June 1996 L&SF Online Bulletin

	June 1996 L&SF Online Bulletin 1. First up, apologies from me -- and my thanks to Steve Marsh for letting me know where I've gone aglitch. Steve sent me a printout for the April bulletin, so I'd know that I'm causing wild things to happen in terms of format. I think that's because I'm inserting carriage returns instead of letting the Macintosh do its linewrap thing, and I think it's happening when I need to set up some sort of indented columns. I will try to avoid that and give you a better result at your end (not easy, since not all of us are using the same email software), but I'll need feedback from you. If what appears on your screen, or -- for those who print a hard copy -- what your printer produces, is splattered all over the page, please let me know. Ideally, send me a sample page by snailmail so that I can see what's happening. And if any of you have recommendations for fixing the problem I am of course interested. 2. In about ten days I'll start writing the July/August issue of the newsletter, which is "Editor's Choice"; the topic is the Sapir-Whort hypothesis (also called "linguistic relativity hypothesis" and a batch of other names.) I would be grateful for any suggestions, questions, references, etc. that you want me to include in the issue. When the SWH came up in a panel at Wiscon last week, MJ Hardman responded from the floor by telling us that it should properly be called the "Lee-Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis," because of Lee's work on the subject; if you have references from her work, would you please send them to me so that I can be sure I've included everything? (Thank you, MJ; thank you, one and all.) The process I go through every year for the Editor's Choice issue is roughly what I would go through in writing a monograph; your help will be much appreciated. 3. Over the Memorial Day weekend I was one of the set of past Guests of Honor at the Wiscon science fiction convention <focus, feminism> in Madison, Wisconsin. Some of you were there, and it was a pleasure to see you and hear you and be with you; those of you who couldn't join us missed a marvel. At the opening ceremonies Jeanne Gomoll told us that Wiscon 20 was going to be like Woodstock -- people would be claiming to have been there, whether they were there or not. I think she's right. Ursula K. Le Guin, in her Guest of Honor speech, told us that she doesn't live on Earth; rather, she lives on the planet Geriatrica, from which the inhabitants are able to see and hear Terrans without difficulty, but find that they are invisible and inaudible to the Earthlings. (Speaking up for touch dominance, I will add that the elderly are just as likely to be untouchable to the Terrans as invisible and inaudible.) She concluded the speech by declaring that this wasn't going to be enough to shut her up when she had something to say; she got a well-deserved standing ovation. I got to be on a panel with her later, and to sit next to her, and we had a wonderful time; since we're both Geriatricans, perhaps that was to be expected. Judith Merrill's "speech" turned out to be not a speech but an hour's reading from her memoirs (a work in progress), and I cannot begin to tell you what a treat that was. She could read a phone book aloud and enthrall an audience; having her add the story of her remarkable life made the experience a privilege for everyone lucky enough to hear her. And I got to spend several hours in the hotel bar with her, which was just unbelievable ... real wisdom, generously and fascinatingly shared. She and I, because of this, missed the group photo for past guests of honor and were chided a tad.... we hadn't gotten the message that we were supposed to show up. And I want you to know that if I had to get in trouble for playing hooky, I'd rather get in trouble with Judith Merrill than with anyone else on earth. I don't know any way to report fully on Wiscon; it was like a small Worldcon, with hundreds of programming items forcing very hard choices on those attending. I did a Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense workshop, and it went very well. I read from the science fiction novel I've been writing (and getting rejections for), which is set in a touch dominant United States that considers sight the dirty/nasty/taboo sense, and it was an extraordinary experience. It was Monday morning, last day of the con and following a night of parties, and I showed up at the reading room only because it was my duty to do so -- I didn't expect anybody to actually be there. But the room was packed, and the people who came were so enthusiastic that I wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation; they would like the novel to be published, and I join them in that wish. (A number of the editors who have rejected it were at Wiscon, but none of them showed up to hear me read from it.) There was an extremely interesting panel on the possibility that a small feminist science fiction press could be set up and survive in this country; the consensus