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[November 22, 1964] A Special Gift

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by Gideon Marcus

First and foremost, I wanted to thank all of my fellow travelers for being on this Galactic Journey with us.  It's hard to believe we've been chronicling science fact and fiction (and so much more) for over six years now!

Second, I want to doff my hat in memory of an event that pummeled the nation exactly one year ago.  I don't think any of us have any difficulty remembering the terrible events of Dallas that day.  But shortly thereafter, as Beatlemania was sweeping the nation in the wake of the Fab Four's appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, the dark part of my brain came up with a way that November 22, 1963 could have been even worse.

As a special present to all of our loyal fans, I present to you Sad All Over, a short story that takes place today, November 22, 1964…but in a divergent timeline.  I don't know if "enjoy" is the right word, but I hope it interests you and stimulates discussion!

Sad All Over (PDF, epub, mobi, kindle)

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[November 3, 1964] State of the Art of War(games)

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by Gideon Marcus

Where we stand

Just over a decade ago, there were no board wargames.  Back then, if you wanted to simulate the field of battle on a scale smaller than 1:1, your only real option was to buy or cast an army of tin soldiers and fight per the few various rules sets that had been developed. 

And people did just that, mind you, whether they were playing Fletcher Pratt's naval wargames or H.G. Wells' Little Wars.

In 1954, Charles S. Roberts started a modest revolution with his game, Tactics.  Now, armies could be represented with cardboard chits instead of expensive figures.  And for nearly ten years, Roberts stood as virtual king of an entire class of games.  With the exception of Games Research's Diplomacy, Roberts' company, Avalon Hill, produced every board wargame ever made.  By 1961, his company war producing two a year (as well as several general audience games).

But in December 1963, straitened circumstances caused Roberts to sell the company over to Eric Dott, head of Monarch Services, Avalon Hill's creditor.  Roberts' friend and colleague, Tom Shaw, is now at the helm.

This turnover does not seem to have affected the wargame company from Baltimore.  Two games have been launched this year, both World War 2 titles: Afrika Korps, a simulation of Rommel's drive in North Africa, and Midway, depicting the savage naval battle between Japan and the United States near the Pacific island base. 

Of course, I was bit by the gaming bug right at the start, and I've done my best to keep on top of all the new games.  With the exception of the poorly rated Chancellorsville and the obtuse Gettysburg, I think I've played them all.  And that means I get to share my experiences with you on the current state of the art of wargaming.  Read on…and perhaps you'll get bit by the bug!

Breakout

In 1958, Roberts developed a sequel to Tactics imaginatively called Tactics II.  This game didn't simulate an historical battle.  Instead, "Red" faced "Blue" in a match that was geographically dissimilar, but with identical armies.  It was with this game that Roberts popularized a number of elements common to wargames today.

First, the idea that (as opposed to chess or checkers) that you can move all of your pieces during your turn.  This was a revolution, and it took time for new players to wrap their heads around it!

The second was the "Combat Results Table" (CRT).  Tactics II set the mold for wargames, incorporating a movement phase followed by a combat phase.  All units that ended their turn next to an enemy had to fight them, the results of said battle determined by the roll of a die and consultation with the CRT.  At odds of 1 to 1, or even 2 to 1, it was a brutal chart — more dangerous to the attacker than the defender. 

But at 3 to 1, the attacker was assured of success.  The enemy would have to retreat or would be outright eliminated, sometimes taking an equal number of attackers with them.  The odds of defender elimination rose as the odds increased in favor of the attacker. 

It was a simple concept, and yet, so profound was its impact in its elegance, that the think tank, Rand, approached Roberts.  It seemed that his CRT was strikingly similar to ones they were using in their own games!  A sheepish Roberts explained that he'd made his in about 15 minutes, developed from the textbook maxim that odds of 3 to 1 were considered the minimum necessary to guarantee victory.

That's the history — how's the game?  Well, Janice and I took a stab at it, but quite frankly, it didn't appeal.  The lack of historical underpinning, and the complete parity of the forces gave us a sense of "why bother".  Perhaps if we'd played the advanced game, which has more bells and whistles.

Also, we had been spoiled by the more advanced games that Roberts developed in the '60s.  Once you see the improvements made, you'll understand what we mean.

So, two stars for Tactics II, but coupled with admiration for the revolution it was.

The Great Invasion

There is no question that the most "popular" war of the last several centuries is World War 2.  This makes sense — all of us served, or had family who served.  It was global and thus rich in settings and scenarios.  It was a "good" war with clear good guys and bad guys.

It's no surprise, then, that four of the last five wargames put out by Avalon Hill (and at least the next two, per early reports) all have WW2 as their setting.

The first in this series, D-Day, covers the most dramatic American land engagement of the war: the assault on and liberation of Nazi-occupied France.

As with Tactics II, a lot of firsts were introduced in this game.  Unlike its historical predecessors, Gettysburg,Chancellorsville, D-Day didn't simulate a battle but a whole theater of war.  Moreover, instead of having a fixed setup, with units occupying (more or less) the places they held on the eve of the depicted battle, D-Day is the first alternate history wargame.

For the Allied player may choose one of seven invasion beaches, Normandy among them.  And the Germans largely have free reign on how to set up their forces in anticipation.  This means that every game has the potential to be completely different from the last.

Another big distinguishing element from Tactics II, though it was pioneered in Chancellorsville, are the hexagonal "squares" on the mapboard.  This was an innovation Roberts definitely borrowed from Rand's wargames; these innovative hexes allow equidistant movement in six directions, as opposed to squares, on which diagonal movement is greater than movement through the sides.

Needless to say, my friend John and I were eager to try out this behemoth of a game.  After a false start — it's really easy to lose as the Germans if your setup is suboptimal — we settled down for a twenty hour slog across France.  The first time out, I'd done a simple storm across the Channel into Picardy.  This time, I was experimenting with the southern option, going in from the Mediterranean.  That meant I'd flanked most of the German defenses.  I got lucky and managed to spill out into central France before John could solidify his defense, and so, halfway through the game, I had all of my invasion forces ashore, arrayed against a precarious line of his troops.

What ensued was a methodical, tedious grind as I slowly pushed him back, hex by hex.  Attempts at clever breakthroughs involving paratroop operations in Holland resulted in failure.  Time and time again, 50/50 die rolls went against me.  Finally, at the banks of the Rhine, I made a couple of desperate die tosses…and lost.

We were highly impressed with the game at that point.  It had afforded us several sessions of entertainment and had come down to a virtual draw.  But there was a nagging feeling tugging at the back of our brains.  While the opening rounds of the game were exciting and varied, we had a suspicion that it always came down to the mid-game slog…and dozens of hours of grinding to a conclusion.

To explore our concerns, we teamed up, working on the optimum German defense.  We found that, no matter what, the Allies can always crack through somewhere, and at that point, it's just a matter of time before the Allied behemoth is on the continent, working its way toward the Reich. 

Conclusion: D-Day is a great game to play once or twice, but it pales after that.

Four stars for the first games.  Two beyond.

Duel in the Desert

The next two games that Avalon Hill released after D-Day were Waterloo and Stalingrad, games I have reviewed in prior articles.  The first was a set piece battle a la Chancellorsville; the second an operation monster similar to D-Day.

The latest release, Afrika Korps, lies somewhere inbetween the two in scope.  A simulation of the battle for North Africa, 1941-42, it pits a powerful, mobile German force against a ragtag but ever increasing band of Allied defenders.  As with prior releases, there are a couple of interesting innovations. 

For one, logistics is not abstract, as in D-Day, or not a concern at all, as in Waterloo.  Instead, supply trucks are physical units you drive around, and they are expended in an attack — which can leave your aggressors high and dry even after a successful assault!

Also, because of the scale and nature of the desert terrain, moving units along a road doesn't just confer a +1 movement bonus; you get a whopping +10!  Also, the Germans have an immortal Rommel unit who confers an additional +2 movement bonus to accompanying troops.  That means that there are German units that can move a ridiculous 24 hexes in a single turn.

