Part 3: The Rocky Road to Westercon 66: Sci Fi is Not for Sissies

Hugo Gernsback

“Angel-touched or not, at bottom the girl was just another wounded child of God with a monster problem.”  Throne of the Crescent Moon

I’m loving this book!  Though what it has to do with science fiction, I have no idea.  When did Hugo nominations start going to sword and sorcery?  Maybe always?  Speaking of 1963, I think I better take a look at the Hugo nominations that year (none of which I’ve read): the winner, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, a classic of the sci-fi genre, or so I’m told; A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke, surely a “real” sci-fi novel if Clarke’s the author, eh?; Little Fuzzy by H Beam Piper (what is it with all the author initials?), evidently sci-fi; Sylva by “Vercours”, some kind of French language (!) sci-fi time travel fantasy; and, ah ha, there is precedence, The Sword of Aldones by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  So I guess fantasy has always had a place on these lists.

Of course, at the time of their nomination, I wasn’t really that serious about tracking down the nominees, not having even really heard about the Hugos in the first place.  There was enough to keep me busy with Famous Monsters of Filmland (RIP Forrest J Ackerman, who I had the pleasure of meeting at his home/museum, but that’s another story), Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and the other “classics” I started discovering.  Little did I know that Amazing Stories’ creator Hugo Gernsback had some awards named after him, or that those same awards were bestowed at an annual science-fiction convention, or that in a few years I would actually attend a World Science Fiction Convention.

In any case, when I found the hard bound copy of Throne of the Crescent Moon at the used book store, I couldn’t believe the cover art (by Jason Chan); I felt like I was picking up a Young Adult novel (which is not in any way a “knock”), and I was a bit taken aback that THIS (?) was nominated for any kind of award.  The cover depicts an old fat bearded Moses-like man seeming to project some kind of light, and two fierce young male and female “heroes” wielding a two-pronged sword and fierce claws against some kind of vicious group of malevolent zombie-like creatures.  What was this, 1938, this was border-line embarrassing for a high-brow reader such as myself. 

But you know what?  Its combination of Robert Howard, The Grey Mouser, Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone, and, yes, of course, Game of Thrones, is working!  (I say “of course GoT" because nowadays that is the new fantasy gold standard that all current fantasy epics must somehow acknowledge, whether consciously or not, as Lord of the Rings was before it, and of course as LotR still is, too)  I’m only about a hundred pages in, but so far it’s really keeping my attention: it’s actually exciting and charming!  Good lord, what’s happening to me?       

To Be Continued 

The Rocky Road to Westercon 66: Sci Fi is Not for Sissies, Part 2

“People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”  Isaac Asimov

It strikes me as serendipity that 1963, the same year my blog partner’s current music series references, is also the year I discovered science fiction/fantasy magazines.  Close to my house was the Stop ‘n’ Shop market, attached to The Chatterbox Café (where my mother and her friends often held court), next door to a “five and dime” that had a baseball card dispensing machine out front (a machine that also introduced me to Mars Attacks! cards).  The store had a magazine selection, and for some reason I took notice of an issue of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination.  I was a comic book fan already (just a year or so before this I discovered Marvel when this same market, which didn’t carry comics, for some reason had a shopping cart FULL of recent issues, like Fantastic Four #5, various Spidermans, Avengers, etc.) and DC’s sci-fi anthology comic Strange Adventures was one of my favorites, so I knew I liked the genre, but I hadn’t up to that point read any short stories or novels.

At any rate, whatever issue I bought, I loved.  This immediately kick-started a search for other magazines and books.  I discovered Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Fritz Leiber, Amazing Stories, HP Lovecraft, and Ray Bradbury.  (Little did I know that I would spend much joyful time talking to Bradbury at a science-fiction con or two.)   I already was a reader and fan of some “horror”; my father had begun reading me Edgar Allan Poe when I was six or seven; I still vividly remember his renditions of “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Cask of Amontillado”.  Whether or not this was appropriate material for my age is irrelevant; I loved it!  So several years later, when I heard about conventions, it was only natural that I would want to attend. 

