by Mx. Kris Vyas-Myall

Loncon II

I am not a huge lover of fan conventions. I have attended one of the prior Eastercons and some small local gatherings, but no others, not being one for big crowds and with my job sometimes requiring unsociable hours.

However, I made an exception for LonCon II for a few reasons. Firstly, this is only the second WorldCon to be held outside of North America. Having missed the first one eight years ago, I didn’t want to miss it again. Secondly, the guest of honour is Brian W. Aldiss, who is one of my favorite writers of recent years (competing only with Ballard, Delany and Dick) and I did not want to pass an opportunity to see him speak. Thirdly, I have a number of fan-friends I only correspond with via mail and fanzines who are going to be there, so I will finally get to meet up in person. Finally, with a child on the way my chances to go in the future are likely to be less.

Unlike many I did not invest in a hotel room but travelled down by train each day. Being only a couple of hours train ride it was not different from my usual work commute. However, I will admit it did make more tired than some of the other attendees who either got bed and breakfast rooms or stayed with friends in London.

The first evening’s only panel was an interesting one with Harry Harrison claiming SF is “The Salvation of the Modern Novel”. However, the main feature of the evening was hanging out and meeting friends I hadn’t got to see in person in a long-time. Although crowded, the hotel bar was an enjoyable place to be.

One of the most important differences with the other fan gatherings was the size. Whilst I have heard it is smaller than many of the American gatherings, British conventions tend to only be a maximum of a hundred people. I have heard the estimate of attendees at around 400. There also seemed to be splits in the evening between American and British panellists.

Ted White set the cat among the pigeons for declaring his distaste for the New Wave, saying that British magazines are full of  “stories which start nowhere and go nowhere” and that they are stuck in a twentieth century mode of writing, simply imitating mainstream fiction, calling for science fiction to be rooted in the adventure stories of the pulps.

But, as usual, the most controversial comments came from John W. Campbell. In the first panel, I previously mentioned, Irene Boothroyd enquired how much SF was slanted towards women readers and Campbell responded that 95% of science fiction readers are men, so economically they cannot do more. Though I found this a very facile argument I did appreciate Pete Taylor suggesting a 2.5 cent section of Analog for women readers and Harry Harrison suggesting a small section for hemaphrodites (whilst I am sure it was meant in jest as I do not consider myself male or female I choose to appreciate the recognition).

Putting aside how absurdly reductive Campbell is being, it definitely didn’t feel that way in this convention, where I would say it looked to me like a quarter to a third of the attendees were women. And the argument we have regularly seen stated in the papers that they are simply wives and girlfriends dragged along was patently shown to be untrue from the engagement on display.

In a later panel on Monday, Campbell responded to the Watts riots by suggesting that the best solution was to reintroduce slavery and compared black people to worker bees who would die without it. Thankfully, the audience and other panellist had little patience for him, with Moorcock mocking Campbell, Brunner carefully disproving his arguments and the audience asking him tough questions he couldn’t answer.

That is not to say there were not some excellent talks. Brain W. Aldiss led a discussion on science fiction in Europe, and Brunner gave a lengthy talk entitled, How to Get High Without Going into Orbit.

The most notable part of the event was, as usual, the Hugo awards. Silverberg was presenting the winners and doing this incredibly slowly (some found this entertaining, I personally just found it irritating). Anyway here are the results:

Best Novel

The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber [Ballantine, 1964] – 52 Votes

Nominees

Davy by Edgar Pangborn [St. Martin’s Press\Ballantine, 1964] – 48 Votes

The Planet Buyer by Cordwainer Smith [Pyramid, 1964] – 34 Votes

The Whole Man AKAThe Telepathist by John Brunner [Ballantine, 1964\Faber & Faber, 1965] – 26 Votes

No Award – 14 Votes

A tight race for first position with Leiber winning out. He's obviously the bigger name, but most of us at the Journey thought his book was the weakest of the field. However, Leiber has been campaigning hard in some of the British magazines and it received a lot of love for making references to fan culture and numerous other interests.