That kind of mobility and the lack of defensive terrain (no river lines, for instance) makes for a much more fluid game.  Units dart around, forward and back, trying to encircle the enemy and cut them off from supply while at the same time, trying to prevent being encircled themselves.  Rather than a slow slogfest, like D-Day, Stalingrad, or even Waterloo to a degree, Afrika Korps affords and rewards daring play. 

Unfortunately, a lot of the game is luck based.  In order to keep the Germans from stomping the Allies, and to model the interdiction of Axis transport by the British navy, there is a chance every turn that the fascists' supply trucks don't show up.  Enough turns like that, and the Germans become unable to do much before the defenders build up their forces. 

Morever, the Axis must take both El Alamein and Tobruch to win, and assaulting Tobruch is always a risky proposition.  Afrika Korps, like its predecessors, uses the exact same CRT as Tactics II.  There's a one in three chance a powerful unit gets destroyed in a 3 to 1 attack, the best the Germans will be able to muster.  And if the Germans lose one of their two big tank units, that's a huge blow.  That's not counting all the supply die rolls, which are often 50/50.

What this boils down to is that there's an awful lot of luck that goes into each game.  That may be realistic, but it's also frustrating.  Janice and I had (and are having) a lot of fun playing Afrika Korps, but these issues make it hard to give it more than three stars.

Come out and play!

Financial difficulties aside, Avalon Hill knows it's got a growing audience.  To that end, the company has launched a bimonthly newsletter, The General, in which new games are announced, players discuss strategy, and lonely players find each other for local contests.  It's a brilliant idea, and while the articles range from mildly interesting to somewhat sophomoric, there's no question it helps knit the community together. 

Heck, it's even inspired us to build our own network of players.  Because whatever the issues with the individual games, wargaming is an exciting new hobby.  It stretches the mind, enhances understanding of history, and is a lot of fun.

Perhaps you fancy yourself a future Napoleon, Wavell, or Xenobia — come join us!  We'd love to swap war stories…

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[October 4, 1964] Are You Literate Enough to Vote in Louisiana?

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by Erica Frank

Voter registration drives are sweeping across the South. Tensions are running high: some people want everyone to have a voice in the government, and others want to restrict voting rights. Mississippi has recently gained thousands of new voters, and the conservative establishment in Louisiana is nervous.

Three members of COFO, two black and one white, explain voting rights to an 81-year old man in 1964.
Three members of COFO explain the registration process and his voting rights to an 81-year-old man in Mississippi.
Photo credit: Ebony, September 1964.

Fighting Against Equality

Although this year has had several advances for civil rights and equality, not everyone is willing to share their freedom. Between the 24th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act, many formerly disenfranchised people now have the right to vote—and some communities are fighting back against that.

Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish has decided the standard voting registration process is too easy. The parish fears that if it loses the ability to literally just refuse to allow black people to register, they might actually vote. The new test, which "may be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education," is guaranteed to block voting rights at the whim of the administrator.

The previous test was available across the state but administered selectively. Registration offices mostly required black citizens complete it, but it was occasionally used for some whites without much income or education. It involved a statement of identity and moral qualifications, followed by a short multiple-choice test.

The moral declaration involved criminal history (most misdemeanors disqualify a person from voting for five years) and personal life questions: "Common law" marriages or an illegitimate child were five-year disqualifiers. Women had to declare they had not given birth to an illegitimate child; men only needed to declare that they had not "acknowledged" themselves as the father of an illegitimate child.

1963 Voter Registration Card in Louisiana
1963 Voting Application in Louisiana

The test asked questions about the Constitution and government, and covered facts like the required age of the President and the limits on Congressional powers to regulate commerce. It asked for details that Civics classes often cover, but that any adult might not recall readily.

Card showing the first question of a voting literacy test from 1963.
How often do we need to consider who would preside over a Presidential impeachment trial?

Although it asks about some obscure facts, the test itself, and even the application form, don't seem particularly onerous. What they hide is a long history of excluding black voters; many parishes in Louisiana have not registered a single black voter this century. Some required that new voters must be personally identified by two registered voters, even if they have a driver's license or military ID card. If no local white voters agreed to "verify" the identity of a black person, they are neatly barred from the vote.

A History of Discrimination

Recent legal changes threaten that entrenched racism. The new Civil Rights Act bars literacy tests as requirements to vote–except for people who haven't completed the sixth grade. Hence the new test, which "may be given to anyone who cannot prove a fifth grade education."

Note the "may." Registration officials can skip the test for anyone they think is qualified to vote: that is to say, wealthy or well-educated white people or friends of the registrar. Of course, they cannot give the test to anyone who can "prove" a fifth grade education, but the law establishes no standards for "proof."

Educational Differences

Before Brown v. Board of Education ten years ago, most areas in the South had segregated schools, and there were fewer non-white schools. Black children had to walk much farther than white children, and the schools often lacked the amenities of white schools, like heating in the winter, or enough books for every student, or a curriculum that covered advanced topics like "algebra" or "literature." Some of the many problems with black schools in the south were described years ago in Charles Johnson's Growing Up in the Black Belt, which discusses, among other topics, the difficulties of getting an education while working on a farm.

The schools themselves are better now, and will be better in the future without segregation, but their legacy continues. Today's adults include those who attended Depression-era schools that operated under a scant fraction of the money received by white schools.

One-room schoolhouse in 1941 in Georgia.
One-room Negro school in Veazy, Georgia, in 1941. These students are now in their late 20s to late 30s. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Delano, Jack, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, October 1941

Many who did get grade-school educations did not complete high school, because they needed jobs as soon as they were able to work. While the law only requires a 6th-grade education, how many schools give out certificates of completion of 6th grade? And how many adults keep that certificate for decades? Even if they did receive one, and kept it, nothing guarantees the voting registrar will accept it. The local official may decide, "That document looks like a forgery. I don't recognize the name of that school, the date is unclear, and I can't read the signature of the principal. You'll have to take the literacy test."

The Unpassable Test

This new test is literally unpassable. Several questions have more than one potential answer, allowing the administrator to declare the test a failure no matter what is answered. It consists of 30 questions that must be answered entirely correctly in 10 minutes—and a single wrong answer disqualifies a person from voting.

The average reading speed is 200 words per minute; the full test has about 650 words. Most people will waste over a third of their time just reading the questions. They then have, on average, 13.5 seconds to answer each question.

It looks simple enough at the start. The instructions say "Do what you are told to do in each statement, nothing more, nothing less." That seems simple—until you consider how someone could interpret it.

1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.

Any reasonable person would circle the "1." An unreasonable person, like a registrar trying to find an excuse to bar someone from voting, might claim the answer is incorrect if the line around the "1" also included the dot after the number, as that was not part of the instructions. A very unreasonable person might mark it as a failure if the words "the number or letter" were not circled.

2. Draw a line under the last word of this line.

Normally, we'd assume the correct answer is to underline the final word, "line." Someone looking to disqualify an answer might insist the underline belongs under "word"—the last "word" of that line. Or they might decide the phrase "the last word" needs the underline.
Nothing in the law prevents irrational interpretations.

There is no answer key with the "correct" version. The administrator decides whether an answer is using the "right" interpretation, and appealing that judgment requires access to the courts. A would-be voter might be able to file a legal claim, but that won't help in time to vote in the upcoming election.

6. In the space below, draw three circles, one inside (engulfed by) the other.

Which of these answers is correct?

Two pictures of circles, one with three circles inside each other, and the other with one circle inside another, and a third circle off to the side.

Guessing wrong will cost you your ability to vote.

9. Draw a line through the two letters below that come last in the alphabet.

Z V B D N K I P H S T Y C

Does that mean "draw a line through Z and another line through Y?" Or does it mean, "draw a single line through Z, the intermediate letters, and Y?" Or does it mean, "draw a curving line through Z, running over or under the remaining letters and going through Y?" Remember the instructions: Do nothing more or less than what you are told to do.

Guessing wrong means you can't vote this year.

