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I’ve been reading—and loving—Rudy Rucker‘s autobiography Nested Scrolls. It’s beautifully written, and in addition to learning more about the guy than I’ve ever known, I’m also getting to see from a different perspective parts of science fiction history I lived through.
Sometimes, though, that creates a mystery. For example, I just caught up with 1985, and an incident that occurred at that year’s NASFiC in Austin.
Here’s what Rucker wrote about an intriguing panel held that year.
I met the other canonical cyberpunk, John Shirley, two years later, in 1985, when he and I were both staying with Bruce and Nancy Sterling in Austin, Texas, in town for the North American science fiction convention, which was featuring a panel on cyberpunk. …
The writers on that 1985 panel were me, Shirley, Sterling, Lew Shiner, Pat Cadigan, and Greg Bear. [William] Gibson couldn’t make it. The moderator—an SF fan whose name I’ve forgotten or never knew—hadn’t read any of my work, and was bursting with venom against all of us. He represented the population of SF fans who are looking for a security blanket rather than for higher consciousness. For his ilk, cyberpunk was an annoyance or even a threat. He’d slid through the 1970s thinking of himself as with-it, and cyberpunk was yanking his covers. And he wasn’t the only one who resented us.
To my eyes, the audience began taking on the look of a lynch mob. Here I’m finally asked to join a literary movement, and everyone hates me before I can even open my mouth? Enraged by the moderator’s ongoing barrage of insults, John Shirley got up and walked out, followed by Sterling and Shiner. But I stayed up there. I’d traveled a long distance for my moment in the sun.
“So I guess cyberpunk is dead now?” said Shiner afterwards.
I didn’t think so. Surely, if we could make plastic people that uptight, we were on the right track. That’s what the punk part was all about.
I wish I’d been there!
But since I wasn’t—can any of you who were there identify the moderator? I’d love to know.
And now I’ll back away from my computer and continue reading this fascinating book …
P.S.: One other thing I remember is this: we were halfway through the panel introducing themselves when a guy in the audience suddenly interrupted. He said he was there to hear about cyberpunk but all we were doing was talking about how great we were. I felt rather stung by this, as I hadn’t yet had a chance to talk about how great I was.
I didn’t know until later that the guy in the audience who objected to hearing how great everyone was happened to be Orson Scott Card.
According to this discussion John Shirley and Bruce Sterling do not remember too much about the panel.
Thanks! Interesting stuff. I have a feeling we’ll have to track down a NASFiC program book to learn who the moderator was!
It won’t tell you, because the moderator of record was Lew Shiner.
I really don’t know what they remember. You’d have to ask them; I don’t presume to speak for them.
The moderator was Ric Myers. He’s written a lot of movie tie-in books and had written an SF novel at the time called DOOMSTAR. My memory of the event is slightly different than Rudy’s. Although I think everyone can agree that the panel was a train wreck, and that Myers was at fault, what I remember is Myers trying to anoint himself as a cyberpunk. The shameless self promotion was what finally drove me away.
Thanks for the input!
Ha! I was in the audience at this panel. This was my 1st Big non-local Con as a grown up. I was somewhat dubious of the cyberpunk “movement” in SF at the time, due to having grown up with golden-era stuff. But I *Love/d* Pat Cadigan’s work and that’s what brought me to this panel. I was disappointed that I hardly heard from the one woman on the panel. Little did I know it would be the first of many many – did I say many? – such disappointments. I would agree it was a train wreck, but it was exciting to watch. I have detested OSC’s work & politics always & Ric Meyers gave me more reason to loath him both personally & professionally at a subsequent Con. I have never regretted the trial by fire that was my intro to real fandom. As Austin is my hometown – left long ago for Seattle – I can tell you that fandom was new to 90% of the attendees who were local as well.
Fond memories . . .
Pat Cadigan
I remember the panel but the name of the moderator is lost in the mists of time. What I do remember is that Lew Shiner was supposed to be the moderator, but when we got there, this guy announced that he was the moderator. Lew said, “They told me that I was the moderator.” This guy said, “No, I am.” Lew didn’t want to argue with him. And the rest was a car-crash.