Quantum 41 (Winter-Spring 1992)

36 Pages·1992·3 MB·English

by  Doug Fratz, editor

QUANTUM
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY REVIEW
Winter/Spring 1992 No. 41 $3.00
Michael
Bishop
on Horror Fiction
Geoff
Hyman
Interview
Jessica Amanda
Salmonson
on Becoming a Writer
David
Langford
on Cabell's Jurgen
Darrell
Schweitzer
Looks at SF Movies
Taras
Wolansky
SF vs. Fantasy (Part III)
Jonathan V.
Post
on Spacecraft Sensors
11-time Hugo Award Nominee Recipient. Chicon Special Committee Award
Science Fiction Chronicle gives you
all the SF/fantasy/horror news that fits!
“Science Fiction Chronicle continues to be essential, with news I can’t find anywhere else.”_—Gregory Benford
“The Science Fiction Chronicle coverage of fan events is far better, they are located closer to the source of most SF news, they have a
better-looking and more readable format, and most importantly, every 4 months SFC publishes the most complete and up-to-date list
of markets I’ve ever seen.„SFC remains my one & only essential.”_—Ray Nelson
“Thank you for the most informative publication concerning markets and events within SF. Kathy and I both look forward to Science
Fiction Chronicle every month.”_—W. Michael & Kathleen Gear
“The New Releases feature is the most important. It tells me what books to look for since many bookstores do not have a new books
section. Pictures of book covers give some indication of the book contents, which is especially desireable, if I’m unfamiliar with the
author.” _—William Sandberg, Subscriber
Each monthly issue of Andrew Porter’s Science Fiction Chronicle brings you all the news of
what’s happening in SF and fantasy: who’s written what, what editors are buying, where artists
are showing their work, awards, conventions, news about fans & fandom, a convention
calendar, and lots of book reviews — 400 a year, many before publication.
There’s more: obituaries, 3 market report updates a year — the most complete in the field,
bar none — for hopeful or established writers, letters, Jeff Rovin’s S.F.Cinema on Hollywood
and TV, and, for those of you in the USA or Canada, a complete buyer’s guide, 2 months in
advance, of forthcoming SF, fantasy and horror titles, with prices, from both large and small
presses. Interviews with leading authors such as Mary Gentle and Orson Scott Card. Fanzine
and small press reviews by Hugo-nominated Avedon Carol. And World Fantasy and Bram
Stoker Award-winning Steve Jones & Jo Fletcher’s London Report keeps you up to date on
books and events in the UK. Also, occasional columns by Vincent Di Fate, Frederik Pohl, and
Robert Silverberg.
All this in issues that are clean, attractive, with minimal use of continued lines, with full
color artwork covers featuring work by David Mattingly, Barclay Shaw, Victoria Poyser, Tom
Kidd, Don Maitz, and many others.
And the writing? Clear, concise, informative, as objective as possible. Written to give you
the information you need and want, treating you with the respect you deserve as an intelligent
SF/fantasy reader. Andrew Porter’s personal opinions are confined to the editorials, which
you’ll frequently find interesting, thoughtful, amusing.
Issues are mailed Bulk or First Class in the USA, First Class to Canada, by air elsewhere,
sealed in plastic polybags, for protection from mistreatment in the mails. Subscribe, today!
Note: Subscriptions are payable in US Dollar checks drawn on a US bank. OUTSIDE USA: Payment must be in US dollars, by Inti
Money Order or bank draft. Canadian checks in US$ aren’t acceptable.
Make checks payable and mail to: SINGLE COPY $2.75
Science Fiction Chronicle, P.O. Box 2730-Q, Brooklyn NY 11202-0056, USA
[ ] 1 Year (12 issues) is $36 First Class US & Canada, $30 Bulk Rate, $41 Other Countries
[ ] 2 Years (24 issues) is $69 First Class & Canada, $57 Bulk Rate, $79 Other Countries
[ ] Lifetime Subscription: $360 First Class & Canada, $300 Bulk, $410 Other Countries
Name_Address_Apt_
City_State/Prov_Zip+9/Postcode_
QUANTUM - SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY QUANTUM
REVIEW (formerly THRUST - SCIENCE FIC¬
TION & FANTASY REVIEW). Issue No. 41.
Winter/Spring 1992. ISSN:0198-6686. Pub¬
lished three times per year, February, June,
and October, by Thrust Publications, 8217
Langport Terrace, Gaithersburg, Maryland
20877, ll.S.A Telephone: [phone].
Winter/Spring 1991 No. 41 ISSN 0198-6686
Subscriptions: 3-issue (1-year) subscrip¬
tions: $7.00 in the U.S.A. and $10.00 else¬
where. 6-issue (2-year) subscriptions are
$M1a2k.0e 0a liln cthhee cUk.sS .tAo. Tahnrdu s$t1 8P.u0b0l ieclasteiownhse, rein. CONTENTS
U.S. Dollars only. All subscriptions begin
with the next available issue. Institutional
scuobpsiecrsi patrieo n$s3 .(0o0n lyin) tmhaey Ub.eS .Abi.l laedn.d S$i3n.g5l0e 4 Impulse: Editorial by Doug Fratz
elsewhere. 5 Pitching Pennies Against the Starboard Bulkhead:
"Children Who Survive: An Autobiographical Meditation
Subscription Agents: Single copies and on Horror Fiction by Michael Bishop
subscriptions available from New SF Al¬ 9 An Hour With Jeff Ryman: Interview by Brian Youmans
lUisiasnunitece eds,u bKPsi.cOnrgi,p dtBoiomonx;s £6s92in:50g,0 l.Se hceoffpieields £S2I :530G, Y4, 1156 BLeatntenre tdo ian FNreiewn dY oornk tbhye DPauvrisdu iLt aonf gWforridti ng
by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Back issues: Issue numbers 5, 8, 9, 10 ,11, 18 Words & Pictures: Movie Reviews by Darrell Schweitzer
12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 17. 18, 19. 20, 21,22, 23, 21 Fantasy vs. Science Fiction (Part III) by Taras Wolansky
24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31,32, 33, 34, 35, 23 Science: Future Spacecraft Sensors by Jonathan V. Post
3de6air,ce hc3,t7 l3y, / 3$f8r7o,, m030 9,T , 6h4/r$0u1 sa2tn .0Pd0u ,4b 1ol irc m1at2aiy/o$ n2bs2e .f 0oo0rr d$ine3 rt.eh0d0e 27 ARenvthieownys: TBruolol,k Jso, hEntc .R baydz Diloowugsk Fi,r aatnz,d PKaastchaalr Jin Te hEolmiskaas ,K imbriel
U.S., and $3.50, 3/$9.00, 6/$16.00, or 29 Audio and Video Cassette Reviews by Doug Fratz
12/S30.00 elsewhere. Payments in U.S. 31 Small Press Books of Note by Doug Fratz
Dollars only. 32 Quantum Leaps: Letters by Darrell Schweitzer,
Richard Chwedyk, Brian Earl Brown, Michael W. Carr,
Awabodlrvede ,or tn2i0s ri newgqo:u redDs tims. piCnlailyma suasmdifv;i eedrpt iaasyidnmsg e anrrate t em2s5 u0asv t apbiel¬er 35 Santadff J Nonewatsh an V. Post
included with copy. Display classified adver¬
tisements are $15,00 per column inch per
issue (2V* wide). Significant discounts of up
to 50% off are available on advertising in
QUANTUM for small businesses. Deadlines
are January 1, May 1, and September 1.
