In 2011 the BFI Southbank ran a series of films under the collective title of Kosmos: A Soviet Space Odyssey. The expected Tarkovsky double of Solaris and Stalker aside, this was a revelatory collection that included such exotic titles as the 1936 Cosmic Voyage, the 1959 The Silent Star, the 1962 Planet of Storms, and the 1924 blockbuster Aelita, Queen of Mars. But prince of these splendid rediscoveries has to be Jindřich Polák’s 1963 Czechoslovakian space opera, Ikarie XB 1 .
Based on the novel Magellan Cloud by Solaris author Stanislaw Lem, the film is set in the year 2163 aboard a spaceship bound for the distant star of Alpha Centauri, which is orbited by planets that scientists believe are capable of supporting life. During the course of the journey, the routine and locational restrictions of their mission see the crew’s initial enthusiasm begin to wane, all of which changes when they encounter what appears to be an abandoned alien ship.
In case you haven’t guessed it, the title of the film is also the name of the ship on which these cosmonauts are travelling, one that apparently translates as “Icarus XB 1,” a questionable choice for a craft that is heading towards a distant sun. Then again, the film makes no secret that the mission is destined to take a dramatic turn, announced in an opening sequence in which crew member Michal (Otto Lackovič), wide-eyed with terror and brandishing a laser pistol, proclaims that the Earth has vanished and then blows away the camera on which he is being observed by his concerned crewmates.
Edie Stern notes: We’re gearing up for another year of focused Fan History Zoom sessions, and I hope you will join us. We’re doing 2 sessions this fall (and planning for 4 next spring), and the first one is coming up at the end of October. We are very pleased to announce:
Sunday October 30, 2022, Time: 2pm EDT, 1pm CDT, 11am PDT, 6PM London, 3:30am Adelaide* An Interview with Maggie Thompson: Before, During and After the Origins of Comics Fandom, with interviewer Dr. Chris Couch A 2020 inductee into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, Maggie Thompson has the unique distinction of being a second generation science fiction fan, one of the architects of comics fandom in the early 60s, and a much revered professional in the comics field. With her husband, Don Thompson, she pubbed her ish (Comic Art, Newfangles), and went on to edit the Comic Buyers Guide and other publications. She has written extensively in comics, and received the Inkpot Award, Jack Kirby award, Eisner Award and others. Interviewer Chris Couch is both a (second-generation) fan and author of a number of books on graphic novels and comics. He is senior lecturer at UMASS Amherst. Join us as Maggie illuminates the whys and wherefores of the origin of comics fandom, and how it grew, and her role in what it has become.
Saturday, December 10, 2022, Time: 4PM EST, 1PM PST, 9PM GMT, 6:30am Adelaide Fannish Life in 1970s Pittsburgh, with Ginjer Buchanan, Linda Bushyager, Suzanne Tompkins, and Laurie Mann(m). Pittsburgh in the late 60s/70s saw an explosion of fannish activity, with the founding of the Western Pennsylvania SF Association (WPSFA), the creation of PghLANGE and the publication of many fanzines, including Granfalloon (Linda Bushyager and Suzanne Thompkins). What made Pittsburgh special? Why the resurgence of fannish activity? Who were the driving forces? In this session, Ginjer Buchanan, Linda Bushyager and Suzanne Tompkins, three of the movers and shakers of 1970s Pittsburgh fandom, talk about that era. Our Moderator Laurie Mann is a current Pittsburgh fan as well as a fan historian.
As we get closer, I’ll send out reminders and zoom links. You can always find the latest schedule at
https://fanac.org/zoom.html and feel free to forward this to whoever might be interested. Looking forward to seeing you all again! Best regards…Edie Stern FANAC.org Webmaster
*note that if this is not a good time, the recording of the interview will be posted to youtube — there’s a list of interviews at https://www.youtube.com/c/FANACFanHistory
Two recipes – they go very well together, are easy to make, and are fine for a whole bunch of food restrictions. They’re from the Conflux Medieval feast, way back when, which means they’re part of fannish history, which is not a bad thing.
Gillian
Pomesmoille
Ingredients:
450 g cooking apples (no modern variety of apple is correct: Granny Smiths are closest I have found of the main Australian varieties)
70-140 g ground almonds (to make 2 cups almond milk)
Slivered almonds (optional).
up to 1/2 cup sugar (amount of sugar depends on how sweet the apples are)
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1 pinch each of ground cloves, salt
Nutmeg.
Method:
Make an almond milk with ground almonds and milk. Mix sugar, rice flour and almond milk in saucepan. Stir in apples and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir until quite thick. Take a spoonful of mixture and combine with all spices except nutmeg and with the slivered almonds if you’re using them, then reintroduce to the rest of the pudding. Pour into serving dish. Sprinkle nutmeg on top and chill.
