SFL Archives Vol 18b readthrough update

 SFL Archives Vol 18b is a 7.3mb raw text file

100% completion, 189 bookmarks

Did not expect to hate almost everything that came up in SFL Archives Vol 18b.

SF&F movie & tv-series mentioned:  SEAQUEST DSV, LOIS & CLARK, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK, POPE OF UTAH, TIME RUNNER, ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS, THEM, 12:01, FORBIDDEN PLANET 1956, THE OSCAR, CONEHEADS, PRISONERS OF GRAVITY, BLACK RAIN, FORTRESS, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, HIGHLANDER (tv-series), BRISCO COUNTY JR, CARNOSAUR, DEMOLITION MAN, MISFITS OF SCIENCE, TRANCERS 4, FIREBALL XL5, STAR TREK VOYAGER, SPACE GIANTS (anime), JOHNNY NEMONIC, ROBOCOP 3, JOSH AND S.A.M., MAN'S BEST FRIEND, MOTORAMA, STARGATE, EARTH TWO (tv-series), VIPER (tv-series), 

SF&F story mentions: THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, FORBIDDEN PLANET 1956, RAFT, THE FOREVER WAR, HARVEST, SYSTEMIC SHOCK, ELEMENT OF FIRE, DUNN'SCONUNDRUM, THE GOD PROJECT, ARCHITECT OF SLEEP, WHITE QUEEN, THE VISUAL GUIDE TO AMBER, COLD ALLIES, WHEN TRUE NIGHT FALLS, VIRTUAL GIRL, THE CYGNET AND THE FIREBIRD, GROUNDTIES, BLACK SKY, LIEGE-KILLER, ARISTOI, THE FLYING SORCEROR, SONGS OF CHAOS, EVENT HORIZON, ARTIFACT OF THE SYSTEM, THE STARS SHALL ABIDE, FOLK OF THE AIR, T.H.E.M., ALIEN ISLAND, THE WORLD ASSUNDER, THE JADE ENCHANTRESS, WORLDWAR: IN THE BALANCE, EVERVILLE, SEEKERS MASK, THE COLD EQUATIONS, PALIMPSETS, PASSION PLAY, A NIGHT IN LONESOME OCTOBER, BEST OF HENRY KUTTNER, THE CASE OF THE TOXIC SPELL DUMP, DOOMSDAY BOOK, ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND, SECOND CONTACT,

Pop Culture: xrefs in texts, Lord Haw-Haw the war criminal, "power gamers", Titanaide cosplay at Conadian, reverse Kafka stories, Toaster video animation/CGI, Filksongs getting mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, EPI-LOG Winter Special #1, the "rn" Unix newsreader, the early Bladerunner 1982 script that was a comedy before Ridley Scott got involved, the various computer technology items featured in a 1993 Aerosmith music video,

SFL requests/discussion topics

>nuclear war movies

>Libertianism in SF

>where's the technology (in SF stories)

>Is the New Wave dead

>sexy movies

>dystopian future movies

>author pseudonyms

>galactic societies in conflict

>best deacidification methods for books/newspapers/comics

>Science Fiction --?-->Science Fact

>is thiotimoline real?

>SF cultural literacy

>Niven (Larry) Universes

>Vampires and/or Lycanthropy

>Heinlein/Race

>first mention of cybernetics

>Shakespeare in SF

>favorite obscure author

>books on tape (for the visually impaired)

>obscure books

-An interview with the SFL Archives mailing list moderator Saul Jaffe gets posted to the SFL Archives. 

-The mechanics behind organizing a convention: Advice & examples on how make years-future facilities reservations using no-cash bids/actual cash bids. Food & Drinks budget planning.

-The TOR Books editors that started posting in the SFL Archives in 1993 remain total assholes when responding to people throughout 1993, while the Del Rey Books editor posted extremely informative behind the scenes newsletters and remained extremely chill when questioned about Del Rey Books publishing choices.