STAFF ARTWORK
Wholesale Distribution: Current issues of
QUANTUM are available at wholesale dis¬
cisosuunetss foof r3 400-5-650%% o foff fc ocvuerrr epnrti cceo, vaenrd p briaccek, Do Douglas Fratz 1 Timothy Winkler
directly from Thrust Publications. Standing Publisher & Editor 4 Robert Jamieson
orders are accepted and encouraged. Write 5 A. Wiedermann
Thrust Publications for full details. QUAN¬ Frank Elley 9 Jerry Bauer (photo)
TUM is also available from the following Nancy Hayes 15 John Christiaan Cebollero
distributors: Danny Reid 16 Catherine Buburuz
ATrcfwtiyo.n, 1D14ir Aec Bt lDdgi.s, trKibaunstiaosn C, it1y4, 0K1 SF66ai1r1fa5x; BArnutcheo Snyca Tnrluolln 2118 TMoimke SWimrigohntt on
Capita! City Distribution, Inc., 2829 Perry Assistant Editors 23 Gary Davis
St., Madison, W! 53713; Chris Drumm 32 Teddy Harvia
Books, P.O. Box 445, Polk City, IA 50226; Jonathan V. Post
WStyinxn eipnetge, rMnaantiiotonbaa,l ,R H603 5O TR2o Cseabnaedrray. St., Science Editor
Submissions: Guidelines sent on request. Poul Anderson ADVERTISING
Unsolicited manuscripts and art are wel¬ Michael Bishop
comed with return postage. The publisher David Bischoff
wawmAeCpdcliuiolla isclbnt tree elibta igreplsecilhntt a aatsltcltses stio teo.ntrcn deneoosrv;.A pis ed rNlyplrpee rtuou rsiltgbetebpohhdltlo tiiitt esnsn hphrh1gsesu9ee i bmd9brws l2.ierria l sienyiTthtset yha ebrts rbreo ufvl ao esretnt erh s dupP eu ntru hainlbmnerestlts ioieasscrldgt iaisgo atc wihtziaohttiifent enthrtesdo¬e¬.r .5 GDeCRDoahrCriCaracgoTvehrhnelitlearlda ei dAbrr SsulLd t elWciSn eashgEchn hwE. Peg dEiGlfiteftaeffooifirte tserit zin dlsedg r e r 2233111256 349 TSBFNUMhicuengaircwccemuklln saayPetcsy nasMeP ttia shfuFnoi wbePidncldatr it gAceiyAooasssntdms si vooCeencrhrsyirta iotsneeismc leen ts
out the permission of both the writer or artist
and the publisher.
5EDITORIKLI
Welcome to 1992, and to QUANTUM 41. IMPULSE Sheffield’s "A Braver Thing." (Charles also
It was not supposed to have been 1992 had the story that got the most dust in its
when you read this, of course; QUANTUM 41 face chasing Terry Bisson’s overwhelming
was originally scheduled to appear in win for the classic, "Bears Discover Fire.")
December 1991. The main reason why this I really thought Spinrad’s Science
issue is appearing two months iate (and why Fiction in the Real World, one of the best
i could not find time to go to the Worldcon non-fiction books in the past decade, would
this year) is that i spent too many hundreds take the non-fiction award, but Scott Card
of hours in the final months of 1991: 1) trying prevailed. I was glad to see the all-effects-
to negotiate with the California Air Resources no-brains movie, Total Recall, not win, even
Board to shave a hundred million dollars though it was the only movie nominated that
here and there from the costs to the house¬ is actually SF; thank goodness for the quirky
hold products industry (and therefore genius of Edward Scissorhands. (Witches
consumers) of a massive regulation of was the most underrated of the nominees,
household consumer products; and, 2) rest¬ and the only other movie really worth
ing up from doing 1). seeing.) In the editor category, let’s all
In another way of looking at it, though, pause for a moment of awe at how fast Kris¬
this issue is right on time. If you look at the tine Kathryn Rusch has ascended into the
title page of this issue, you’ll note that this is ranks of the field's best.
the Winter/Spring 1992 issue, and that we Professional artist? Ho hum...next? Ah,
now actually publish our Winter/Spring, semiprozine! Thanks are due to all 28 of you
Summer and Fall issues in February, June, who nominated QUANTUM, and the 43 of
and October, respectively. I've long worked you who voted for Q in first place. For that
on a rule of thumb that changing the publica¬ matter, thanks are due to all 365 of you who
tion dates is a major hassle, and to be voted QUANTUM ahead of "no award" (and a
avoided This was true back in the pre¬ pox on the 100 who didn't; probably none of
computer days because of the large number then are reading this anyway). As for the fan
of forms and other materials that would have category, maybe its time for them to be split
to be revised and reprinted. But it occurred off in separate-but-equal awards so that
to me recently that that isn’t true anymore, voting can be restricted to knowledgeable
since I keep everything on computer disk fanzine fans. As for the Campbell, who’s
and print out as needed, and can revise the Julia Ecklar?
dates in the magazine easily as well. So One of the more curious things this year
now I’ll simply revise the schedule every time is how the votes were counted. Unlike past
I can’t get an issue out on time. Thus do our years, "no award" vote ballots were not
silicon friends provide another valuable dropped until the end. This allows a new
function: the facilitation o f procrastination. Doug Dratz wbya yw htoic ha stsheesys bHeautg "on oc oanwtaerndd"e,.r.s : the margin
The Issue At Hand:This issue leads off
with Michael Bishop's insightful column on A Worthy Cause: I was surprised to
the vaiue and purpose of horror fiction. receive between Christmas and New Year’s
Mike’s piece was originally published in say about The Rocketeer, Terminator II. Day a letter from The George Alec Effinger
Amazing a few years ago, but when 1 read it and a number of other gems of the silver Medical Fund. The fund has been created
again recently in a newly-published academ¬ screen, and Jonathan V. Post, whose second by friends of George and some folks associ¬
ic volume, it occurred to me that this cogent science column takes an exhaustive look at ated with the Niagara Falls Science Fiction
and heartfelt article has probably not been possible future spacecraft sensors. Association, including Joe Maraglino, Mary
read by most QUANTUM readers. Our inter¬ The material this issue ran so long that, Stanton, Nancy Kress, Pat Cadigan, Joan D.
