SFL Archives Vol 16b readthrough update 01

100% completion, 149 bookmarks

-Movies & tv series mentioned: TERMINATOR 2, GREYSTOKE, NAKED GUN 2.5, HOOK, STAR TREK 6, ALIEN 3, ADDAMS FAMILY, HIGHLANDER 2, DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, THE ROCKETEER, CIRCUITRY MAN, SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, THE FISHER KING, EVIL DEAD 2, C.H.U.D., HARDWARE, HELLRAISER 3, CAST A DEADLY SPELL, BATMAN 2, SUPERMAN 4, SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, BLADERUNNER DIRECTORS CUT, THE BLUE LAGOON.

-Stories and books mentioned:  HALO, TEKLORDS, HERALDS OF VALDEMAR, BARDIC VOICES, MARTIAN RAINBOW, TEKLAB, LIFE DURING WARTIME, LOST ART, FOUCAULTS PENDELUM, THE TIME BENDER, THE WORLD SHUFFLER, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, KILLDOZER, PIGS IS PIGS, EYE OF ARGON, THE ROCKETEER, LOST CITY OF ZORK, THE GENERAL, BOOK OF EBON BINDINGS, SKYFALL, OUT ON BLUE SIX, DAMAINO, EARTH ABIDES, STAR ROVER, RAISING THE STONES, TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY, A HISTORY OF SECRET SOCIETIES, THE NEGOTIATOR, GORD THE ROGUE, LUNAR DESCENT, GODEL ESCHER BACH: AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BOND, NEEDFUL THINGS, THE TROUBLE WITH LICHEN, MAN WHO AWOKE, THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE, IN PURSUIT OF VALIS, HARPY HIGH, CASTLE PERILOUS, RATS AND GARGOYLES.

-Pop culture references: Lily Marlene, Punxsutawny Phil, PostScript, Nanptechnology, Eye of Argon, Hayes 1200 smart-modems, Whole Earth Catalog, the BBC tape library archives purge, C.H.U.D., SKYNET, whoever the "Cabana Boys" are, ROM, SpaceKnight, Captain Jacks Rum, the SciFi Channels initial slate of scheduled programming, Paul Reubens masturbating in that movie theater, Madonna, the American tv series pilot of RED DWARF, the movie book option to 'THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE"

-Death notices: Gene Roddenberry.

-SFLer's from almost everywhere in the world are popping up. Japan, Australia, Africa, Europe, India, Turkey, Scotland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, navy.milnet, etc. 

-Repeated instances of public sex happening at TimeCon 1991, along with another extreme SF&F convention called EROTICON SIX, tailored to the BDSM enthusiast crowd. Keeping with this trend, discussion of SF Porn, and there is many examples I'm not going to re-transcribe here.

(2020 note: If you are curious to see what was mentioned, word search SFL Archives Volume 16B for "SFPorn".)

-Commentary on George O Smith's THE EARTH ABIDES features the very first time an author is called a Nazi, or an authors work is declared Aryan propaganda in SFL Archives history.

-The forgotten SF works of Jack London. 

-The details finally leak about how Jerry Pournelle lost his ARPANET access forever.

(2020 note: Pournelle lost his ARPANET access back in 1982 or 1983, and I wondered exactly how Pournelle lost his ARPANET access a few times earlier in my SFL Archives readthrough summaries.)

-Discussion of Umberto Eco's published stories, more specifically how to catch all the layered secret society references in Eco's FOUCAULTS PENDELUM.

-Michael Straczynski is noted as having been hired to write the pilot episode for a reboot of the 1980's "V" series.

(2020 note: The description of what happens in the JMS written pilot sounds a lot like what happened in seasons 2 & 3 of BABYLON 5.)

-How various SLFer's would go about designing SKYNET to make it work better and remove any possible pesky time-traveller hijinks.

-The beginning of TERMINATOR movie franchise dueling timelines discussion: Does Terminator 2 invalidate Terminator 1? How did the T-1000 travel back in time? Are the dates off? Does John Connor seem to old/too young for the dates GoodArnie recites to Dyson & Sarah Connor?

(2020 note: Thanks to the SFLers repeatedly mentioning organic sacks, sort of want to see a scene where the T-1000 travelled back in time inside a giant pumpkin. Which if you stretch things might result in a PEANUTS The Great Pumpkin/TERMINATOR franchise mashup that I would pay to see.)

-BLADERUNNER: DIRECTORS CUT discussion vs the original 1982 theatrical release. Various scenes been cut and added. SFLer's claiming it is Ridley Scotts final vision for the film. Mention is made of Mary, the All-American Mother Replicant.

-Everything terrible inside the Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn novel FALLEN ANGELS. Cannibal black people, slavery, global warming is fake, hero SF&F fandom saving everyone, evil treehuggers, hard men making hard calls, different versions of slavery, other libertarian things, etc. 

-SFLer's note that H Beam Piper's theft of Robert Heinlein's flat-cats in the H Beam Piper LITTLE FUZZY stories are not theft because according to Heinlein his "flat cats" are just Ellis Parker Butler's "dago pigs" with the serial numbers filed off.

-The before-before times for 1991 SFLers, when Isaac Asimov wasn't so openly pompous about himself in AISFM editorials and hadn't totally iced John W Campbell out on co-creation rights for the THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS. 

-Science Fiction stories of the 1920's, '30s, '40s, '50s being incomprehensible to modern 1990's readers due to dated references to vacuum tubes, physically cutting antennas, toggles, etc. On the same note, SFLer's start debating the merits of 1991 SF&F magazines, and none of the commentary makes sense to a 2020 reader.

(2020 note: Funnily, steampunk & maker communities mean that some of those long-dead technologies mentioned aren't so dead anymore. On the other hand, Analog magazine is dead? Asimov Magazine is dead, Amazing Stories is super-dead, Pulphouse is probably dead, etc.)

-The people of usenet group rec.arts.sf-lovers get tired of seeing messages posted from non-usenet users/the SF-LOVERS mailing list gateway onto rec.arts.sf-lovers, and vote to sever the two-way mirroring. The SFL Archives mailing list-moderator grudgingly disconnects the two-way link after months of delays, then re-enables a one-way gateway link on the down-low for "content/This mailing list moderator position gives me internet power" reasons

-The former co-heads of BOSKONE 25 Jim Mann & Laurie Mann become super-toxic about conventions when discussion about the voting for WorldCon 1994 comes up. Sadly conventions is all that Jim & Laurie Mann ever post about in the SFL Archives. Their toxicity comes from the Mann husband-wife adopting a "I see nothing negative. I hear nothing negative. I know nothing negative." towards their own preferred conventions/friends conventions, but then proceed to drag up dirt regarding competitors conventions.

-A resurgence of Marion Zimmer Bradley discussion.

-STAR TREK 6 went over well with most of the SFL. The main cast of TOS seeming to act out of character, wonky special effects, design spec changes of the Enterprise, those damn gravity boots from ST5 appearing, Kim Cattrall's character not having a standardized Vulcan name, Michael Dorf & Christian Slater cameo appearances, how TNG series canon effects ST6/how ST6 effects TNG series canon, etc. 

 George Takei's 15 minutes of screen-time as Captain of a non-Enterprise spaceship had many vocal SFLer's hoping for the adventures of Captain Sulu (while sidelining or preferably killing Kirk) in a possible Captain Sulu spinoff tv-series.

-Raymond Feist ripping off the TEKUMEL setting comes up again repeatedly. The same person from SFL Archives 1987 & 1990? is back making the same "I have a document with 300 points of similarity between Tekumel & Feist's Riftwar books". Stuff like metal poorness, laquered armors, identically described lizardous subraces, city names, geography, etc. A few SFLer's make the claim that Feist wasn't ripping off Tekumel directly, Feist was merely stealing the setting/characters/plotlines of the homebrew RPG campaign of  a un-named GameMaster that Feist had a character in...and that the un-named GameMaster running the homebrew RPG campaign was the person with the all Tekumel/D&D/Tunnels & Trolls sourcebooks, not Raymond Feist. 

(2020 note: I really don't care what the true background behind Riftwar is. Many SF&F authors have based some of their works off of other authors or sometimes incorporate one or two interesting tidbits from RPG sourcebooks. It's the wholesale copying without acknowledgement that bothers me, especially if Feist ripped off the work of a un-named GM for 10+ books)

-First mention of R.A. Salvatore in the SFL Archives, along with the rumor that Salvatore also writes under a pen-name.

(2020 note: I have no idea, and refuse to look this up. Want to say that R.A. Salvatore has released roughly 40 books since the 1990's, so if he was also writing under a pen-name too, that is impressive output.)

-PRESERVE YOUR SOFTWARE AT ALL COSTS. THE REST IS MEAT. vs PRESERVE YOUR HARDWARE AT ALL COSTS. THE REST IS NOISE. 

-A advertisement for CONFLAGRATION 1992, a convention catered towards SF pornography and so much more.

------------------------------

Date: 10 Aug 91 18:24:32 GMT

From: davep@milton.u.washington.edu (David Ptasnik)

Subject: CONFLAGRATION ChiCon Room Party

Everyone is invited to the CONFLAGRATION room party at ChiCon.  Look for

our signs for the day, time, and room number at the Hyatt!

                                      

       CONFLAGRATION

The Convention Your MAMA Warned You About

  UNDER 21 NOT ADMITTED!

      June 19, 20, 21

   1992

     Alderbrook Resort

     Union, Washington

Guest of Honor

ANDREW J.  OFFUTT

Creator of "Shadowspawn"

Author of "Conan" Novels

Author Guest

VICKI MITCHELL

Star Trek Novel "Enemy Unseen"

Artist Guest

PHIL FOGLIO

Hugo Award Winner

Fan Guest

JOY DAY

Costumer Extraordinaire

Master of Ceremonies

JON GUSTAFSON

Professional SF Art Appraiser & Expert

Special Appearance By

JOHN CLEVE

"Spaceways"and "The Crusader" sagas

JUICY PANELS

JUICIER FILMS

FILTHY FILKING

WEENIE ROAST

MASQUERADE

BONFIRES

DEALERS

GAMING

ARCADE

BhEER

WhINE

ORGAzMS

HOSPITALITY

PARTY COTTAGES

UNCENSORED ART SHOW

SATURDAY NITE ART AUCTION

BEACH SIDE RESORT

OUTDOOR FUN

INDOOR POOL

JACUZZI

TENNIS

FISHING

SAILING

GOLF

No one under 21 will be admitted to the Northwest's ONLY

Adult Science Fiction Convention.