Multiple Interpretations

As the test progresses, the instructions become increasingly opaque and subject to interpretation. Biased officials can use these ambiguities to disqualify potential voters.

20. Spell backwards, forwards.

Does that mean, "spell the word backwards as it appears normally," or "spell the word 'forwards' as 'sdrawrof'?"

21. Print the word "vote" upside down but in correct order.

Does that mean printing the word as ǝʇoʌ, so it looks correct if you turn the page 180°, or ʌoʇǝ, so the letters are in the normal correct order but are upside down? Note that writing "Ǝ┴OΛ" may disqualify you; the original used lower-case letters only.

24. Print a word that looks the same whether it is printed forwards or backwards.

Is that a palindromic word like "civic" or a mirror-image word like "bid?" A word like "MOM" qualifies as both, but the registrar might decide that's a name and not a normal word, or that words in all capitals don't count.

27. Write right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here.

Is that asking for the single word "right" or the entire phrase "right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here"? Or the partial phrase, "right from the left to the right?"

Incomprehensible Questions
And then there are questions that are just incomprehensible:

28. Divide a vertical line in two equal parts by bisecting it with a curved horizontal line that is straight at the point of bisection of the vertical.

Everyone knows how important geometry is when you're trying to make a sensible, well-informed vote. Note the impossibility of a "curved… line" that is "straight at the point of bisection." The administrator might also  use a ruler to decide if the vertical line has two "equal" parts.

29. Write every other word in the first line and print every third word in the same line, but capitalize the fifth word that you write.

Better hope you saved time on some of the early questions, because this one is going to take more than 13 seconds to complete. See that switch from "write" to "print?" Apparently, voting in Louisiana requires both cursive and print skills. Did you print the answer to the question 27? NO VOTING FOR YOU.

Finally, we come to the pièce de résistance, the ultimate question for barring undesirables from exercising their right to vote:

30. Draw five circles that have one common interlocking part.

Bottom of a page, showing a question with almost no space left to answer it.
If the instructions said to just "Draw five circles," I'm not sure there's space for that.

This question is about half an inch above the bottom of the page. A biased registrar can find many ways to mark the answer wrong, no matter what the would-be voter has drawn in the space:

First, by declaring that the answer must have only one common interlocking part. The registrar may demand that no two circles connect other than at that part—a physical impossibility that would disqualify anyone.

Second, by declaring that the submitted drawing does not consist of true circles.

Third, by saying the resulting image is too small to see, or the interlocking part is not clearly a part of all five circles.

Fourth, if the drawing touches the words, or the applicant erases a mistake, the registrar may claim that he or she did "more than what was asked."

Fifth, if the drawing is done on the back of the page where there is more space, the registrar can insist the answer isn't in the correct place. He may decide the applicant left the answer blank. If, to avoid that, the applicant wrote, "answer on back," that may count as "more than what was asked"

Racism in Action

I've mentioned under half of the questions on the test. Some of the remaining are more clear-cut than these, but even one wrong answer disqualifies a person. This test is not designed to test whether someone can read well enough to cast a ballot. It's not designed to test someone's general literacy, or understanding of civics. It's not even designed to require black voters to have a better education than is required for white people. It's designed for one purpose: to prevent black people from voting. It forces them to undergo an unpassable test administered with subjective bias.

This is exactly the kind of discrimination the Civil Rights Act was designed to prevent. If the Civil Rights Act can't stop this, we need a new law that does. Every adult should have the right to vote!

(Are you registered?)

Activists protesting literacy tests in 1964
Activists in Mississippi protest literacy tests.

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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[September 30, 1964] San Francisco Arts Festival (Marantz Rocks the Plaza)

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[Don't miss your chance to get your copy of Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women (1958-1963), some of the best science fiction of the Silver Age. If you like the Journey, you'll love this book (and you'll be helping us out, too!)


by Victoria Lucas

Life in the Big City

You'll be glad to know I've evolved a routine (haha). Weekdays: walk to 633 Battery after taking J streetcar to Market and Sansome, bus up Sansome, reading book. (I'm on Moby Dick right now.) Back same but bus goes down Battery Street to Market. Catch streetcar back to the end of Church at 30th where it turns around in front of my apartment.

Saturdays: walk to parks, sometimes all the way to North Beach. If I have any money I might drive to and shop at the Safeway at Market and 7th Street. If it's nearly Friday payday sometimes all I have left is spaghetti and margarine. Saturday nights usually a date (if it's with dinner I don't usually eat during the day). I very occasionally drive somewhere like Berkeley or San Mateo or Santa Cruz if I have money for gas and/or a show or concert. I wonder when I'm going to get a raise to a whole dollar an hour.

Sunday: mornings I pick up the Sunday Chronicle, a heavy load. I read the funnies first, then the pink section. The pink section is the entertainment section, and I eagerly devour it, looking for stuff I want to do–especially free stuff.  This last weekend I found something both wonderful and free and on my usual weekend route, at the Civic Center.

A patron of the Arts

I learned they have these Arts Festivals in Civic Center Plaza in the fall.  In fact, sometimes musicians play their instruments in echoing spaces under the eaves or in the lobbies of some of the Civic Center buildings, so I usually stop here on my weekend itinerary through the City.

Civic Center Plaza
Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco

This time the Plaza was my destination, shown here with City Hall, the building with the dome bisecting the Plaza's green areas.  City Hall faces Van Ness Avenue (not visible at the bottom, a major north-south street), and the Plaza takes up two city blocks, just as City Hall does.  I learned that it was the San Francisco Tape Music Center that furnished the Marantz speakers that enlivened the gathering from both ends of the Plaza.  This year the Arts Festival was held on September 25 through 27.  You'll notice on the program below that a misprint had September 26 as Friday, when it should have been September 25.

Friday it began with folk dancing and a "Dancer's Workshop" but at 8 pm The San Francisco Tape Music Center revved up its speakers and regaled us with contemporary music.  Oh, what bliss!  Then from 9-10 were experimental films, starting with Bruce Baillie.  But since I was alone (and the Tenderloin is right there), I couldn't stay, so I walked to Market Street and paid my 15 cents for the J streetcar back to my apartment. As I walked away I heard the first notes of the music accompanying Baillie's "To Parsifal," and knew I wouldn't be sorry I left. I hate Wagner.


Steve Reich, with San Francisco Mime Troupe

Saturday I wasn't really interested in the folk dancing so after a leisurely breakfast and walk I arrived at the Plaza in time for the San Francisco Mime Troupe's production of Moliere's "Tartuffe," directed by R. G. Davis and with music by Steve Reich, who is sometimes featured at the Tape Music Center.  Somebody told me that the Saul Landau listed in the program as responsible for "Lyrics" makes films.  They cranked up those Marantzes again.  Dance and poetry and dance again, and a puppet show by the Lilliputian Theater.


Lilliputian Theater puppet

Finally, at 8 pm more Tape Music Center.  The Marantzes danced.  Again the first film was by Bruce Baillie, and that's great, but once again I had to leave early.  On Sunday more dance, more puppets, El Troupo de Mimo (as the Mime Troupe likes to call itself) performed "Tartuffe" again. I hear they performed one of my favorite plays last year; I wish I could have seen it: Jarry's Ubu Roi.

"/
San Francisco Mime Troupe in Ubu Roi

Come on Down

After more dance the Tape Music Center was back on Sunday at 6 and only till 7, since Monday was a workday. It was still summer here, and the evenings were cool and breezes carried the smell of food cooking and being served from the carts and tents on the Plaza. People were everywhere. It was a delightful night, and I really, really hope they do this again next year–especially the Mime Troupe and the Tape Music Center. However, the Mime Troupe performs in the parks, and I'll be seeing them, and the Tape Music Center is on Divisadero right on a bus route. I'll be hearing them again soon. You should come and see them along with San Francisco's other sights. It's a happening City, and I love it!

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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

[August 21, 1964] The Good News (September 1964 Fantasy and Science Fiction)

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by Gideon Marcus

Reversing the trend

The United States is the richest country in the world.  By any reckoning, we measure in superlatives: biggest economy, strongest military, most movies, coolest cars.  But there is one outsized statistic we shouldn't bury in gloss — 19% of Americans live in poverty.

