, and trying to turn professional at it.

So much more I could say, Yvonne would have to jog my failing memory. We have yet to sit down and write a trip report, and it has already been promised to Chris Garcia for a future issue of The Drink Tank. Many thanks for these three issues, and I hope more issues from the past year will arrive soon.

nbsp;                                                                      Yours Lloyd Penney.