IS THAT A SPACESHIP IN YOUR POCKET,

OR ARE YOU JUST THINKING ABOUT CONFLAGRATION?

For something new and fresh in a Fantasy and Science Fiction Convention, we

cordially invite you to attend CONFLAGRATION in June of '92.  Our

convention will be an SF and Fantasy convention with traditional panel

discussions and activities, famous people to talk to and learn from, and a

whole bunch of outdoor fun at a gorgeous waterfront resort.  CONFLAGRATION

will include adult themes, and will be restricted to adults over 21 (photo

ID at the door, please).  We think you will really enjoy the opportunity of

taking a weekend off at one of the nicest getaway spots in the Northwest.

Plus you will be able to do it in the company of people who understand and

share an important aspect of all of our lives: fandom.  Enjoy every aspect

of SF and Fantasy without having to look over your shoulder for fear of

offending a mundane, or setting off a riot among the kids.  Register early,

we could be sold out before the convention.

Dave and Cindy Ptasnik, co-chairs

HERE ARE THE SORDID DETAILS -

FEEL THE HEAT:

At the Alderbrook Resort on the breathtakingly beautiful Hood Canal.  The

entire resort will be ours!  No kids, no mundanes, no inhibitions.

Sleeping bags and extra towels OK'd by the resort.  For reservations call

1-800-622-9370.

A credit card or personal check will guarantee reservations.

About 1 1/2 hours from Seattle in Union, WA.

About 2 1/2 hours from Portland.

Canadians use those kilometer thingies, and nobody knows how far anything

is from there.  This is a very nice (AAA recommended) facility.  Virtually

every room and cottage has an amazing territorial view of mountains, water,

and forest.  2nd and 3rd floor rooms all have balconies.  Ground floor

rooms are wheelchair accessible.  Some rooms are designed for use by the

differently abled.

SUBMISSIVE BEHAVIOR:

The staff at the Alderbrook Resort has had it's collective passion enflamed

by our coming.  They haven't had this much fun since the transvestite

convention.  Costumes are encouraged in all resort areas, including the

restaurant and lounge.  They even seemed to pant a little at the thought of

well armed virtually naked barbarians.  Small pets (no, a sheep is not a

small pet) are welcome with some conditions (ask the resort).

FOREPLAY:

Registration will be strictly limited to 350 (um) members.  Please register

under your legal name, you may also provide a badge name.  Info:

CONFLAGRATION

12345 Lake City Way

Suite 2001

Seattle, WA  98125

1-800-989-2001

206-527-2001 (Canada and Seattle area)

Please send SASE for return correspondence, there will be progress reports.

PROS:

They do it for money AND satisfaction!

Andrew J. Offutt is the finest, funniest, and downright steamiest author we

have ever encountered at a con.  From his Conan novels to Shadowspawn of

Thieves' World, Uncle Andy is the master of lurid Heroic Fantasy.  His

readings are an absolute must-hear.  The ladies will swoon over his sexy

soft drawl.

Vicki Mitchell is the hottest new best-selling author in the region, and a

true veteran of Star Trek warfare.  Meet this rising star, and learn how to

work with publishers and studios.

Phil Foglio, a recent transplant from the Midwest, is the illustrator of

the M.Y.T.H. Adventure series, and creator of Xenophile (the only explicit

American comic published in Sweden).  Let's give the author of Buck Godot a

warm (maybe even cozy) Northwest welcome.

Joy Day is one of the best costumers and most dedicated fans around.  She

has won countless masquerades nationwide, as well as a major award at a

WorldCon.

Jon Gustafson is the only professional appraiser of SF and Fantasy Art.

His knowledge is encyclopedic, which explains why he wrote the artist

biographies for The Doubleday Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

John Cleve will make a special appearance to discuss sex and science

fiction.  The author of Spaceways (the red hot 19 volume series of Playboy

books) and the positively lustful five volume Crusader epic will light your

fire.

Are you a Pro?

Drop us a line, we would love to have you participate in CONFLAGRATION.

VENUS BUTTERFLY:

Not even the National Endowment for the Arts would fund this Art Show and

Auction.  Libidinous contributions will be solicited from the finest

artists in the nation.  (The sculptures ought to be particularly

interesting.)  Bring your wallets for this one, we are encouraging artists

to send originals.  Even better, we will be holding the Art Auction on

Saturday Night.  If you don't get your first choice at auction, we will

have special Sunday Sale prices to let you fulfill your flaming desire for

the real thing, original art.

Artists: Give it to us straight, we can take it.  Unchain your wildest

fantasies for this uncensored presentation.  Show us how well you are hung.

Call or write for a copy of our art show guidelines.

BAZAAR OF ALL EARTHLY DELIGHTS:

Where Anything may be for sale.  Our dealer room will have a limited

number of tables specially selected for your Every Need or Desire

(Batteries not included).

Dealers:  send a description (or better yet a dirty picture) of your

goodies.  6' x 2.5' tables will be $10 each, membership(s) purchased

separately.  We will give a preference to theme appropriate wares, and

will try to balance our selection of merchants.  If you are not

selected, your money will be promptly refunded.

WATER SPORTS:

Wet and wild.  Sailboats, paddle boats, inner tubes, water ski tows, crab

pots, fishing gear and more will be available on the Resort's 80 foot

(that's a big one) dock.  Salt water swimming in a large roped off area

and beachcombing are free.

TALK DIRTY TO ME:

. . . in the panel rooms.  Try the panel on kissing techniques, or how to

get a bust in the mouth.  After all, that's what you're really after at

these things, right? (Hey you, with the pocket protector, stop that!).

It's guaranteed to get pretty steamy.

THERE'S A VOYEUR IN THE FOYEUR:

If you like to watch, come to the video room.  Flesh Gordon is just the

beginning.  You won't see this stuff on the Disney Channel.

THE WET SPOT:

Don't avoid this one - a HUGE indoor pool in its own building.  There is

even a jacuzzi that sits 22 (or more) friendly people.  The management

requires that something be worn at all times in the pool, like, say, a

wristwatch or earrings.  There will be a special swim for overweight

people, we can be rather shy around you skinny types.  Bring your best for

the Outrageous Inflatable Pool Toy Competition (Now where did we put those

Love Ewes?).

SHOW AND TELL:

Create your wildest costume ever for our red hot Masquerade!  No lip

synching.  No pre-judging.  No censorship.  Let your conscience be your

guide (do whatever it says you shouldn't).  Bribing the judges is

encouraged.  Awards will be given for Hottest of Show, Hottest SF, Hottest

Fantasy, Most Provocative, Most Humorous, and Least (that's right, just

Least).

ORGY CENTRAL:

Gamers do it in groups.  The festivities will be indoors and outdoors (at

last gaming comes out of the closet).  Scandalous Scavenger Hunt (it's not

OK for the ribbed condom to have been used); Clothing Optional Volleyball

(just kidding); Explicit Role-Playing tournament; Jello Snarffuling (it

sounds just as disgusting as it sounds).

GROUP GROPE:

Sex, er, uh, six cottages have been specially set aside for room parties.

If you plan to have such a party, please request one of these cottages when

making your reservation.

CLIMAX ROOM:

Our hospitality cottage will be an ultimate delight of sinful pleasure.

Chips, dips, BhEER, WhINE, PB & J (not on the sheets, please), coffee,

popcorn, candy, cake, soda pop, and munch, munch more.  We'll even have

REAL food.  Join us at our complimentary BONFIRE AND WEENIE ROAST on Friday

Night!  (Talk about oral gratification.)  Oh yeah, and our own signature

drink, The Orgazm.  We hope you will find this the most hospitable offering

on the convention circuit, with longer hours, and more good stuff all the

time.  There will be no "kitty" begging for Hospitality Suite donations.

You've already paid for the food and drink by registering.  Take your

smoking outside, that's for after the climax.

SEE YOU THERE!!!!!!!!!

------------------------------

SFL Archives Vol 16a readthrough update 01

 100% completion, 151 bookmarks

-1991 is the year when both the Robert Jordan WHEEL OF TIME books and Stephen R. Donaldson's GAP CYCLE series start being discussed in the SFL Archives.

Pop culture mentions: EXXON VALDEZ, Calstate Central Cyber system(BBS?), MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, the 1991 Gulf War/DESERT STORM 1, CNN's nonstop coverage of DESERT STORM 1, USA TODAY, JET JAGUAR, INFOCOM SOFTWARE, VMS 3.5 documentation, STAR WARS Expanded Universe, Zoetrope Studios, Ultima 5, Church of the Sub-Genius, Borders bookstores

Movies & TV series mentioned: DANCES WITH WOLVES, AKIRA, SOLARIS 1972, ICE PIRATES, DRAGON WARRIOR, ROBOCOP 2, HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, NEVER ENDING STORY PT2, FREE-JACK, GODZILLA VS MEGALON, EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS, THE LITTLE MERMAID, ROLLERBALL, THE TRANSFORMERS, THE SEVENTH SIGN, THE PEOPLE, YOUNG INDIANA JONES, THE THIRD EYE, FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND, KNIGHT RIDER 2000, THELMA & LOUISE, MORTAL THOUGHTS, SWITCH.

-SF&F books mentioned: ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER DUNGEON, GOLDEN FLEECE, JACOBS LADDER, EXPEDITION TO DARWIN FOUR, GAP INTO CONFLICT: THE REAL STORY,  BETWEEN DRAGONS, BY THE SWORD, THE SILVER BRANCH, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, MY PRETTY PONY, FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS, DOOMSMAN, PANDORA BY HOLLY HOLLANDER, DYDEE TOWN WORLD, CHUNG KUO BOOK 1, SEERESS OF KELL, THE RUBY KNIGHT/DIAMOND THRONE, TOM BROWNS SCHOOLDAYS, PYRAMIDS, EQUAL RITES, REAPER MAN, THE DESTINY MAKERS, ECCE AND OLD EARTH, THEIR MASTERS WAR, ARMAGEDDON CRAZY, C.O.R.P.S.E., WHIPPING STAR, FRANK HERBERTS EYE, TH GREEN BRAIN, FLAG FULL OF STARS, MOONWISE, MONDAY BEGINS ON SATURDAY, WAR: 1974, RING OF CHARON, TALES OF TAORMIN, HARD TO BE A GOD, FOOL ON THE HILL, HEIR TO EMPIRE, THE PORTABLE PHONOGRAPH, SOLO COMBAT, CHERNOBYL SYNDROME, PULLING THROUGH, CHILD OF ALL AGES, NECROM, VOR, LOVES THROBBING BOB, BEYOND APOLLO, BECOMING ALIEN, BEING ALIEN, HIGHWAYS IN HIDING.

