The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series began its 19th season on the evening of Tuesday, 9 September 2008, with a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the magazine whose name it bears, at the Series’ current venue at the South Street Seaport Museum’s Melville Gallery.
Jim Freund, host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf, a weekly program on sf and fantasy, and the Series’ executive curator, introduced panelists David Hartwell, the proprietor of Dragon Press and founder of the New York Review of Science Fiction; Gordon Van Gelder, former managing editor at NYRSF and the Series’ founder (some of us fondly recall the Series’ time at Dixon Place and the post-reading adjournments to Gordon’s flat), and current editor/publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, respectively, a founding editor and staffer at NYRSF; and Kevin J. Maroney, a successor of Van Gelder’s as managing editor of NYRSF. (A sixth scheduled panelist, Robert K.J. Killheffer, formerly a reviewer at NYRSF and later at F&SF, had to cancel due to illness.) Individually and collectively, it was a team much-honored with Hugo nominations and Awards.
The audience of nearly 30 included Marleen Barr, Rick Bowes, Ellen Datlow, Harold Garber, Avram Grumer, Barbara Krasnoff, Gordon Linzner, Jon Messinger, Andy Porter, Linn Prentis, Christine Quinones, and Bob Rodriguez.
The New York Review of Science Fiction, we learned, was launched in late August 1988, with an issue dated September 1988 that was sold at Nolacon (the New Orleans WorldCon) over Labor Day weekend. Hartwell began the tribute to NYRSF (which he pronounced “nurse-iff”) by reading editorials from the current, 20th anniversary issue, the 17th anniversary issue, and a third reminiscing about Discon (the Washington, DC, WorldCon). NYRSF hasn’t changed much in its 20 years, he said, because they “got it right from the first.” The intent was to keep science fiction from falling into the hands of the academics, while maintaining a high level of discussion. One might quibble about it having reached that first goal, given Samuel R. Delany’s long-time association with NYRSF (he was a co-founder), but its Hugo nods attest to the its success in raising the standard of reviewing in the American sf field, while bridging the gap between sf scholarship and entertainment. (Where else could one find accolades for the film Plan 10 from Outer Space?)
Next, Patrick read too rapidly from a critical piece from his old weblog Electrolite on Tolkien. In contrast, Teresa read from her first sale, “Remarks on Some Clichés I Have (By Definition) Known Too Well”, an engaging and frequently humorous piece. Plot, she described, gets us to read pages in order, and observed that clichés aren’t clichés if they don’t bother us, if they’re used with competence and grace. That said, she decried and skewered clichés so old that their cuneiform versions were bounced from slush piles in Ur, and fantasy and post-holocaust clichés. (She wondered reasonably why a power-mad villain expecting total victory would have a self-destruct button, and why his minions meekly accept his defeat, rather than form splinter groups to fight on as, she had no need to remind us, we have seen in the Middle East.)
Van Gelder (whom Hartwell noted it had taken three people to try to replace) reminisced about three NYRSF April Fool’s issues. (An aside: Delany’s birthday is April 1st.) He read from barbed parodies by P— (er, better not say), of book reviews by “Algae Buttress” from F&SF, “with digressions and pontifical preachings”. (No one remarked on the irony of Gordon now running that magazine.) David then read a riotous parody (ask him who the author was) of an editorial from Pulphaüs (a few of us recall Pulphouse), its purported editor proud to be “a spokesperson for vapid people”.
Finally, Kevin read a piece from the 10th anniversary issue, whose observations (that his three hobbies—sf, gaming, and comics—were under attack) are still true a decade later, and one reprinting a 1961 letter to sf fan H.P. “Sandy” Sanderson denouncing the politics in Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.
David concluded the evening by calling for volunteers, without whom NYRSF would not exist (a plea familiar to those of us who’ve run sf conventions).
Afterward, as customary, the guests and a number of the audience (those who hadn’t filled up on chips, cookies, and cider) adjourned to a nearby pub for dinner and conversation.