Making up for February’s snow-caused cancellation, the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings Series held two events in April. On the rainy evening of Tuesday, 12 April 2011, at its current venue, the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art on Sullivan Street, the Series hosted the second, a 90th birthday celebration for Carol Emshwiller (born 12 April 1921, photo at right by Mark Blackman), one of sf’s foremost writers (and who, remarkably, is still actively writing) and teachers.
Without preamble, Jim Freund, the Series’ executive curator and host of WBAI-FM’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on sf and fantasy (now broadcasting and streaming every Thursday morning from 1:30 to 3AM on WBAI, 99.5 FM) read from Ursula K. Le Guin’s (like Carol, a pioneer of feminist science fiction literature) introduction to Emshwiller’s upcoming collection, In the Time of War and Other Stories of Conflict, in which she paid tribute to Carol’s writing’s facility blending dry wit and “uncontrollable passion.” Emshwiller then began reading a story from Master of the Road to Nowhere and Other Tales of the Fantastic, the other half of the volume—the two are being published by PS Publishing in the flip-book format of the old Ace Doubles—”All of Us Can Almost…” Regrettably, her eyesight didn’t permit her to read long, and Freund took over reading it, though she returned for the finish. The word following the ellipses is “fly,” and the charming story, told in her characteristic first-person present style, related the reflections of a mama bird (species unspecified) on soaring and her effort teaching a hatchling to fly and hunt, while evading a “big” male’s attempts to mate with her and presumably eat the little one.
Next, Robert Freeman Wexler—a past student of Carol Emshwiller’s—conducted a biographical interview, or, as he put it, “an improv interview.” Carol is the widow of sf painter and avant-garde filmmaker Ed Emshwiller (“Emsh”), and around the Gallery, making full use of the SGDA’s electronic screens format, were displayed (along with covers of her books) artworks by Emsh for which Carol modeled (one exhibited side-by-side the photo of Ed and Carol posing and the finished cover of Frederik Pohl’s and C.M. Kornbluth’s A Town Drowned) and even a video of Carol, a short film made by Emsh in 1970. Additionally, on display at the front of the room was an original portrait of Carol painted by her husband.
Carol began writing professionally late; she sold her first story in 1955 (a detective story; she has also written westerns). She had hated writing (she “nearly flunked Freshman English” and still “can’t spell”) and never would have written, but through Ed got to know sf writers—”fascinating people,” including Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Judith Merrill and Avram Davidson—and wanted to be part of that world. Her style, “first person unreliable,” takes much skill to carry off, and she particularly likes using the point of view of children and “addled old ladies,” and, in her war stories, “colonels… people who don’t think like I do.”
Joining in, Freund asked about selling her story “Sex and/or Mr. Morison” to Harlan Ellison for Dangerous Visions (1967), and about how she met Ed. “In front of a naked lady,” she replied—literally, they had been in a life-drawing art class, and she is an accomplished sketcher. Emsh’s film experimentalism influenced her writing—she was part of the New Wave—she learned how to structure her “unplotted things,” as he did in his films, so that they at least have a form, even if not a plot. She doesn’t read much these days, but noted that Kafka’s short stories inspire her. She herself, concluded Freund, is one of the most influential forces in sf. At that point, as if on cue, the audience began singing “Happy birthday,” and cakes (baked by Mercy Van Vlack) were brought out, Carol’s festooned with candles (nine, one for each decade). (The word of the day was “nonagenarian.”)
The audience of nearly 50 included Richard Bowes, Carol Cooper, Rose Fox, Ken Gale, Amy Goldschlager, Josh Jasper, Kim Kindya, Barbara Krasnoff, Ellen Kushner, Gordon Linzner, Derryl Murphy, Sharyn November, Marianne Porter, Eric Rosenfield, Delia Sherman, Michael Swanwick, and Mercy Van Vlack. After the chairs were folded up, the attendees mingled for a while, and had cake, cheese, and cider, following which Carol, Freund, and a number of audience members adjourned, as customary, to Milady’s, a nearby pub.
Note: Fans of Carol Emshwiller’s should take note that, on Monday 18 April at WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the birthday festivities continue with magic from acclaimed comedy magician Magic Brian and an interview of Carol by science fiction scholar Matt Cheney.