-SFL Death notices: John Bellairs, Joyce Ballou Gregorian.

-Lots of very specific requests for sub-genres of SF&F such as:

>anti-religious SF&F

>religious SF&F 

>enhanced IQ fiction

>Isaac Asimov stories about aliens

>SF about the Net(Internet)

>native non-English SF

>SF maps of planets

>gender swapping stories across movies, books, tv series

> transformation/body changing stories across movies, books, tv series

>cats in SF&F stories

>evolved humans

-Discussion of Robert Anton Wilson's co-authored ILLUMINATUS! series and the follow-up Historical Illuminati Chronicles

-Fans of Katherine Kurtz's DERYNI series going overboard and creating "Michaeline" lay orders inside SCA gatherings/outside of SCA gatherings.

-Discussion of Michael Moorcock & his ETERNAL CHAMPION stories, with SFLer's attempting to make series specific timelines.

-The Peter Cushing DOCTOR WHO tv movies, and how they differed/matched up to the tv-series version.

-News of a movie novelization of A PRINCESS OF MARS being in the works/SFLer's wondering when it come out.

(2020 note: The answer is:  Roughly 21 years later under in 2012 the title JOHN CARTER)  

-SFLer Gregory R Weiss sees extreme similarities in certain aspects of ULTIMA 5 and Stephen Donaldson's CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT.

-QUANTUM LEAP the tv-series discussion. SFLer's either loathe the premise/actors entirely or horny post about the situations Sam Beckett gets put into every new episode that allow Scott Bakula to sing/dance/show off his body.

-The first mention of people visiting HP Lovecraft's gravesite in Providence RI, and leaving offerings to him on the gravestone.

-The time when there was "a plethora of "chimpanzee stories" in various SF mags including one story containing human/chimp sex." 

-Gene Roddenberry's various attempts to get non-STAR TREK SF&F series going.

(2020 note: Lots of the plot elements and names would be recycled. GENESIS 2, Dylan Hunt, the Pax, etc.)

-Douglas Adams being iconic and various things about HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, DIRK GENTLY, movie adaptation, failed computer games, etc.

-Trivia about what the "third button" in the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Vipers actually did.

-A few SFLers try mapping STAR WARS 1:1 onto ARTHURIAN MYTHOS, but are already combining Arthurian Mythos roles by the 2nd sentence.

-First SFL mention of the Arkady & Boris Strugatski 1964 book HARD TO BE A GOD.

(2020 note: This book got adapted into a movie twice and a cRPG/RTS game series.) 

-A Paramount Studios grass-roots survey asking what STAR TREK 6 should contain: A new cast? The TOS series recast? A TNG movie?

-Two years after DOCTOR WHO was unofficially canceled, Doctor Who fandom starts to demand answers, and blame everyone tangentially involved with the Doctor Who series except for John Nathan-Turner.

-Discussion of Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD books covering things like PYRAMIDS being a parody of TOM BROWNS SCHOOLDAYS, etc

-Timothy Zahn's HEIR TO EMPIRE formally makes the STAR WARS Expanded Universe series official canon.

(2020 note: The Star Wars EU stories would bounce in and out of canonity depending on how George Lucas felt every day. As per December 2020, a bunch of Star Wars EU stories are now canon again thanks to the season 2 of THE MANDALORIAN)

-More Harlan Ellison discussion. Ellison's behavior when asked to sign copies of DOOMSMAN, the long delayed Last Dangerous Visions collection, why older Harlan Ellison books are out of print, etc

-Who should be blamed for poor quality/terrible voice-acting dubs when Japanese Anime gets exported to Europe/Americas/Africa/etc: The original producers, the regional importer, or the fanbase for continuing to buy poorly translated anime?  

-The final book in David Eddings MALLOREON series comes out, and going by the reaction, 70% of the SFL had almost everything figured out. Then SFLer's started to mention how much a carbon copy Eddings new fantasy was.

-The blink and miss it "Avoid Orion Meetings" visual Easter-Egg in ROBOCOP 2.

-Editors misprinting Isaac Asimov's name early in his career leading to the various homages to "ASENION, a quasi religious philosopher" in Asimov's later books.

-More Philip K Dick discussion: Was PKD a misandrist? How mentally troubled was PKD? PKD's obsession with the Dark Haired Girl archetype. PKD's depiction of women being more driven than the lead male characters in 95% of PKD's stories. Plus PKD's literary agent returns to show what PKD novels are getting re-released.

-SCI FI channel pre-launch status update: Badly needs subscribers, might go bankrupt fast once officially launched in 1991.

-STAR WARS discussion becomes a major thing again. A few people working on their Literature PhD try making the case that Stars Wars maps 1:1 onto Arthurian legend, but are stacking combinations of Arthurian characters onto Star Wars characters by the 3 sentence of their thesis.

-SFLer Laurie Mann shows how bad author conduct/bad fan conduct during SF&F conventions gets ignored or actively covered up. Convention organizer do a combination of the "I see nothing. I hear nothing. I know NOTHING!" Corporal Schultz from the HOGANS HEROES tv-show behavior while engaging in white-washing away terrible author & fan behavior at conventions for $$$$/attendence rea$on$. 

Let me provide some context. 

SFLer Laurie Mann was heavily associated with the NEFSA fandom organization, and was the co-head of the 1988 BOSKONE(BOSKONE 25) management committee. tldr summary: Laurie Mann was deeply involved in SF&F convention management at all levels, especially the regional yearly BOSKONE convention.

Back in 1985 Isaac Asimov wrote an memorial essay for the outgoing head editor (Shawna McCarthy) at his self-titled magazine(Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine). This memorial essay was published in/written for the BOSKONE 22 year book. Shawna McCarthy had worked at IASFM as an associate executive editor for a few years under the 1st female head editor IASFM employed. Asimov's BOSKONE 22 memorial-essay about Shawna McCarthy's time at IASFM was filled with sexual harassment start to finish, bottom to top.

BOSKONE people & Isaac Asimov fanatics never mention that Asimov written BOSKONE 22 essay for the same reasons that Robert Heinlein fanatics never seem to mention Heinlein's I SHALL FEAR NO EVIL or Edgar Allen Poe scholars never publicly discuss the orangutan in THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.

-First mention of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 in the SFL Archives.

 -The 1990 version of matter transportation chat goes unique places: how many copies/matter transportations can be made before irreversible cellular degradation takes place? And a really unique take about matter transportation equaling time travel.

-"Slow Glass" story discussion crops up in the SFL Archives again 11 years after the "slow glass" concept was originally discussed back in SFL Archives Vol 01

SFL Archives Vol 15b readthrough 01

 SFL Archives Vol 15b

3.4 mb raw text file

100% completion, 86 bookmarks

-SFL Vol 15b Book mentions: PHULES COMPANY, ZORK CHRONICLES, SEA OF GLASS, THE FACE OF MINE ENEMY, GAMEPLAYERS OF ZAN, WIZARD OF THE PIGEONS, RED STORM RISING, THE LEAKY ESTABLISHMENT, THE LAST WHALES, SPACE BY THE TALE, DHALGREN, TWO PLANETS, MOON PROSPECTOR, THE PUBLIC HATING, THE IRON STAR, DEATHGATE (book  series), BORDERTOWN & BORDERLAND, ISHMAEL, CYTEEN, PARTICOLORED UNICORN, PHOENIX, VAMPIRE$, JURASSIC PARK.

-Pop Culture mentions; the soap opera GUIDING LIGHT,  whatever "ERBitis" is, non-American SFLer's ask "Who is Mr. T?", Multi-User Domains (MUDs), Saddam Hussein, the Watchung Mountains of New Jersey, the EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE rpg, "California-In-Space" syndrome, the re-release of a semi-restored version of METROPOLIS 1927, BARDS TALE 1, the Chewbacca Star Wars Holiday Special, I DAMIANO the cRPG, 

SFL movie & TV series mentions: CHERRY 2000, GHOST 1990, ARANCHNAPHOBIA 1990, WICKER MAN 1973, QUEEN OF BLOOD, FLATLINERS, DARKMAN 1990, Japanese anime LENSMAN, THE FLASH 1990 tv series, the 1980's COSBY show, the SIMPSONS, MONSTERS tv series, PREDATOR 2, METROPOLIS 1927, Chewbacca Star Wars Holiday Special, IT 1990 tv-movie, DARK STAR,  ROBOT JOX, MISERY, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

-SFLer's continue to discuss the terrible and toxic behavior of fans and authors at SF&F conventions. Examples given of terrible, or inciting conduct on both sides. Jerry Pournelle gets revealed as one of the "screaming at fans/constantly drunk" bad conduct SF&F authors at SF&F conventions. 

-Discussion of EE Smith's life and SF writing career during the gold age - post World War 2 pulp SF era, while other SFLers try to explain away the creepier elements in Jack Chalker's stories, and other SFLers start seeing 10 layers of allusion and meta-commentary in Samuel R Delany's DHALGREN.

-More Raymond E Feist series chat, more Steven Brust series chat, more Bujold story chat, more Mercedes Lackey story chat, more Stanislaw Lem story chat, lots of CYTEEN theory-crafting, more gilding of John W Campbell's editorship skills driving SF to it's higher points. 

-The BOSKONE convention in Springfield MA gets downsized again for the 3rd straight year while the totally new convention ARISIA run by the same group doing BOSKONE gets 15 miles closer to the holy land aka Boston MA on year 2.

-SFLers mention the time when Scientologists alleged did a mass harassment campaign vs L Sprague DeCamp after DeCamp debunked some Scientology related concepts and beliefs.

-Paperback book pricing in 1990: $5.95

-TSR pulling a 2020 Disney tactic and deciding to not pay out royalties for any of the DRAGONLANCE sequels written by Margaret Weis & Tracey Hickman, which explains why those two suddenly started producing new not-Dragonlance/not-Star Wars fiction. SFLer's also mention Fizban, uh NABZIF? appearing in the DEATHGATE series books.

-The BBC refuses to schedule DOCTOR WHO for a 27th season in 1990, effectively putting the tv series into a timeless limbo forever.

(2020 note: Yes, I know the 1996 Paul McGann DOCTOR WHO movie happened, and that DOCTOR WHO  eventually got rebooted in 2005, however that was 6 & 15 yrs in the future, respectively.)