Several months back, newly installed President Johnson took an unscheduled trip through Appalachia, the poorest part of our country.  This region, between the Eastern seaboard and the Plains states, north of the agrarian South and the Industrial North, has traditionally been an economic backwater.  Shocked by what he found, LBJ promptly declared a War on Poverty, seeking to continue the efforts of President Roosevelt to bring up the nation and, in particular, Appalachia.

Yesterday saw a great step forward taken in that direction.  President Johnson signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act, designed to help the poorest families find their way out of their economic quagmire.  This will be achieved a number of ways, largely through the creation of new task forces and funding of groups whose goal is poverty relief. 

For instance, the newly created Job Corps and Neighborhood Youth Corps will provide work and training for the underskilled and underemployed.  Work Study college grants and Adult Basic Education will ensure that the poor are not barred from employment by illiteracy or lack of education.  There are also loan and grant programs for individuals and agencies. 

It's a smart system, not a simple redistribution of wealth but an investment in the next generation of Americans.  I have a lot of confidence that it will be successful — provided, of course, that the money gets put to good use.  Time will tell.

Big and small scale

Just as the White House has endeavored to improve the lot of Americans, so has Fantasy and Science Fiction's editor worked to address a disturbing trend.  In fact, this month's issue is easily the best one of the magazine that I've read in a while, and it's not even an "All-Star Issue".  It's just good.

So for those of you who came to hear me flog F&SF, you're going to be disappointed…

Mel Hunter's cover shows a post-Mariner 2 Venus, a cloudy inferno.  It's a beautiful piece, though it pertains to no story in this issue and is, perhaps, a better fit for Analog. 

The stories, on the other hand, are pure F&SF:

Chameleon, by Ron Goulart

Ron Goulart writes these flip, droll little pieces, with deft skill (if not great consequence).  This particular one stars Ben Jolson, member of a corps of secret agents whose special talent is shapeshifting.  People, animals, furniture, these superspies transform instantly and apparently without regard for mass considerations.  Jolson is a particularly adept, if eccentric, agent, grudgingly tasked with getting the prime minister of Barafunda to make a proclamation against the practice of using soulless, mass-produced people as slave labor.  By any means necessary: becoming a trusted adviser, inciting violence, even becoming the PM herself.

Goulart keeps things real enough to avoid farce, light enough to avoid melodrama.  If you like Laumer's Retief or Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat stories, this will be right up your alley. 

Four stars.

A Miracle Too Many, by Alan E. Nourse and Philip H. Smith

Dr. Stephen Olie discovers that being able to miraculously cure with a touch is a curse as well as a blessing.  Both Nourse and Smith are physicians, so it's no surprise that this piece involves the medical profession.  I liked everything but the ending, which felt a bit lazy.

Three stars. 

Slips Take Over, by Miriam Allen deFord

Ms. deFord, who is 76 today (Many Happy Returns!) offers up a tale of a man who slips between parallel timelines as easily and inadvertently as we might get lost on the streets of an unfamiliar city.  It's a neat idea, with the kind of great creepy atmosphere deFord is good at, but she doesn't do much with the story.  Plus, there are inconsistencies regarding what items do and do not travel with the hapless universe-crosser.

Three stars.

Olsen and the Gull, by Eric St. Clair

Eric, the husband of famed author Margaret St. Clair, is an author in his own right.  This is his first story not to be written for children and involving SFF elements.  In this case, it's a shipwrecked lout of a sailor whose only entertainment is to crush the eggs of the multitudinous seagulls while chanting "tromp tromp tromp."  One enterprising bird undertakes to distract Olsen the sailor by teaching him the art of summoning… with amusing and unfortunate results.

Four stars.

Carbonaceous Chondrites, by Theodore L. Thomas

Even Thomas' little column, usually sophomoric in the extreme, isn't bad this month.  He posits that the carbon compounds being found in certain meteorites are evidence of extraterrestrial life — but not the way you think!

Three stars.

Four Brands of Impossible, by Norman Kagan

The longest piece of the issue is by a new writer, a student at New York City College.  As befits a novice, the story, about a mathematician tapped to develop an illogical logic, is somewhat unfocused.  Moreover, when it's all done, I'm not exactly sure that anything of importance has happened.

On the other hand, there are bits in the story that are quite compelling, about space research, the value of an automated presidency, the folly of racism, etc., and I will remember the novelette for these if nothing else.

Thus, three stars.

The New Encyclopaedist-II, by Stephen Becker

A mock encyclopaedia article, about Jacob Porphyry, who reversed the trend toward malaprop and literary inanity by making his books hard to read.

It's cute once you get into it.  Three stars.

Theoretical Progress, by Karen Anderson

This first of two poems by Karen Anderson (Poul's other half), is a modern-day send-up of Antigonish. 

I liked it.  Four stars.

Investigation of Galactic Ethnology, by Karen Anderson

On the other hand, the second poem, a limerick, is barely worth a pained smirk. 

Still, that's the appropriate reaction to a well-delivered pun.  Three stars.

Elementary, by Laurence M. Janifer and Michael Kurland

Raise your hand if you want to murder your agent.  Goodness, there are a lot of you!  I shouldn't be surprised…I'm not even convinced that they're a necessary evil these days.  Anyway, this story is about a pair of authors who decide to put paid to their 10% bloodsucker only to find their efforts repeatedly thwarted.

This is another piece with a great beginning and middle, but the ending didn't quite work for me.  Perhaps you'll feel differently.

Three stars.

The Haste-Makers, by Isaac Asimov

The Good Doctor's non-fiction article is on catalysts this time around.  I learned a great deal, but then chemistry has never been my bag.  The big revelation I got out of the piece was that catalysts aren't magic but merely a side effect of our living in an oxygen-filled environment (just like airplanes no longer boggle the brain when you realize that they don't fly on nothing — air just happens to be invisible).

Four stars.

The Deepest Blue in the World, by S. Dorman

When the stars become a battlefield, the men will go off to fight and die, and women will be brought to the Wedding Bench to conceive and rear the next batch of soldiers.  If they resist their breeding lot in life, it's prison and the mines for them.

A chilling story by an author with an uncanny vision of female subjugation.  A strong four stars.

Inconceivably Yours, by Willard Marsh

A bachelor worries that the failure of a contraceptive will end his bachelor days, but one God's curse is another man's blessing.  A fair story with a delicious title.

Three stars.

The Star Party, by Robert Lory

The astrologers presume to know a lot about people.  Unfortunately, master star-teller Isvara picked the wrong two Madison Avenue party attenders to cast readings on.  It's a nice little tale, though the astronomical inaccuracy at the end was unfortunate.

Three stars.

A Crown of Rank Fumiter, by Vance Aandahl

Last up, we have young Vance Aandahl, who started out strong and has been delivering weak tea indeed for several years.  This piece, about a recluse who, in the midst of death finds his humanity, is a refreshing change of direction — and thus a perfect capper for a surprisingly strong issue.

Four stars.

Summing up

I don't know that any of these stories hit it out of the park for me, but there were plenty of good pieces and no clunkers in the lot.  Even Davidson's introductions were entertaining.  This issue will certainly be a contender for best magazine this month.

More good news: F&SF has several foreign editions.  They've just started a Spanish edition, Minotauro, the first issue of which arrived by mail the other day.  My daughter, who is learning the language in high school, is currently working her way through Damon Knight's What Rough Beast and enjoying it, even translated.  So, if you speak Spanish, and you want a "best-of" issue of the magazine, you could do worse than to pick up a copy!

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




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Fashion, music, politics, sports

[August 19, 1964] Seasonal Musings: Fall/Winter 1964

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by Gwyn Conaway

It’s August! Despite the summer heat, I always look forward to this time of year. Why, you ask? Because I can look forward to the fashions of another Fall/Winter season!