(2021 note: Totally did not expect to have opinions on Book Publishing houses going into SFL Archives 1993, however now I do. <shrugs>.)

-One SFLer notes the similarities between the 1954 SciFi movie THEM and James Cameron's ALIENS.

-YNGVI IS A LOUSE! discusion crops up again.

(2021 note:Sadly 1993 SFLers are just as clueless about origins of YNGVI as the first time YNGVI IS A LOUSE! came up in the SFL Archives.)

-Annotated version of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP complete with author notes which can be found on the Hugo & Nebula Anthology 1993 CDROM.

(2021 note: Someone uploaded a copy of that CDROM to the The internet archive project (archive dot org) a few years ago.)   

-Thiotimoline, Isaac Asimov's fake chemical compound gets discussed again, complete with the anecodote of thiotimoline coming up during Asimov's final PHD defense review.

-A unique interview with William Gibson about VIRTUAL LIGHT during a VIRTUAL LIGHT book press tour in Dublin Ireland is re-posted to the SFL Archives.

(2021 note: The full interview can be found here: https://nothing2seeherepleasedisperse.blogspot.com/2021/02/sfl-archives-1993-virtual-light-press.html )

-Another periodic mention of John Norman & the GOR book series. This time someone brings up a Seattle WA bookstore with "No GOR" signs everywhere similar to the Slimer/Ghostbusters movie signs. 

-Yet another attempt by SFLer Jeremy York to drum up interest in a comic book series called BEANWORLD.

-First mention of SF&F actor Jeffrey Combs in the SFL Archives, along with why Combs's presence can be worth watching utterly terrible tv-shows or movies.

-The reason why no sequels or followups to Steven Boyett's ARCHITECT OF SLEEP have come out so far in 1993.

(2021 note: The tldr summary is poor publisher marketing, poor editing/editor turnover, poor sales, trapped in limbo while Boyett tries to buy back rights to it).

-George Adamski & Richard Shaver being the driving force behind many early UFO conspiracy theory stories.

-The running theme of WorldCon 1993 aka ConFrancisco 1993 was 120% failure dealing with mailing lists or sending out mail/email/convention paperwork.

-Steven Spielberg giving up on SEAQUEST DSV to focus on a new tv-series called EARTH TWO.

-WORLDCON COMMITTE DECLARES BATMAN NOT FICTIONAL.

-Martha Wells gets mentioned for the first in the SFL Archives when someone asks for feedback reviews on her debut novel ELEMENT OF FIRE.

-Project Gutenberg sends out a press release regarding digitizing the first 4 Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars books, marking one of the earliest mentions of Project Gutenberg in the SFL Archives.

-Much discussion of LeGuin's Tehanu setting, much discussion of Tim Powers, much discussion of Mercedes Lackey, much discussion of Iain Banks, and other authors I refuse to mention.

-The May 1989 Iain Banks interview with JOURNAL WIRED comes up again, complete with the list of all stories Iain Banks had written/worked on up to the point of that 1989 interview.

(2021 note: Bank's Culture books being published in reversed written order is always vastly amusing to me, given how divise CONSIDER PHELBAS is amongst Iain Banks fans.)

-More HIGHLANDER tv-series discussion. Killing off of the female love interest, introduction of the Watchers/Hunters, Richie becoming immortal for real. The overload of immortal femme fatales especially Elizabeth Gracen

-SFLers note how Elizabeth Moon's fiction tends to be unattributed Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules, complete with notRangers, notPaladins, notThiefs, notWizards, notClerics, etc.

-Charles Stross starts re-posting the latest issues of the UK SF&F newsletter ANSIBLE to the SFL Archives.

(2021 note: The Ansible newsletters are always pretty interesting. Seriously considering dumping the detailed SFL Archives readthrough to just check the future SFL Volumes for Del Rey newsletters, and start reading the back-catalogue of Ansible newsletters directly from the source.)

-Dave Langford, the SF author Charles Stross recommended the rest of the SFL Archives check out, starts posting to the SFL Archives. 