-Barbara Hambly grafting the DOCTOR WHO universe onto her STAR TREK novel ISHMAEL, Stephen Donaldson is quoted as mentioned that he is working on a new science-fiction trilogy called the GAP CYCLE, and a essay-introduction by  Kevin J Anderson on writing the GAMEARTH Trilogy gets reposted in full to the SF-LOVERS mailing list.

-1st casting news for THE TERMINATOR 2 comes out, along with rumors of office buildings already being leased out for movie location shooting. 

-"What defines a Cyborg?" chat kicked off by Terminator 2's announcement, which leads to STAR WARS chat, and other fiction that has humanoid robots/body part replacement, body part enhancements like eyeglasses.

-The emergence of more HP Lovecraft scholars, and modern 1980s-1990s fiction embracing the CTHULHU MYTHOS wholesale

-Jean Airey(?) allegedly being ripped off by a book publishing company and issuing a open letter about sending fans a photocopy of the work if they send her a self-address envelope with the correct postage on it.

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION discussion. SFLer's were excited with Shelby and had hopes of Shelby taking the 1st officer permanently w/ Riker as the new Captain of the Enterprise 1701-C. StarFleet ships not having bombs slash nuclear missiles. The UK gets the 1st season of ST:TNG as the 4th season of ST:TNG airs in the US, and the UK SFLer reactions to season 1 are interesting reads. Certain episodes of ST:TNG being banned in the UK, like the episode with a throwaway line about Irish reunification.

-The RPG EMPIRE OF THE PETAL THRONE having a extremely hardcore magic system that involved gouging out eyes, bathing in mothers blood, sacrificing dozens of virgins.

-A weird aside about the portraits in the recent Illustrated Guide to AMBER being the IRL people who Roger Zelazny based a bunch of AMBER series characters on....and those IRL people forming a AMBER SOCIETY SCA group and becoming next-level stalker invested in their AMBER counterparts to the point of physically shunning someone who Zelazny killed off in the AMBER stories.

(2020 note: I hope this is just next-level bullshit gossip, but I suspect not.) 

-PREDATOR 2 pre-release and post-release discussion covers lots of ground, including the Aliens vs Predator teaser, Predator hunting rules, who owned that old pistol, why the US Feds were dumb, etc.

-Requests for Vampire Fiction(alien/fantasy/Sime:Gen/future/Anne Rice/etc), Requests for Avianoid fiction, Requests for science-fiction Cosmic String stories, requests for fiction with Stasis Field elements in them, etc.

-Philip K Dick discussion in 4 parts: SFLers claim PKD threw away a financial windfall to write something else, financial windfall rumor gets hard numbers, financial windfall rumor discredited, and Vonda McIntyre closes out the entire discussion by posting a open letter from PKD's final literary agent Russell Galen about PKD's work. 

-Piers Anthony starts their own 800 number, and many of the resident SFL authors are totally cool with that seethe with jealousy.

(2020 note: 800 numbers were a big thing during the 1970s -1990s before social media & texting took away the need to call phone numbers)

-Discussion of ST:TNG spaceship battle tactics in season 3 finale had a weird aside comment about the US Air Forces experiences in Vietnam lead to tactics changes & rebirth of the TOP GUN advanced fighter plane pilot training schools 

-Extended discussion of 2 Fred Saberhagen series (EMPIRE OF THE EAST, BOOKS OF SWORDS) in ways that modern SF&F fandom debate the minutia of the GAME OF THRONES & MALAZAN series. Aka what matchup would win, did X character really die, who is this mysterious masked character, etc.

-1950's pulp SF CITIES IN SPACE series discussion, with SFLer's having fond memories of the technology & the wandering space-Okie gimmick.

-Ever since the Netherlands won the WorldCon 1990 hosting gig, Worldcon 1990 notices about how to register for it/what cool things existed there for 3 yrs.Therefore it was pretty disappointing when only one person(a Worldcon 1990 convention organizer) ended up discussing WorldCon 1990.

-Lloyd Abbey's THE LAST WHALES having "..considerable amounts of  cetacean sex, which should induce a becoming humility in all human readers.."

-ALIEN NATION the tv-series is officially cancelled by FOX, fans of the tv series start a letter writing campaign to get the decision reversed.

(2020 note: The letter writing campaign would be partially successful..two or three ALIEN NATION tv-movies happened due to the letter writing campaign.) 

-EC Tubb's DUMAREST series being brought up, again, as one of the main world-building inspirations for the TRAVELLER RPG.

-SFL reviewer-idiot Mark Leeper completely plagiarizes a newspaper career review of Ray Harryhausen from back when CLASH OF THE TITANS 1981 came out, nobody calls them on their bullshit. Meanwhile Evelyn Leeper was nominated for the 1990 Best Fan Writer Hugo for as recognition for all of her unpaid SF&F media reviewer posts across USENET.

-Return of Tolkienian discussion to the SFL Archives after 2 years of silence. SFLer's debate who delivered the killing blow on the Angmar WitchKing ShadowWraith, what Balrog's canonically look like, the mechanics of elf souls vs mankind souls and where do Tolkien half-elf souls/go when they die?

-The SFWA White Knight Chug Von Rospach was mostly absent from VOL 15B. Vonda McIntyre wiped out alot of his illusionary positionr as a SF&F authority figure when she posted the open letter from PKD's literary agent Russell Galen. However the final insult slash diss to Chuq was probably when someone asked for SF&F fanzine recommendations midway through VOL 15B and no-one, no-one at all mentioned his fanzine, OtherRealms(?).

-SFL VOL 15B closes out with Vonda McIntyre posting the first 3 or 4 pages of her 1990 novel TRANSITION to the SF-LOVERS mailing list. 

SFL Archives Vol 15a readthrough

SFL Archives Vol 15a

4.3 mb raw text file 

100% completion, 93 bookmarks

-SFLer Chris Siebenmann on the main character in Robert Heinlein's THE CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS:

Actually, I think it did an excellent job of telling you Col.  Campbell's

race in a very underhanded and easily overlooked fashion.  If you look at

the cover again, you'll see that Campbell is VERY dark for a caucasian; one

can see this either as a very deep suntan (what most people will probably

automatically think it is, especially when combined with the white hair) or

an indication of his race (his last name strong implies he's somewhat of a

crossbreed, after all).

-A recap of Iain (M) Banks published books based on a 1989 interview with JOURNAL WIRED. 

(2020 note: That interview is a nice "slice-in-time" find for seeing how Iain Banks viewed his own work back in 1989)

-Glen Cook porno novel THE SWAP ACADEMY (@1970 published under the pen-name Greg Stevens).

-Chuq Von Rospach continues their streak of listing Chuq Von Rospach's fanzine as the sole mailing address all SF-LOVER reader correspondence to sick/ill/dying SF&F authors should go through.

(2020 note: This is one of the many reasons why I find Von Rospach, aka the SFWA White Knight, so grating doing this SFL Archives readthrough)

-Much discussion of the movie TOTAL RECALL 1990, and exactly what was "real" and what was "fake" in it. Since TOTAL RECALL 1990 contained female nudity, Mark Leeper automatically gave it +2 rating despite hating everything in it.

-SFL Archives technology mentions: GEnie, the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), Citadel BBS Network, SSI cRPGs CURSE OF AZURE BONDS, CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN, COMPUTE GAZETTE, Apple HYPERCARD

-TOR Books never actually gets around to doing the corrected reprint runs of Walter Jon Williams 1989 novel ANGEL STATION that they publicly pledged to do in 1989, leaving people/bookstores with a lot of mutilated useless books they can't resell. 

-Weapons Policies at SF&F conventions & bringing real Weapons to SF&F conventions debate, because Loud Radios (at night?) briefly got added to the banned item lists at certain 1989-1990 conventions.

-SFL Archives pop culture 1st mentions: Steve Jackson Games, Steve Jackson Games Illuminati getting seized by the FBI, GURPS, WILD CARDS GURPS, WHO'S THE BOSS, Kirk Cameron, PALLADIUM RPG, STEAMPUNK fiction, ALIENS VS PREDATOR comic series, Dark Horse Comics, Batman series character JASON TODD getting killed off by reader voting, Clive Cussler self-inserting himself into his DIRK PITT novels, the 1986 movie SPACECAMP.

-1990 Death notices: SF&F author Robert Adams, actor David Rappaport, actress Susan Oliver, Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), SF&F artist Elizabeth Pearce.

-Naomi Mitchison's MEMOIRS OF A SPACEWOMAN which uh involves lots of emotional/erotic hookups with alien life forms. 

-What are the Most Realistically designed Aliens in Science Fiction stories?

-TOR Books stacking the decks for the 1989 Nebula Award novel category and missing all 5 times being the highlight of the "How do you know who to vote for in Best Professional editor category for the Hugo/Nebula Awards?" discussion thread.

(2020 note: 5 of the 6 nominated novels for the 1989 Nebula were published by TOR). 

-A rare case of non-PERN Anne McCaffrey fiction getting discussed, this time it's about McCaffrey's Crystal Singer stories and the cowriting attempts with Elizabeth Moon and other female authors.

(2020 note: This was a good discussion thread about female SF&F authors, and I bookmarked about every third mention while this thread was going)

-A Japanese SFLer poster gets tired of waiting for Samuel R Delany's work to be translated into Japanese, and requests help finding all of Delany's published work.

-SFLer's ask: Did you catch the DOCTOR WHO reference in Diane Duane's 1990 book HIGH WIZARDRY

(2020 note: I now have the mnemonic "Diane Duane, fan service is her game" etched into my memory.)

-Only 281 ballots being received for 1990 Hugo Award voting at ConFiction 1990. 

-The soap opera ONE LIFE TO LIVE having a extended sequence in a underground city called "Eterna" in 1989.

-"How does everyone in netdom define what Cyberpunk is?" discussion leads to Walter Jon Williams being a hack/visionary chat, precursors of cyberpunk fiction, and the very first requests for Steampunk fiction in the SFL Archives.

-AI Characters in Fiction. Some SFLers go deep referencing TALOS as the first AI character, most people stick with the golden age of scifi - through William Gibson style cyberpunk for their references. 

(2020 note: This discussion chain is worth reading for a SF&F historian or people simply interested in AI Characters featured in Fiction.)

-BATMAN 1992 casting decisions talk (Danny Devito? Michael J Fox?), along with some SFLers believing the Joker never died in BATMAN 1989 with a body-double. And finally will Two Face or Robin the boy wonder show up in Batman 1992/who will play them? discussion 

-Michael Moorcock ETERNAL CHAMPION discussion, 1990 edition: This time it's focused on Jerry Cornelius, and his various powers, storylines, weaknesses, incest fixation, etc.