And what a majestic season it will be for coats, dresses, and evening gowns. We’ll look at some of these beautiful details from major fashion houses here and in Europe, as well as how well they support my predictions of the last season through revolutionary past ages.


The Sears Catalog is my go-to resources for seeing fashion on the streets. This amazing resource gives great insight to what will be available in stores, not just on the runway. It seems like woolens and corderoy will be major players this season! Fall Fashions, Sears Catalog, 1964

With a new school year just around the bend, and women looking excitedly for the changing of the leaves, it’s no wonder our catalogs and department stores have started showing off their interpretations of this year’s Fall/Winter runways. Above we can see a fantastic palette of mulberry, teal, cobalt blue, and russet brown, perfect for ushering in the new season.

In addition, there’s an overarching theme of funnel collars and square, modest busts. The neckline is kept away from the base of the neck, allowing the column of the throat to look longer and slimmer. This is perfectly in line with the proclivities of a revolutionary period, where the rules of fashion are changing drastically. Rather than pull attention to the bust and waist, fashion is now more interested in wrists and ankles and necks. Fascinating!


Of course, this trend is following the works of major designers. Here is a pattern from this year of Jeanne Lanvin’s hooded silk cocktail dress and pink coat made from wool coating. The collar here is exaggerated, leaving room for the hood of the dress to frame the face and neck. Allowing the neck and face to rise from a thicker collar or ballooning shape creates the iconic cocoon style of our time.

The evening gowns walking the runways for this winter are scrumptious as well. Let’s take a look at what’s in store for us this year, and how it’s evolved from the previous season. When I compared the two, my excitement became palpable!


The evening fashion of 1963 compared to the Neoclassical era in my previous fall article:
Scrying the Future by Looking Back


Balenciaga Fall/Winter 1964

Last year, we started showing the signs of a neoclassical era with soft solid-color skirts, waistlines on the lower ribs, and square torsos with abstract natural motifs. This year, the trend continues, but with ever more fervor. Note above that Balenciaga has dived head first into this renaissance. The designer’s evening gowns this year sport flat bows and voluminous satin skirts that extend from the bust. These styles allow for the neck and arm to garner all the attention rather than the more traditional bust and waist.


Designers from left to right: Hannah Troy, Yves Saint Laurent, Anne Fogarty, 1964.

Many other designers are also exploring the redefinition of beauty in similar ways. Hannah Troy’s Schiaparelli pink evening gown is an uncanny likeness to the round gowns of the 1810s. Yves Saint Laurent and Anne Fogarty follow a similar train of thought with their cocktail dresses, both of which sport overbust satin bows, forcing our eye to lengthen the leg and dramatically shorten the torso.

The funnel collar and thick woolens, the hidden waists and exposed arms; all of it is bound to leave a lasting impression on the decade. In particular, I’m excited to see the overbust move into mainstream catalogs and department stores in the coming months. Such a fresh and energetic new symbol of the changing times! It is sure to ignite inspiration for fashion in the months to come.

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge!  Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Magazine

[August 13, 1964] Plus ça change (September 1964 Amazing)

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by John Boston

Still Long, Still Hot

Big surprise: Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, the three civil rights workers who disappeared in June in Mississippi after being pulled over for speeding in Neshoba County and then released, have been found dead, buried under an earthen dam, two of them shot in the heart, the third shot multiple times and mutilated.  The sheriff of Neshoba County had said, “They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state.” During the six weeks that law enforcement was failing to find their bodies, they did find the bodies of eight other Negroes, five of them yet unidentified—business as usual, apparently, in that part of the country.

The Issue at Hand


by Robert Adragna

The September Amazing has a different look from the usual hard-edged Popular Mechanics-ish style of Emsh and especially of Alex Schomburg.  Robert Adragna’s cover features surreal-looking buildings and machinery against a bright yellow background (land and sky), a little reminiscent of the familiar style of Richard Powers, but probably closer to that of the UK artist Brian Lewis, who brought the mildly non-literal look in bright colors (as opposed to Powers’s often more morose palette) to New Worlds and Science Fantasy for several years. 

The contents?  Within normal limits.  Business as usual here, too, though less grisly.

The Kingdoms of the Stars, by Edmond Hamilton

The issue leads off with The Kingdoms of the Stars, by Edmond Hamilton, a sequel to his novel The Star Kings, which originated in Amazing in 1947, and is to the subgenre of space opera what the International Prototype of the Kilogram is to the realm of weights and measures.  In The Star Kings, regular guy John Gordon of Earth finds his mind swapped with that of Zarth Arn, a prince of the far-future Mid-Galactic Empire, and ends up having to lead the Empire’s space fleets against the forces of the League of Dark Worlds (successfully of course, despite a rather thin resume for the job).  He also hits it off with Princess Lianna of the Fomalhaut Kingdom before he is returned to his own Twentieth Century body and surroundings.

The new story opens in a psychiatrist’s office, with John Gordon much perturbed by his memories of chasing around the galaxy and wooing a star-princess.  He wants to find out if he is delusional.  This may be a case of Art imitating Life, or at least imitating somebody else’s account of Life with the serial numbers filed off.  Hamilton surely knows of (and I think is sardonically guying) The Fifty-Minute Hour (1955), a volume of six case histories by the psychiatrist Dr. Robert Lindner, one of which, The Jet-Propelled Couch, involves a similar story of a patient with detailed memories or fantasies of living in a spacefaring far future, which he ultimately abandoned and admitted were delusions.

But shrink notwithstanding, Gordon is brought back into the future, corporeally this time, by the benevolent machinations of Zarth An.  Princess Lianna is anxiously awaiting him, but this time he’s in his own body and not Zarth An’s, and she’s going to have to get used to it.  Meanwhile, they trundle off to the Fomalhaut Kingdom to attend to the affairs the Princess has been neglecting.  En route, to avoid ambush, they head for the primitive planet Marral, ostensibly to confer with the Princess’s cousin Narath Teyn (who is in fact one of the schemers against her).  Various intrigues and diversions occur there, followed by a narrow escape that sets the scene for the next in what obviously will be a series.

One can’t quarrel with the execution.  Hamilton lays it on thick in the accustomed manner:

“Across the broad loom and splendor of the galaxy, the nations of the Star-Kings were marked in many-colored fire, crimson and gold and emerald green, blue and violet and diamond-white . . . the kingdoms of Lyra, Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Polaris, and the capital of the great Mid-Galactic Empire of Canopus.  The Hercules Cluster blazed with its Baronies of swarming suns.  To the south, as the cruiser beat westward toward Fomalhaut, the Orion Nebula sprawled its coiling radiance across the firmament.  Far northward lay the black blot of the Cloud, where drowned Thallarna lay now in peace.”

Oh, and don’t forget the “vast wilderness of the Marches of Outer Space” (in space, can anyone hear you march?), presided over by the Counts of the Marches, who are allied to the Empire.  And so on.  Along the way there is plenty more colorful decoration, not least the telepathic struggle between a sinister gray-cowled alien and the deeply loyal Korkhann, Fomalhaut’s Minister of Non-Human Affairs, five feet tall and resplendent in gray feathers.  At the end, Gordon concludes that this world beats hell out of the “sordid dream” of Twentieth Century life to which the psychiatrist wanted to confine him.  Fiddle-de-dee, Dr. Lindner!

But—kings?  It’s ultimately pretty depressing to be told that after two hundred thousand years, humanity hasn’t come up with something better than monarchy and all its cheesy pageantry.  Bah!  What this galaxy needs is a few good tumbrils and guillotines.

Three stars—a compromise between capable execution and shameless cliche.

Clean Slate, by James H. Schmitz


by George Schelling

There’s no monarchy in the issue’s other novelet, James H. Schmitz’s Clean Slate, but exactly what there is remains murky.  It’s fifteen years since the Takeover, when several “men of action” . . . well, took over, though there’s no more explanation than that.  There seem to be elections, or at least the risk of them, and public opinion has to be attended to if not necessarily followed.