view this issue is with British author Geoff despite our move to 36 pages instead of 32, i Vinge. George Zebrowski, and Pamela
Ryman, who established himself as a fantasy had to cut down the amount of reviews we Sargent. The letter contained the shocking
writer to watch when his novella, "The printed this issue. This issue features fewer news that George's unpaid medical bills now
Unconquered Country," won both the World reviews than any other issue in recent years. stand at around $40,000, and his long-time
Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy I even had to shrink the house ad to just the chronic illness prevents his acquiring insur¬
Award in 1985. back cover, and use the inside back cover ance. The letter, which was sent to all
With this issue, frequent-contributor for more material. Next issue, we’ll be back members of SFWA, contained a raffle ticket
David Langford becomes a contributing to our usual 7 to 8 pages of book reviews. for a pair of world roundtrip passes on
editor to QUANTUM— the first Brit to attain American Airlines, which they are selling for
that lofty post in the history of this magazine Hugo Notes: The 1991 Hugo Awards $20.00 per raffle ticket. There are 1,000 raffle
(if we don't count Charles Platt, who, after had some curious and notable aspects, tickets, and they are being sold first come,
all, has more or less become a bloody beginning with Lois McMaster Bujold’s sur¬ first served. Needless to say, I sent off for
American). David's first column (which was prising win in the novel category. It appears more. If you are interested in helping this
first printed in the British popular fiction that Dan Simmons, David Brin, and Greg worthy cause within the field, please contact
review magazine, Million) looks back at the Bear split up the votes of one group of vot¬ the fund c/o NFSFA, P.O. Box 500, Bridge
controversies in the 1920s involved with the ers, and allowed Bujold to sneak off with the Stn., Niagara Falls, NY 14305.
publication of James Branch Cabell's prize in what Charlie Brown of Locus calls a
Jurgen: a Comedy of Justice. "convergent" win. In the first ballot, Bujold Coming Soon: New columns by Poul
I'm pleased to also have back this issue got a big boost from Michael P. Kube- Anderson, Darrell Schweitzer, Jonathan Post,
another regular contributor, Jessica Amanda McDowell's fans, who put her ahead of Brin and David Langford; Jessica Amanda Salm¬
Salmonson, who shares with us some valu¬ and Simmons, who had the clear lead in onson on censorship, "Among the Pirates of
able advice for beginning writers. Making number of nominations. Florida" by Gene Wolfe, David Alexander
his debut in the magazine is Taras Wolan- The novellas this year were all so good Smith on hew he writes, Arthur Haupt on
sky, who has a few more words to add to the that it would be hard to quibble with any of Alfred Bester, Tony Trull on Ayn Rand, and
science-fiction-versus-fantasy debate that them winning, but Joe Haldeman’s was Kathryn Lindskoog on C. S. Lewis’ "dark
has been raging in these pages for a couple obviously the most popular. The same came scandal"; and, interviews with Sheri S.
of years now. be said this year in the novelette category, Tepper, Brian Herbert, Barbara Hambly,
Our other columnists this issue are where another story in Resnick's Kirinyaga Boris Vallejo, Janet Morris, and Lawrence
Darrell Schweitzer, who has some things to series barely nosed out our own Charles Watt-Evans, and a big surprise.*
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
No one disputes the existence of story¬
PITCHING PENNIES AGAINST THE STARBOARD BULKHEAD books, films, daydreams, nightmares. What
we doubt is their seriousness—their underly¬
ing redemptive significance. In fact, many of
CHILDREN WHO SURVIVE: us seem to have been programmed by the
imperatives of the workaday world to write
An Autobiographical Meditation on Horror Fiction off their images not only as unreal but as
totally irrelevant to the more crucial transac¬
tions of our waking lives:
"Don’t worry about that, hon—it was
only a dream." "For God's sake, Charlie, it
was just a stupid story." ‘You're not letting
an asinine old horror movie keep you awake,
are you, Kit?"
But, such facile reassurances aside, our
bravest longings and our deepest fears
persist. We suspect—with Freud, with Jung,
with Bettelheim, with the dream merchants
themselves—that maybe these startling
imaginings do have a deeper seriousness;
that maybe they mean significantly more
than, say, an everyday act like cashing in a
certificate of deposit or trying to climb yet
another rung on the corporate ladder.
And, of course, we suspect correctly. If
we didn't, I wouldn't be writing these words.
Eisenhower is .president. I am seven or
eight years old. One Saturday afternoon I
am walking with my mother and my stepdad-
to-be along a busy street in Wichita, Kansas.
We pass the open front of a movie theater.
On the marquee above us, and also on the
posters bookending the lobby, are garish
invitations to come inside and see Vincent
Price, Carolyn Jones, and somebody named
Charles Buchinsky (later Bronson) in a 3-D
horror flick called House of Wax.
My mother’s escort, Charles Edwin
Willis, a captain in the air force, is the owner
of a Distinguished Flying Cross. (During
World War II, he nursed his B-17 back to
England after it had taken some crippling
antiaircraft fire over Germany.) Today,
Captain Willis has a keen peace-time fond¬
ness for pulp sci-fi and B-grade monster
movies. He asks me if I’m game to see
House of Wax.
"It’s going to be spooky," he cautions,
but there’s an amiable dare in this warning.
He also notes that it’ll be expensive—not to
mention disappointing to my mom and
him—if the movie so badly scares me that I
beg to be taken back out into the anxiety-
allaying Kansas sunlight.
"I want to see it," I insist.
The two adults are skeptical. Says
Michael Bishop Mom,W "Aelrle, yoofu csuorue?rs" e. House of Wax is
something new, a 3-D movie. Every paying
customer gets a pair of cardboard glasses
Many of my most vivid, and hence lasting, childhood memories are of twhieths el egnisvees thofe bblluuer raendd imreadg ecse llforopmha nthee;
terrifying or awe-inspiring scenes from storybooks, films, daydreams, projector definition and impart an astonish¬
nightmares. ing three-dimensionality to every actor and
prop.
By consensus definition, these are all phenomena lacking in palpable My stepdad-to-be buys us tickets. We
reality. Oh, they exist, all right. Books we can find in bookstores and li¬ go inside. We put on our glasses. The
braries; films we can see at movie theaters or on our state-of-the-art VCRs; movie proves remarkably intense. The
daydreams are often real enough to lower our productivity at work; and bbeegaridnendin fge lilsonw’ tw biathd t(hien fbaoclto, spnaadpdplein agt tmhye
nightmares have probably always sent us scurrying from the menace of head back to avoid getting bopped by the
their chaotic imagery to the real-life comfort of a loved one’s arms. ball is sort of neat), but Price’s tendency to
hurl screaming, half-clad young women into
vats of molten wax sabotages my equanimi¬
ty. I melt into gibbering terror, utterly dis¬
This essay was published in Amazing Stories magazine, and as the introductions to the books Honor Literature: A Reader’s gracing myself.