-The creator and the producer of the 1988 movie WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME squabble over money, embezzlement and Intellectual Property theft via the Internet and lawsuits.

-The 1990 movie adaptation of Margaret Atwood's HANDMAIDS TALE finally gets the SFL Archive discussing the book/the movie adaptation.Since there was female nudity in the movie adaptation, Mark Leeper automatically gives the movie a +2 rating.

-HIGHLANDER 2 is pre-production during 1990, and people are confused yet excited by Sean Connery being cast in it. Various guesses are made as to the plot, and one person leaks the real plot of Highlander 2 but is ignored because it is total gibberish and makes no goddamn sense.

(2020 note: The reaction to Highlander 2 in 1991 aka SFL Vol 16a/16b should be interesting/)   

-Someone who claims to work in the marketing department of a book publishing house explains why certain books get reprinted, and certain books never seem to get reprinted.

-The book reprint discussion expands into the costs/mechanics of doing "small" press print runs of only 1000 books using 1989 book production cost numbers. The SFWA White Knight barges in to clarify things and hate on small book publishing houses for driving up the cost of books/price gouging while failing to mention anything about big book publishing houses price-gouging and author lockdowns.

-The Larry Niven techno-fetishist from SFL Vol 01 starts a NANOTECHNOLOGY usenet group/internet mailing list in cooperation with the FORESIGHT INSTITUTE 

-How witch-moss in the Christopher Stasheff WARLOCK series makes no sense beyond the initial book.

-First mention of Games Workshop Press aka THE BLACK LIBRARY, and the first mention of dedicated WARHAMMER novels.

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION discussion. Why certain keystone writers left TNG after the first season, why Picard is unique, why did Crusher return, why TOS is better/worse, lists of TOS & TNG starship classes, YESTERDAYS ENTERPRISE episode discussion, etc.

-SFLer's scoff at the technological feasibility of ebook readers in Ben Bova's CYBERBOOKS

-One SFLer notes Steven Brust's fixation with the number seventeen(17), noting that every book Brust has had published up to 190 has had 17 chapters, the 17 houses in the Vlad series, etc. Also as of 1989, Steven Brust was well-known for randomly walking into bookstores and signing copies of his work on the racks.

-Larry Niven acknowledging in a 1981 essay that the "Belter Civilization" in his KNOWN SPACE series was lifted almost directly from one of Randall Garrett's short stories.

(2020 note: Making the educated guess it was Niven "borrowing" from Randall Garrett's stories A SPACESHIP NAMED MCGUIRE & ANCHORITE)

-Someone in the 1990 SFL Archives brought up the gimmick behind the Eric Frank Russell TEST PIECE short story. The gimmick in it involved 2 forbidden words which would result in instant death if spoken. Eric Frank Russell & OTHER WORLDS magazine got hundreds of SF fans (& at least one author) to out themselves as hyper-chuds/racists over a slate of 51 prizes ranging from artwork/lump sums of cash/magazine subscriptions/all expenses paid 1 week vacation retreat. The contest was to most accurately guess the missing three two words in Eric Frank Russell's short story TEST PIECE.

(2020 note: One of the best bits about that Eric Frank Russell/OTHER WORLDS magazine contest is that all this happened back in 1951, so you & I can only guess at the hyper-racist/giga-chud phrases people sent in that OTHER WORLDS magazined refused to publish.)

-SFWA White Knight Chuq Von Rospach continued their trend of being 150% in-the-tank/taking-a-dive for the SFWA & every established SF&F author whenever negative statements about anything comes up, especially SF&F author-editors in existence.....except for Kurt Vonnegut & Piers Anthony.

(2020 note: Kurt Vonnegut refuses to be a SFWA member which Chuq sees as a heresy equaling excommunication, and as for Piers Anthony, well Piers Anthony openly said that Chuq fucking sucks in personal correspondence between the two.)

-The return of juvenile fantasy & science fiction story discussion: only this time it's what SF&F stories would you read to a 4yr old - 9yr to get them interested in the SF&F genres.

(2020 note: Worth checking out for parents who want to share their love of SF&F with their children. Raid the back catalogs of Scholastic Press for hidden juvenile SF&F gems.)

-Orson Scott Card's work continues to be discussed in detail, and a year 2020 reader can visibly see how OSC is retreating back into Mormon fundamentalism with every new story/project OSC works on.

(2020 note: A few 1989/1990 SFLer's claim that Orson Scott Card got threatened with excommunication from the Church of Latter Day Saints after his touring Secular Humanism debate panels, and that is why Mormonism is becoming more and more overt in OSC's work since that excommunication threat.) 

-1990 SFLers start discussing the KNOWN SPACE setting and bring up a interesting point: Why did the Human Protectors never take out the Pierson Puppeteers who were known to fuck around with Earth/Humanity in general. Was the Man-Kzin war incited to wipe out any survivors of the Human Protectors vs the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th waves of the Pak Protector "rescue" fleets?

-Simon Hawke and their TIME WARS series discussion. Simon Hawke is a pen-name, and the author self-doxxed themselves to stop someone else impersonating them at SF&F conventions. Simon Hawke also gets mentions as one of the "authors with bad conduct at conventions" people when Harlan Ellison's XENOGENESIS essay gets discussed/torn apart/defended in June 1989.

-Eric S. Raymond randomly decides to start posting reviews of everything SF&F he runs across to the SFL Archives ala the Leeper clan. Shockingly, from day 1 ESR's reviews are light-years more coherent, detailed and less biased than the Leeper clans reviews of everything S&F they have run across, despite having 6 more years of experience. 

(2020 note: Not saying that ESR's reviews were great, there is a heavy bias in the reviews ESR posts, while the Leepers tend to go with first impression/clickbait style reviews...and have repeated the same review under "different bylines a few times now. Also, if there is female nudity in a movie, Mark Leeper automatically gives the movie a +2 rating, no matter what.) 

-More periodic repeats of people stumbling across the credits thanking Harlan Ellison in THE TERMINATOR 1984, or half-remembering the details of a Outer Limits episode/short story Ellison wrote about a time traveller with amnesia needing to kill robots stalking them to fill out a glass hand.

(2020 note: That last sentence makes sense if you watched the right Outer Limits tv series episode, or read the Harlan Ellison short story adapted into that Outer Limits episode.) 

-Periodic Mike aka Michael Resnick discussion. SANTIAGO, BIRTHRIGHT, etc.

-1990 Robert Silverberg discussion which focused on Silverberg finally paying off a vicious divorce settlement agreement, and now being able to go back to writing deep non-commercial SF&F fiction stories vs what Silverberg had been churning out since the mid 1970s.

-The April 29th 1990 NY Times essay DOLLAR AND DRAGONS: THE TRUTH ABOUT FANTASY gets SFLers mildly riled up.

-Stories of Larry Niven visibly getting tired of  dealing with weird fans/weird fan conduct at SF&F conventions, which ties into Harlan Ellison's essay XENOGENESIS.

-Christian Science Fiction story discussion, with SFLer's making their cases for slotting certain authors/certain authors stories into the CSF sub-genre. 

-Dan Simmon's 1st book HYPERION finally starts getting discussed in the SFL Archives, along with slight drama about the sequel to Hyperion. Was it a publisher decision to split up the two books, why is a incompetent book proofing editor that half-asses their job at Doubleday allowed to keep their job when every third book they touch requires errata pages to be published/new print runs made.

-Magic & Technology discussion. It started off as misquotes of Arthur C Clarke on technology/magic, then spun off into a few people having very strong opinions on Aleister Crowley and Magik, and will not allow disinformation about Crowley/cheerleading about Crowley to happen without loud dissent and picking apart (line by line) opposing arguments about Aleister Crowley.

-The original version of Stephen King's THE STAND is released, with some SFLer's enjoying the refresh/pop culture updates in it, while other SFLer's seem it as an abomination that shows how Stephen King's popularity put him beyond the control of editors now, and why that is bad for the horror genre/any new Stephen King stories.

-SFLer's start theory-crafting a nonexistent sequel to the LENSMEN series using everything previously published in the Lensmen series along with some grabs from EE Smith's other series/other novels.

(2020 note: This discussion thread gets weird and of course the incest implication in the final Lensmen book gets mentioned over and over again.)

-Tons of B-movie & B-tv series discussion. Some of the movies and tv series were previously mentioned in my SFL ARCHIVES VOL 11 READTHROUGH UPDATE 08, however lots of new stuff has cropped up, and/or got vastly expanded on for people (like me) who had never heard of or seen any of these amazingly bad/innovative/terrible/low-budget/amusing works.

(2020 note: The sheer amount of stuff I have to recap for 1990 means I won't be doing a listing of shows/movies like back in SFL Vol 11 update 08,.............however that Gene Autry singing cowboy/underground civilization mashup movie is something I want to watch now, as well as the first two QUATERMASS movies/tv-serials along with a mostly forgotten Japanese Kaiju/giant robot tv-series called INFRAMAN....and maybe TIME RIDER too.)

-Marc Steigler's 1987 DAVID'S SLING having very good advice for Information filtering on the Internet circa 1989.

(2020 note: The information filtering advice is still sort of valid, so I'm just going to requote in full below.)

 In the Information Age, the first step to sanity is FILTERING.

    Filter the information; extract the knowledge.

    Filter first for substance. Filter second for significance.

    These filters protect against advertising.

    Filter third for reliability.

    This filter protects against politicians.

    Filter fourth for completeness.

    This filter protects from the media.

-Harlan Ellison's 1990 essay XENOGENESIS closes out SFL Vol 15a. XENOGENESIS was Ellison describing the bad, toxic and extremely abusive behavior SF&F fans feel free to display with qualms to SF&F authors like constant harassing anonymous phone calls, death threats, theft of author property, charging items under authors names, throwing vomit and worse directly into SF&F authors faces. Harlan Ellison's driving question is Why do SF&F authors have to put up with that kind of behavior while normal mainstream fiction authors do not?

The overall SFLer reaction to XENOGENESIS was extremely mixed (but mostly anti-Ellison). People involved in running conventions seemed angrier about Harlan Ellison airing dirty laundry and how it would impact their conventions vs the bad behavior being openly discussed, while counter-arguments gave evidence for Ellison's claims, and counter-counter arguments gave extenuating circumstances like vicious author abuse of fans at conventions and counter-counter-counter arguments brought up worse stuff (aka sexual assault, date-rape).