(2021 note: Noticed this when Langford posted ANSIBLE 77 to the SFL Archives instead of Charles Stross. Langford maintained/ran the Ansible newsletter as of 1993, unsure who currently manages ANSIBLE).

-First mention & review of the childrens tv-series MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS in SFL Archives. Funnily the first person to mention it predicts a swift cancellation before the 1st season of the show airs.

-BRISCO COUNTY JR tv-series discussion. SFLer's like the running joke about Socrates and commonplace future technology being unfeasible or insane sounding.

-Locus Magazine finally not winning a Hugo Award is much discussed.

(2021 note: Locus Magazine has won the Hugo Award many many many many times as of 1993) 

-THE VISUAL GUIDE TO AMBER having a callback to Monty Pythons Lumberjack song in one of the character portraits.

-X Files tv-series premieres in fall 1993. SFL reaction is positive. Lots and lots of X-Files series discussion & speculation. 

(2021 note: Sadly I really don't care about the X-Files tv-series & find X-Files discussion more boring than convention or Hugo/Nebula Award discussion.)

-SEAQUEST DSV premieres and almost everyone hates it. The technology leaps in 30 yrs seems too unreal, the notWesley character annoys people more than Darwin the dolphin, etc. One SFLer is very angry that current to 1993 US Navy regs & submarine specs are not religiously being followed by a SF series set 30+ yrs in the future.

-LOIS & CLARK premieres No lies, L&C got 100% favorable reviews, even the people who tuned in to the show to hate-watch it end up loving the show. Everyone enjoys the eye-candy factor of Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher & Tracey Scoggins. And especially like how Clark is learning how to be Superman publically on the fly & how closely the L&C tv-series matches current-as-of-1993 Superman comics continuity.

-The person with the 30+ modular wizard staff has strong strong strongest opinions on BABYLON 5 & Star Trek.

-EYE OF ARAGON discussion makes a brief comeback along with a 600 page novel submitted to Baen Books called EYE OF HEAVEN that even, allegedly, Baen Books iron-stomached editors couldn't get through.

-Did Heinlein include a Bonsai tree in the CAT WHO WALKS THROUGH WALLS because of Theodore Sturgeon's SLOW SCULPTURE

-"what is Libertarianism in SF" leads to all sorts of classifications and recommended reading lists, with everyone involved in the libertarianism discussion threads becoming deadly serious & jumping to counter-correct other posters. A huge majority of SFL Archives posters self-identify themselves as libertarians.

-First mention of STAR TREK VOYAGER in SFL Archives, with the bonus of Paramount Studios heavily ripping of RED DWARF tv-series for the VOYAGER intial series pitch. 

SFL Archives 1993: SF&F newsletter Ansible 72

 Charles Stross shares issue 72 of the UK based SF&F newsletter Ansible to the SF-LOVERS mailing list. Can be found in SFL Archives Vol 18b.

For comparisons sake, here is issue 72 in html format at the Ansible website https://news.ansible.uk/a72.html

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

Date: 3 Jul 93 07:06:27 GMT

From: charlie@antipope.demon.co.uk (Charlie Stross)

Reply-to: sf-lovers-misc@Rutgers.Edu

Subject: Ansible 72 (July 1993)

Ansible 72

July 1993

From _Dave Langford_, 94 London Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5AU. Fax

_0734 669914_. ISSN 0265-9816. _Ansible_ is available for SAEs, whim,

#12/year, etc.

[Disclaimer: Each issue of _Ansible_ is designed for exquisite DTP in

multiple fonts. This text dump looks awful. So it goes. All thanks to

_Charles Stross_ for net access! DRL]

_WATCH THIS SPACE:_ as we go to press the death struggle between Little,

Brown and Millennium to commission the _Fantasy Encyclopaedia_ (companion

volume to ...) is in its final phase.

+++ The March of Mind

_Piers Anthony_'s personal statements are always intellectual treats. In

the _British Fantasy Society Newsletter_'s `Desert Island Books' spot he

chooses, for his `single item of no practical use whatsoever', a critic.

