Fandom Is A Way Of Life.
FIJAGH
Fandom Is Just A Goddamn Hobby.
FILLER
words stuck in to fill up empty space, especially leftover space on a fanzine page, traditionally bits written by the editor, pieces of wit or wisdom or silliness. One of the art forms of fandom.
FMZ
fanzines.
GAFIA
Get Away From It All. Verb—GAFIATE. Said of an active fan who abandons all fannish activities out of distraction or loss of interest, and ends his/her contact with the fannish world. It is possible to return to fandom after an extended period of gafiation; but of course many gafiates are never heard from again.
GREEPS, CROTTLED
a legendary foodstuff, first introduced in a 1953 filler: “But if you don’t like crottled greeps, what did you order them for?”
ILLO
illustration.
MACROCOSM
the mundane, nonfannish world, as opposed to fandom, the Microcosm.
MUNDANE
a person who is not a fan.
NEO
a person new to fandom. For the first year or so in fandom, a person is expected to exhibit NEOFAN (brash and noisy) characteristics.
ONE-SHOT
a fanzine produced (perhaps written as well) at a single session. Strictly speaking, such a fanzine is intended to have only one issue.
SERCON
serious constructive. Refers to an attitudinal disposition to improve fandom and/or SF. The term has come to be the antonym of fannish. For instance, the academic criticism of SF in recent years is “too sercon.”
SIMPLIFIED SPELLING (SIMPLIFYD SPELNG)
the practice of eliminating silent letters, e.g., though/tho, through/thru, or substituting phonetically to condense. This form of shorthand probably entered fandom from the pre-(fan) historic SF novel by Hugo Gernsback, Ralph 124C41+ (“one to foresee for one, plus”-the “plus” was a silent honorific). Forrest J. Ackerman, a leading popularizer of this mode in fan writing, is “4e” or “4sj.”
TWONK’S DISEASE
the ultimate affliction: fallen armpits.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
SIXTY BOOKS IMPORTANT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF SF, PUBLISHED BEFORE THE NAME WAS INVENTED
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a kind of story most often called “scientific romance” was relatively common. But this list is broader and more ambitious than just a list of these scientific romances. My intention is to list all (but only) the most important works, without which the field as it is today in the English language would be very different. I attempted to list only fifty books and to end the list at 1926, but common sense indicated that it be longer and extend slightly beyond Gernsback’s invention of the name to a few works obviously not part of the early pulp tradition. And by doing so, perhaps I have made the list more provocative and more interesting. I have read almost everything on the list and am familiar with the rest.
Note: In those cases where there are two dates, the earlier indicates the original date of publication, the second the first publication in book form. Books in this listing appear in order by earliest date.
* = translation ** = a collection or compilation of earlier works
1. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels (1726).
2. Louis-Sébastien Mercier. Memoirs of the Year 2440 (1771).*
3. Jean Cousin de Grainville. The Last Man or Omegarus and Syderia (1805).*
4. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein (1818).
5. Joseph Atterly (pseud. George Tucker). A Voyage to the Moon (1827).
6. Edgar Allan Poe. The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe (ca. 1840s) (1976).**
7. Fitz-James O’Brien. The Supernatural Tales of Fitz-James O’Brien (ca. 1860s) (2 vols 1988).**
8. Jules Verne. A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1863).*
9. Chrysostom Trueman (“ed.”). The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864).
10. Jules Verne. From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870).*
11. Edward S. Ellis. The Steam Man of the Prairies (1868).
12. Edward Everett Hale. “The Brick Moon” (1869).
13. Jules Verne. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870).* (See also No. 10.)
14. N. Camille Flammarion. Stories of Infinity (ca. 1870s) (1897).***
15. Sir George Chesney. The Battle of Dorking (1871).
16. Edward Bulwer Lytton. The Coming Race (1871).
17. Percy Greg. Across the Zodiac (1880).
18. Edward Bellamy. The Blindman’s World and Other Stories (ca. 1880s) (1898).**
19. Edward Page Mitchell. The Crystal Man (ca. 1880s) (1973).**
20. Frank R. Stockton. The Science Fiction of Frank R. Stockton (ca. 1880s) (1976).**
21. Albert Robida. Le Vingtieme Siècle (1882). Profuse illustration with text: never translated.
22. Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland (1884).