of those on the panel (and those helping us from the floor) was that the chances are less than slim. I'll be talking more about this in the September/October (Women & Language) issue of L&SF. For now, I'll just mention what Debbie Notkin -- editor for Tor Books -- said, sitting at my left; she said that if she had on her desk a submitted novel from someone completely unknown, someone who had never published a word before, and a submitted novel from Suzette Haden Elgin, the chances of acceptance would be many times greater for the novel from the unknown. I was very grateful to her for that, since it took the otherwise inevitable "paranoid" label right off me and drove an editorial stake through its ugly heart. This is not something I am making up because I'm a failure, it is not something that is happening only to me -- it's happening to anyone foolhardy enough to write feminist sf, and it's something that has to be tackled if feminist sf is to survive. Final word on this: Patrick Nielsen Hayden, on another panel, declared that there is a huge market for feminist sf; however, what he means by that is whopping good thrillers and cyberpunk in which the protagonists are women rather than men. That is a subgenre of feminist sf, and he's right about that specialized group (consider the novels of Lois McMaster Bujold, who was at Wiscon, too). But novels like my Native Tongue (in which, according to editors and reps, "nothing ever happens") do not have a market, nor is there a market for anyone who has written such books and has to live with their sales figures. (We also had a chance to explain to feminist scholars present that it made no difference to our prospects for selling our writing that 80,000 of their students had read our books during a given year if only six of them had actually had to buy a new copy. The standard practice of recycling used copies through the college bookstore semester after semester means that we feminist sf writers have to face the comment my editor at DAW made to me not long ago: "Nobody but a handful of radical feminists reads your stuff, Suzette." The academics were, so far as I could tell, absolutely astonished to learn that this was a problem.) 4. I have cancelled the November GAVSD and writing seminars in Tulsa for this year. There's no way on earth that either George or I could do the necessary marketing to fill them -- it's just out of the question. That frees up the first weekend in November, which we're going to spend at the linguistics conference held then at the university in Lawrence, Kansas. I'm going to ask the Powers That Be if there's any way to hold a meeting of the Linguistics & Science Fiction Network during the conference; if it can't be done, perhaps George and I can host a room party as we would at an sf convention. I don't know the rules on these things, having been out of the academic loop now for sixteen years, but I'll do the best I can to set up some sort of gathering. I'll keep you posted, and I welcome any protocol suggestions from those of you who are in the academic loop. Send me etiquette notes.... 5. My last item for this already overlong bulletin is about something that George and I are now just starting to work on. The plan is this: After an issue of L&SF is written, George will go through it and circle the bits most likely to interest an sf person, while I circle those most likely to interest a linguist. I will then take those bits and make them stand-alone items -- adding a bit more linguistics to the linguistics ones where necessary. From that rough copy, George will produce two "L&SF Digests" -- one sf, one linguistics -- and make them available free on the Internet for reading and/or downloading. George will be editor for the digests; all I have to do is produce rough copy for him from the print version I've already written. (The idea is to keep from adding to my impossible schedule of work, you perceive, by dumping it on his shoulders. Thank you, George.) We are talking about an absolute maximum of two pages for each digest. The hope is that linguists and sf people alike will find the digests sufficiently useful that they'll join the L&SF Network to get the fullscale print version. The hypothesis is that doing this is more likely to expand our membership substantially than trying to do it by advertising in the print media would. We may be wrong, but that's the hypothesis. Any suggestions, criticisms, recommendations .... whatever .... that you could send us on this subject would be very welcome. That's it for this bimonth; please don't forget to send me Sapir-Whorf (and Lee-Sapir-Whorf) references as quickly as you can manage, as well as any requests and comments for the upcoming issue.... All my best wishes, Suzette Haden Elgin
	All text formatting errors are the responsibility of Steve Marsh and not the fault of Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. If it were all relative, none of the errors would matter. All copyrights remain in Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. [return to Lingua]