Guide and Fantasy Literature: A Readers Guide, edited by Neil Barron, and published by Garland Publishing, Inc., in 1990. Even good old Wichita sunlight doesn’t
wholly restore my peace of mind, and for the
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
next two weeks i go to bed with a night-light, (I couldn't’ve been more scared or fears—rampaging zombies, wrathful bears,
irrationally persuaded that a berserk waxman confused if J. Edgar Hoover had strolled into hungry tyrannosaures—but children’s most
is stalking Mulvane, Kansas, my hometown. my elementary school with a dozen federal elemental fears are of backassward relation¬
Unless I'm vigilant, I’m doomed to awaken— agents and a warrant for my arrest.) ships and the numbing indifference of those
if I awaken—sarcophagused from head to Lewis Carroll’s Alice sidles into my ken, whose love they need. Monsters and impos¬
toe in paraffin. A worse fate I can’t imagine, out of the pages of her Adventures in sible tasks are proxies for these fears; they
and the disappointed tut-tutting of my Wonderland. Beside her, huffing and puff¬ structure a kid’s fantasy life in the same way
mother has no power to convince me that I ing, the Queen of Hearts holds a flamingo a wire armature supports a papier-mache
can make it to adulthood without my "baby¬ under her flabby arm as a croquet mallet. mask. By donning these fears, by wearing
ish" night-light. She shouts, "Off with his head!" or "Off with them in the thought-experiment realm of the
Let her coax, let her chide, let her frown. her head!" and the playing-card soldiers imagination, children—hell, all of us—find a
Can’t she see that my very life is at stake? doing double duty as wickets haul off her way to look through and to overcome them.
victims under unappealable sentence of Grownups, then, are survivors.
Later, or perhaps earlier, I find other execution. I'm appalled by the Queen's In ‘Why Are Americans Afraid of Drag¬
unrealities—literary, filmic, psychological—to behavior—horrorstruck, in fact—but I’m ons?"—an important essay on the necessity
awe or terrify me. They bob in the sea of my admiringly gape-mouthed at Alice’s daunt¬ of fantasy and, by extension, of honest tales
memory like buoys, markers enabling me to lessness. Why can’t I be as brave as this of horror—Ursula K. Le Guin writes, "I believe
strike out toward that ill-defined shore upon blonde little girl? that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a
which, for better or worse, I must one day (Damn! An off-center look from one of growing up: that an adult is not a dead child,
crawi and stagger to my feet. my grandmother's friends still triggers in me but a child who survived." Le Guin insists
A tableau from The Odyssey wavers on a fluttery dyspepsia.) that the free but disciplined play of the
that shore. Polyphemus, the Cyclops, holds imagination is a key to healthy survival. She
Odysseus and his men captive in his cave. At least I’m not as small—relatively argues that repressing such play as frivo¬
In order to free themselves, the brave Greek speaking—as Gulliver in the kingdom of lous, or immoral, or false, is the surest way of
traveler and his cohorts must blind this one- Brobdingnag, about which I read while murdering the child in us—indeed, the
eyed giant with a flaming stake. Their recuperating from a groin injury sustained surest way that the tyrants of mediocrity and
escape, with the Cyclops raging at their trying out, as a thirteen-year-old, for a foot¬ the status quo could ever devise.
backs, is such a dicy affair that I shudder to ball team in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Scarcely
recall how close they come to not making it, over five feet tall and weighing maybe Why, however, would they want to
to having to endure further imprisonment eighty-five pounds, I was an idiot to get murder that child? Because, fearing the
and the sanity-fragmenting threat of becom¬ involved. Most of the other boys towered chaotic powers of the imagination, they truly
ing, at any moment, Purina Cyclops Chow. over me like...well, teen-aged Brobdingna- believe that sterility is better than fecundity;
(A holdup on Main Street—especially if gians.) One day, a monkey seizes the that a comforting cliche is preferable to an
reported secondhand—could not have been minuscule Gulliver, climbs to the ridge of a upsetting original truth; that a lived-with bias
more horripilating. I’d’ve faced a puny building, feeds him by cramming disgorged is better than an impromptu openness. They
human villain over Polyphemus, any day.) food into his mouth, squeezes his sides, and are dead children, who must sweep their
Every Easter on TV, long before I’ve threatens to drop him to his death. And own graves clean of the far-flying seeds of
read L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wizard of other incidents equally as traumatic— to me creativity. In Le Guin’s estimation, they
Oz rolls out its yellow brick road in Motorola as well as to Swift’s hero—occur to Gulliver aren't real adults at all, for they’ve stifled a
black and white. I tremble—hands clammy, on his voyages to unmapped parts of the part of themselves that they should have
eyes a-bulge, gut knotted—as the Wicked nurtured.
Witch of the West cackles like a crazy hen. (Now, my own world seems less Meanwhile, resourceful kids (or kids
Meanwhile, her herky-jerky flying monkeys spooky—so long as I don't start diminishing whose adult guardians want them to survive)
afflict the opalescent MGM sky like a hide¬ to nothing like that joker in The Incredible fear the very same things that all other chil¬
ous simian plague. Dorothy and her com¬ Shrinking Man, another flick that scared the dren fear, but they take (or they’re given) the
panions are in mortal peril. The jig is almost bejabbers out of me.) chance to confront their fears in wonderfully
up. And then I encounter Edgar Allan Poe. unthreatening guises. Namely, in celluloid
(A trip to Mulvane's dentist—in that "The Fall of the House of Usher." "The Bells." or phosphor-dot fantasies; in fairy tales,
boxy little office with a drill boom made in "The Pit and the Pendulum." "Hop-Frog." horror stories, and science fiction; in seem¬
1904—could not have bathed me in a funk- "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." "Ligeia." ingly aimless woolgathering; and (least
sweat any more copious or pungent.) "The Raven." "The Masque of the Red welcome of all but endurable if a sympathet¬
On The Wonderful World of Disney, an Death." "The Cask of Amontillado." "The ic adult or sibling is nearby) even in grisly
episode from the animated classic Fantasia Oval Portrait." Gloom, and dank, and nightmares.
plunges me into a similar kind of fretful November decay. Romantic loss and alliter¬ How much better to watch the Shrinking
dread. Mickey Mouse, as the sorcerer's ation. Onomatopoeia and more lugubrious Man battle a spider than to go mano a mano
apprentice, struggles mousefully to bail out long vowels than a locomotive’s dopplering with some living Goliath. To read about
of the troubles he has brought upon himself wail. Rapunzel than to be locked in an honest-to-
by commanding a broom to carry water. The Eventually, Poe mutates into Ray God tower. To daydream a journey down
broom won't desist, however, and when Bradbury, via the Brothers Grimm, Hans the Amazon than to get fanged by a real
Mickey chops it to pieces in frustration, the Christian Andersen, old Flash Gordon seri¬ piranha. To nightview your own murder than
splinters sprout arms and join the nightmar¬ als, Charles Dickins, H. G. Wells, and a host to experience it in irreversible fact. Which is
ish bucket brigade. of others; and, depending on your values, one of the reasons—along with our innate
(A pop spelling test for which I’m totally either I'm ruined forever or I’m willy-nilly curiosity about every aspect of being
unprepared couldn’t unsettle me more.) rescued from the grinding humdrum of human—that both children and adult survi¬
One spring night, I dream. At my unadulterated reality. In the ninth grade, I vors find fictive narratives so fascinating.
bedside, when I open my eyes, perches a compose a long, ambitious, very clumsy Sometimes, it seems, we do like what is
solicitous skeleton—female. How do I know Poe-esque story—a horror story, you’d have good for us.
