Electronic OtherRealms #28 Fall, 1990 Part 1 of 18 Copyright 1990 by Chuq Von Rospach All Rights Reserved. OtherRealms may be distributed electronically only in the original form and with copyrights, credits and return addresses intact. OtherRealms may be reproduced in printed form only for your personal use. No part of OtherRealms may be reprinted or used in any other publication without permission of the author. All rights to material published in OtherRealms hereby revert to the author. Table of Contents: Part 1 Editor's Notebook [part 1 of 5] Chuq Von Rospach Part 2 Editor's Notebook [part 2 of 5] Chuq Von Rospach Part 3 Editor's Notebook [part 3 of 5] Chuq Von Rospach Part 4 Editor's Notebook [part 4 of 5] Chuq Von Rospach Part 5 Editor's Notebook [part 5 of 5] Chuq Von Rospach Part 6 I'm not a nice girl Laurie Sefton Part 7 Romancing the Turquoise [Part 1 of 4] Susan Shwartz Part 8 Romancing the Turquoise [Part 2 of 4] Susan Shwartz Part 9 Romancing the Turquoise [Part 3 of 4] Susan Shwartz Part 10 Romancing the Turquoise [Part 4 of 4] Susan Shwartz Part 11 Scattered Gold Charles de Lint Part 12 Much Rejoicing Dan'l Danehy-Oakes Past Imaginging -- Two Fandoms Lawrence Watt-Evans Part 13 From Beyond the Edge [Part 1 of 2] Reviews by our Readers Part 14 From Beyond the Edge [Part 2 of 2] Reviews by our Readers Part 15 Flights of Fantasy Reviews by Laurie Sefton Part 16 Words of Wizdom [Part 1 of 2] Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach Part 17 Words of Wizdom [Part 2 of 2] Reviews by Chuq Von Rospach Part 18 Your Turn -- Letters to OtherRealms Masthead -- subscription, submission and other information Editor's Notebook Comments and Ramblings from Chuq Von Rospach Advance warning: price increase It's fairly obvious that I'm never going to get down to my proposed 32 pages, even with the changes I've made. There's just too much to do and too few pages to do it in. Also, postage is going to increase again next year, which will add to the mailing costs. Because of these two factors, the cover price of OtherRealms is going to increase, probably with issue #30. How much and what it will do to subscription rates I don't know yet for sure, but it will likely be either $3.50 or $3.95. I've been at the current rate since the beginning of 1988 and at $2.50 since 1986 despite major increases in the size and cost of producing this thing and so it's time to put things a little more in line with the costs. My policy of free copies to contributors, fanzine trades and the other usual stuff won't change, so people who want to write or draw instead of write checks still have that option. I will, after issue 30, trim the mailing list of freebies who seem to have gone dormant on me, so if you like OtherRealms and aren't paying for it in some way, get active or at least write me a letter telling me so. Notes on this issue This issue is huge -- likely the biggest issue of OtherRealms yet. So much for restraint in page count. Aw, well -- I'll publish as much as I can before the electronic edition goes away. One noteworthy accomplishment from last issue -- not one name was typoed. I got them all right. This is noteworthy only because this is the first time in ten or so issues I've pulled that trick off. Going for two.... There are a number of new graphics this issue -- I was sick and tired of the graphic for Words of Wizdom, and when Laurie told me I was going to change her No Prisoners column (she never did like the dripping blood. That was my idea. I thought it was cute, but I didn't have to live with it, either...) I decided it was time to fix some of the others as well. Hope the new ones (which aren't done as I write this) are better. Since the schedule is more flexible and I wasn't quite as pressed for time (as I write this, I'm looking at an electronic release around mid-September, with mailing of printed copies somewhere near there -- the normal deadline would have been September 1) I've been trying to clean up a few of the things about the look that I didn't like but didn't want to try to fix while under the crunch. Hope the look is better (I think so). In Times to Come At that, a bunch of things didn't fit in this issue including a piece on Olaf Stapledon, an interview of Lew Shiner (Sorry, Alan!) and a look at reference books about the Science Fiction field. Also scheduled is a trip report from Judith (Alamut) Tarr on her visit to Egypt, an article from Katherine (Bristling Wood) Kerr and all the usual stuff. Issue 30, to be published in April (and the last issue on the network) is shaping up very well. It's an anniversary issue and is something a little different. I think you'll like it. One thing that I experimented with and tossed back on the drawing board was an index of reviews using PageMaker 4.0's new indexing and table of contents features. It didn't work out but it did give me a few ideas on how to restructure things that might make it usable down the road. I wish I had an index, and I'm sorry it's not here this issue, but I expect I'll have one starting in the next couple (even if I decide to do it the old-fashioned way). I've also been playing with a Hypercard stack that contains all of the text of all of the issues I've published -- I need something on my disk where I can easily look up what's gone on in previous issues -- grep just doesn't cut it. The work I've done is promising, but I doubt it'll be done before the end of the year (even assuming it works at all), and I won't be able to release it generally because, as far as I can tell, it'd constitute a republication (it's the same general idea as a "Best of OtherRealms" anthology) and my copyright agreement with authors precludes that. What I'm trying to do is design it so I can strip out the text and publish it as an on-line, Hypercard based index to OtherRealms so that people can use it to look things up, but not simply be able to click a couple of buttons and read it. That'd require having a copy of the original publication. More than you ever wanted to hear on the end of electronic OtherRealms When I decided to announce the termination of Electronic OtherRealms last issue, I knew it was going to generate a lot of mail. I also knew that I was going to get yelled at by at least one twit on the network. Unfortunately, I wasn't disappointed. Within a couple of days of the posting of issue 27, the following showed up in rec.arts.sf-lovers under the title "OtherRealms abandons loyal readers". It was posted by account ALC somewhere at Penn State University by someone who didn't bother to sign a name: Just got the latest OtherRealms and I was shocked to read that Chuq is no longer going to product the electronic version for USENET. He will, starting next issue, only product a paper version. Well, I guess Chuq has been working at Apple too long. The "magazine for the rest of us" is now "the magazine for those that will pay" (been taking too many lessons from Apple, I guess). I, for one, find his arguments, completely lacking is validity. I hope that the readers here will mount some pressure to change his mind. I did find it amusing that the poster was able to not only complain about my decision but to be able to make obnoxious remarks about my employer at the same time. He gets two points for ingenuity there, but otherwise, it boils down to "I want it. He has to give it to me." He went and got the date of the last issue wrong on top of that, much to my amusement (issue 30, due in April, is the last issue, not this one). I had told a few people of my plan to kill OtherRealms, and I'd told them that I could guarantee that I'd be flamed for deciding to kill the fanzine. ALC gave me a rare opportunity to say "I told you so" -- and also to show a classic example of why I've decided to stop producing Eeyore (Electronic OtherRealms, aka EOR). There are a lot of great people on the net. A lot of great people who read Eeyore. And enough idiots out there that all the greatness doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how good the hot fudge is if the whipped cream is spoiled, and for me, the cream of the net has long since gone sour. It's people like ALC, and Omega, and Tim Maroney and Tom Maddox and the nameless dozens who pop in and scream and whine and rant and moan and never make enough of a presence for me to bother remembering their names. USENET's not fun any more. For me, serious not fun. Why? Read on. This is something that I posted as a tangential followup to the continuing saga of Robert Abernathy of the Houston Chronicle and his series of stories about USENET/Internet (terms he incorrectly uses as equivalent) being a haven for government funded pornography (great headlines, horrible research, factually questionable). This was titled "What's wrong with USENET" and is my final comment on why I'm leaving USENET and taking Eeyore with me. A couple of people mentioned on the net that my comments here were at odds to my comments in the editorial last issue announcing the termination. Very true: I thought I'd be polite (although why USENET deserves politeness I'll never know). So much for polite, here's what I really think: Since announcing the upcoming demise of my group rec.mag.otherrealms, a number of things have happened. First, I got flamed by someone who was pissed that I'd decided to stop volunteering my time for his benefit. But first, he got all the facts wrong and then flamed me based on his version of the facts. A number of folks wrote and asked me what it would take to give r.m.o a reprieve. A bunch of folks wrote me and told me not to let the turkeys get me down (a LOT of folks: thanks, each and every one of you). ONE person wrote to ask advice on how to do a replacement group like rec.arts.sf-lovers.reviews. I bring this up for a few reasons. One is to point out that of ALL the mail I got on r.m.o, one person took initiative to look into building a replacement. Some folks offered to help out, but only one person was willing to take over and to the whole thing -- and THAT was the reason I gave a year's notice on the termination. So that by the time OR was gone, there would be something to take its place. I suggest that if and when he goes public with rec.arts.sf-lovers.reviews, you treat him well. Initiative and a willingness to give of oneself are rare and needed attributes on USENET -- and the general attitude on USENET towards people who do give their time to the net is not pleasant -- as the one idiot