Also he would take _Finnegans Wake_ plus a guide to understanding it

(written presumably by a cr*t*c), and the complete works of George Bernard

Shaw (that fine dramatic and musical cr*t*c). Why Shaw? `As an outspoken

vegetarian writer of greater competence than the critics claim, I relate

well to him....' I love it, I love it. [_BFSN_]

  _David Clark_, ConFrancisco chair, warns of new convention peril: Vampire

Cats in Arizona! `At Westercon, there was a woman going around with a black

cat. The cat wore a black cape with a red lining. This was Vladimir, a

"vampire". His fangs were rather long, though I'm told this isn't uncommon

in cats. He was being wheeled around in a little coffin, being made

available for photographs. His mistress -- his "human slave", as she puts

it -- is working to build Vladimir a career as a photogenic cat for

commercials, TV and such. (He was so relaxed about dealing with people that

we were debating which tranquillizer had been used.) At the Vladimir Party

it was revealed unto us that we could purchase Vladimir mounted

photographs, and Vladimir key-chains, and Vladimir photo buttons.  _And_

the Vladimir fanzine. We were able to tear ourselves away from this

bounty....'

  _Les Dawson_, who died in June, will be remembered as a very funny

comedian and not -- we hope -- for his staggeringly awful horror-fantasy _A

Time Before Genesis_ (1988). See `How _Not_ To Write A Novel' by David

Garnett in _Vector_ 144.

  _Lilian Edwards_ knows how to acquire _Ansible_s: `Stamped addressed

envelopes? I'll get my secretary to send you some.'

  _William Golding_ of _Lord of the Flies_ fame died on 19 June aged 81.

Anthony Burgess's obituary complained that WG didn't write enough; a great

scratching of pens was heard as the obvious rejoinder was added to many

draft Burgess obits....

  _John Grant_ exults: `Red Fox have seen sense and decided that 12 _Lone

Wolf_ novels is probably enough. The temptation is considerable to make #12

end with the most stupendous cliffhanger -- as Our Hero dangles by a single

blade of grass over the cauldron of bubbling lava, a crossbow- bolt is

already hissing towards his groin, but if the caterpillar chews through the

grass in time he'll drop just far enough that the bolt merely parts his

hair rather than getting him in the chest, so that as he falls he can

unsheathe the Sommerswerd, strap it across his shoulders and thereby gain

just enough airlift that he can glide past the rim of the cauldron and into

the relative safety of a pitched battle between mutant necromancers and

giant carnivorous slugs left over from millennia ago when the legions of

Agarash the Damned stalked the world; on the other hand, if the caterpillar

chews just a mite too slowly ... _could this be The End?_ It's going to be

hard for me to get out of the habit, you know.'

  _David A.Hardy_ announces the 20th birthday of his green plasticene alien

`Bhen' (created 1973; seen on various _F&SF_ covers since Nov 75; endemic

in Birmingham). Dave protests that Bhen is not a `little green man' but, as

evident from the scale of accompanying NASA hardware in the paintings, over

2 metres tall. _How did a mere artist afford all that plasticene?_

  _Dave Langford_ whinges that _PCW Plus_ magazine is axing his legendary

column (along with other outside contributions) as part of a cost-cutting

exercise. He confidently expects his millions of fans not to write in and

complain.

  _Chris Priest_ visited the doctor to have a horrid mole removed and

became a guinea pig: `While I was in the waiting room, a man was sitting

there with a big case and a large bottle of liquid nitrogen. Ha ha, thought

I, smart-aleck as ever, bet he's in for a kidney transplant.  Turns out

he's a rep from a medical supplies company, here to demonstrate a nifty new

liquid-nitrogen scalpel on, well, er, me. I now have a black crater where

my chest was, slowly warming up....' Besides the ignominy of being operated

on by a _salesman_, Chris had to go back a week later for a real doctor to

finish the (botched) job. After which he was `stitched together by the head

of the Dartmoor Mailbag Division'....

