Reviews of crifanac #6 and Quipu #9

Alison Scott reviews crifanac #6 and Quipu #9

We're always happy to see new fanzines here in the PNN mines. This morning we received Quipu #9 and crifanac #6 in the post.

Crifanac is edited by Ken Forman and Arnie Katz, and would like to be a focal point fanzine, much in the style of the now defunct Apparatchik. Like Apak, it's ten sides, three-weekly. But the strain of frequent production cannot be inconsiderable. And I'm amazed how a fanzine can be ensmalled and still contain so much tosh. An entire page about the exciting experience of spellchecking the previous issue isn't really cutting edge, is it? And if I wanted an unedited loccol, there's always Usenet.

Ted White is stirring up trouble in this issue, with a column decrying the current TAFF delegates and suggesting others, who are presumably people unwilling to run. Ted may have a point, but he doesn't help it along with lines like "It is a sad fact that a majority of male fans on both sides of the Atlantic vote with their gonads." Really? Where's any evidence to support that, Ted? And Ken Forman, in a piece which suggests a categorisation of fandoms past based on fanzine mailing lists, similarly exaggerates with the suggestion that "...throughout history, the mailing lists of the important fanzines will dramatically overlap; perhaps by as much as 95%". Well, I'm sure that Banana Wings is one of the important fanzines of our fandom, and crifanac aspires to being a focal point fanzine. But I'd be surprised if their mailing lists overlap by as much as 50%. Joyce Katz mourns the loss of Special Funds, and wishes they'd return. But less than two years ago, we were running tombolas for the Farber Fund, and there's currently a fund trying to send Langford to Australia. Joyce's plea just indicates exactly how out of touch she is.

And that is the nub of my problem with crifanac. You can't be a focal point if you insist that much of fandom isn't relevant to your experience, and that online fandom is somehow Other.

Quipu #9 a personalzine from Vicki Rosenzweig, is only six pages, but provides a lot more meat for me than ten pages of crifanac. As well as an evocative article about breaking into a derelict house, she's performed a magpie function on Usenet, pulling two posts from rec.arts.sf.fandom that demonstrate what delightful nuggets nestle in the verbiage. This issue is rounded off with a photo of Vicki's latest tattoo, and a clutch of interesting letters. A quiet gem.

-- Alison Scott, art by Sue Mason

26 Sep 1998