who flamed me showed quite clearly. I not only expected that an article of that type was going to appear, I guaranteed it to a few friends. Nice to know I wasn't disappointed. So what's wrong with USENET? And what does that to do with r.m.o dying? What's wrong with USENET is that I'm tired of being threatened with bodily harm with a baseball bat (Hi, Omega). I'm tired of being accused of all sorts of nasty stuff. I'm tired of abusive e-mail, uuencoded unix kernels in my mailbox, nasty notes sent to my postmaster, profane phone messages in my voicemail. An incident occurred at Baycon this year that really freaked me. A reader of the net came up and introduced himself. Something, for some reason, clicked and suddenly there was a third person between us. I later apologized to him (and he apologized to me, needlessly) -- but it's very scary to me that enough shit has happened to me on this network that my defense mechanisms kick in like that -- that I'm now paranoid enough from a pretty constant stream of threats and abuse that when someone comes up and introduces themselves, my first reaction is to see whether he's carrying a stick. So far, I've been lucky. So far. Many folks have told me to turn the other cheek. I've been turning the other cheek for ten years now. I'm outta cheeks. I'm outta tolerance. I'm outta here. That's why r.m.o is dying. Yes, it's the few and the noisy. Yes, the vast majority of my readers are being penalized for the actions of a very few twits. I don't care. All I want now is out -- where I can get away from the noise and the abuse and the twits. I don't care who gets hurt -- as long as I stop hurting. Which is why I disagree strongly with Kenn when he says we need to protect things for the noisy as well as for the rest -- because while you're protecting the noisy, the noisy are forcing out the rest. Think about how many people who were high-profile on the net two years ago are gone. Or five years ago. And think about why. You folks are welcome to do whatever you want with USENET. It's not my battle any more -- I fought the idiots and the turkeys for ten years trying to make a better, humane network. I hereby declare unconditional, complete defeat -- the best I can say is that maybe I slowed them down a bit. Maybe. So when you talk about protecting the net "for all users", think about how you are really defining "all", and what the cost of that really is. If I sound tired and bitter and angry, it's because I'm tired and bitter and angry. I'm looking forward to discharging the rest of my responsibilities to the net and getting the hell off -- my only hope being that I get off before my sense of humor goes away permanently. One final note before I shut up: a reading exercise for people who want to make USENET better. In the august Asimov's is an essay called Xenogenesis by Harlan Ellison. Read it. Then ask yourself at what price is total freedom too expensive. I might point out, just for the heck of it, that there was an entire meta-discussion about the Ellison article on the various nets. As far as I can tell, if you've been there you understand and sympathize with Harlan. If you haven't, he's overreacting and posturing. I haven't hit nearly the shit he has in his life, and I'm glad. I don't know how I could have coped with it. Nobody's thrown eggs (they've limited themselves to obscene phone calls and 'cute' anonymous letters to my post office box). But I find all these 'little, trivial' things add up after a while, and they're additive -- the set of all the trivial, little stupidities and obnoxiousness over the years has added up to a layer of nastiness I no longer want to wade through. The result: lots of the good, worthy readers are getting cut off so I can get away from the few, the noisy, the nasty. You can argue if you want that it's my fault for quitting. I'll argue in return it's none of your business and suggest you go spend a few years in the trenches holding back the filth on the net and try to both stay clean and keep a sense of humor. I can't any more -- you want the job? You got it. In discussion with a net friend, the following popped up: Thanks... It's funny. I've been thinking about this for a few days, and I realize that I sit in restaurants with my back against a wall, facing the front door. I'm slowly realizing there are all sorts of behaviors I'm doing because I'm mildly paranoid -- which scares the hell out of me. I've never been physically assaulted in person (just yelling, which I can deal with. Mostly, from USENET folks, it turns out to be churlish whimpering in the guise of high wit -- and almost always, when confronted with a real person, they turn into real cowards...). I knew USENET was causing problems in my life. I'm just starting to realize how many... Scary to realize exactly how far my unhappiness on the net had pushed me. How many people have 'hobbies' that make them keep their backs to the wall because they're afraid something is going to pop up behind them? (I'll note, by the way, that since these revelations have bubbled up from the subconscious they've been dealt with pretty well -- I'm not nearly as freaked or hyper. But I am still rather pissed at finding myself ending up in the situation