The viewpoint character is George Hair, a Takeover functionary in charge of the Department of Education, and nominally supervisor of ACCED—a post-Takeover research program designed to develop “accelerated education” to produce enough adequately trained people to keep this complex modern civilization humming.  Problem is the high-pressure regime of experimental ACCED, very successful in the short run, causes severe psychological problems as the kids get a little older.  It seems having a personality gets in the way of this educational force-feeding for the greater good.

So they go to younger kids—less personality to get in the way–and when that doesn’t work, they get some newborns, who should have even less.  Still doesn’t work.  So they apply techniques of SELAM—selective amnesia—to get some of people’s inconvenient memories out of the way.

Maybe you’ve noticed that this is completely crazy.  It gets more so: hey, why not just get rid of all the memories, to create the clean slate of the title?  The guy running the ACCED program is the first subject of this total memory elimination, which, followed by intensive ACCED, will make him a superman!

But there’s a snag.  A big one, with huge implications for the program, and the government, and the story ends on the brink of a denouement that is hair-raising, not to mention Hair-razing.

The story is a meandering mix of scenes with actual dialogue and action and long stretches of Hair’s ruminations and recollections about the history of ACCED and the politics of the post-Takeover government and his place in it.  Like many of Schmitz’s stories, it really shouldn’t work at all, and does so only because he is such a smooth writer one is lulled into keeping on reading.  That smoothness also distracts one from the fact that what he is writing about—the subjection of children first to an educational program that destroys them psychologically, and then to the eradication of part or all of their memories—is utterly monstrous, worthy of the Nazis’ Dr. Mengele (also something not unknown in Schmitz).  Three stars and a shudder.  This one is hard to put out of one’s mind.

The Dowry of Angyar, by Ursula K. Le Guin


by George Schelling

Fomalhaut rears its head again in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dowry of Angyar, which takes place on a human-and-other-sentients-inhabited planet in that system, one with enough contact with humans to be taxed for wars by them, but not much more.  Semley, a princess of the Angyar, covets an elaborately jeweled necklace which has somehow vanished from her family’s treasury, goes on a quest for it among the planet’s other sentient species, and gets badly burned by her greed and by not understanding enough about what is going on.  It’s very well written and visualized, as always with Le Guin, but its ostentatiously folk-taley and homiletic quality is a bit tedious to my taste, and it’s too long by about half—an off day for a class act.  Nonetheless, three stars for capable writing.

The Sheeted Dead, by Robert Rohrer


by Virgil Finlay

Robert Rohrer is back with The Sheeted Dead, blurbed as “A tale of horror . . . a story not for weaklings,” illustrated by Virgil Finlay in a style reminiscent of the old horror comics that were driven out of existence by public outcry and congressional hearings.  The story is written in the same spirit.  In the future, humans have fought wars all over space, and as a result, “great clouds of radioactive dust blew through the galaxy.” To avoid extinction, Earth has Withdrawn—that is, surrounded itself with some sort of electronic barrier so no radiation can get in, meanwhile leaving its armies stranded around the galaxy to die. 

A mutated virus brings the local deceased and decayed veterans to life, or at least to animation, in their mausoleums on Earth, and they set off for the illuminated cities searching for revenge for their abandoned comrades, and for the field generator, so they can turn it off, allowing them to see the Sun again, and also killing off everyone left alive.  William Blake said, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” We’re waiting.  Meanwhile, this is at least (over)written with a modicum of skill and conviction.  Two stars and a suppressed groan.

The Alien Worlds, by Ben Bova

Ben Bova’s The Alien Worlds continues his series on how humans could live on the planets of the Solar System, this time focusing on Mercury, Jupiter and the planets further out, and the planetoid belt (as he calls it, ignoring the more common usage “asteroid belt”).  The material is mostly familiar and rendered a bit dully, as is frequent with Bova.  Two stars.

Summing Up

Overall, not bad; most of the issue’s contents are at least perfectly readable, reaching the median through different combinations of fault and virtue.  As always, one would prefer something a little bit above the ordinary; as all too frequently, one does not get it.  In print and elsewhere.

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[July 28, 1964] Beatlemania Arrives Down Under!

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by Kaye Dee

I was so excited last month to talk about the first Blue Streak test launch that I completely forgot to mention another huge event occurring in Australia in June — the first tour Down Under by The Beatles! Yes, the Fab Four made a whirlwind visit to Australia and New Zealand last month and Beatlemania took the country by storm. Mr. Kenn Brodziak, the local promoter, made a lucky investment when he booked The Beatles last July to tour here, because they weren’t anywhere near as famous then as they are now. The newspapers are even saying that this tour has been the most successful event in Australian show business history.


The Beatles, arriving in Adelaide

The band arrived in Australia from Hong Kong on 11 June. An unscheduled touchdown in Darwin in the early hours of the morning was a taste of things to come, with 400 fans and journalists turning out to greet them. Unfortunately, when their plane arrived in Sydney it was bitterly cold and pouring rain (remember, it’s winter right now in this part of the world): in fact, the rain was so heavy that I could not even get out the door to go to the university — I’d have been soaked to the skin before I got to the bus stop! Oddly enough, there hasn’t been a drop of rain since and the long-range weather forecaster Mr. Lennox Walker is now predicting a drought over the next year.

To tell the truth, I didn’t mind being stuck at home because of the downpour, since it meant that Faye and I could watch the live broadcast of The Beatles arrival at Kingsford Smith Airport. There is no morning television in Australia, but both Channel 9 and Channel 7, our two commercial stations, had outside broadcast vans at the airport to provide a direct telecast. The pictures were even relayed live to Melbourne via the new co-axial cable. It shows how much everyone wants to see this amazing pop group that has taken the world by storm! There were thousands of fans at Sydney airport, braving the awful weather to catch a glimpse of the Fab Four as they struggled with umbrellas in the driving wind and rain.


The Fab Three and Jimmie Nichols braving the rain in Sydney

I say the Fab Four, but when the band arrived in Sydney, it was actually the Fab Three and a ring-in. Ringo Starr had been hospitalised with tonsillitis and pharyngitis before the start of the tour and his place was being taken by British drummer Jimmie Nicol. Ringo wasn’t able to join the tour until their first concert in Melbourne on 16 June. 


The Beatles with Jimmie Nichols

The Beatles travelled to Adelaide on a chartered plane for their first concert and when they arrived, more than 250,000 people lined the route between Adelaide Airport and the city. According to my WRE friends, this huge turnout was a ‘thank you’ to recognise that the promoter had added Adelaide to the tour schedule in response to a petition signed by 80,000 fans. I’ve read that this is the largest crowd to turn out for the Beatles so far, anywhere in the world! There’s certainly been nothing like it in Australia before: I even heard a commentator on the radio say that the eruption of Beatlemania in Australia has been more intense than anywhere else in the world so far! Mind you, not everyone has welcomed the Beatles so enthusiastically. In Brisbane, where their plane arrived at midnight to be greeted by 8,000 fans, a handful of anti-Beatles protesters threw eggs at the boys, which I think was a pretty stupid gesture.


There's Jimmie Nichol again

The Beatles played 20 shows in Australia — in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and everywhere they were greeted by enormous crowds of screaming fans. There were a lot of reports in the press about ‘hundreds’ of fans in Adelaide and Melbourne being injured in the crowds, although Mr. Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager said in response to a question at the Canberra Press Club that he believes these reports to be greatly exaggerated. The police took them seriously in Sydney, though, and more than 600 officers of the Special B Squad were on duty around their concerts and other appearances in the city, to prevent major disturbances.

Faye and I managed to get tickets to one of the Sydney concerts (yes, I admit we’re fans, even if we might be a little bit older and less-inclined to scream than most of the audience). The tickets cost us 37 shillings ($3.70) each, which certainly wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it to see the Fab Four performing live. It was just as well that we could see them, because I’ve got to say that we could hardly hear them over the screaming of the young fans. It was even more hysterical than at the Frank Sinatra concert I went to in Sydney in 1961! 


