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10.18.02
Excuse me, I've had a nasty shock. Searching the
British Library website for one of their
publications, I found an unexpected new role for myself in the blurb for the
BL's Jack Vance critical anthology: 'In this collection of appreciations, Hugo
and Nebula award-winning authors Dan Simmons and Gene Wolfe join with academics
such as David Langford
'
Graham Joyce, speaking at Fantasycon, gave a memorable account of
trying to explain his first novel to his father.
Joyce Junior: 'It's about dreams, and what they mean.'
Joyce Senior: 'What do you mean, what dreams mean? They mean you're
asleep.'
Darren Nash, the former marketing manager for fiction and the
Earthlight sf/fantasy imprint at Simon & Schuster UK, becomes senior
Earthlight editor this month replacing John Jarrold, who left in August.
Darren was suitably disconcerted when Walter Jon Williams congratulated him on
achieving 'omnipotence'.
The Thog Response. Greg Egan reproves Thog for making mock
(in Runcible Ansible #43) of his 'mostly nitrogen
six times as much as on Earth' atmosphere: 'I hate to be a bad sport about my
Thog entry, but this is either malice or stupidity. Who said anything about a
percentage? Six times "as much" nitrogen would mean six times the pressure
to most planetary scientists, and for those in any doubt the next sentence
[beginning 'The high atmospheric pressure'] makes this clear
Thog strains so
hard to find misreadings and double entendres these days that he only raises a
chuckle when his quotes are more selective and misleading than the review
snippets on my dust jackets.' Er, apologies; Thog is evidently not a planetary
scientist.
Neil Gaiman takes a different view of his big moment in
Runcible #39: 'I'd been waiting almost twenty
years to be Thogged, and practically sent you a thank you card. (I still think a
loud smirk is like a loud tie, being one you can see all the way across the
room. My story, & I am sticking to it.) I don't think these Johnny Come
Latelies realise how lucky they are, getting Thogged like that, straight out of
the box. I've written millions of words. Millions, I tell you. And I had to win
a bloody Hugo Award before I got Thogged. You tell the kids today that, and they
just laugh at you.'
R.I.P. Dal Coger, US midwestern fan since around 1942 and
still an sf convention-goer in 2002, died on 2 October.
Thog's Masterclass. 'He had extruded all the furniture and the room
presented a desolate appearance.' (Frank Belknap Long, 'The Hounds of Tindalos',
1929)
Dept of Now You See It: '
another coralskipper flashed
past at a converging speed somewhere close to that of light, too fast for Han's
eye to track it.' (Walter Jon Williams, Star Wars, The New Jedi Order:
Destiny's Way, 2002)
David Langford is an author and a gentleman.
His newsletter, Ansible,
is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. He lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards. He continues to add books and Hugos.
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