June 1996 L&SF Online Bulletin

1. First up, apologies from me -- and my thanks to Steve Marsh for letting
me know where I've gone aglitch. Steve sent me a printout for the April
bulletin, so I'd know that I'm causing wild things to happen in terms of
format. I think that's because I'm inserting carriage returns instead of
letting the Macintosh do its linewrap thing, and I think it's happening
when I need to set up some sort of indented columns. I will try to avoid
that and give you a better result at your end (not easy, since not all of
us are using the same email software), but I'll need feedback from you. If
what appears on your screen, or -- for those who print a hard copy -- what
your printer produces, is splattered all over the page, please let me know.
Ideally, send me a sample page by snailmail so that I can see what's
happening. And if any of you have recommendations for fixing the problem I
am of course interested.

2. In about ten days I'll start writing the July/August issue of the
newsletter, which is "Editor's Choice"; the topic is the Sapir-Whort
hypothesis (also called "linguistic relativity hypothesis" and a batch of
other names.) I would be grateful for any suggestions, questions,
references, etc. that you want me to include in the issue. When the SWH
came up in a panel at Wiscon last week, MJ Hardman responded from the floor
by telling us that it should properly be called the "Lee-Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis," because of Lee's work on the subject; if you have references
from her work, would you please send them to me so that I can be sure I've
included everything? (Thank you, MJ; thank you, one and all.) The process I
go through every year for the Editor's Choice issue is roughly what I would
go through in writing a monograph; your help will be much appreciated.

3. Over the Memorial Day weekend I was one of the set of past Guests of
Honor at the Wiscon science fiction convention <focus, feminism> in
Madison, Wisconsin. Some of you were there, and it was a pleasure to see
you and hear you and be with you; those of you who couldn't join us missed
a marvel. At the opening ceremonies Jeanne Gomoll told us that Wiscon 20
was going to be like Woodstock -- people would be claiming to have been
there, whether they were there or not. I think she's right. Ursula K. Le
Guin, in her Guest of Honor speech, told us that she doesn't live on Earth;
rather, she lives on the planet Geriatrica, from which the inhabitants are
able to see and hear Terrans without difficulty, but find that they are
invisible and inaudible to the Earthlings. (Speaking up for touch
dominance, I will add that the elderly are just as likely to be untouchable
to the Terrans as invisible and inaudible.) She concluded the speech by
declaring that this wasn't going to be enough to shut her up when she had
something to say; she got a well-deserved standing ovation. I got to be on
a panel with her later, and to sit next to her, and we had a wonderful
time; since we're both Geriatricans, perhaps that was to be expected.
Judith Merrill's "speech" turned out to be not a speech but an hour's
reading from her memoirs (a work in progress), and I cannot begin to tell
you what a treat *that* was. She could read a phone book aloud and enthrall
an audience; having her add the story of her remarkable life made the
experience a privilege for everyone lucky enough to hear her. And I got to
spend several hours in the hotel bar with her, which was just unbelievable
... real wisdom, generously and fascinatingly shared. She and I, because of
this, missed the group photo for past guests of honor and were chided a
tad.... we hadn't gotten the message that we were supposed to show up. And
I want you to know that if I had to get in trouble for playing hooky, I'd
rather get in trouble with Judith Merrill than with anyone else on earth.

