several thirsty weeks in the wastes Of Larry Niven, why wander the wet trails of the Silverberg quagmire all over again, in order to make a few notes for a critical essay which wouldn't even be of interest to myself?

I suppose that what I've been saying might be taken as a piece of damnable arrogance - or, with rather more justice, as

a confession that what I lack, in relation at least to sf, is the very kind of energy that I find so attractive in the columns of Speculation. Well - so what ? Sf would be in all kinds of trouble - even more so than now - if it couldn't count on the continuing loyalty of people like me. We may be lazy bastards when it comes to putting out fanzines, but we buy the books, and we read them attentively.

*My predatory fan-editor's eye immediately spotted your suppressed cry for help, Gorman. "Convince me, persuade me," is what you're really saying. And since I'd been trying to foist an ob. Onto you for the past five years, I was triumphant that you'd finally cracked. I know that I only have to nudge you gently just one more time... but then I threw it all away and never applied that one last straw! I just goes to show that the pigheaded will inherit the Earth, or something.

More seriously, I was immensely pleased that you evidently enjoy Spec so much. That's what it's all about – and personal likes and dislikes are just as irrelevant to me in the fun I get from perusing the opinions of other people in the magazine.

Oh yes – as we both already know, of course, there is a happy ending to the above tale. Three weeks after your letter I received a l-o-n-g article-cum-review of two Philip Jose Farmer books. I've made a promise to publish this in the next issue.

And now gentlemen who admits elsewhere to trying to patch contributors from Spec to Foundation, but who has time to comment on last issue's cover, and on points raised by my editorial...

Peter Nicholls,

Science Fiction Foundation,

NE London Polytechnic,

Dagenham, Essex.

--------

Speculation 32: an elegant issue, I thought, and was especially pleased to see the profound critical activities of your daughter on the front cover. A girl who has obviously realised the pap-like qualities of recent Heinlein. I was deeply unmoved by your housing problems in the editorial.

You mean you have a house already? So where's the problem2 People who own houses don't realize about the submerged other part of the population who, because they don't own houses, are forced to pay [pound sign]36.00 to £25.0o a week for a one bedroom furnished flat in London. This means that, if you have two step-children as I do, you are left with a living room which is also study, rumpus room, television room, and bedroom at night. And what mortgage company is ever going to lend an Australian divorcee the money to buy a place of his own!

Your review section refrains gratifyingly solid. I particularly enjoy the way in which you have obviously inveigled all sorts of innocent characters into reviewing for you, and then, having dutifully printed the reviews, have that typically Wesionian last word which vaguely implies that you can't imagine why you let such dunderheads have speaking space in the first place Z Though to be fair, you are milder than usual in 32.

I think what I like best about

Speculation is that although there is plenty of fannish heat generated in the letter column and elsewhere, it is itself fanned (sorry about that) by a wind from the world beyond the ghetto. Adlard, for example, has obviously read a few non-sf books. He goes around pretending, I believe, that he's totally ignorant about sf, but that is only the crafty modesty of a latter-day Socrates.

Further along the alphabet, Shippey, Sudbery, Stableford and Strick all care about science fiction in ways which clearly imply the existence of values beyond the simply incestuous "sf can only be criticised in sf terms" ones.

Having praised you for the high seriousness and scrupulous morality of your mag., I confess I can in no way add to lt. I have been professionally compelled to be serious about sf for two years now, and while it's pleasant most of the time, a week where I read ten fanzines, as I did yesterday, leaves my mind quite empty of anything to say.

*I'm not very impressed by your excuse, Peter, and if you can't do better than that I'm sure I shall succeeded in inveigling you, too, into writing for me. Of course it may take a few years, but I can wait...

My editorial about house brought in lots of sympathy, but your letter shows that it maybe misplaced. Financially, I'm feeling pretty sorry for myself fat the moment, but at least I can pay not more than [pound sign]70 per month mortgage in Birmingham and have a decent house to live in. It all goes to prove; Don't live in London!

And now for something completely different; from Ted White, a man who has had his own money worries in the past. (Would you believe , from Algo, that Ted received $150 per months for editing the two magazines, Amazing and Fantastic?).

Ted White,

1014 N. Tuckahoe St.,

Falls Church, VA 22046

-28-

Document scaning and conversion provided by Peter Barker

Updated May 12, 2015. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.