  _David Pringle_ has `combined' his ailing _Million: the Magazine About

Popular Fiction_ (now, alas, down to 500-odd subscribers) with _Interzone_.

Anyone remember the _Million/IZ_ crossover issue furore? No, actually the

merger announcement scheduled for _IZ74_ radiates soothing signals in all

directions: erstwhile _Million_ subscribers will get _IZ_ and are assured

that several _Million_ features like Brian Stableford's `Yesterday's

Bestsellers' series will continue to appear there, while for _IZ_ readers

the message is that _Interzone_ `will not change its nature'. [DP]

  _Carl Sagan_ habitually asks UFO nuts who claim contact with alien

intelligence to prove it by passing on the superior ETs' proof of Fermat's

Last Theorem. Following Prof.A.Wiles's mindboggling announcement of a proof

at a Cambridge lecture on 23 June, Sagan could soon be getting a lot of

mail.... Since the hard bit reputedly runs to 200 pages, Fermat was right:

a bloody enormous margin will be needed to contain it.

+++ Condylopods

2 Jul // _Weerde 2_ anthology signing, 5:30, Dillon's, Oxford.

  3 Jul // _Armageddon Fireworks_, Whitchurch, Reading -- contact Martin

Hoare or Hugh Mascetti. #4 at the gate.

  14 Jul // _BSFA_, The Conservatory/Munchen upstairs bar. Chris Evans

and Garry Kilworth hold forth. 7:30ish.

  17-19 Jul // _Contagion_ (Trek), Hospitality Inn, Glasgow. #35 reg.

Contact PO Box 867, Rutherglen, G73 4HR.

  24 Jul // _Dangercon V_ (humorous sf/kids' TV), Croydon. #3 reg. 11am-

11pm. Contact 37 Keens Rd, Croydon, CR0 1AH.

  30 Jul-1 Aug // _Lunicon_ (Unicon 14), Leeds. GoH Roger Zelazny. #12

reg, #6 for students. Contact LUU, PO Box 157, Leeds, LS1 1UH.

  1 Aug // _Wottacon_ (_Dr Who_), Imperial Hotel, Exeter. #12.50 reg.

Contact 3 Victoria Clo, Kenton, Exeter, EX6 8JX.

  2-6 Sep // _ConFrancisco_ (51st Worldcon), San Francisco. Reg $125 to

16 Jul, then $145 at the door. Contact (UK) 12 Stannard Rd, London, E8

1DB.

  12-19 Sep // _Milford (UK) SF Writers' Conference_ cancelled. Too many

people going to ConFrancisco instead, they say. [CS]

  1-3 Oct // _Fantasycon XVIII_, Nameless (in the flyer, anyway) Hotel,

Birmingham.  #30 reg; BFS members #20. Contact 137 Priory Rd, Hall Green,

Birmingham, B28 0TG.

  12-14 Nov // _Armadacon V_, Astor Hotel, The Hoe, Plymouth. #20 reg.

Various guests, all `subject to work commitments'. Contact 4 Gleneagle

Ave, Mannamead, Plymouth, PL3 5HL.

  4-6 Mar 94 // _Masque III_ (costume con), Stakis Victoria Hotel,

Nottingham. #20 reg to 30 Dec 93. Contact 4 Ednaston Ct, Ashbourne,

Derbyshire, DE6 3BA.

  20-22 May 94 // _Corflu Nova_ (fanzine con), Arlington, VA, USA. $37

reg. Contact PO Box 1350, Germantown, MD 20875. Corflu plans to exhume

a long-dead horror: the partly rugose and partly squamous Fanzine

Activity Achievement Awards.

  _Rumblings_ // The Scottish Convention's first progress report was

sighted at a fan gathering on 27 June. Many swooned or spoke in tongues.