(2020 note: One of Harlan Ellison's claims of fan abuse can definitely be backed up. Someone *cough* pyrla!cracraft@caip.rutgers.edu (Stuart Cracraft) *cough* back in SFL Archives Vol 11 posted Ellison's personal phone number to the SF-LOVERS mailing list, and then humble-bragged about making repeated adversarial phone calls to Ellison).

SFL Archives Vol 14 readthrough update 02

SFL Archives Vol 14

7.5 mb raw text file

100% completion, 104 book marks

-The 1989 Aprils Fool gimmick for the SFL Archives was that there was SFL Digests sent out the week leading up to  April Fools 1989 and for a few days after. AKA No April Fools jok posts allowed in the SF-LOVERS mailing list for 1989.

1989 technology references: Vacuum welding and the real-world feasiblity of Larry Niven Known Space style mono-molecule weapons/devices.

-STAR TREK 5, BATMAN 1989 & James Cameron's THE ABYSS come out. Batman 1989 & The Abyss break brains across the SFL, while ST5 is mostly discussed for the climbing anti-gravity boots & most of the TOS cast acting out-of-character. Peter Jackson's 1989 movie BAD TASTE also gets briefly discussed.

-BATMAN 1989 breaks SFL brains by being unlike the Adam West tv series, unlike the Frank Miller Dark Knight comic series, and by starring Michael Keaton, and Jack Nicholson. The Batcave and how it exists, the Batmobile and Batplane, the heavily armored Batsuit, Bruce Wayne acting weird, The Joker's murderous gadgets,and Batman being a Ninja.

(2020 note: One SFLer made a series of posts so angry and detailed and emphatic about Batman being a Ninja that I now refer to them as NinjaExpert)

-James Cameron's THE ABYSS breaks brains in a more technical way, every third SFL Digest sent between July 1989 - early August 1989 was dedicated to the ABYSS discussion. SFLer hating the various actors, anger at SEALs not doing that in real life, Inconsistencies between the movie and the novelization, aliens, alien cities, scuba, deep sea O2 breathing mixes, and ASCII flowcharts of how diving regulators work, and a whole bunch more. 

-First mention of Iain M Banks CONSIDER PHLEBAS, then discussion of Iain Banks non SF books like WASP FACTORY, etc.

-First appearance of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION BORG chat.

-Sting the musician-actor's non-DUNE movie acting work.

-One or two SFLer's think John Brunner borrowed the framing device of STAND On ZANZIBAR from John Dos Passos trilogy "USA".

-First rumors of a live action JUDGE DREDD movie, with Sylvester Stallone rumored to be in the Judge Dredd role. 

(2020 note: 1989 SFLer's scoff at that idea, but....yeah. It was real, all of it.)

-Novelization of the Infocom game PLANETFALL gets one positive review.

-The Heinlein Defense Squad tries comparing Robert Anson Heinlein positively to Sir James Burton, but no-one takes the bait.

-The SFWA white knight SFL poster finally and conclusively outs themselves as editor of the fanzine OTHER REALMS, which now explains all the sucking up/worshipful references to SF&F authors, and snitching on any negative to the SFWA/anyone with editorship roles in the SF&F genres. 

-Franchised out SF universes, such as Asimov's Robot City and Roger Zelazny's "Clypsis" series, all of which SFLers are certain will still be discussed/still be published 20 years down the road.

(2020 note: Yeah, that didn't happen. I think 99% of the mentioned franchised out SF universes died out within 18 months of SFL this discussion.)

-A 1989 READERCON flyer describes Samuel R Delany as the "Woody Allen of SF". This comparison aged extremely badly or extremely well depending on how you view Woody Allen & Samuel R Delany.

-A SFLer outs their fetish, TWICE, for Jack Chalker type fantasies where shape changing/physical transformation  and body swapping are key parts of the story.

-SFLer's appreciating when authors put in the work to research the topics they write about in their stories (William R. Forstchen being part of a medieval reenactment catapult crew gets mentioned).

-SFLer's discuss the Penny Farthing bicycle explanation that only happened in the "lost" THE PRISONER episode

-Bad Technology in SF story discussion (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Niven Known Space, etc).

-News that 1980's TV series BEAUTY & THE BEAST starring Linda Hamilton & Ron Perlman is cancelled/not getting renewed on CBS. Meanwhile the ALIEN NATION tv series & QUANTUM LEAP both premiere to mostly positive SFL reaction, and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE TV series finally gets discussed as the final episodes of it air.

-WorldCon 1989 happens, all of the extended drama over 1989 Hugo Award illegal vote counting is quickly ignored once the physical awards come out.

-Arthurian Mythos discussion crops up again for 6 or so SFL Digests. More reference materials & lists of Arthurian Mythos works get posted.

-Daniel Keys Moran and his threatened thirty three novel series TALES OF THE CONTINUING TIME discussion.

-The Suicide of a West German Hacker involved in hacking a bunch of US government servers/sites gets a brief mention.

(2020 note: The dead hacker, Karl Koch, was one of "stars" or featured people in Cliff Stohl's mostly non-fictional CUCKOOS EGG which discussed how the hackers were detected and how the hackers were eventually arrested.)

-Portage cost for open parties at the Worldcon 1989 hotels got some SFL outrage. So did the SF-LOVERS mailing list getting a unofficial WorldCon (non-Hugo Award), however the biggest thing was very negative reactions to a female author only award being announced/premiered during the 1989 Hugo Awards ceremony.  

-The Willimantic CT book publisher (Zeiss Press?)  that specialized in Gene Wolfe small press runs moves across country to California in July 1989

-The Denver Post newspaper announces a  new Science Fiction themed cable network television channel, to be called the SCI-FI CHANNEL

-An SFLer with way too much time on their hands did a A-Z index listing for everything in the (as of 1989) 4 book series HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams.

-Another year passes and another solitary SFL question asking if anyone, anyone at all knows if MORIGU: THE DESECRATION by Mark C Perry has a sequel. 

-Dan Simmon's HYPERION, 1st book of William Shatner's TEKWAR series, WAITING FOR THE GALACTIC BUS & it's sequel THE SNAKE OIL WARS, WARDAY, THE ETERNITY BRIGADE, COLD COMFORT FARM, and ACROSS THE COSMOS being supposedly being plagiarized twice by the same person/sold to two different publishers.

-The 1989 version of BACK TO THE FUTURE series discussion focuses on Biff, and the Biff's various timelines, and BACK TO THE FUTURE 3.

-TOR Books doing a total recall & replace on Walter Jon Williams novel ANGEL STATION because of non-existent quality control.

-Fantasy and Science Fiction stories with music or musicians as core pieces of the story.

-Pop Culture Vampire & Werewolf Lore, and how to stop/cause Vampire & Werewolf outbreaks discussion.

-Request for advice on long term storage of Books in a warehouse/self-storage facility.

-1989 version of Matter transportation discussion: What is the Earliest Matter Transportation story in existence?

-A DIANE DUANE identity thief-impersonator-imposter has re-appeared and is active in the U.S.A. after a decade long break/prison time.

-The very first SFL Archives mention of BABYLON 5,the tv series about 2 years before I expected it.

------------------------------

Date: 3 Oct 89 19:56:57 GMT

From: jas@isi.edu (Jeff Sullivan)

Subject: Re: ALIEN NATION - Just another cop series.

J. Michael Straczynski is trying to package a SF series of his called

"Babylon 5."  He says that it will do for SF on TV what Hill Street did for

Cop stories.

We'll see.  He says the financing is almost locked, and it should air next

fall.

Jeffrey A. Sullivan

Senior Systems Programmer

Information Sciences Institute

University of Southern California

jas@venera.isi.edu

jas@isi.edu

------------------------------

SFL Archives Vol 14 readthrough update 01

SFL Archives Vol 14

7.5 mb raw text file

30 % completion, 45 bookmarks.

-Robert Tappan Morris's Internet Worm attack of 1988  gets mentioned as a brief sidenote in the SFL Archives.

(2020 note: This has been one of things I've been waiting to show up since Vol 02 or so of doing this SFL Archives readthrough attempt.) 

-SFLer's ask "What is the earliest historical fiction that you know of?"

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Picard vs STAR TREK: THE ORGINAL SERIES Kirk comparisons start happening. One SFLer uses the 1988 George Bush vs Michael Dukakis presidental election debates as to how they perceive Kirk & Picard.

(2020 note: This is one of the things I thought would happen ASAP in the SF-LOVERS mailing list once Star Trek: TNG aired. That it took midway through season 2 of TNG to happen is gratifying.)

-Constant re-occurring BLADERUNNER 1982 the movie discussion. The oddball replicant count in the movie, differences in the movie vs the book, Replicant memories, and "are the pictures Deckard looks at in the movie holograms?" given how small things move in them/are visible changing up the viewing angle.

-Stephen King book discussion: The Gunslinger book 2: DRAWING OF THE THREE comes out, and minor discussion of a Stephen King short story about matter teleportation (Jaunt?).

-First rumors of turning the WATCHMEN graphic novel into a movie start up, and some SFLer's think it a Watchmen adaptation might work better as tv-series.

(2020 note: Both possibilities happened, eventually, only extremely later than SFLers of 1989 expected.)

-Background details about why the movie BUCKAROO BANZAI 1984 is never getting a sequel. TLDR: 20th Century Fox f*cked themselves over multiple times, especially selling off ALL the videotape rights of Buckaroo Banzai 1984 for a pittance, then watched in impotent anger as the buyer of the videotape rights made a 2000% profit when Buckaroo Banzai went to videotape. 

-An explanation of exactly what roles & duties story/book packagers perform liasioning between literary agents, authors, and publishers; using Byron Preiss as an example.

-Three movies under production in early 1989 all using deep underwater settings/similar sounding plots: DEEPSTAR SIX, THE ABYSS and LEVIATHAN.

-J. Michael Straczynski anecdotes about behind the scenes production problems for the 1980's  revamp of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. SFLer's also note Straczynski's work as story editor for the now mostly forgotten CAPTAIN VIDEO childrens tv series.

-SFLer's start discussing "O LUCKY MAN!", a 1973 UK movie, and everything about it/in it sounds extremely bizarre. 

-Gay characters in SF (and Fantasy) discussion. Lots of interesting examples come up.

-Philip K Dick discussion, 1989 edition: PKD's paranoia about a home invasion, the ongoing changes of how PKD viewed the home invasion as his mental health declined, and one of PKD's "Dark-Haired Girls" comments on her PKD experiences in the early 1970's.