this upright assemblage of bones is female? to call it—portentously entitled "Of a Dying Maybe the most insightful book ever
Well, she’s wearing a short-sleeved sweater, God," and my fate is sealed. written on the existential significance—the
and although her arm bones and grinning essential integrating function—of fairy tales
skull emerge from its sleeves and neck as What is it, as children, that we most is Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of En¬
bald as ivory, my visitor has bosoms. This is fear? Abandonment. The dark. Helpless¬ chantment (1976). I believe that Le Guin
the Lana Turner of skeletons, her inappropri¬ ness (as in being assigned a task that de¬ would second most of Bettelheim’s conclu¬
ate but well-shaped breasts caught within a feats our childish capabilities). Pain (particu¬ sions; I believe, too, that his conclusions
sweaterly hammock of pink alpaca. I don’t larly if, like violent abuse at the hands of have legitimate application to the field of
know whether to scuttle away from or to hug adults, it's senseless). Betrayal. Mockery. adult horror fiction.
her—but, at her back, a male figure in And, yes, even death, the annihilation of our Argues Bettelheim in his introduction:
cowboy garb hurtles through my bedroom developing egos. "An understanding of the meaning of
window to safety. Monsters may figure vaguely in these one’s life is not suddenly acquired at a par-
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
ticular age, not even when one has reached get eaten.) The best example of this sort of both partners to acknowledge feelings that
chronological maturity. On the contrary, story goes by such titles as "The Story of they have heretofore concealed. Another of
gaining a secure understanding of what the One Who Set Out to Study [or Learn] Fear" the tale’s messages is that "it is the female
meaning of one’s life may or ought to and "The Youth Who Could Not Shudder." It partner"—as in "The Beauty and the
be—this is what constitutes having attained concerns a younger brother who wonders Beast"—"who finally brings out the humanity
psychological maturity. And this achieve¬ what he must do, in Lore Segal's amusing in the male.... [In] the last transition needed
ment is the end result of a long develop¬ translation, "to make my flesh creep," for no for achieving mature humanity, repressions
ment: at each age we seek, and must be task that his father assigns—even tiptoeing must be undone."
able to find, some modicum of meaning through a churchyard at midnight—has any That's a heavy lesson for a fairy tale to
congruent with how our minds and under¬ power to make him tremble and he correctly teach, but the point is that fairy tales—with¬
standing have already developed." feels that he’s missing something. out sacrificing an iota of their cleverly dis¬
And a little later: The hero of this bizarre tale is a prodigy guised seriousness—teach such lessons
"In child or adult, the unconscious is a of courage. Better, a monster of courage. lightly. They work on the unconscious, and
powerful determinant of behavior. When the No "normal"—i.e., sane—human being could they do this work through the attention-fixing
unconscious is repressed and its content face the same daunting challenges with enticements of narrative. "What’s going to
denied entrance into awareness, then even¬ either the calmness or the confidence that happen?" my children used to plead when I
tually the person’s conscious mind will be our hero invariably summons. Seven read to them from Grimm. "Daddy, what's
partially overwhelmed by derivatives of these hanged corpses don’t in the least discomfit going to happen?"
unconscious elements, or else he is forced to him; he cuts them down, places them around And horror novels like King’s Pet
keep such rigid, compulsive control over his fire to warm them, and, when their rags Sematary, Straub’s If You Could See Me
them that his personality may become ignite because he has put them too near the Now, Rice's Interview with the Vampire,
severely crippled. But when unconscious fire-pit, disgustedly strings them up again. In Tessier’s The Nightwalker, McCammon’s
material is to some degree permitted to a haunted castle, he lies down on a bed that Baal, and Thomas Harris's bloodcurdling
come to awareness and worked through in begins to gallop him from room to room, but, account of the workings of a sociopathic
imagination, its potential for causing rather than leap for safety, he commands the killer’s mind, Red Dragon, are legitimate,
harm—to ourselves or others—is much bed to go faster. One night later, he plays sophisticated, set-your-flesh-to-creeping fairy
reduced; some of its forces can then be ninepins with a team of halved corpses that tales for adults.
made to serve positive purposes." reassemble themselves before him and
Thus, I would contend that the contem¬ challenge him to a bowling match. Alto¬ Wait a minute, I can hear a skeptic
porary horror novel—when well and truly gether matter-of-factly, our Grimm hero uses saying. Why must an adult, specifically a
done, as it is by such latter-day practitioners a lathed skull for a bowling ball. twentieth-century adult, go to such extremes
as Stephen King, Peter Straub, Anne Rice, Strangely, none of these adventures to find something shudder-provoking? And
Thomas Tessier, Robert R. McCammon, and has caused the young man to shudder; and aren’t adults too far along in their psycholog¬
others—is the new adult equivalent of the even after he has married a beautiful prin¬ ical evolution to learn anything substantive
folkloric stories of the Brothers Grimm and of cess—whose hand he has won by disen¬ from a mere horror novel? After all, we've
the "literary" fairy tales of Hans Christian chanting the castle—his daily complaint is got the H-bomb to worry about, and interna¬
Andersen. Maybe, in fact, novel-length that he still doesn't know what it means for tional terrorism, and Star Wars, and acid
fantasies of ghosts, golems, vampires, his "flesh to creep." At last, his new bride, rain, and the Greenhouse Effect, and cancer,
werewolves, mad killers, hostile aliens, fed up with this refrain, goes to a nearby and heart disease, and, if we’re of a religious
and/or phantasmagoric after-Armageddon brook, dips out a bucketful of icy water and turn of mind, even eternal damnation. Why
quests play the same sort of integrative squirmy minnows, pulls the blankets off her flail around inventing stuff to fear, and why
psychological role for twentieth-century sleeping husband, and dumps the cold then claim that reading about our invented
adults that "Hansel and Gretel," "The Ugly water and its fishy contents all over him. Our horrors—specters, zombies, bug-eyed al¬
Duckling," and "Snow White" played for hero, simultaneously shocked and delighted, iens—is a viable means of achieving mental
children a century ago and, of course, still cries, "Something is making my flesh creep! and emotional equilibrium?
play for children lucky enough to encounter Dear wife, how my flesh is creeping! Ah, In the introduction to his landmark
them today. now I know what it’s like when one’s flesh anthology of contemporary horror tales, The
Stephen King implies as much about creeps." Presumably, he and his ingenious Dark Descent, editor David Hartwell writes,
modern horror writing when he declares, bride live happily ever after. "A strong extra-literary appeal of such
"[As] this mad century races toward its Bettelheim identifies the young man’s fiction"—he means here the stream of super¬
conclusion—a conclusion which seems ever inability to shudder as the consequence of natural horror—"...is to jump-start the read¬
more ominous and ever more absurd—it sexual repression, sexual anxiety. Readers ers' deadened emotional sensitivities."
