LOC for The Obdurate Eye #15

The following is a letter of comment sent to Garth Spencer, editor of The Obdurate Eye, commenting on #15.

Dear Mr. Spencer:

Having recently come across your fanzine The Obdurate Eye #15 on eFanzines—my first exposure to your writing—I wanted to send a brief letter of comment. So I shall.

What method do you use to lessen the size of your apazine files? I just recently started submitting my apazines to Bill Burns for inclusion in eFanzines—and returned to the National Fantasy Fan Federation’s N’APA after a 13-year absence—and would welcome any tips and tricks you can offer. 

Regardless of your technical challenges accessing television, what programs have you sought out via Chromecast TV, Google Home, and your tablet? I tend not to watch TV or online videos on my iPad, but did welcome the opportunity to do so while preparing for a couple of medical procedures earlier this year. I was pleased as punch to be able to access our cable TV DVR on my tablet (a Svengoolie episode), as well as Crunchyroll (Astro Boy). I hope that you’re over the worst of your bout with COVID-19.

Your commentary on linguistics and semantics reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, which I don’t get to use often enough: Jargon is just slang for lingo. In one particular apa I’m active in, participants occasionally pick nits about word selection. A recent instance inspired me to jokingly respond using a purposeful misspelling. However, much to my disappointment, no one pointed it out. (At a recent LASFS meeting, my mispronunciation of comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz’s name—which was decidedly incorrect—was corrected by a fellow fan; to my amusement, that correction was then also corrected, by someone who actually knows Sienkiewicz.)

The excerpt from your autobiography commenting on the challenges facing convention organizers and the value of newszines in terms of fostering common knowledge made me think of Filthy Pierre’s The Con Committee’s Guide (available at https://tinyurl.com/runacon). It’s a little dated—1984—but remains my go-to source when I have questions about con organizing. What did you do with The Maple Leaf Rag to foster common knowledge? Regardless, I’ve experienced much the same; sometimes people are fine just muddling through.

How to Human’s definition of “Agenda in Life” made me think about Sam Lubell’s approach to breaking down avocational projects: Project Classics, Project History, Project Trek, and Project Shakespeare. Being explicit about one’s areas of focus and interest is something I’ve done on an informal basis—and I think the concept merits additional consideration. I remember being surprised when I first learned there were multiple phonetic alphabets. In addition to the NATO phonetic alphabet, Western Union also had one of its own, for example.

In the letter column, Lloyd Penney’s remark on Kumospace—”[W]ith hundreds, if not thousands of social media platforms, it’s doing an even better job of keeping us apart”—gave me pause. Given recent news about Twitter, where I curate articles related to business, marketing, technology, culture, and fandom almost every day—Elon Musk bought it—I’ve been considering returning to blogging more actively. We’ll see how well my tweets transform into longer-form blog entries at http://mediadiet.net/—as well as whether anyone finds or engages with them. Already, the N3F, in which I’m active, has some members who participate in Facebook, some involved in MeWe (another social media platform), and some not online at all. Even our clubzines don’t reach a critical mass of our members.

So your comment that even at cons in the 1980s, the shared understanding—or common knowledge, again!—of what fandom was piqued my interest. I’ve seen this in recent years at the San Diego Comic-Con, the Los Angeles Comic Book Convention… and less so at Loscon, which is much less of a mediacon and therefore attracts fewer “tourists.” I missed the most recent Gallifrey One, so I’m not sure how much of a traditional con it is these days. But there definitely seems to be more room for people less involved in fandom to participate in such events. Personally, I think it’s caused by the wider range of online outlets for fandom and information of a fannish nature, which were previously served through cons, fanzines, and the like—fandom has entered the mainstream to some extent. I also think the multitude of entry points is a good thing. But we do need to be more mindful of the capabilities and needs of that broader spectrum of fen.

Thank you for encouraging readers to submit book reviews to The N3F Review of Books. I second the motion! You can see some recent reviews of my own in the March 2022 edition. And I just sent Mr. Phillies another batch of reviews for the forthcoming issue. Even if you review books for a fanzine or apazine, we’re open to reprints. Right now, we depend heavily on several online sources and are looking to diversify our reviewers.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope you and yours are doing well. I’m currently reading A.E. van Vogt’s Mission: Interplanetary, which is enjoyable so far—and tonight is movie night with a friend: either In the Year 2889 or Mars Needs Women, both directed by Larry Buchanan.