Miraculous cures were rumoured. Pigs flew. // That _Speller/Kincaid

Wedding_ (26 June) was a riot of something or other, with standing room

only in Folkestone's tiny registry office. Our fashion reporter forgets

everything but Paul's puce paisley waistcoat and the bell-bedizened anklets

that best woman Moira Shearman was persuaded to remove for the actual

ceremony. The bride wore something purple with glittery bits.  Others wore

clothes. Best man Chris Priest almost made a speech but thought better of

it, thus wasting the nanoseconds of research which had supplied him with

the Doc Smith marriage line traditionally quoted at all Martin Hoare's

weddings: _`Then, as Kinnison kissed his wife, half a million Lensed

members were thrust upward in silent salute.'_ The rest is drunken silence.

+++ Infinitely Improbable

  _A71_ Corrections. It was BSFA _Matrix_ 104, not infallible _Critical

Wave_, which rumoured that the Gollancz graphic-novels line might be

folding and led to hapless Dave `Well, I Just Mentioned There _Was_ A

Rumour' Langford being severely chastised by Gollancz's Faith `Strict

Disciplinarian' Brooker. // Also _Paul Barnett_'s lawyers demand the

insertion of the statement (re Mexicon), `It was _Stross_'s shorts that

were unspeakable.'

  _Hodline or Header?_ Hodder & Stoughton sent circulars to their authors

on 3 June, insisting that the coming merger with Headline as Hodder

Headline PLC was a Jolly Good Thing. What luck -- one fewer sf list to

worry about selling to!

  _Exotic Imagery._ Reported in a forthcoming Robert Jordan epic: `The

words left Elaida's mouth like a whip.' `Now Danelle's big blue eyes looked

thoughtfully inward.' [Anon] // Aussie radio, of a corpse: `In an advanced

state of decomposition, she was said to be an affectionate mother.'

[_SoEN_]

  _Stamp Out Moriarty!_ UK stamps depicting scenes and people from Sherlock

Holmes stories are to appear on 12 Oct, marking the centenary of Holmes's

`death' at the Reichenbach Falls (er, but ...). David Pringle suggests `a

write-in campaign on behalf of Wells's Martians', but that centenary isn't

until 1998: how about Eloi and Morlock stamps for _The Time Machine_ in

'95?

  _Meng & Ecker 6_, latest issue of the first comic to be banned in the UK,

turned up from Savoy Books. The highlight is a 7-page official transcript

of the Greater Manchester Police interviewing scriptwriter David Britton

about seized comics last year: it's non-communication to the point of

surrealism. I wasn't that wild about the comic itself, which offers a

scattering of OK jokes amid much murky artwork and determined Greater

Manchester Police-baiting (good heavens, such _bravery_, here is someone

_screwing a pig_, the frontiers of art are _hurled back_). But I would

defend to the point of extremely minor inconvenience Savoy's right to

publish it. The price is #1.75.

  _C.O.A. Etc._ _Dick & Leah Smith_, 410 W.Willow Rd, Prospect Hts, IL

60070-1250, USA (a road is being built through their old place!). _Hazel

Marchington & Robert Newman_ will be married on 2 July. [MP]

  _SF Encyclopaedia_ Updates. The most mysterious item in the _SFE_ update

sheet (see _A71_) came from Harlan ELLISON: `_The Book of Ellison_ (1978)

is unauthorized.' Since most of its text is by HE himself, this implies

wicked literary piracy on the part of publisher Algol Press -- that is,

Andrew Porter of _SF Chronicle_ infamy, who remarks somewhat bitterly that

HE never objected when receiving royalties: `If the book was unauthorized,

then Ellison's left hand didn't know what his right hand was agreeing to.'