Best Short Fiction

Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson [Galaxy Oct 1964] – 60 Votes

Nominees

Once A Cop by Rick Raphael [Analog May 1964] – 47 Votes

Little Dog Gone by Robert F. Young [World of Tomorrow Feb 1964] – 37 Votes

No Award – 30 Votes

The Dickson got an honorable mention on our Galactic Stars, as did the Raphael, and it is definitely a worthy winner

Best Dramatic Presentation

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) [Columbia Pictures/Hawk Films] Directed by Stanley Kubrick; Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern & Peter George; based on the novel Red Alert by Peter George – 99 Votes

Nominees

The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) [George Pal Productions/Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer] Directed by George Pal; Screenplay by Charles Beaumont; based on the novel The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney – 41 Votes

No Award – 33 Votes

Mary Poppins (1964) [Walt Disney Productions/Buena Vista Distribution Company] Directed by Robert Stevenson; Screenplay by Bill Walsh and Don daGardi; Based on the novel by P. L. Travers  – 1 Vote – Write In

A big win for Dr. Strangelove but not a big surprise there. Seven Faces is a good film, but Dr. Strangelove has been one of the most discussed movies of last year, (even if the Academy Awards appear to prefer musicals).

One interesting element is that all of the films, including the write-in, are based on novels. There are no original TV productions, such as The Outer Limits, Doctor Who or The Twilight Zone nor any original films such as Robinson Crusoe of Mars, The Gorgon or Mothra vs. Godzilla.

With Peter George accepting the award, this makes it the only British win.

Best Magazine

Analog Science Fiction and Fact ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr. – 63 Votes

Nominees

The Worlds of If ed. by Frederik Pohl  – 35 Votes

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ed. by Avram Davidson  – 34 Votes

Galaxy ed. by Frederik Pohl  – 30 Votes

No Award – 12 Votes

Analog's win is no real surprise simply due to the sales level comparative to the other magazines. What is more of a surprise is that If finished second, whilst we got no nods for the Cele G. Lalli magazines nor for the British magazines, which have been excellent recently and usually appear on the nominations list.

Best Professional Artist

John Schoenherr – 58 Votes

Nominees

Ed Emshwiller – 56 Votes

Frank Frazette – 26 Votes

Jack Gaughan – 22 Votes

No Award – 12 Votes

The closest battle of the awards with Schoenherr just beating perpetual winner Emshwiller by just two votes. Schoenherr is probably the most talented artist working in the field right now and fully deserves the award.

Best Publisher

Ballantine Books – 54 Votes

Nominees

Ace Books – 50 Votes

Pyramid Books – 33 Votes

Gollancz – 20 Votes

No Award – 17 Votes

Not a category we do at Galactic Journey [We will this year (Ed.)], but Ballantine is an unsurprising win with it printing 3 of the 4 best novel nominees. I personally have a slight issue with how much of their output is just reprinting Edgar Rice Burroughs novels on a loop, but the newer work they put out is always of a strong quality.

Best Fanzine

Yandro ed. by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson – 69 Votes

Nominees

Zenith ed. by Peter Weston – 35 Votes

Double Bill ed. by Bill Bowers and Bill Mallardi – 28 Votes

Parting Comments

I myself did not speak on the main programme but Cora Buhlert, Gideon Marcus, Erica Frank, and other members from the Journey were involved in this year’s events.

I did, however, take part in a slightly controversial fringe event organized by some fans outside of the Con hours. In the one I joined we discussed what books we think will be still being read at the end of the next century (as a new wave fan, you may be able to guess my biases).

In spite some of the problems and overcrowding it was still great to meet people and attend a Worldcon. Whilst I am unlikely to be at another one any time soon, I am sure our worldwide reporting team will keep attending them. So make sure to look out for other Journeyers at Tricon in Cleveland, Ohio next year!

[And don't miss your chance to see Kris, Cora, and Katie Heffner talk about the state of fandom in 1965, right on the heels of Worldcon! Register now!]

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