in the first place. I'm taking things a lot less seriously and trying to avoid internalizing issues or getting involved in the emotionally charged ones. That makes things more tolerable, but I'm definitely not at the point where I could claim I'm enjoying myself on the net. Not by a long shot. Just not miserable). A number of people talked to me about possible ways to keep Eeyore alive. Some even were silly enough to volunteer their time to help out (silly folks. Down that road lies net.god status and then you are truly lost). That isn't an option in this circumstance. Even if I was able to find someone who was willing to commit to a long-term shot as editor of Eeyore (and long term means a couple of years or more -- an issue here and there, or even a year doesn't really do anything -- I'd either be spending all the time I'm supposedly saving training new editors (or looking for them) or doing it myself because the editor bugged off on me. It wouldn't keep Eeyore from dying, either -- at some point, sooner or later (and probably sooner) the situation would fall apart and then Eeyore would die again, but this time without notice. The sad reality of USENET is that it runs on volunteers, and volunteers only work as long as they're motivated -- and the motivation has to come from within. I simply can't see someone remaining motivated towards doing mechanistic grunt work on someone else's stuff instead of doing their thing for any length of time. It's just unrealistic based on what I've seen happen around the net. What would end up happening was that hopes would be raised and things would seem to get back to normal and then either come crashing to an unfortunate end or be dumped back in my lap. What it doesn't do is solve any real problems like saving me time, energy or hassle. It just shifts things around and delays the inevitable. It also begs the major question, which is why I should want to continue doing something for an organization (i.e. USENET) that has made me feel so distinctly unwelcome that I feel I have to get out? Even if I'm not around, I"m still supporting a network that has made me unhappy and allowed users to abuse me. I've used the analogy of a lecture to explain this to people: if I'm giving a lecture in front of a group of people, I don't care how many folks are sitting and listening intently, if two or three idiots are throwing tomatoes, after a while you get tired of ducking -- especially if the rest of the audience isn't trying to make them stop. And that's the bottom line on this. There are lots of neat people being hurt by this decision and I recognize that. I don't feel guilty about that, though, because USENET, as an organization, not only tolerates the kind of abusive behavior I'm no longer willing to ignore, but actually encourages it by refusing to admit it has to deal with the problem. The attitude of "turn the other cheek and ignore the idiots" only works so long, and now USENET is going to have to deal with the reality that by choosing to accept the idiots, they have chosen noise and chaos and hurt over information and people and caring. I'm not (by far) the first person that's been kicked off the net by the hooligans. I'm just the first unwilling to go quietly. USENET has to realize that their policy of 'benign' tolerance isn't benign and isn't free of cost. One cost of tolerating the idiots is that USENET is losing OtherRealms. No big loss to many, I'm sure -- but take a roll call of all the names that you don't see on the net any more and ask yourself what the hidden cost of this 'benign tolerance' really is. When USENET decides that it's time to get serious and start dealing with the aberrant, anti-social and abusive behavior that is common on the network, then maybe I'll reconsider. Until then, I'm treating USENET the way the world treats British soccer fans -- there are lots of nice soccer fans in Britain, but when the hooligans start rioting, it's hard to remember anything else. When USENET becomes a place where we can sit down and have a good time without someone practicing primal scream therapy in your face, then it'll be time for Eeyore to return. I'm not holding my breath. Mike White and Ambar, Bob Halloran, borneo @ UC Santa Cruz, Betsy Perry, der Mouse (long time no see, man!), Henry Cate, Bryan @ University of Kansas, Chris Holt, Brad Templeton (well, sort of. Then again, from brad, 'dweeb' is a compliment...), Gordon Banks, Ken Meltsner, Allen Wessels, Joanne Brooks, Dave Cline, Dana Goldblatt, Ken Josenhans, Kenn Barry, William Davidsen, Jr., Peter Scott, Paul @ hcr.com, Rolfe Bozier, Mike Shappe, Robert Frey, Scott Merrilees, Maurice Schekkerman, Paul Zimmerman, Stephen Spencer, Mark Hill, Dennis Cottel, Kevin Rushforth, Alex Heatley, Tippy (somewhere inside AT&Tland), Stephen Duncan, Steven Glover, Ken Crouch, Marc Ringuette, Larry Reeves, Andrew Dwelly and the dozens of other people who wrote in on the situation, thank you very much -- for your comments, your support, and even your criticism. The good people out there make this decision that much harder to carry out. But it came down to me and the idiots. The idiots won. We all lose because of that, me more than most. [continued] ------ End ------