Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring MD

Laura Haywood-Cory makes many valid arguments. In the age of the Internet, people; come to fandom in all sorts of ways, and we ought to allow lots of fandoms at our cons, as long as groups are quiet and don't try to drown out or intimidate people. But I prefer to spend time with people who read a lot. I don't have very much in common with the avid filker or costumer. And it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that reading and writing ids the center of what our fandom does, and we ought to give precedence as fan guests of honor to fen who do a lot of reading and writing.

Joseph Green makes some interesting points, but I don't think he can extrapolate from a list of who won the Hugo for best novel to reach the conclusion that "SF writers are pulling back from the vastness and openness of interstellar space to return to Earth." Individual Hugo races have their own quirks. Lots of fans have read Harry Potter, for example, but I think the reaction to J.K. Rowling's indifference to winning the Hugo (for what IMHO is her weakest book) ensured that none of her other novels would even be nominated. Similarly, Michael Chabon's Hugo win does not seem a forerunner of a string of victories for alternate universe Jewish dystopias. Green would have made a stronger case if he addressed Geoff Ryman's movement for Mundane SF, which calls for realistic near-future stories that don't involve space travel or time travel.

I enjoyed the many animal stories, with the best pieces being those by Sheryl Birkhead and Mike Resnick. The smartest dog I ever knew was Jefe (or, as his owner called him, "Jeffy").

Brad W Foster, Irving, TX , USA

http://www.jabberwockygraphix.com

Looking through Challenger #26, (and so much nicer for us old-school zinesters to flip through a copy than try to scroll a screen. I am so old!), I hit Taral's letter. Teddy Harvia started up a fantastic site to track all nominations and wins for all categories of the Hugo awards, though he has not up-dated it for the last year or two. Still, a great source of info. Titled "Hugo History at a Glance". We need to get a campaign going of people writing to Teddy to get him to update the thing!

The core of Mike Resnick's problem with comics being remembered or forgotten seems to revolve around anyone who performs in an unrecorded medium. There is brilliant stuff being done all the time, now as well as back then, but if it is not recorded in some way for people to see/hear it later, of course those people will be forgotten over time. Sad but true. I knew just about every name on all of his lists.

There were also a lot of bad comics back when those great ones were performing. There are also a lot of great comics today, not just the couple of examples he gives of how bad things are. But then, I am a fan of funny, often leaving the Comedy Central channel on in the background while I am working in my studio, and when they do a day of stand-ups, treated to hundreds of clever observations along with some of the poor ones. Many of those great comics I have seen/heard only in that one recorded performance that showed up. Movie stars are remembered more than theater actors because we can watch them again and again. It's the only reason some people have ongoing fame, and some are forgotten.