23. Robert Louis Stevenson. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886).
24. W. H. Hudson. A Crystal Age (1887).
25. Edward Bellamy. Looking Backward (1888).
26. Mark Twain. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).
27. Ignatius Donnelly. Caesar’s Column (1890).
28. H. G. Wells. The Short Stories of H. G. Wells (ca. 1890s) (1927).**
29. N. Camille Flammarion. Omega: The Last Days of the World. (1893–4).*
30. George Griffith. The Angel of the Revolution (1893).
31. Gustavus W. Pope. Journey to Mars (1894).
32. H. G. Wells. The Time Machine (1895).
33. Gabriel Tarde. Underground Man (1896/1904).*
34. H. G. Wells. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896).
35. Kurd Lasswitz. Two Planets (1897).*
36. H. G. Wells. The War of the Worlds (1898).
37. H. G. Wells. When the Sleeper Wakes (1899).
38. Simon Newcomb. His Wisdom, the Defender (1900).
39. M. P. Shiel. The Purple Cloud (1901).
40. H. G. Wells. The First Men in the Moon (1901).
41. H. G. Wells. A Modern Utopia (1905).
42. J. D. Beresford. The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911).
43. Hugo Gernsback. Ralph 124 C 41+ (1911–12/1925).
44. Rudyard Kipling. With the Night Mail (1905/1909) and “As Easy as A.B.C.” (1912).
45. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World (1912).
46. William Hope Hodgson. The Night Land (1912).
47. George Allan England. Darkness and Dawn (1914).
48. Jack London. The Science Fiction of Jack London (ca. 1915) (1975).**
49. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars (1912/1917).
50. A. Merritt. The Moon Pool (1919).
51. Murray Leinster. The Forgotten Planet (1920–53/1954).
52. Karel Čapek. R.U.R. (1920).*
53. David Lindsay. A Voyage to Arcturus (1920).
54. George Bernard Shaw. Back to Methuselah (1921).
55. Ray Cummings. The Girl in the Golden Atom (1922).
56. E. V. Odle. The Clockwork Man (1923).
57. Yevgeny Zamiatin. We (1924).*
58. S. Fowler Wright. The World Below (1929).
59. Olaf Stapledon. Last and First Men (1930).
60. Aldous Huxley. Brave New World (1932).
APPENDIX II
THE BEST 105 SF BOOKS SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE FIELD IN THE TWENTIES
Here are the books that have made the SF field great. These are also the books that made deep and lasting impressions on me, books that I recall vividly, upon which I have meditated, books that I have discussed for years with other fans and editors and readers and scholars. There are no anthologies here but there are single-author collections, when I feel that the collection represents the author best. You may use this list in a number of ways. It is an excellent guide to reading. If you are a collector, it is a good checklist of books you ought to own. If you teach, you should have these authors in your background. If you want to study
the field, begin here.
I have not indicated editions, since most titles exist in several, and the paperbacks pop in and out of print all the time. There are a number of authors who are so important that I have read all their novels and nearly all their stories (Robert A. Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, Arthur C. Clarke, Joanna Russ, Theodore Sturgeon, and more than a dozen others). Would that I could list more titles, but this listing game means cutting to the bone and including as many authors as I can. I have criticized the lists of others for including too high a proportion of “classics” from the five years preceeding the date of selection, so I have cut off eligibility at 1990. And if you care to compare, look back to the list in chapter 8 and see how it differs (this is a list for the initiated).
1. Brian Aldiss. Starswarm.
2. Poul Anderson. The Boat of a Million Years.
3. Isaac Asimov. The Foundation Trilogy.
4. J. G. Ballard. The Crystal World.
5. J. G. Ballard. The Atrocity Exhibition.
6. Greg Bear. Eon.
7. Gregory Benford. Timescape.
8. Alfred Bester. The Demolished Man.
9. _____. The Stars My Destination.