(2020 note: Not sure, but I think this the same Dark-Haired Girl that commented on her experiences with PKD back in Vol 03?/Vol 04/Vol 05? It was deeply fascinating and amazing when the DHG related PKD's plan to confuse/fuck the narcs that were constantly monitoring him.)

-A unofficial "CAN YOU OUT CYBERPROSE WILLIAM GIBSON/other cyberpunk writers?" SF-LOVERS challenge is issued, and as of mid May 1989, no SFLer has responded to the challenge.

(2020 note: Finished reading SFL Archives 1989, and no one rose to the challenge.)

-People managing the Hugo Awards nominations & vote counting process feel compelled to post about the existing procedures multiple times and insist nothing will go wrong for the 1989 Hugo Awards nomination & vote counting process, like what happened at WorldCon 1989.

-PLAGUE style stoy discussion, which seem very on-point from a 2020 perspective, with a resurgence of juvenile focused novels and television entertainment. 

-First SFL Archives mention of the 1989 movie TOTAL RECALL starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-Julian May's PLIOSCENE COMPANION collection discussion, with special note made of how Julian May had most of the series planned out, and how the entire series setting was inspired by a kickass cosplay outfit Julian May designed/wore at a 1970's sci-fi convention.  

-THE TIDES OF GOD by Ted Reynolds discussion causing minor meltdowns by SFL people regarding religion, free will, and the Dark Ages only being European subcontinent based, not global. 

-Suzette Haden Elgin's OZARK TRILOGY being written as a direct response to all the sexist and dimissive behavior by male Sci-Fi writers towards women at convention panels.

-1989 anecdotes of how Glen Cook composed and wrote most of his stories/novels while working at General Motors, with special note taken of the timing required to perform his assembly line duties and write while on the assembly line

-A poll of what science-fiction tv series SFLer's thought were the worse of all time results in LOST IN SPACE "winning" the poll. A SFLer notes that no recent sci-fi related TV series got mentioned, and listed out a whole bunch of recentish 1980's sci-fi tv shows that had aired on US network television such as SMALL WONDER and OUT OF THIS WORLD. 

-A SFLer who requested stories abut the "introduction of anti-matter in science-fiction" comments on the responses they received from SFLers. 

(2020 note: the hurtful note when mentioning how a SFLer told them to look in the OED Supplement Vol 01 for references to anti-matter are the main reason I bothered mentioning this.)

-One SFLer noted the subgenre of "black vehicle scifi tv series of the 1980's" using AIRWOLF, STREET HAWK, and KNIGHT RIDER that all seemed to revolve around similar plots and setups.

-THE DESERT PEACH -a comic book about "The Desert Fox's pretty brother", based on Dona Barr's large fund of insider stories on the German army.

-Color coded convention badges/how various professional & amateur conventions handled convention security.

(2020 note: All these things will seem extremely quaint for people used to wifi networking & RFID badges at "modern" conventions.)

-Anecdotes of using a Larry Niven style RINGWORLD as Wargamer battle-royale setting. And how everything got derailed when one wargamer had howitzer's on their army list, and the opponent protested to the GM about needing special rules to adjust for the "coriolis forces experienced on a  Ringworld". Years later, allegedly, these two wargamers are still working out a "general set of equations for computing the trajectory of an object launched from the surface of a Ringworld."

-A college aged Jeff Vogel, who would go on to create the GENEFORGE & AVERNUM & EXILE & AVADON series of games posts about the TSR Dragonlance settings and the Dragonlance novels written.

-RED DWARF tv series part two: which covers most of the events/episodes of Red Dwarf series 1.

-Ed Greenwood at GENCON 1988 explains to a SFLer why his Forgotten Realms novel SPELLFIRE was so disjointed. Apparently, Greenwood wanted to make Spellfire mostly about his author-insert Elminster and Elminster's family in a Nine Princes of Amber way, but the TSR book editors said no.

(2020 note: It would take 6 more years for Ed Greenwood to get the first of his many "The Mary Sue adventures of Elminster" published, during the final stages of TSR's "publish everything, we need the quarterly product release statements to look amazing". 1 year later, TSR went bankrupt and got bought by Wizards of the Coast.)

-John Cramer uses the Internet to post a "open letter reply" to comments made about his "hard SF novel TWISTOR".

(2020 note: Authors posting open letter comments were not a common thing on the Internet at this point in 1989, so I felt this was of special archival interest.)

SFL Archives Vol 13 readthrough update 04

 SFL Archives Vol 13

5.9 mb raw text file

100% completion, 198 bookmarks

-A Pacific Bell newsletter reviews William Gibson's NEUROMANCER. The review is ok, however the constant insertions & defensive rebuttal comments by the SFLer reposting the PacBell newsletter review make it a hard read.

-An outright pitch for the San Diego Comic Convention by a SFL convention organizer/convention merchant, which as of 1988 was a strictly non-profit event.

-An SFLer half remembering a Cordwainer Smith aka Paul Linebargers pen-name, and roughly half of the SFL posters chime in to give corrections/clarification/story recommendations on Cordwainer Smith.

(2020 note: Linebarger's work on a Pysops World War 2 manual comes up briefly)

-Fall 1988 twist on matter transportation chat mostly revolves on what happens to the original body, and souls, soul transference in transported entities.

-Lots of discussion about Roger Zelazny's AMBER series, especially the Pattern & the Logrus ability powers.

-1988 being the year of Roddy Piper movies, with HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN and THEY LIVE. Indepth discussion of PHANTASM 2, and behind the scenes leaks on the sets of BATMAN 1989 & STAR TREK 5.

-Science-fiction stories that focused on THE BEATLES the UK Band.

-Lots of buildup for WorldCon 1988 in New Orleans, Louisiana followed up by mostly hushed up talk about how poorly managed everything at WorldCon 1988 was except the Hugo Award.

-Trinary encoding being faster than binary encoding on custom built computer systems....which leaves out the added effort of rewriting code in trinary, then having to support binary & trinary programming, etc etc. 

-A new twist on ALIEN 1979 & ALIENS 1986 discussion: Are the various Alien lifeforms/lifestages sentient or intelligent because they do/do not engage in tool usage? A person who keeps referring to the Space Jockey thing it as a (alien) "mother" leads to inevitable thread confusion due to the Nostromo's AI in Alien 1979 being called "MOTHER" too.

-A SFLer hypothesizes how the Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION series would go about creating planets. Weird things like using only comets for planetary construction, then FTL & notFTL used for moving around comet chunks, and other "uhhh what" stuff. 

-Two instances of HG Wells WAR OF THE WORLDS in 1988. A reboot/decades later mini-series adaptation of WotW, plus a 50 yr aniversary rebroadcasting of the WotW radio drama, with 1988 vocal talent and improved audio special effects.

-The surprisingly deep back catalogue of SCHOLASTIC PRESS.

-The many many issues with Larry Niven's SMOKE RING setting, mostly focused on how that atmosphere stays in place, especially the vast quantity of O2.

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Season 2: Beverly Crusher is out, and fans start a letter writing campaign to bring her back.

-Ed Greenwood, creator of TSR's THE FORGOTTEN REALMS setting gets mentioned for the impossibility of the main character in Greenwood's FR novel SPELLFIRE.

(2020 note: It's never a good sign when the creator of the setting is compelled to create a brand new PnP character class to explain all the bullshit their lead character got away with, which is exactly what Greenwood did for his Spellfire novel.)

-SFLer's bring up the C.S. Lewis story most C.S .Lewis fans wish never existed: THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH.

-Orson Scott Card starts reverting back to Mormon fundamentalism after coming under repeated Latter Day Saints leadership pressure for his SECULAR HUMANIST REVIVALS a few years ago. 

-SFLer Larry Klaes goes through Bjo Trimble's 1969 CONCORDANCE & points out most of the errors in it, like Kirk having two brothers?; which takes up 2.5 dedicated SFL Digests. Bjo Trimble responds positively. Near the end of december 1988, Larry Klaes posts an update with corrections to his original fact-checking review of CONCORDANCE.

-One of the best descriptions of why the YA genre exists, and why it has near universal appeal for readers of all ages.

-Utterly terrible fan behavior at conventions & personal fen-dom gathering f the past 4 years (1984-1988) or recent personal fen-dom gathering, with FANS ARE SLANS being used as a negative meme for bad fen-dom behavior.

-Time machines that only work from the time they were turned on leads to one SFLer throwing out an idea of daisy chaining time machines serially until you find a really really ancient Alien built time machine, then short-cut the entire process.

-Allegations of Hugo Award vote count tampering at WorldCon 1988 happens, with muted silence from people who normally respond immediately to all things Hugo Award related. 

-SFLer's start to map the characters, and houses and organizations of Frank Herbert's DUNE series to real life analogues and it is not pretty. 

(2020 note: Fascism allegations, Nazi allegations, race sciencing, this entire discussion thread is super skippable for a 2020 reader.)

-Eleven posts about Robert Anton Wilson discussion closes out 1988. 

SFL Archives Vol 13 readthrough update 03

 60% completion, 130 bookmarks

1988 technology level: information from the internet about the upcoming WorldCon 1990 involving BITNET, and data being sent in NETDATA format, with IBM & VAX users needing an additional step to get & read the Worldcon 1990 data.

-A bunch of SFL Archives posters reveal their fetish for pregnancy stories, more specificly the many many science-fiction themed takes on the impregnation of Mary by God and the birth of Jesus in science-fiction stories. 

-Someone makes the strong case for Michael Moorcock being directly responsible for the British NEW WAVE of scifi/fantasy stories & authors thanks to Moorcock. 

(2020 note: That indirectly means Michael Moorcock is responsible for Brian Aldiss existing, god damn you Michael Moorcock for that. Brian Aldiss is one of my least favorite editor-authors that held so much power in the fantasy & scifi fields despite having such little talent)

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION chat died off immediately after the first 5 episodes. Tasha Yar dying caused 4 or so WTF email-posts. Then the Conspiracy episode aired and about 7 people posted about how unexpected gory the ending was.

-A whole lot of Drama about the 1988 Hugo Award "Other Forms" category kicked off by the SFWA white-knight SFLer.

(2020 note: The SFWA obsessed white-knight SFLer has done more to turn me off the SFWA & Hugo Awards than everything else I've read or previously encountered.

-BATTLEFIELD EARTH book discussion & mild chat about the weirdness surrounding L Ron Hubbard's life and published stories.

-Joining the Friends of Highgate Cemetary to be able to tour/visit the un-maintained sections of Highgate Cemetary that are 110% off-limits to public access.

