Procrastinations 01 (may 2006).pdf

!"#!$%&'($&'"(%)"(*)

+*(*%'%)$(-)*."-/%)

Procrastinations is written (or, in some cases, merely edited) by John Coxon.

Credit is given to material that is ripped off gratefully accepted from others.

Issue 1 published Tuesday 23rd May 2006.

Future issues may be published. You have been warned.

14 Chapel Lane, Peterborough, PE4 6RS // zines@chickensinenvelopes.net

eFanzines.com/Procrastinations

This has been published because I thought I could write a fanzine, and

nobody told me otherwise.

Thanks go to the people who encouraged me to start writing: the ZZ9

committee (particularly Douglas Spencer (LJ: dougs) for giving me the

link to his brilliant fanzine, Convers [at] ions); Max (LJ: hawkida) for

posting something on her LiveJournal to which I replied and Steve

Green (LJ: stevegreen) , who asked me what I had to lose by writing one.

This fanzine aims to be entertaining but informative. Some articles are

serious, some are for amusement value, and some manage to combine

the two, but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.

!"#$%&'!("&'"&&)%

New to SF? .....................................................................................2

The contribution of T-shirts to the SF fans psyche .......................4

Its all everyone elses fault ...........................................................5

Lucifer and his portrayal in literature .............................................7

Hes allowed, hes a teenager .........................................................10

Closing remarks ..............................................................................12

*%+'!,'&-.'

By John Coxon

LJ: johncoxon

There are, broadly speaking, three types of SF fan in this world: Those

who know of and are friendly with John Coxon (mainly through

LiveJournal); those who know of his existence but know next to nothing

about him; and those who had no idea he existed before they started to

read this (hi, guys!). The first type will know that hes new to science

fiction and SF fandom. The second type will probably guess as much,

because theyve not heard much about him, and the third type will

probably be relieved that hes not a deeply entrenched fan who theyve

just ignored for years.

The reason Ive explained Coxons First Theory of SF Fandom is

because its relevant to the subject about which Im writing this article

about somebody whos new to fandom gathering the courage to plunge

in. It is difficult to take the plunge and enter this new, murky

dimension, but more established SF fans tend to step in and announce

themselves as friendly people, and then youre away.

I got into SF fandom through a very friendly bunch of people known as

ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. You may have heard of them if not, I

recommend www.zz9.org. There is a (fairly good) possibility that

youre actually a member if you are, give yourself a pat on the back.

Its all your fault.

But it was surprising how difficult it was for me, as a thirteen year old

boy, to join that society, all the way back in 2002. I didnt know

anybody (and I do mean that literally) whod even read The Hitchhikers

Guide To The Galaxy , let alone wanted to join a society, so I didnt

know what kind of people would have signed up.

There wasnt a forum, or any sort of community aspect in fact, on the

website (or even referenced). In fact, upon reading it for the first time, it

came across as being rather unfriendly the text on the website seemed

quite snobbish (the text is something which, I am glad to say, has since

changed). As a thirteen year old, it was slightly daunting, joining this

community of people.

I think that feeling would have remained if Doug hadnt discovered my

LiveJournal and said !Im a ZZ9er, here are some friends, read their

journals, enjoy!" Rather a baptism of fire, you may agree. But it did

mean that I was introduced to a lot of SF fans online, a lot of whom I

have now met in Real Life.

The second thing which jerked me out of feeling daunted was ZZ9s

decision to hold their AGM in Peterborough in 2003. I live in

Peterborough, so this meant I could go without my mother saying

something along the lines of !not in a million years". I met people. I

bought a mug. I bid in an auction (this triggered my comic book

collection, but thats a different and shorter story). I was introduced to

MJ Simpson and Flick and poppy and Doug and Robert Newman and a

lot of other people who are (or were, in the case of Simo) fairly pivotal

in either general fandom or ZZ9.