10. Michael Bishop. No Enemy but Time.
11. James Blish. A Case of Conscience.
12. _____. Cities in Flight.
13. Leigh Brackett. The Long Tomorrow.
14. Ray Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles.
15. _____. Fahrenheit 451.
16. David Brin. Startide Rising.
17. Fredric Brown. The Best of Fredric Brown.
18. John Brunner. Stand on Zanzibar.
19. Edward Bryant. Particle Theory.
20. Algis Budrys. Rogue Moon.
21. Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange.
22. John W. Campbell. Who Goes There?
23. Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game.
24. C. J. Cherryh. Cyteen.
25. Arthur C. Clarke. Childhood’s End.
26. _____. The City and the Stars.
27. D. G. Compton. The Unsleeping Eye.
28. Avram Davidson. The Best of Avram Davidson.
29. L. Sprague de Camp. Lest Darkness Fall.
30. Samuel R. Delany. Nova.
31. _____. Dhalgren.
32. Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle.
33. _____. The Collected Stories, Vols. 1–5.
34. Thomas M. Disch. 334.
35. Harlan Ellison. The Essential Ellison.
36. Philip José Farmer. To Your Scattered Bodies Go.
37. William Gibson. Neuromancer.
38. Joe Haldeman. The Forever War.
39. Robert A. Heinlein. The Past Through Tomorrow.
40. _____. Stranger in a Strange Land.
41. Frank Herbert. Under Pressure.
42. _____. Dune.
43. Gwyneth Jones. Divine Endurance.
44. Damon Knight. The Best of Damon Knight.
45. C. M. Kornbluth. His Share of Glory.
46. Henry Kuttner. The Best of Henry Kuttner.
47. R. A. Lafferty. Nine Hundred Grandmothers.
48. Ursula K. Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness.
49. _____. The Dispossessed.
50. Fritz Leiber. The Leiber Chronicles.
51. Stanislas Lem. Solaris.
52. C. S. Lewis. Out of the Silent Planet.
53. H. P. Lovecraft. At the Mountains of Madness.
54. Vonda N. McIntyre. Dreamsnake.
55. Barry N. Malzberg. Beyond Apollo.
56. Walter M. Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz.
57. Michael Moorcock. The Cornelius Chronicles.
58. C. L. Moore. The Best of C. L. Moore.
59. Ward Moore. Bring the Jubilee.
60. Larry Niven. All the Myriad Ways.
61. _____. Neutron Star.
62. Edgar Pangborn. A Mirror for Observers.
63. Alexei Panshin. Rite of Passage.
64. Frederik Pohl. Gateway.
65. _____ and C. M. Kornbluth. The Space Merchants.
66. Keith Roberts. Pavane.
67. _____. The Passing of the Dragons.
68. Joanna Russ. Alyx.
69. _____. The Female Man.
70. Geoff Ryman. The Child Garden.
71. Hilbert Schenck. At the Eye of the Ocean.
72. Robert Sheckley. The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley (5 vols.).
73. _____. Dimension of Miracles.
74. Robert Silverberg. Collected Stories (1992 ff; 4 volumes to date).
75. Clifford D. Simak. City.
76. _____. Way Station.
77. John T. Sladek. The Best of John Sladek.
78. Cordwainer Smith. The Rediscovery of Man.
79. Norman Spinrad. The Void Captain’s Tale.
80. Olaf Stapledon. Star Maker.
81. Olaf Stapledon. Odd John.
82. Bruce Sterling. Schismatrix.
83. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Roadside Picnic.
84. Theodore Sturgeon. More than Human.
85. _____. The Collected Stories, Vols. 1–8.
86. William Tenn. Of All Possible Worlds.
87. Walter Tevis. The Man Who Fell to Earth.
88. James Tiptree, Jr. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever.
89. A. E. Van Vogt. Slan.
90. _____. The World of Null-A.
91. Jack Vance. The Dying Earth.
92. _____. The Best of Jack Vance.