Dr. Akrabu’s “command” that I read all 2013 Hugo nominees seems like an impossible task, but yesterday I bought four of them: Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 and Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon for very reasonable rates at a local used book store, and John Scalzi’s Redshirts at Barnes and Noble, where I am a “member”, and so got a little discount.  I also found Mira Grant’s zombie series, but I have to confess something: realizing that Blackout (which also happens to be the name of another recent sci-fi novel by Connie Willis that I have actually read and enjoyed) is the third in a series, I opted instead to buy the first one, Feed, which was also nominated for a Hugo in 2011.  I am hoping that the Doctor will understand my reasoning, but in any case, this is what I will be reading.  So the only one I have yet to secure is Lois Bujold’s Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance. 

I have no idea how I am going to do this.  I think I will have to actually read many if not all of them simultaneously.  Is it even possible to read five novels at the same time and retain anything about them?  I started Throne of the Crescent Moon last night.  A blurb on the cover said fans of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser would enjoy this book.  Well, back in 1963 I became a huge Gray Mouser fan.  But would Fuller V.2013 still like this kind of thing?  Can the Fuller who adores Wallace’s Infinite Jest find satisfaction in this year’s Hugo nominee crop?

To Be Continued   

The Rocky Road to Westercon 66: Sci Fi is Not for Sissies, Part 1

by William Fuller

Because of some troubling emotional problems related to science fiction, I started seeing Dr. Ackrabu about a year ago.  He is one of only a handful of counselors who specialize in sci-fi related disorders.  I didn’t expect to have that many sessions with him, but due to the nature of my issues, I ended up seeing him several times a week through last January; it has now tapered off to once a week.  His methods, admittedly, tend to the arcane, but it feels like progress is being made.  At first I bristled at his “Absinthe Protocol” and “Mote in God’s Eye Gambit”, but I must admit my “troubles” are less than they were a year ago.

At my session last week, besides my more serious issues, I told him I was afraid of the upcoming Western Regional Science Fiction Convention, that I hadn’t been to a convention in 30 years, knew virtually nothing about the current literary “scene”, and that I couldn’t face what I felt would be a humiliating and debilitating experience.  He listened intently, stroking his strong, attractive chin and rubbing his protrusive, shaved head.  After what must have seemed like a huge whine-fest, he sat silently for a few moments.  And then he spoke.

“There is only one way to deal with this.  It will not be easy, but it is imperative that you follow my instructions.  If you are successful, in addition to this specific issue, it may have a far reaching positive impact on your other problems.  Of course you WILL attend the convention.  And you MUST read all five 2013 Hugo nominees before July 4.  I know you haven’t read any so far because you say you no longer read science fiction.  But this is what must be done.  Do you understand?”

I was incredulous.  “Five books in one month?  I can barely read one or two!  How am I going to do that?  I don’t have any idea what those books even are!  I’ve probably never heard of the authors!  I barely even like science fiction anymore!  How will I find the time…”

He raised a hand and shushed me. “Do your research.  Get the books.  Do the reading.”

He rose from his plush chair.  My appointment, evidently, was over early.

“Man up, Mr. Fuller.  You have a little over a month.  Sci Fi is not for sissies.”   

To Be Continued  

#6: From the Top to the Bottom To the Top

But when she left
Gone was the glow of 
Blue velvet

- "Blue Velvet", Bobby Vinton

Stanley Robert Vinton, Jr. scored big with his cover of this sentimental tune, hitting #1 on the Top 100 in '63 well after its double debut by The Clovers and Tony Bennett:

This son of a bandleader was ready to play any instrument in his band as well as sing, and it seems like the workings of fate that he shared a birthplace, deep in the rust belt, with Perry Como, and appeared on Guy Lombardo's television show on his way to the top. He's also one of that handful of top artists dramatically shadowed by the British Invasion; his last #1 hit, "There! I've Said It Again" was supplanted by "I Want To Hold Your Hand." But he was destined for sustained success in any case, cashing in on songs with "Lonely" in the title, and even getting some more mileage out of the syrupy "Sealed With a Kiss" well after Brian Hyland's hit version.