The community aspect of fandom is the most important, since without it,

fandom wouldnt exist. This community is becoming more and more

$plugged in as a greater proportion of SF fans use the Internet fandom

is suited to this because you cant catch up with fellow fans at

conventions every week, so LiveJournal and e-mails help to bridge the

gaps between conventions.

The ZZ9 attitude to the internet has changed a great deal since I came

across that paragraph on their website at the end of 2002. Weve even

got our own RSS news feed (provided through an LJ community) now.

But, in my humble opinion, people who might otherwise become

members of fandom are not doing because they dont know about the

fantastic people who are a part of it.

I dont know how we can resolve that, and I dont know if fandom really

needs to work to attract new people. Some people are of the opinion

that societies and clubs are dying. Some people think theyve never had

it so good. But I will conclude with this: Im trying to get ZZ9 to

provide an offical forum.

!(%'#,*! "/)!",*',-'01&(" !&'

!,'!(%'&-'-*&'2&3#(%'

By John Coxon

LJ: johncoxon

As every decent SF fan knows, T-shirts are the cornerstone of modern

civilisation. Almost as useful as towels, they can be used for many of

the same things (although, admittedly, less efficiently) and they tell

somebody a great deal about who you are, where you came from and

your purpose and direction in life.

In short, they are SF fandoms answer to tribal tattoos and circumcision,

and they should be treated as nothing less. Amongst women, the

wearing of T-shirts can sometimes tend to be less common this does

not mean that women have less of a standing in society, since the lack of

a T-shirt can make statements also.

Take, for instance, your average hungover SF fan, the morning after a

very large party. Hes not yet woken up his vision is still not

functioning at what is usually considered to be the optimum capability,

his sense of balance is malfunctioning every so often, he is, in short, not

fully aware of what is going on around him.

This is where the humble T-shirt steps in to save the day. If you cant

remember somebodys face, and youre not sure whether theyre at the

convention or just in the way, or if you cant quite make out whether

theyre wearing a name badge, looking at a nice logo on a nice T-shirt

will tell you all you need to know about that person 1 in a couple of

seconds. If the person isnt wearing a T-shirt, for instance, if theyre

wearing some other top or something similar, more drastic measures

1 Usually, all you need to know is two things: a) are they an SF fan? and b) will they

buy me another drink? Another possibility is c) can they direct me to my room (since I

woke up in a lift this morning and I dont know what my name is)?

might be required to discover their identity, like speech, or acquring

cognition, or (shockingly) both.

To remove this undesirable set of circumstances, our hero will assume

that they are not the person hes looking for and continue until he does

spot a T-shirt, a beacon of recognition in a hostile and unfriendly world.

If this didnt occur, wed all be familiar with that embarrassing moment

in which you realise that the person with whom you are desperately

trying to communicate is, in fact, a Finnish woman with her posessive

and overprotective husband.

!Ha!" you may say, !I never have a hangover the morning after a

convention! Why should I care about the T-shirt?" Well, theyre cool,

too, if youre not sophisticated enough to use them as a form of

identification, bonding and indication of social standing. So wear one

anyway, if thats the case.

"!&'$$'%4% 3,*%'%$&%&'-)$!'

By Douglas Spencer

LJ: dougs

A couple of days ago, John diffidently suggested that I might want to

write a little something for him, discussing how I came into SF fandom.

Since he'd been so polite about my old fanzine, a publication which

chiefly involved recycled material people had written on LiveJournal, I

sought out something I'd written on the same site a couple of months

ago and I've polished it slightly into what you see below.

At university in the mid-1980s, I wasn't a member of the Science Fiction

and Fantasy Society, because (it seemed to me) they were almost

exclusively into wargaming, and they met on the same afternoon each

week as the word-game society, and I was at the time a Scrabble player

of county standard. I did, however, know some of the people in the

SF+FS, fellow mathematicians for the most part.

While I was there, I picked up a flyer for ZZ9, a fan club for the

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I understand John is writing a line or

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