93. John Varley. The Persistence of Vision.
94. Kurt Vonnegut. Player Piano.
95. _____. The Sirens of Titan.
96. _____. Slaughterhouse Five.
97. Stanley G. Weinbaum. A Martian Odyssey.
98. James White. The Watch Below.
99. Kate Wilhelm. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.
100. Jack Williamson. The Humanoids.
101. Gene Wolfe. The Fifth Head of Cerberus.
102._____. The Book of the New Sun.
103. _____. The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories.
104. Roger Zelazny. This Immortal.
105. _____ The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth.
APPENDIX III
TEACHING SF
I. An Introductory SF Course
This course is conceived as an introduction to the strengths and variety of contemporary SF. You cannot always get all the books in any given term, due to the vagaries of paperback publishers, so the following list has extra titles and authors; it is a list to be condensed and tailored by the instructor.
1. Those Who Can. Robin Scott Wilson, ed. second edition, St. Martin’s Press, 1996. (An anthology on writing SF, with stories and essays introducing basic terminology such as “plot” and “theme.”)
2. Modern Science Fiction. Norman Spinrad, ed. Doubleday Anchor, 1976. (A historical anthology and presently out of print. You could substitute James E. Gunn’s The Road to Science Fiction, White Wolf, 1996 ff, but it is in an unwieldy six volumes, or Visions of Wonder, ed. David G. Hartwell and Milton Wolf, Tor Books, 1996.)
Alternatively, you might use excerpts from Alexei and Cory Panshin’s enormous historical work, The World Beyond the Hill (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1989) together with an anthology such as The World Treasury of Science Fiction (ed. David G. Hartwell, Little, Brown, 1989) or Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction (ed. Gardner Dozois, St. Martin’s Press, 1994).
3. A. E. Van Vogt. Slan (or The Voyage of the Space Beagle).
4. Robert A. Heinlein. The Past Through Tomorrow (or Beyond This Horizon).
5. Arthur C. Clarke. Childhood’s End.
6. Ray Bradbury. The Martian Chronicles (or Fahrenheit 451).
7. Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth. The Space Merchants.
8. Alfred Bester. The Demolished Man (or The Stars My Destination).
9. Theodore Sturgeon. More Than Human.
10. Isaac Asimov. The Caves of Steel.
11. Frank Herbert. Under Pressure.
&
nbsp; 12. Robert A. Heinlein. Double Star.
13. _____. Stranger in a Strange Land.
14. Walter M. Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz.
15. Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle.
16. Roger Zelazny. This Immortal (or The Dream Master).
17. Samuel R. Delany. Babel-17 (or The Einstein Intersection or Nova).
18. Joanna Russ. Picnic on Paradise (or The Female Man).
19. Thomas M. Disch. 334.
20. Ursula K. Le Guin. The Left Hand of Darkness.
21. John Varley. The Persistence of Vision.
22. Gregory Benford. Timescape.
23. Gene Wolfe. The Shadow of the Torturer.
24. William Gibson. Neuromancer.
25. Orson Scott Card. Ender’s Game.
26. Joan Slonczewski. A Door into Ocean.
27. Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar (or Falling Free or The Vor Game).
28. David G. Hartwell, ed. Year’s Best SF (annual).
Of course, Age of Wonders is designed to fit into such a course in several different ways. I have taught many versions of this course, from which the above list has been developed. As you can see, it tries to go to the heart of what everyone loves in the SF field. And I never found it impossible to demand a book (ca. 200 pages of reading) per class, since the average high-school-age SF fan reads one book, or more, every couple of days. This is not a field for slow students.
II. A Course in the Literary History of SF
This course presupposes a general knowledge gained through exposure to the material in the Introductory Course above. I have observed in many parts of the U.S. that the historical course is taught most often without any reference to, or knowledge of, contemporary SF. This has always struck me as unproductive.
1. H. Bruce Franklin. Future Perfect. (Third edition) This was the first and is still the best on nineteenth-century SF in the U.S. (You might substitute James E. Gunn’s second volume of The Road to Science Fiction.)
2. Harold Beaver, ed. The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe.
3. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein.
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