One of the more remarkable projects of the "Polish Prince" ended up being the only American hit with Polish lyrics, "My Melody of Love."

(A quarter century later at this slot we find the ubiquitous Whitney Houston doing a dance tune, "So Emotional." One obsession of the time was electronic drums, a fairly new item, and the percussion sound here is similar in particular to the Bee-Gee-tinged, been-there-done-that Fine Young Cannibals hit "She Drives Me Crazy.")

Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show

- "Started From the Bottom", Drake

Part of the disproportionate representation of Canada in the flow of popular music, since Joni Mitchell and Neil Young (and before), is Aubrey Drake Graham, who chose to go by his middle name on the way to the top. He is a little unusual among those  who achieved fame in hip hop in breaking into acting on the way there, and having had a Bar Mitzvah on the way there.

And his song is a little unusual in that genre as well, because it suggests a different (and to me welcome) direction for rap motifs. I think it's arguably not rap, or rap-related; all of the vocals have a chartable melody rather than the knowing monotone that was the enforced motif of performers in this realm. He goes yet further into what could be called, relatively to the softening center, an experimental direction here:

Another interesting facet of this song is that it's the only one of its top ten, as far as just song length, that would have passed muster fifty years before, since it is the only one under three minutes. But it's also the first we've encountered on our march to #1 that would probably have been categorically rejected for use of the word "nigga" as well as prohibited vulgarity.

Regnant Couples (Ten at Fifty)

I've waited so long for school to be through
Paula, I can't wait no more for you

- "Hey Paula", by Paul and Paula

Number 7 in 1963 was sappy even by the era's standards, even including a sentimental, watery organ. In addition, "Hey Paula" had the fewest lyrics of its top ten, partly because of its relaxed pace, partly because it was on the short side with a longish intro. It explicitly promoted the post-high-school wedding and the glories and isolation of young love. And it was typical of the kind of song, like those of the Chordettes or Dickie Lee, or this:

which would not survive the transition to the Beatles/Beach Boys era.

Paul and Paula didn't have those first names, but were "packaged" as a couple in an era that saw great success for singing couples like April Stevens and Nino Tempo, who had a smash with a more pop cover of "Deep Purple" that year, and culminated with couples like Ian and Sylvia, Richard and Mimi Farina, and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.

(Former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle managed to score an eighties comeback with the upbeat "Heaven is a Place on Earth", which channeled the "Imagine" sensibility of abandoning the promise of the afterlife in the name of strengthening the couple's love.)

See the girls in the club
They looking at us

- "Scream and Shout", will.i.am and Britney Spears

There is a rap element to this song, but its agenda and tempo are all dance, the lyrics insubstantial and vain. I have to align myself with some negative reviewers:

"... it lacks the extra "oomph" and originality that would make "Scream and Shout" a truly memorable single. It's the kind of club track that's serviceable enough in the moment, but it's not likely to stick in your head on the cab ride home at 2 a.m.".[37] Emily Exton of PopDust contributor wrote that Spears' contribution is an improvement from "will's monotonous requests to 'lose control', 'let it go' and 'hit the floor'..."

Perhaps they were contrasting with

or Swedish H.M. at #10. Could you say that this is kind of a "It's All Right" for the millenials? I sort of think not, but I can't, of course, inhabit the context, my tastes diverge too much from this. I think of the blues context of the earlier song, sounding in its context a bit pagan perhaps to a white audience, and some of the Black America context persists in this song, but it seems self-consciously self-indulgent, arrogant, "oh, yeah, we're bringing it." But maybe we'll have to defer judgment until we've seen a little more of what the dance realm offers in these most popular songs.

