Two recent deaths highlight the presence of science fiction fans in the larger culture. Paul Williams' fannish background in mentioned in the obituary in the new issue of Ansible, which says, "US author, editor and fan best known outside sf circles for inventing rock journalism in 1966 with Crawdaddy (using his fanzine publishing experience from the 1962-1963 Within).
The same issue of Ansible notes the death of Roger Ebert: "Roger Ebert (1942-2013), leading US film critic and Pulitzer prizewinner who fondly remembered his early days in sf fandom (see for example his introduction to The Best of Xero ed. Pat and Dick Lupoff, 2004), died on 4 April; he was 70." (Jesse Walker has a very nice Roger Ebert tribute here.)
There are many intersections between science fiction fandom and RAW's world, hence my post; for one such, see my Golden Apa piece.
Speaking of fandom, can anyone offer some perspective on how often RAW went to SF conventions? He met Philip K. Dick at a convention held conveniently nearby in California and a friend, Brett Cox, remembers seeing him at another convention, but I get the impression he wasn't an inveterate conventiongoer.
3 comments:
It wasn't a SF convention per say, but RAW was a featured speaker along with E.J. Gold, Claudio Naranjo and others at a 4th Way Convention held in San Francisco in 1990. Two talks with RAW survive from that: The Secret Esoteric Teachings Within Star Wars, and Secrets of the Illuminati that are available here:
http://www.talkofthemonth.com/talkcds/traditions.html
if you scroll down. One or both of these are also up on You Tube, I believe.
Search through the back issues of the PKDS newsletter, and you can see Paul Williams mentioning a note he received about Roger Ebert's review of Blade Runner, sent in by a young subscriber by Jesse Walker. IT'S ALL CONNECTED, MAN.
There's a loc from Bob Shea in The Best of Xero.
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