        I don't know any way to report fully on Wiscon; it was like a small
Worldcon, with hundreds of  programming items forcing very hard choices on
those attending. I did a Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense workshop, and it
went very well. I read from the science fiction novel I've been writing
(and getting rejections for), which is set in a touch dominant United
States that considers *sight* the dirty/nasty/taboo sense, and it was an
extraordinary experience. It was Monday morning, last day of the con and
following a night of parties, and I showed up at the reading room only
because it was my duty to do so -- I didn't expect anybody to actually be
there. But the room was packed, and the people who came were so
enthusiastic that I wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation; they
would like the novel to be published, and I join them in that wish. (A
number of the editors who have rejected it were at Wiscon, but none of them
showed up to hear me read from it.) There was an extremely interesting
panel on the possibility that a small feminist science fiction press could
be set up and survive in this country; the consensus of those on the panel
(and those helping us from the floor) was that the chances are less than
slim. I'll be talking more about this in the September/October (Women &
Language) issue of L&SF. For now, I'll just mention what Debbie Notkin --
editor for Tor Books -- said, sitting at my left; she said that if she had
on her desk a submitted novel from someone completely unknown, someone who
had never published a word before, and a submitted novel from Suzette Haden
Elgin, the chances of acceptance would be many times greater for the novel
from the unknown. I was *very* grateful to her for that, since it took the
otherwise inevitable "paranoid" label right off me and drove an editorial
stake through its ugly heart. This is not something I am making up because
I'm a failure, it is not something that is happening only to me -- it's
happening to anyone foolhardy enough to write feminist sf, and it's
something that has to be tackled if feminist sf is to survive. Final word
on this: Patrick Nielsen Hayden, on another panel, declared that there is a
*huge* market for feminist sf; however, what he means by that is whopping
good thrillers and cyberpunk in which the protagonists are women rather
than men. That is a subgenre of feminist sf, and he's right about that
specialized group (consider the novels of Lois McMaster Bujold, who was at
Wiscon, too). But novels like my *Native Tongue* (in which, according to
editors and reps, "nothing ever happens") do not have a market, nor is
there a market for anyone who has written such books and has to live with
their sales figures. (We also had a chance to explain to feminist scholars
present that it made no difference to our prospects for selling our writing
that 80,000 of their students had read our books during a given year if
only *six* of them had actually had to buy a new copy. The standard
practice of recycling used copies through the college bookstore semester
after semester means that we feminist sf writers have to face the comment
my editor at DAW made to me not long ago: "Nobody but a handful of radical
feminists reads your stuff, Suzette." The academics were, so far as I could
tell, absolutely astonished to learn that this was a problem.)

4. I have cancelled the November GAVSD and writing seminars in Tulsa for
this year. There's no way on earth that either George or I could do the
necessary marketing to fill them -- it's just out of the question. That
frees up the first weekend in November, which we're going to spend at the
linguistics conference held then at the university in Lawrence, Kansas. I'm
going to ask the Powers That Be if there's any way to hold a meeting of the
Linguistics & Science Fiction Network during the conference; if it can't be
done, perhaps George and I can host a room party as we would at an sf
convention. I don't know the rules on these things, having been out of the
academic loop now for sixteen years, but I'll do the best I can to set up
some sort of gathering. I'll keep you posted, and I welcome any protocol
suggestions from those of you who *are* in the academic loop. Send me
etiquette notes....

5. My last item for this already overlong bulletin is about something that
George and I are now just starting to work on. The plan is this: After an
issue of L&SF is written, George will go through it and circle the bits
most likely to interest an sf  person, while I circle those most likely to
interest a linguist. I will then take those bits and make them stand-alone
items -- adding a bit more linguistics to the linguistics ones where
necessary. From that rough copy, George will produce two "L&SF Digests" --
one sf, one linguistics -- and make them available free on the Internet for
reading and/or downloading. George will be editor for the digests; all I
have to do is produce rough copy for him from the print version I've
already written. (The idea is to keep from adding to my impossible schedule
of work, you perceive, by dumping it on *his* shoulders. Thank you,
George.) We are talking about an absolute maximum of two pages for each
digest. The hope is that linguists and sf people alike will find the
digests sufficiently useful that they'll join the L&SF Network to get the
fullscale print version. The hypothesis is that doing this is more likely
to expand our membership substantially than trying to do it by advertising
in the print media would. We may be wrong, but that's the hypothesis. Any
suggestions, criticisms, recommendations .... whatever .... that you could
send us on this subject would be very welcome.

        That's it for this bimonth; please don't forget to send me
Sapir-Whorf (and Lee-Sapir-Whorf) references as quickly as you can manage,
as well as any requests and comments for the upcoming issue....

        All my best wishes,

        Suzette Haden Elgin

All text formatting errors are the responsibility of Steve Marsh and not the fault of Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. If it were all relative, none of the errors would matter. All copyrights remain in Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. [return to Lingua]