Arthur D. Hlavaty

Peter Weston (1944-2017)

Thanx to File 770

Gregory Benford remembers fellow physicist Sidney Coleman.

Thanx to File 770

Fanfic at The New Yorker

Why does our beloved genre and its epiphenomena keep breaking through into the mainstream? IMO, because we have so many cool toys, and writers have near-zero resistance to them. The privileging of the mainstream was a social construct built around a distribution channel, and Main Street’s been in bad shape for a while now, but there’s nothing theoretical about a case of the plot bunnies. Ask any writer who’s had one. The only way to get rid of a plot bunny, even a disreputably fannish one, is to write it.

Thanx to Making Light.

Sue Mason wins the Rotsler Award for fan art.

Thanx to File 770

Science fiction fanzines before the future got broken

Thanx to File 770

There's a new movie about Dave Van Ronk. Back in the day, his tribe (folk music) and what would become mine (fanzine fandom) overlapped. The late Lee Hoffman, a beloved figure in both, remembered.

Thanx to Avedon's Sideshow.

Chris Kluwe is One of Us.

Thanx to Michael J. Walsh on Facebook

I discovered fanzine fandom in the early '70s, and one of the first fan writers I noticed was Dick Geis. He wrote well, including about his sexual practices, desires, and hangups, and he had a rare talent for stirring up controversy and fannish war, which he may have enjoyed as much as sex. One thing that encouraged my own fanwriting career was the awareness of what he was getting away with. When I did a zine, he was most encouraging, though he said I was too nice and should be stirring up more trouble. A lot of other people appreciated him (Wikipedia list of his fannish accomplishments).

ETA: Andy Porter remembers.

Among Others won the Hugo

Michael Dirda's Readercon report

Thanx to fringefaan