may be the most important and useful form out of sympathy with the Freudian approach Hartwell divides contemporary horror writing
of fiction which the moral writer may may cry, "Bullshit!" After all, isn't it possible into three streams (the other two being
command." that the taleteller who ended this narrative metaphorical psychological horror and sto¬
with a singularly unorthodox instance of the ries taking their peculiar frisson from a dis¬
Why, though, do we like stories that bedroom shivers just wanted to amuse us? turbing ambiguity about the reality of depict¬
scare the living piss out of us? And what And isn’t a bed full of wriggling gudgeons as ed events). "At the end of a horror story," he
good does it do us to place ourselves, again funny a climax as we are likely to imagine? tell us, "the reader is left with a new percep¬
and again, in situations—whether a theater Well, sure. Even so, Bettelheim has hit on tion of the nature of reality."
seat at another sequel to Halloween or a something here. I agree with this last statement (about
wingback with the latest Clive Barker or K. "There is a subtlety in this story that is all three streams), and believe that both
W. Jeter opus—that produce these goose- easy to overlook consciously," he points out, supernatural and psychological horror may
bump-lifting and/or bladder-draining sensa¬ "although it does not fail to make an uncon¬ serve "to jump-start . . . deadened emotional
tions? Are all of us who enjoy this kind of scious impression." He adds, "Whether or sensitivities"; that, in fact, doing so is not
"entertainment" already past hope of psycho¬ not the hearer of this story recognizes that it only an appeal of these types of horror, but
logical reclamation? Have we bartered our was sexual anxiety that led to the hero's one of their primary goals.
twisted souls to Satan? inability to shudder, that which finally makes Our sensitivities are deadened, of
Absolutely not. Fear is not only a guilty him shudder suggests the irrational nature of course, because the media—newspapers,
pleasure—at least under circumstances some of our most pervasive anxieties. TV, magazines—daily bombard us with hor¬
where the threat is fictively distanced—it is Because it is a fear of which only his wife is rific images. Moreover, we encounter these
also a psychological necessity. People who able to cure him at night in bed, this is a images in such brief, impersonal, or clinical
are literally fearless are people whom the sufficient hint of the underlying nature of the contexts (during the Vietnam War, for in¬
rest of us regard as appallingly inhuman, anxiety." stance, as little more than jumpy frames of
and, in The Uses of Enchantment, Bettel- Bettelheim further explains that this film on the six-o’clock news) that it is difficult
heim points out that many fairy tales drama¬ story teaches the child that those who brag to feel about them. The threat of nuclear
tize the need to be able to experience fear. about their fearlessness may harbor imma¬ attack or the widening hole in the ozone
(Fear, after all, is an evolutionary adaptation. ture fears that they are actively denying. It layer, meanwhile, are such vast, complex
If you don’t run from the hungry leopard, you also hints that marital happiness requires problems that, when we try to grapple with
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
them, they self-destruct like taped Mission: occasionally insecure kid from my most terri¬ this demonstration should work in the read-
Impossible assignments, again depriving us fying or awe-inspiring fantasy experiences?
of a human-scale yardstick by which to From the villain in House of Wax, from Jerry Robins, a character who de¬
measure them. Horror fiction and horror Poiyphemus, from the Wicked Witch of the scribes himself as a "lapsed nihilist" (i.e.,
films, however, usually restore a tangible West and her ugly flying monkeys, from someone for whom the cynical belief in
human context to the nightmares structuring Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer’s apprentice, nothing has failed), relates for the novel's
them, enabling us, once again, to care— to from the skeletal pin-up girl leaning over my Good Sheriff, Charlie McAlister, why his
cheer for those struggling to dispel the bed, from the Queen of Hearts, from the pint- grandfather used to like to tell, and then
nightmare, to quake in terror when they sized Gulliver, and from the flamboyant gloss, the Old Testament story of Jacob’s
seem to be failing, to hate the pernicious writings of Poe and others? Ladder:
forces opposing them, and to find ourselves, Chiefly, I think, I learned not that horror "‘[What my grandfather] always dwelled
because of this involvement, gratifyingly fiction is at base affirmative (a conclusion upon was Jacob’s terror at his vision. A
alive. And, of course, we undoubtedly take a that would have struck me as dumb, if not so terror that came out of the realization that the
certain guilty satisfaction in our awareness abstruse as to be incomprehensible), but world around him, the everyday world he
that the real danger is not to us, but to the that, to rephrase David Hartwell's notion of was so comfortable in, was not the only
imaginary characters battling the evil powers horror's defining impact, reality isn’t always world. That there was another one, alien and
whose actions alternately thrill and repulse what it appears to be. Wonder sometimes awful, unyielding and incomprehensible.
breaks in. Magic, black and white, can But even that wasn't the worst part of it. The
King has written that horror is “the most transform the two-dimensional outlines of life worst part wasn’t his vision of the other world
important and useful form of fiction which the into dauntingly solid arabesques. Beneath but his vision of the ladder. Because, from
moral writer may command." Others have the placid surfaces of habit, regimentation, then on, Jacob knew that this other world
argued that because of its vivid provocative¬ and order, fearful krakens lurk. The world is could erupt at any moment into his own
ness, it is dangerous; that it can corrupt. I both more exciting and more terrible than we world and that the two worlds were invisibly
would argue (on gut instinct rather than on think, and fantasy—whether cinematic, liter¬ intertwined.”
statistics) that those adult readers most likely ary, or dream-triggered—is a surefire open- (Hartwell again: "At the end of a horror
to be corrupted by horror fiction are precise¬ sesame to its secret awesomeness. story, the reader is left with a new perception
ly those who had no chance to internalize A month ago, I was in Atlanta to do a of reality.")
the tales of Grimm, Andersen, et cetera, as reading at Georgia State University and to Although Deliver Us From Evil con¬
children. Those adults, in other words, who conduct a pair of writing seminars. On our tains a lot of the requisite jeepery-creepery of
outgrew fantasy or who never discovered it way to the school’s urban campus one the post-Rosemary’s Baby, post-The Other,
at all. "Dead children," in Le Guin’s canny morning, my host, Dr. Tom McHaney, intro¬ post-The Exorcist commercial horror novel
formulation, rather than "children who sur¬ duced me to McGuire’s Bookshop on Ponce (innocent characters groping about in the
vived"; children who've grown into adult de Leon Avenue, where the owner, Frank dark or facing bleak personifications of the
monsters as a partial result of their depriva¬ McGuire, told me of a recent horror novel forces of eternal night), several of its scenes
tion. entitled Deliver Us From Evil by a new actually managed to make my flesh crawl;
The ideal reader of adult horror, then, is writer, Allen Lee Harris. "Bantam did it as an they did so by brilliantly dramatizing the
Le Guin's "child who survived." It is this original paperback," Frank said, "and it sold eruption of Robins’s grandfather’s "other
reader who is most likely to appreciate it, pretty well for us. I don’t have a copy in right world" into this one. And Harris (a fellow
most capable of recognizing the psychologi¬ now, but I’ll send you one if you’re interest¬ Georgian whom I have never met, corre¬
cal validity of the grim archetypes at play in ed." sponded with, or talked to on the telephone)
it, and most open to the healing catharsis of I was, and Frank did. redeems even his hokier jeepery-creepery
its violent images and apocalyptic resolu¬ Deliver Us From Evil strikes me both by visiting it upon unfailingly sympathetic
tions. Which is not for a minute to deny with as a strong, well-crafted representative of the characters and by giving his entire novel a
highfalutin theory the simple fact that horror contemporary horror novel and as a promis¬ hopeful, affirmative thrust.