Hypocras (spiced wine)
Ingredients:
1 litre dry white wine
150 g icing sugar (not icing mixture)
½ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ginger
½ tsp dried galingale or a small piece fresh galingale (dried galingale is authentic, but fresh is often easier to obtain)
Method:
Grind spices together. Add sugar and spices to wine. Mix well and let sit for two hours. Filter wine very thoroughly (preferably twice, using a double thickness of filter paper or fine material) until it is quite clear. Keep somewhere cool for at least a day or two before drinking.
Our guest speaker this month is Gillian Polack, who will join us via zoom.
Talking about food in fantasy novels. Gillian will talk about some of the different roles food can play in fantasy novels, focusing on recent (ish) Australian fantasy novels. This will include how food can help build narrative and reinforce character, how writers world build using food, plus the role genre and the writer’s personal background play in how food and foodways are incorporated. Stew will not be forgotten.
Join Zoom Meeting 6:30pm Wednesday, October 26th Adelaide 7pm Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney 9am London /11am Helsinki
At last: the collection of Peter Nicholls’s science fiction essays and reviews that he first planned way back in the 1970s, and reconsidered late in life but never completed. All proceeds from sales go to support the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, of which he was the founding editor in 1979 – writing much of the text himself – and co-editor for the second (1993) and third (2011 online) editions.
Genre Fiction: The Roaring Years comprises 60 witty and insightful pieces by Peter Nicholls, including a long, previously unpublished speech and the new introduction he wrote in 2012. His long-time Encyclopedia colleague John Clute contributes a foreword. The collection was compiled by David Langford with the support and assistance of Peter’s family, and runs to more than 220,000 words of vintage Nicholls. epub available from https://ae.ansible.uk/?t=roaring
Our guest speaker this month is Gillian Polack, who will join us via zoom.
Talking about food in fantasy novels. Gillian will talk about some of the different roles food can play in fantasy novels, focusing on recent (ish) Australian fantasy novels. This will include how food can help build narrative and reinforce character, how writers world build using food, plus the role genre and the writer’s personal background play in how food and foodways are incorporated. Stew will not be forgotten.
Join Zoom Meeting 6:30pm Wednesday, October 26th Adelaide 7pm Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney 9am London /11am Helsinki
September 7 – Jane Routley & the Nova Mob discussion “My Favourite Utopia”. In person and Zoom. October 5 – to be finalised. Zoom only. November 2 – Ian Mond “Mondiale – best books of 2022”. In person and Zoom. December 7 – Chris Flynn “Here Be Leviathans”. In person and Zoom. December 14 – end of year celebration event. In person only. 1st February 2023 – First meeting of the new year. Topic to be finalised.
💥 💥 💥
Jane Routley – “My Favourite Utopia”
September 7 – Jane Routley & Mob “My Favourite Utopia”.
In person and remotely by Zoom.
Utopias are perfect places, which is a problem for story-tellers because compelling stories require conflict and the ideal utopia is universally a happy place. It follows that Utopian fiction is about the flies in the ointment, not the ointment itself. There is an exception, it’s of limited appeal, where recipes of the ointment are provided by way of tour guides of the utopia and not much happens by way of story.
Jane’s been reading the 2022 Utopia Award nominees and it’s put the spotlight on the problem of Utopia as “ointment, would you like flies with that?”. According to some academics Utopian fiction is one of sf’s largest subgenres, or is a separate genre. If there’s so much of it, surely there should be some really good stories?
Jane will discuss this year’s Utopia Award nominees.
Then it’s open discussion on these questions:
1.one’s favourite utopia – in which utopia would you want to live?
2.recommend a novel or story for someone new to utopian fiction
3.best film or TV utopia
Of course, a utopia doesn’t have to be labelled as such to be perceived as being a utopia by the reader or by its inhabitants. Is the near-future of Star Trek a utopia? To many viewers, it is.
Discussion will include Zoom participants. The list of stories from the night will be published.
Each meeting we get a little better at Zoom, and encounter new twists to the conundrum of operating a seamless video conference in combination with the face to face meeting. We see this process of continuous improvement as never-ending, indeed interminable.
Screening at the Mercury, Tuesday, Aug 30th Directors: Robert B. Weide & Don Argott Stars: Linda Bates, Jerome Klinkowitz, Sidney Offit Recounting the extraordinary life of author Kurt Vonnegut, and the 25-year friendship with the filmmaker who set out to document it. A gorgeously rendered, unexpectedly moving appraisal of the life and craft of one of the best-loved literary voices of the late 20th century.
The Adelaide Fan Review 
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