-The April-June 1988 take on Robert Heinlein is "Are Heinlein's stories pornography?", which drives the Heinlein Defense Squad into overdrive defense mode. The SFWA white-knight mentions that Robert Heinlein is ill in early April 1988, and asks people to funnel all donations/get well letters/gift cards they might send to through him for some reason.

-Filk Song publisher drama that I refuse to recap.

-Official notice to the SFL Archives of a new mailing list slash usenet group dedicated to all things SOCIETY for CREATIVE ANACHRONISM 

-A possible apocryphal story about how Glenn Cook got a fantasy-scifi cover artists professional career started. Also, as of April 1988, someone claims that Frank Frazetta is terminally ill and unable to work.

-The James Tiptree Jr. posing as a man posing as a woman posing as a man posing as a woman posing as a man April Fools 1988 joke-post someone posted to the SF-LOVERS was a bridge too far and close for a bunch of SFLers given that the author had committed suicide within the past year. 

-Another SFLer lamented about 1988's crop of April Fools posts didn't live up to previous years jokes. Special mention was made of the the new arpanet node 'kremvax' joke from a few years back originally posted in another mailing list/usenet group. 

(2020 note: This joke requires some clarification. It implied that the Kremlin/USSR had gotten a VAX system hooked up to the ARPANET and was trawling for information, while the USA/USSR Cold War was still happening.)

-William Gibson's MONA LISA OVERDRIVE comes out, and Gibson fans are pleased mostly.

-The FUSE-BOX DWARF, a throwaway gag by John Bellairs

-Early career mentions of Kevin J Anderson & Neil Gaiman, showing me yet again how long certain fantasy/scifi writers have been around for.

-A story track-down request for something called Combat Football brings up lots of possible stories, and sounds a whole lot like what MUTANT LEAGUE FOOTBALL would be about 5 years in the future.

-Death notices for Clifford Simak & Robert Anson Heinlein. 

-A listing of stories & books about immortality includes the weird side note about one of the symbols of longevity in Korean myth & Korean folklore being a mushroom called "pulloch'o" that doesn't exist in the reality that humankind experiences. 

-The death notice for Robert Anson Heinlein allowed the Heinlein Defense Squad to shout-down all criticism of Heinlein under the "how dare you insult this recently dead man/visionary of SF?", and the Heinlein Defense Squad people have been using the criticism-free time to theory-craft/crowdsource bulletproof reasons why Heinlein's incest fetish and Heinlein's views on consent and sexual relationship dynamics aren't creepy and horrifying to people who didn't grow up reading Heinlein stories like the HDS did.

-Unusual SFLer story requests: A request for "stories with friendly dragons" and a request for "fantasy fiction without Quest elements" in them.

-Pre-announcement of BOSKONE 26 reveals that BOSKONE is stuck in Springfield MA for 1989 after burning all its bridges with hotels/convention centers in Boston, and sticking with a hard attendence limit of 2000 people.

-The SFL Archives "How would you design a Superman" discusion goes into various uber-person physical specs, then verves off course into redesigning pelvic bones, the cranial capacity of newborns, cloning, and mindstate snapshots/mindstate restoration in that order.

-WILLOW & BEETLEJUICE are the major Fantasy movies that have come out recently in spring 1988. Most of the SFLer's posting about WILLOW keep bringing up the Siskbert/Kael naming as take-thats to criticss, while BEETLEJUICE mostly gets ignored, except by the resident reviewer-idiot who hates it.

-Isaac Asimov branded limited theater release movies NIGHTFALL and LIGHT YEARS make it to theaters/tv, and are universally panned by every SFLer who saw them. Also, the tv miniseries SOMETHING IS OUT THERE airs on NBC, and just about SFLer who watched it takes great delight in figuratively tearing the miniseries apart.  

-Harlan Ellison chat makes a resurgence, with comments of the LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS collection STILL being in the works as of 1988, and Ellison working/not working on it. Additional items of Ellison being a thin-skinned ass at conventions towards competitors and sexual assaulting women come up. David Brin comes up as being universally terrible towards women at conventions, joining Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov as people you never want to be alone with if you are a female.   

-Someone finally points out all the poorly written characters and terrible science and nonsense plot that doesn't make sense in Robert Forward's ROCHEWORLD

SFL Archives Vol 13 readthrough update 02

 SFL Archives Vol 13

5.9 mb raw text file

30% completion, 59 bookmarks

-1988 technology level: An SFLer is theory-crafting a electronic time capsule with a variable lifespan of 50-200 years, but can't figure out the KISS timing method used to "activate" slash open the time capsule, or the long term power solution for it. A few SFLer's respond with "use radioactively decaying elements for the timer/power elements"....after all the request was for KISS methods not easy or cheap methods

(2020 note: In this case, KISS stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid", not the 1970's/80's band.)

-BOSKONE 25 happens and it is a massive karmic letdown. The BOSKONE 25 convention was kicked out of Boston after the hijinks of BOSKONE 24, and took place in downtown Springfield MA in two separate locations. The 2 SFLer's who bothered mentioning BOSKONE 25 noted the anemic attendance, lackluster scheduled convention panels, lack of costumes/cosplayers, and a utter lack of enthusiasm everywhere.

(2020 note: There was a staggering amount of drama about what happened at BOSKONE 24 & the revised convention format for BOSKONE 25 in SFL Vol 12a & 12b.)

-Flying car debate lead to discussion of STOL/VTOL aircraft and what take-off and landing requirements they require vs commercial jet aircraft & military planes.

-One of the first mentions of Ted Nelson and their masterwork COMPUTER LIB/DREAM MACHINES

(2020 note: Ted Nelson basically predicted everything about the Internet back in 1974. Yes, seriously.)

-A weird 1960's movie called THE MONITORS, brief discussion of Dean Ing's mormon-assassin survivalist series, THE JUPITER THEFT as the answer to the identify-this-story request that involved planets moving due to relativistic spacecraft speeds, 1988 book publishers doing 2020 style price rip-offs when releasing Samuel Beckett's THE LOST ONES, now long forgotten TV series PROBE and THE HIGHWAYMEN.

 -SFLer's comment on various republished/newly revised editions of Philip K Dick's work, with explanations as to why two conflicting versions of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN exist.

-Belated SFL Archives death notices for Randall Garrett and C.L. Moore.

-First SFL Archives mention of Tim Powers ON STRANGER TIDES, which most people know vis osmosis of Disney Park rides and the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies.

-RED DWARF the tv-series premieres, and most SFLer's do not like it, but seem interested enough in the premise and the episodes to keep watching it.

-1988 SFLer's comment on the fascination scifi & mil-fiction authors having with writing Nazi regime alternate history stories/book series, with various Nazi leaders in the "good-guy" roles. 

(2020 note: this trend would note stop for a while, arguably it's still going on.)

-Chuq Von Rospach, SFWA crusader, highly recommends a David Gerrold YA book. And I'm just going to wholesale quote Rospach's recommendation because it goes places.  

The third book is Gerrold's, and it's LOTS of fun. Imagine a YA book with

cussing, cannibalism, orgies, rape, torture, etc. etc. etc. Better, that

stuff is all written in so that kids probably will never see it -- and it's

one of the most fun books I've ever read from Gerrold. Probably a little

too intense for some kids, frankly, but for adults, I'd call this the

sleeper of the year (good, but generally overlooked). It's a Walker &

Company hardback, by the way, ISBN 0-8027-6688-9 (data from otherrealms

#19).

-Including ISBN codes in SFL Archives book reviews/SFL Archives book recommendations suddenly becomes a thing.

(2020 note: One of the SFLer's half-doxxed themselves as a research librarian back in January 1988, offering their help if other SLFer's needed assistance looking up books/stories/authors. Suspect the ISBN codes are SFLer's using them as a look-up source or realizing the beautiful of ISBN code lookups independently.)

-First SFL Archives mention of Richard Kadrey and their cyberpunk story METROPHAGE

(2020 note: This was fun, for various reasons. Circa 2020, Kadrey has been on the SANDMAN SLIM kick for a while, and finding out Kadrey was once able to write characters that didn't revolve around remembering old monster films/old italian grindhouse movies was amusing and informative.)

-C.S. Lewis & NARNIA discussion does the impossible, and drowns out attempts at reviving Robert Heinlein chat, JRR Tolkien chat, AND Stephen Donaldson chat. Narnia and CS Lewis discussion brings up various things, with the christianity ting and JRR Tolkien maybe converting CS Lewis to Christianity coming up.

-The Vonda McIntyre Internet mentioned in SFL Vol 12 readthrough update 01 happens, and some of Vonda McIntyre's more pertinent replies get requoted. McIntyre wrote a STAR TREK novel that focused on the well-known TOS crew as they gradually moved towards serving together on the NCC-1701 Enterprise. SFL & Star Trek fan reaction to that novel was rough to extremely angry when it came out and got reviewed.

(2020 note: McIntyre revealing in the inteview that she relied exclusively on material from Gene Roddenberry and George Takei when coming up with character backgrounds and character names was very very amusing given the very angry reactions from SFLer's about not using fan-canon first names for TOS cast members.)

-ARTHURIAN MYTHOS chat comes up, without any outside influence such as a recent Arthurian mythos movie, or book. Heavy discussion of Arthurian Mythos characters, modern authors takes on Arthurian Mythos, and lots of sources and reading list recommendations for Arthurian Mythos connected works.

(2020 note: Most of these posts are probably old news for Arthurian Mythos devotees, however some of the posts might contain new material or now-forgotten source material.) 

-A SFLer wants to know how fact-based David Drake's HAMMERS SLAMMERS stories are, especially regarding Iridium as being used as armor/construction material in the Slammers hover-tanks. Various SFLer's response, citing Iridium as plausible, but also taking note of the various IRL issues with the Hammer's Slammers company, and the stacked writing David Drake used in the Hammers Slammers stories. 

-APRIL FOOLS DAY 1988, and the SFL Archives April Fools Day jokes/fake news/posts. A slight "no that was a joke" backlash occurs when the SF-LOVERS mailing list maintainer joins in the fun with a "LAST ISSUE/we're getting shutdown due to the U.S. Government" post.

-An SFLer requests U.S. Civil War science-fiction stories. And gets some feedback, including another SFLer giving U.S. Civil War stories recommendations in a Southern American accent for their entire post, including their name.

(2020 note: Harry Turtledove would  go on to fulfill this request for U.S. Civil War science-fiction stories for at least 2 decades.)