—a bang-up scare expertly administered—is ing debut. Released in March, 1988, it At the end of the book, Robins is lost in
great good fun, and all the more fun for our proves that the trend in horror writing inau¬ thought: "The wonder is not that there’s so
underlying awareness that the "danger" we gurated in the late 1960s/early 1970s, a trend much darkness, his grandfather had told
are in is delectably hypothetical. given direction and impetus by the conspic¬ him. The wonder is there's any light at all."
No, my point is that horror tales have a uous successes of Stephen King, has by no I didn't understand that when I was
hidden, and important, function beyond means exhausted itself. Talented new writ¬ yelling to get out of that theater in Wichita
entertaining us, and that the resurgence of ers can still find untilled territory within the showing House of Wax, or when I edged
their popularity in technological Western field to stake out and claim as their own, and away from the bony femme fatale at my
culture—a resurgence dating from the publi¬ they can contour these parcels with as much bedside in Mulvane, Kansas, or when I
cation of Ira Levin's Rosemary’s Baby in elan and originality as their private visions eagerly imbibed the seemingly poisonous
1967 and building through the appearances allow. Meanwhile, they will do this work concoctions of Edgar Allan Poe’s pen in
of Thomas Tryon's The Other and William within a tradition giving it additional reso¬ Tulsa, Oklahoma—but, having made it to
Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, both in 1971—is nance and simultaneously demanding struc¬ adulthood with my inner child intact, I do
a result of the ramifying anxieties attendant tural and thematic innovations to keep it understand it now: "The wonder is that
on the proliferating political, economic, and fresh. there's any light at all. “
ecological crises of the final quarter of our Harris’s Deliver Us From Evil is tradi¬
"mad" twentieth century. tional horror, with many of the anticipated Horror fiction teaches this essential
It's reassuring to suffer a solid fright and hackneyed trappings—from an evil-beset lesson again and again, a lesson that bears
to survive. It’s also healthily edifying to our Southern small town, to a Good Sheriff repeating, preferably in new and more
subconsciouses. For if we can find the protagonist, to a ubiquitous Village idiot, to a compelling guises, because the times are
psychological coin to get past a fictional Mysterious Interloper, to an All-American Boy such that we can too easily surrender to the
slasher assault, or vampire invasion, or alien Who Saves the Entire Community—but the vitiating suspicion that the darkness is
body-snatching expedition, or insidious author (who began college at 14, got his everywhere and the light is merely illusory. It
satanic possession (pick one, and only one), degree at 19, attended Harvard Divinity may seem tautological to say so, but chil¬
then perhaps we also have the resourceful¬ School, and later took a Masters in Philoso¬ dren who have survived are more likely than
ness to deal with the real-world problems phy at the University of Toronto) transfigures snuffed children— those stranded among us
that seem, individually and collectively, so these weary plot elements with the power of in the ambulatory corpses of spiritually
overwhelming and impervious to solution. his vision, the simple clarity of his writing, impoverished adults—to believe in, and fight
We may or may not actually have this re¬ and the forcefulness of his intellection. As a for, the survival of every last one of us.
sourcefulness, of course, but I would argue result, his novel possesses exactly the sort of Thank you, House of Wax. Thank you,
that we need to believe we do and that compassionate, existential dimension quali¬ Polyphemus. Thank you, L. Frank Baum.
horror fiction is finally, if paradoxically, a fying it as a mature adult fairy tale. Harris Thank you, Mickey Mouse, Jonathan Swift,
literature of hope, a literature of affirmation. knows what a good horror story should Edgar Allen Poe, Ray Bradbury, Stephen
demonstrate, and he also understands the King, and, latterly, Allen Lee Harris. Thank
What did I learn as a well-loved but sort of healthy psychological integration that you, thank you, one and all. .. .■
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
An Hour With
GEOFF RYMAN
Interview by Brian Youmans

Geoff Ryman is the author of The Warri¬ there's something wrong with the book, I Ryman:That's what I do now; no, I got into
or Who Carried Life (1985), The Uncon¬ reckon. brochure writing because I had put so much
quered Country (1986), and The Child time into learning how to write fiction that
Garden (1989), as well as a number of short QUANTUM:Anyway, I guess a good place when I finally started writing brochures
stories. During this interview, we spoke for to start is the sort of general question that people said, "Wow! That’s terrific!" And they
about an hour in the kitchen of his neat flat in people always ask at interviews—"How did did too. It's great fun. I don’t know—it's a
London. you become a writer?" chicken or egg situation—it’s just one of
those things I always wanted to do, and I
QUANTUM:I’ve actually just read all of your Ryman:There were three things I always suppose sometime in my mid-twenties I said,
books over the past three or four days... wanted to be—I knew I was either going to "Well, Ryman, it’s final exam time—put up or
be an archaeologist, an actor, or an author. shut up." 1 had a bad experience. The bad
Ryman: Good God! Above and beyond the And I’m too tall and skinny and funny-look¬ experience was the first short story I ever
call of duty. ing to be an actor, though I make a very wrote immediately sold—which made me
good one; and an archaeologist has to learn think things were going to be this easy
QUANTUM:It was definitely an overdose, all these languages, and I was lousy at always. And what it was was, I was hit by
although not unpleasant—in fact, far from it. languages, and I ended up taking what in very hard by inspiration—so hard I was sort
I enjoyed them greatly. And they made me some ways is the least easy option, which is of writing on the train, and reciting the thing
even more insecure about coming and being a writer. And I just wrote and wrote— to myself as I got to the front door so I would
asking you questions without having done for years I was terrible, and lately I’ve started get it, that sort of thing. And it sold. And it
all the background work which I was not able getting better. makes you think you can do it again and
to get to, like rereading Gilgamesh. again, and the first big lesson to learn is that
QUANTUM:You got into brochure writing you’re not in conscious control of your crea¬
Ryman:Well, I know how it is. If you need to first? tive mechanism, it’s in control, and it's a
reread Gilgamesh to have fun with a book different person than you are. And it's really
QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992
a question of getting to know it, and what thing, that there was no other thing she QUANTUM:You have a new book coming
makes it work, and not trying to force it to do could do but that—like anybody in the same out soon?
things it doesn't want to do, because you situation would feel hate, rage, grief, and
think they would be a good idea, but letting want to go out and kill somebody. And, it Ryman:It’s finished. Except that I want to
it take its own time, in its own way. Plus, it’s worked— I hadn't realized how making sure rewrite the ending completely in a different
not so much that writing is another language that your people have an objective correla¬ country. But, yeah, it’s finished, it’s been
than speaking (although it is, and you have tive is absolutely necessary to carry people accepted by Unwin Hyman as well as now
to become fluent in it), but the imagination is with the plot sometimes. Grafton. It’s oodles and boodles and oodles
a different way of being. You can’t think up a more money than I’ve ever been offered
story, you have to imagine it, and that's a QUANTUM:Well, it has such a simple, sort before, which is just as well because I have a
completely different way of going on about of fable-like structure, I guess. sense of it being a bigger book potentially.