Screaming fans in Sydney

The concert itself was really entertaining. The first half of the show consisted of four Australian support acts, including Johnny Devlin (something of a favourite of mine) and Johnny Chester, who are well-known Australian singers. The local acts performed for about 45 minutes, then, after the interval, The Beatles came on for the second half of the concert. In half an hour, they gave us 10 songs from their first two albums, as well as Can’t Buy Me Love from their ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ album, which has just been released in Australia this month. Of course, I would have loved them to perform more songs, but, as they did two shows every night (one at 6pm and the second at 8:30pm), there wasn’t time for any more. I’m told that the concerts had the same format in each city and it must have been incredibly exhausting for all the performers.


On stage at Sydney

On 18 June, while The Beatles were in Sydney, Paul McCartney celebrated his 22nd birthday, with a party thrown by the Daily Mirror newspaper. After the Sydney concerts, the Beatles made an eight-day tour of New Zealand, where they performed 12 concerts in four cities. 10,000 fans saw them off from the airport in Sydney. There was an article in the newspaper saying that Johnny Devlin actually helped to solve major sound problems at the concerts in Wellington, which had annoyed John Lennon so much that he threatened to cancel the remainder of the tour. Fortunately that didn’t happen and the Fab Four were back in Australia at the end of June for their final concerts in Brisbane.


The Beatles, off to New Zealand

The Beatles tour has been a major event in Australia, with more media coverage than just about anything apart from a Royal Tour! I suspect that it’s going to have a big impact on music and teenage culture in this country. I also suspect that these talented young men from Britain are destined to go on to achieve great things in the world of music and entertainment.

[Come join us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




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[July 4, 1964] A Struggle for Freedom (The Civil Rights Act)

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by Erica Frank

Free at Last?

On America's 188th birthday, we have much to celebrate. Congress and President Johnson have expanded the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to many people who have faced discrimination and bigotry.

This has been a landmark year for civil rights: In January, the 24th Amendment to the Constitution abolished poll taxes: voting is no longer limited by income. Two days ago, in a ceremony broadcast nationally, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, fulfilling one of Kennedy's campaign promises.

“One hundred eighty-eight years ago this week, a small band of valiant men began a struggle for freedom,” Johnson said. “Yet those who founded America knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning.”

President Johnson, surrounded by a large crowd, signs the Civil Rights Act.
Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the famous civil rights activist, is prominently visible right behind President Johnson as he signs the groundbreaking law. Immediately after signing, Johnson turned and shook the Reverend's hand, and gave him one of the pens used to sign the law.

Johson shakes Martin Luther King, Jr.'s hand, and gives him a pen

The new law bars many forms of previously legal discrimination. It ends racial segregation of schools and businesses, and ends discrimination in jobs based on race or sex. It also grants equal voting access by requiring that everyone face the same restrictions. This means states and cities may no longer make voting easier for wealthy or white voters.

One of the key passages is:

"All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin."

This means no more "whites only" restaurants and hotels, no more segregated schools or drinking fountains. Even more importantly, no more "whites only" hospitals that leave entire communities without access to health care: until now, less than half the hospitals in the South admitted anyone who wasn't white. People have died from being refused treatment, or from being transferred to the "black" wing of a hospital while in critical condition. These catastrophes will now be illegal; hospitals can focus on providing health care to everyone.

Businesses no longer need to have two sets of facilities, with the expense resulting in one set—invariably, the one reserved for people who aren't white—being of lower quality. I don't know if the "separate but equal" ruling would've stood unchallenged if most businesses actually did provide equal services; the truth in practice has fallen far short of that. The common approach has been, "Provide white people with good service. Everyone else gets whatever we can cobble together out of leftover parts." This has resulted in de facto second-class citizens, who now have the same rights of access as the majority.

De Jure vs. De Facto

Many people are already testing the new law. In some places, integration is going smoothly: Yesterday, in Kansas City, Missouri, a 13-year-old boy got a haircut at the Muehlebach Hotel. Eugene Young had been turned down just one day before, but is now free to go to any barber shop in the nation. However, in other places, would-be patrons are facing resistance or even violence. A restaurant owner in Atlanta, Georgia chased away three Negro ministers with a gun, insisting that his place would stay segregated.

A black teen gets a haircut from a white barber.
Eugene Young's Haircut
Photo: AP Photofax

While the law prevents race-based restrictions on voting registration, it's not being accepted everywhere. Charles Evers, field secretary for the NAACP, attempted to register to vote in Jackson, Mississippi. He was told he would have to provide proof that he had voted in the previous two general elections. That's a simple way to prevent non-voters from ever becoming voters!

The NAACP and other organizations are asking for federal protection in Mississippi, where segregationists are using threats, physical attacks, and even bombs to prevent new voters from registering. On Thursday, just after the law was signed, two churches used for civil rights activism were destroyed. One was set on fire; a bomb went off in the other. It is possible, of course, that those attacks were just coincidental, and have no direct connection to racist agendas. Possible, but not likely.

Governor Wallace of Alabama gave a speech today in Atlanta, Georgia, calling the law "a fraud, a sham, and a hoax" created by "left-wing liberals" to put people in bondage. He claims that "every American citizen is in jeopardy" of losing "the rights of free men"—by which he apparently means, the right to discriminate against other free men. He doesn't seem to acknowledge that the people protected by this law are also American citizens. Wallace claimed the Supreme Court's recent decisions benefit "criminals, Communists, atheists" and left-wing minority groups. His presidential campaign, he insists, is focused on fighting against the "tyranny" of the "liberal left-wing dogma."

People like Wallace make it clear that the law will not change life in America overnight. It will take some time (and likely police action) for everyone to comply. It will take even longer to undo the differences in income and living conditions caused by segregation. Because of this, many people are dedicating themselves to keep working for equal rights for everyone. In Indianapolis, activists held a 10-mile march for freedom, hoping for a better future for all Americans.

Several people, both black and white, marching, holding a sign that says 'Freedom March, Independence Day 1964, Indianappolis.'
Photo: Indiana Historical Society

The Civil Rights Act brings even broader protections to employees:

"It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer— to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin…."

This law protects women as well as people of different races and religions. A workplace can no longer insist on hiring only white men, nor to pay them more than other employees. They cannot restrict women to secretarial and janitorial positions. They cannot fire someone because they realize his ancestry isn't what they expected. And they can't relegate some groups of employees to only working at night, or in the back rooms where customers can't see them.

Last year's Equal Pay Act guaranteed equal wages for equal work, but it didn't require that employers hire women at all. Now, they can't refuse to hire a qualified woman to do the job. There's still a long way to go, as most women can't even get bank accounts in their own name, but this is a good start.

A black woman carrying a partially visible banner that reads 'March for Jobs.
A young woman in the Civil Rights march in Washington DC, on August 28th, 1963.
Photo: National Archives

And Justice for All

America isn't perfect; we have our share of short-sighted people, of bigots, of greedy and corrupt politicians. But today, we can celebrate that we are closer to equality and prosperity for everyone, because many people who were held back by force now have the rights to strive for the best future they can create for themselves. And we are all enriched by a nation of hardworking, free-thinking, thriving people who wish to be involved in their communities.

[Come celebrate with us at Portal 55, Galactic Journey's real-time lounge! Talk about your favorite SFF, chat with the Traveler and co., relax, sit a spell…]




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Fashion, music, politics, sports, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[May 4, 1964] A Matter of Proportion, Revisited

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[The Journey meets extraordinary people in its travels, many of whom go one to join the endeavor.  A fan we met at the most recently attended convention tore into the back issues and promptly fell in love with one of the featured stories.  It led to an epiphany, which resulted in this lovely article you see below, on navigating the Symplegades of sex and gender in our modern year of 1964…]


by Napoleon Doom

There’s something undeniably rewarding about stumbling upon a piece of literature that resonates with you. “A Matter of Proportion” by Anne Walker, had lain in wait for me like a literary landmine, set in 1959. Though the piece is now five years old, considering the social milieu at present, this is worth revisiting, and not just because it’s an excellent read.