The Kid Grows Up (Ten at Fifty)

"Let me hear you say 'Yeah!'"
- "Fingertips, Part II", Little Stevie Wonder


The #8 position juxtaposes the two longest songs of their respective top ten lists this week. "Fingertips" at over three minutes, is one of a very short list of songs of its era to be essentially ad libbed, "What'd I Say" representing one of the most famous. As a result, its lexicon is more limited than the other nine of its list, with only 56 distinct words employed, with the most frequent, "yeah", being used almost as many times as the three title words of "It's All Right". And each word appears to have motive force, with the virtuosic chromatic harmonica serving as dressing as much as musical core, and the orchestra can be kind of an afterthought:

It would be difficult to imagine another 13-year-old in such control.

(But it is impressive, nonetheless, that "Could've Been" launched a 17-year-old Tiffany to this position twenty-five years later. Even if there is nothing particularly exciting about the song.)

"But the album’s first single, 'Suit & Tie,' is widely acknowledged to be a misstep. At more than five minutes, it’s a single knocked slowly past first base at best. In the video (and it is uncharacteristically helpful to the song), we learn that Timberlake is friends with Jay-Z, knows attractive women, and has an iPad. After almost a minute, the track brings in a clipped horn section and a fleet, rapid beat, a bit like Chicago Steppers music blended with Earth, Wind and Fire. The vocal harmonies, like those on many of Timberlake’s recordings, are creamy and dense enough to distract you from what’s little more than a plea to put on a suit."

 - Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker

"Suit and Tie", with a running time of about 5:30, is in no hurry to cover what the producers might have viewed as two bases, the first being hip-hop, the second being more or less 80's pop. Born thirty years after Wonder, and ten years after Tiffany, Timberlake hit it big with 'N Sync in teen pop at the same age as Stevie was in that Ed Sullivan appearance. Their early hit "I Want You Back" is more or less in the musical mode of an icon near his birth, Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". His more recent bid to enter the mainstream is ubiquitous enough to spawn some spoofs, and the spirited Jazz adaptation among others:

.

 "Suit and Tie" has the highest word count of any song of the two top ten sets, partly because it's the only song employing anything like a rap motif - perhaps a clear indication that the door is closing on that era, given the fact that several songs each quarter or so made the top ten a decade ago.

Heaven and Squares (Ten at Fifty)

#9 - "Washington Square", The Village Stompers

The Washington Square scene was folk central for the U.S., Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Jesse Colin Young, Dave van Ronk and company becoming entranced with Americana and other influences, and feeding the popular end of a scene in the form of the Kingston Trio and the Village Stompers, who had the sole instrumental in the two top ten lists I've elected to cover. The instrumental was not unusual, however; the Peter Gunn theme did very well, Lawrence Welk managed several top ten entries through the early sixties, as did the Ventures and others. But a banjo lead was, and continues to be, only found in this song near the top of the charts.

Allmusic.com reminds us that the Stompers were a Dixieland outfit first and foremost, and much of their material started with a more emphatic Dixieland orientation than either their lone hit or, for instance, Pete Seeger's reading of "If I Had a Hammer",

which they also covered in their brief frenzy of releases (above they rethink what was more of a country hit of a few years before.)

(The mega-pop band Breathe introduced the "heaven" theme we would see in 25 years at this position with their greatest hit "Hands to Heaven", a song of unhappy departure like "Louie Louie" or its source song "Havana Moon". Although a Peabo Bryson or an Air Supply could spin out a decade's success on their kind of smooth, they weren't able to capitalize to that extent, and ended up as a short-lived if strong success.)

"You make me feel like I've been locked out of heaven for too long"

- Bruno Mars, "Locked Out of Heaven"

In something that sounds quite a bit like The Police in the late Seventies, Bruno Mars cuts a swath on the pop scene with this tune, partly because he elects to talk about sex. Hawaiian-born, steeped in Elvis and Prince, he relies on bluesy singing skills to deliver this song, which is simultaneously pop, rock, and blues, with the Police-like ska feel with the Sting-like high tenor, and not a little Michael Jackson.

Mars is ready for smooth as well, here in what might be a more customary "hatted" mode:

He is enough of a powerhouse this year that we will see him again on our march to #1.