things. Dorothea Brand says that people It's not science fiction or fantasy, but it’s
can think at high speed and do incredible Ryman:It has a simple structure, but it about fantasy, and it’s about the history of
things under psychological pressure, under starts out a revenge tale, it becomes a quest The Wizard of Oz. Baum is a character in it.
psychological emergency. I think when you story, it becomes really a war story—you Judy Garland is a character in it, and there is
are writing you are drawing on part of the know, how do you get in. The ending is very a lot of research involved. I need to visit
brain you don’t normally draw on, in a very strange, because originally I thought it would Manhattan, New York, to talk about The
holistic way that you don’t normally do, and have some nerky little thing like Stefile goes Child Garden, and I need to go to Manhat¬
it's a very different state. When I’m properly out and says the spell of changing and she tan, Kansas, where the book is actually set to
engaged I can sit down and write 15,000 becomes a man, you know, but after that do one little bit of research since I have
words in a day and it’s no problem. And if year, what do they do? Do they become decided to change the ending.
I’m not properly engaged I can only grind geese? And I got this hideously sad ending
out one uninspired, plodding, and desper¬ instead, and I really wondered if it was the QUANTUM:I’m very fascinated with Oz
ately dull paragraph. That's how life is, I'm right thing to do. And I said, well, it’s here, myself. The original books were all in our
and I actually think it works better, so I'll go library, due to this old librarian who had
and do it—though, it wasn’t the ending I had basically donated her childhood copies.
QUANTUM:That first story wasn't “The thought I would have when I started. It also They were a big part of my childhood.
Unconquered Country"? meant I had to go back and revise the
beginning a bit. In the end the book is really Ryman:You were lucky! I couldn’t get but
Flyman:No, that was "Diary of the Transla¬ about when is this woman going to find love. one of them. I knew there were others. They
tor", which was in New Worlds, when the And it then meant that I had to emphasize were like all the lost Edgar Rice Burroughs
magazine had become a regular paperback the mother a lot more. novels all through my childhood. In Canada
anthology, edited by a wonderful woman you have these hardback editions by Gros-
called Hilary Bailey, with whom I instantly QUANTUM:Does your grandmother have set & Dunlap, who had some of the Tarzan
thought, "Bee’s knees time." I still do—we're some special connection with The Warrior books. The Mars books were unavailable.
still friends. She’s just very alleviating. I’ve Who Carried Life? I notice it was dedicated The Tarzans were only in hardback, so you
since discovered that almost anyone in to her. only got one per Christmas or something It
science fiction who was around at the time wasn’t until I moved to California and there
thought the same thing. John Clute, Peter Ffyman: A-plus. Brownie points. It’s really was this explosion of nostalgia and there
Nichols, Mike Harrison, they all knew her. rather a buried history of my family. I think was a kind of mini SF explosion in the sixties
you do pick up things from your parents very as well as in the eighties, and very suddenly
QUANTUM:I’ve seen bits of her work, I powerfully. It is a novel about family. And they were just reprinting all this Burroughs
guess, here and there as one of the people my own mum has always been haunted, very stuff. And ERB is very much the logical
connected with the New Wave, I suppose. similar to the hero in the book, by the loss of successor to Oz. In fact I think the plots
her mum, when she was very young. And a have the same engine driving them. I think I
Ryman:Yes, that’s right, well, she was lot of the emotional drive for that novel came may have mentioned this in the talk. In the
married to Moorcock—was being the past from me (actually without having realized it) later Oz books the thing that really drives the
tense several times over now. But that was absorbing a lot of the feelings that she had plot is getting all the nice people back to¬
the first one, and then I spent an awful lot of had when she was younger, and pulling gether. What drives an ERB novel is how are
time writing weird stuff that didn't sell. And I those in and using them. And there's var¬ all the good guys going to get together so
just kept writing and writing and writing and ious little things along the way that are family that they can feel all nice and safe and
writing and sooner or later... What hap¬ things. And that's why it's dedicated to her. secure. He’s very neat at doing that. My
pened with The Warrior Who Carried Life favorite ERB novel is Tarzan at the Earth’s
was that I just said, "Okay, Geoff, you're just QUANTUM:All of the work of yours that I Core, which I absolutely loved. When I was
not as good as you thought you were. Right, read seems to be very highly concerned with 14 I wanted to sit down and do an outline of
what do I want to be? I want to be the family, with family ties, with the ties between it to find out how it worked, mainly because I
Raymond Chandler of sword and sorcery." I children and parents. couldn’t remember where Tarzan's M'zub-
thought, "Well, forget it Geoff!" And I thought way or whatever the name is, his African
I’d much rather write for women than men. Ryman:A lot of it. The great thing that's tribe—I couldn’t remember when they got
And I started writing an outline for a story— come out, that started coming out in The there. At the end of the novel they suddenly
the only time I’ve ever done that—and I Unconquered Country and is very firm in show up, but when did they go? So I was
began to think, "This is working! This could The Child Garden, and is very, very evident going to outline it. Because Tarzan is a hero
be good! This could be exciting." And it was in the next book after that, is the theme of the he does heroic things, and it starts off with
when it had its plot turn around, when she oppression of children, and the role of chil¬ someone he doesn’t know from anybody
found out what the Galu were, which is The dren in society, and the very queasy and showing up and saying, "You may have
Warrior Who Carried Life, and when she was uneasy relationships we have between heard of a man called David Innes," and
then going to go and get the Flower of adults and children. Tarzan saying, "Just what about it?" "Well,
Life—from Gilgamesh—I said, "Right. That's he's trapped in an underground world
it. I don't even need to know any more. QUANTUM:Yes, I was at your talk at the underneath the North Pole. I have de¬
That’s taken me about half the way through, convention. veloped a balloon that will take us there, but
and whatever else happens it's still going to we need your help, Tarzan, to find him." And
be a good story after that. There’s going to Ryman:Yes, that's kind of crystallized. In Tarzan says yes. And I can remember even
be enough changes. The motivation is fact, it’s crystallized so much that I never at 14 thinking, "What?!" Why on Earth would
strong enough." I had always been a slight want to write about it ever again. The next he say yes? "Listen, I’ve got my jungle to
specialist in sort of very obscure psychologi¬ book is it. And I’m going to have to not have take care of. There's all these orchids, and
cal motivations— which are horribly bor¬ any more orphans, not have any more par¬ Cheetah and I have been having a fling and
ing—and with Warrior I wanted to make ents, not have any more children, I’m going the relationship is really getting off the
absolutely sure that the poor woman had a to have to move on to something different. ground since I ditched Jane and discovered
cast iron emotional reason for doing every¬ I really like gorillas..." He wouldn't have
10 QUANTUM 41 / WINTER 1992