// Spies report that the most vituperative comments came from Piers

Anthony, that one of the US computer nets rang with cries of rage at the

`omission' of Vonda McIntyre (someone misunderstood the alphabetization

convention), and that Larry Niven responded to _SFE_ hints about loss of

`joy' in his later work by sadly agreeing it was so. // An even newer

update sheet is expected soon, as addenda pour in. // The _Nimbus_ CD-ROM

edition planned for `late June' seems to have been delayed, but they've

sent another jolly sample CD of their wares, 128Mb including all of

_Frankenstein_ and _Dracula...._

  _Raiders of the Lost Duck._ Anecdote from `Lucasfilm Archives, a state-

of-the-art 28,000 sq ft barn': archivist Don Bies grows weary of visitors

asking if they can open the Ark of the Covenant from _Raiders_, and of

telling them their very souls might be endangered. So inside the thing he

places two objects, and waits. In due course a brave fool lifts the lid and

reels back at ultimate horror: a Howard the Duck mask and a sign reading I

TOLD YOU YOU'D REGRET OPENING IT. [DLR] Gosh, how droll.

  _Ten Years Ago._ The _TLS_ discussed Japanese comics' conventional sounds

for activities like slurping noodles (_suru-suru_), reddening with

embarrassment (_po_), adding cold cream to hot coffee (_suron_) and

vanishing into thin air (_fu_). The news that `When a penis suddenly stands

erect the accepted sound is _biin_' led to wild surmise about a Japanese

origin for the famous sound of Heinlein's nipples, _spung_....  (_Ansible

34_, Jul 83)

+++ Proofs of Holy Writ

[Fascinating documents float around the world of publishing. Paul Barnett

worked on the proofs of the coming _Before the Sun Falls_ by William James,

and felt it was so awfully written that it would damage Orbit's reputation

if not heavily edited. Orbit decided not to bother: the author is said to

be `touchy' about his immortal prose. Here's an excerpt from a very long

Barnett letter to the Orbit editor....]

  For example, we have what I've come to call cliche-rivers. The author

doesn't quite know what to do with his characters when they're mouthing

dialogue, and has a limited gamut of incidental actions for them to

perform. In any twenty-page stretch of the text you're almost certain to

encounter not just a few but _all_ of the following at least once, some of

them (as asterisked) several times over:

  *he showed his teeth // *he gave him a hard, flat, cold, level or

expressionless stare (about every two pages someone gives someone else a

stare of some kind -- I particularly liked the single despairing instance

of giving `an oblique stare') // he produced a _[pick from the limited

variety above]_ stare // *he looked down his nose // *he wrinkled his nose

// *he smiled grimly // he smiled sourly // *he grinned // the corners of

his mouth twitched // *he pursed his lips (this one is so frequent it was

driving me nuts) // *the head came round // *his head went back // his head

came up // his st'lyan screamed // his st'lyan danced (first third of book

only) // he sidestepped his st'lyan (latter two-thirds of book only) // he

opened his mouth, then closed it again // he clenched his teeth // he

seemed/appeared to do something (while in fact doing it -- as in `he

appeared to hesitate') // *he made a face // something flashed in his eyes

but then was gone // he reined around // his eyes went wide // he nodded

(after having spoken an assent) // he shook his head (after having spoken a

dissent or negation) // he rolled the cup between the palms of his hands //

it was as if a message of some kind passed between them // he stirred the

grass with his toe

  Others are more localized. For example, early on a shipboard Kubulai

spits expressively over the side; just a few pages later someone else comes

up and, presumably inspired by his lord's example, _also_ spits

expressively over the side. This is in the midst of all the other,

expressionless spits over the side that are going on, you understand....

  _[There is much more. A st'lyan, I gather, is a bit like a h'rse.]_

Ansible 72 (c) Dave Langford, 1993. Thanks to John Bangsund's Society of

Editors Newsletter, Paul Barnett, John Clute, Mark Plummer, Andy Porter,

David Pringle, David L.Russell and Our Distributors: Vikki Lee France,

Steve Jeffrey, Janice Murray, Charlie `I will make you famous on the Net'

Stross, Alan Stewart, Martin Tudor and Bridget Wilkinson.  1/7/93

[Additional note from Charlie Stross: there is now a listserv address for

Ansible. To subscribe to Ansible by email if you don't get netnews, send

mail to ansible-request@dcs.gla.ac.uk.]

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