The story is narrated through Special Corps Squad Leader, Willie. Their squad is charged with laying mines to stop a nebulous enemy force, simply called Invader. Upon my first reading (and prompted by the art accompanying the story), I presumed Willie to be male.

However, on subsequent readings, I took notice of how careful the author was to never address Willie by specific pronouns. Aside from the singular use of the term “Daddy-o,” by second in command Clyde Esterbrook, the narrator is addressed in the neutral. This use of slang may be more indicative of Willie’s position as the head of the unit, or perhaps even Clyde’s own beatnik leanings than of Willie.

When the Special Ops team is planting mines along an elevated railway, Willie “felt the hum in the rails that every tank-town-reared kid knows.” There is a conscious effort to avoid claiming Willie as a tank-town boy or girl.

When Willie delves into the unusual past of second in command, Clyde Esterbrook, he responds, "You're the only person who's equipped for it. Maybe you'd get it, Willie." The use of the term “person” here, instead of man or woman, keeps Willie’s gender objective. The reader is allowed to embody this character, and ascribe the gender of their choosing.

I’ve struggled of late with being seen as an ill fit for my gender. How lovely a notion to not be held hostage by it! With Betty Freidan’s “The Feminine Mystique” flying off the shelves, women for the first time feel free to take an introspective look at themselves and what it is they truly want from life. While this is potentially a step forward, the truth is that at this moment in time, we have no point of reference for what a self-actualized “person” looks like, only a self-actualized man. Ergo, the natural inclination is to imitate the masculine, and forsake all things feminine in pursuit of self-fulfilment. There’s an irony in that.

We see this in the fashions coming out of Europe. Shift dresses, devoid of waistlines, disguise the curves indicative of womanhood. Femininity must be hidden. This isn’t equality; it is conceding that women are inferior and erasing them.

Yet I have a sickness, perhaps even a perversion. I confess, I have a love for all things feminine and glamorous. This is exacerbated by the fact that I am, myself, a woman.

Femininity, even in its most unadorned form, is viewed as a kind of manipulation. The mere feminine form forces some people to feel things against their will, licentious, disgraceful things. Perhaps because of this, women are encouraged to be understated and subdued — that is, if they want respect. A sound, intelligent woman must become the picture of neutrality for society to condone her. She exists not for herself, but to graciously reflect the wants of those around her — just as Willie does for the reader.

Willie clearly lives in a distant future. Co-ed military forces, lead by a person of unresolved gender aren’t the only suggestion of this. In Willie’s time, walkie-talkies have been abandoned in favour of “ICEG—inter-cortical encephalograph”. These are communication devices “planted in [an operative’s] temporal bone”, allowing all members of a team to enjoy a sort of mechanical telepathy.

This collective mind becomes the driving force behind this story, as the special ops team rides piggyback on ICEG mate, Clyde Esterbrook’s, senses. They watch through Clyde’s own eyes as he performs impossible feats of bravery, with an almost preternatural grace. This piques their curiosity. Who is Clyde, and how did he come by these uncanny skills?

Clyde is perhaps as much an anomaly as Willie. He is described as a “big, bronze, Latin-Indian with incongruous hazel eyes.” I imagine a non-white person among the higher brass would be something quite shocking to many enlisted men. Clyde of course seems unbothered by what others may think of him. Rather than feeling violated by their compatriots digging through his skull, Clyde seems pleased by the opportunity to scatter his heroic chestnuts.

“There's always a way… if you're fighting for what you really want.”

Brave though he may be, Clyde proves far more reluctant to divulge memories from his past. When Clyde lays claim to having been a survivor of Operation Armada, Willie immediately knows something is amiss. That particular mission had only one survivor, Edwin Scott. He had been a medical student, rendered paraplegic by the ordeal. Scott had been a “snub-nosed redhead” and Clyde most definitely was not.

Bothered by his deception, Willie asks Clyde what he knows about Edwin Scott. Clyde’s answer is one that could never have been anticipated.

"Well, I was Edwin Scott, Will."

Clyde goes on to make the claim that the body he now inhabits was formerly that of “a man called Marco da Sanhao”, a former wrestler from Brazil. He had been rendered brain dead during a bombing, and thus became specimen for an experimental brain transplant procedure. Edwin Scott was willing to do whatever it took to be the recipient of this abandoned body and escape his wheelchair. 

Scott, an educated white man, enjoying all the benefits granted to him by society – save the limitations of his disability- elected to live the rest of their life as a person of colour. Race, every bit as much as gender, is used to consign people to a certain station in life. Scott’s freedom however, is not one defined by race. The promise of having returned function of his body outweighed any fear of judgement.

While we can’t know the political climate of Willie and Clyde’s world, we live day to day in that of their creator. Willie and Clyde represent two methods of coping with the mercurial demands of society, which is what I imagine Invader is symbolic of. Invader has no real name, no affiliation, no identifiable features, not even a clearly understood motive. It is simply a force that attacks and compels those who would oppose it into submission.

In the battle against Invader, Willie fights camouflaged in shades of neutral, becoming invisible and pliant. For civilians, like you and me, our minds are an escape. We have a certain freedom that Willie no longer enjoys now that their mind is one with the ICEG collective.

Clyde, conversely, undergoes a metamorphosis into something more conspicuous, a “big, bronze, Latin-Indian with incongruous hazel eyes.” He is unafraid of the societal consequences if it means he has a chance for his own self-fulfilment. At the same time, he believes this fulfilment can only come from shedding his disabled body.

As a female author, I was especially struck by Walker’s execution of these two characters. I am well aware of the prevailing attitude towards women authors as being subpar. Women, they say, are consumed by sentimentality, and romantic caprices. Their work lacks substance or innovation, and is just a pale imitation of the craft. Like Clyde, I had come to see myself as being handicapped. It’s why I adopted a male nom de plum, hoping to have my work evaluated on its merits alone.

Like many writers, I insert myself into my stories. I enter the literary world not as an androgynous omnipresence like Willie, but as a man. In my dreams, graphic novels and audio-dramas, I fashioned myself a new body from words and pictures of my own creation. This body, the body of Napoléon Doom, doesn’t have to live shrouded and subdued in exchange for respect. Napoléon can be flamboyant and bold without apologies- in fact people adore him for it, he’s such an iconoclast!

It’s a fantasy of course. People celebrate effeminate men like those long-haired The Beatles, or the mod boys of Carnaby street, so long as they remain on stage or in magazines. In the mundane world, such men are far from adored. They are ridiculed, or worse, violently brutalized as punishment for their failure to conform. Perhaps they too force some people to feel things against their will, licentious, disgraceful things.

In much the same way, I imagine Edwin Scott fantasized about life inside Da Sanhao’s body. In wartime, Clyde was appreciated for his strength and cunning. People might have been willing to overlook the fact that he was a “big, bronze, Latin-Indian” so long as he served a function in Special Ops. However, Clyde has never existed in the mundane world.

Scott had experience with the injustices suffered by the handicapped. He chose to abandon his body because of them. As Clyde, he has yet to experience racial prejudice. We can hope that in this distant future, society has evolved to be more accepting. The problem with society of course, is that it’s made up of people, and people are notoriously intolerant of differences.

I’m well aware of the sideways glances I receive, and the whispers that go on behind my back. I’m a sad throwback to a bygone era when glamour and beauty were cherished rather than denounced as tools of oppression. Mocking people like me helps others distinguish themselves as sophisticated and modern by comparison. Yet, I’m satisfied with myself, or rather selves. The rest of the world seems split into factions, all equipped at birth with their own ICEGs. They are one mind, with many eyes, easily falling in step with the unwritten rules reverberating through their heads. I am not among them.

I think about my nieces and nephews, and the future they might live in. Regardless of gender, there will be some flaw, some difference that they will be shamed for. I have no expectations of this world becoming a more sensitive, caring place. I instead hope that they will learn to be confident, and satisfied in themselves, rather than living costumed in the expectations of others.

I wonder how Clyde will fare? He can never take his costume off.

[You can meet Napoleon Doom and see her amazing projects at her own abode…]




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