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Sercon
In science fiction, sercon is "serious and constructive" criticism, often published as science fiction fanzines. The term was originally coined in the 1950s by Canadian fan Boyd Raeburn as a pejorative to mock those fans who took science fiction, its criticism, and themselves too seriously. The term began by the 1970s to be used without pejorative intent to describe fanzines and even conventions which were of a more studious or literary bent. Examples of sercon fanzines and semi-prozines include ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'', ''Science Fiction Eye'', ''Cheap Truth'', ''Nova Express'', '' Thrust/Quantum'', and ''SF Commentary'', among others. Conventions sometimes described as sercon include WisCon, Potlatch, and Readercon Readercon is an annual science fiction convention, held every July in the Boston, Massachusetts area, in Burlington, Massachusetts. It was founded by Bob Colby and Eric Van in 1987 with the goal of focusing almost exclusively on science fiction/ ...
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Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ...
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Science Fiction Fanzines
A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was coined, and at one time constituted the primary type of science-fictional fannish activity ("fanac"). Origins and history The first science-fiction fanzine, ''The Comet'', was published in 1930 by the Science Correspondence Club in Chicago. The term "fanzine" was coined by Russ Chauvenet in the October 1940 issue of his fanzine ''Detours''."Fanzine"
in "Science Fiction Citations" for the Oxford English Dictionary "Fanzines" were distinguished from "prozines", that is, all professional s. Prior to t ...
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The New York Review Of Science Fiction
''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' is a monthly literary magazine of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. For the first 24 years, it was published by David G. Hartwell's Dragon Press, but with the start of volume 25, it has shifted to publisher Kevin J. Maroney's Burrowing Wombat Press. The journal is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and other subject-specific literature and cultural studies indexes. A complete and up-to-date index in Microsoft Excel format is available online. Although international in coverage, the journal also sponsors SF events in the New York City area, principally including a series of readings from prominent writers that are generally broadcast on WBAI. History ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' was established in 1988 by Hartwell, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Susan Palwick ...
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Science Fiction Eye
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek ...
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Cheap Truth
''Cheap Truth'' was a free series of one-page, double-sided newsletters (i.e., fanzine) published in the period between 1983 and 1986. Its headquarters was in Austin, Texas. It was not-copyrighted and explicitly encouraged "xerox pirates" to circulate the zine for their own monetary gain or otherwise. It was the unofficial organ of a loose group of authors. This group called themselves many things, including "The Movement" but was later known as the Cyberpunk movement. The zine was edited by the American science fiction author Bruce Sterling under the alias Vincent Omniaveritas (as in ''vincit omnia veritas''). There were several contributors such as "Sue Denim" (as in pseu-donym, in this case Lewis Shiner Lewis Shiner (born December 30, 1950 in Eugene, Oregon) is an American writer. Shiner began his career as a science fiction writer, and then identified with cyberpunk. He later wrote more mainstream novels, albeit often with magical realism and f ...), but the real identities ...
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Nova Express (fanzine)
''Nova Express'' was a Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine edited by Lawrence Person. ''Nova Express'' is named after William S. Burroughs' ''Nova Express'' and the fictional magazine ''Nova Express'' in Alan Moore's ''Watchmen''. It remained in publication between 1987 and 2002. History and profile ''Nova Express'', established in 1987, was a sercon fanzine with a focus on written science fiction, featuring interviews, reviews and critical articles. The magazine was headquartered in Austin, Texas. It was published on a quarterly basis, but after 1990 it was published irregularly. Many professional science fiction writers and major critics contributed to it over the years, including John Clute, Jack Dann, Stephen Dedman, Andy Duncan, Howard V. Hendrix, Fiona Kelleghan, Ken MacLeod, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Mike Resnick, Justina Robson, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, Jeff VanderMeer, Howard Waldrop, and Don Webb. Writers who were interviewed by ''Nova Express'' include ...
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SF Commentary
SF may refer to: Locations * San Francisco, California, United States * Sidi Fredj, Algeria * South Florida, an urban region in the United States * Suomi Finland, former vehicular country code for Finland In arts and entertainment Genres * Speculative fiction (usually ''sf'') ** Science fiction or sci-fi (usually ''SF'') In film and television * , the Swedish film industry ** SF Film Finland, a Finnish film distributor * SF Channel (Australia) * , a German-language television network in Switzerland * , a Finnish film production company In music * Sforzando (musical direction) or sf, a musical accent * ''Subito forte'', a musical notation for dynamics (music) * Switchfoot, a band * Sasha Fierce, on-stage alter ego of American entertainer Beyoncé, and namesake of her album '' I Am... Sasha Fierce'' Other media * Saikoro Fiction, a Japanese role-playing game system * ''Street Fighter'', a series of fighting video games by Capcom Businesses and organizations ...
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WisCon
WisCon or Wiscon, a Wisconsin science fiction convention, is the oldest, and often called the world's leading, feminist science fiction convention and conference. It was first held in Madison, Wisconsin in February 1977, after a group of fans attending the 1976 34th World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City was inspired to organize a convention like WorldCon but with feminism as the dominant theme. The convention is held annually in May, during the four-day weekend of Memorial Day. Sponsored by the Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction, or ''(SF)³'', WisCon gathers together fans, writers, editors, publishers, scholars, and artists to discuss science fiction and fantasy, with emphasis on issues of feminism, gender, race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on phys ...
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Potlatch (convention)
Potlatch was an annual non-profit science fiction convention held in the Pacific Northwest region of North America since 1992. Unlike most SF conventions, Potlatch designates a "Book of Honor" rather than author, editor, fan, and/or artist " Guests of Honor;Potlatch history page
" the appellation "Book of Honor" does not preclude works from other media receiving the honor, such as films.


Books of Honor

* Potlatch 1, 1992 : None * Potlatch 2, 1993 : ''''by Mary Shelley * Potlatch 3, 1994 : None * Potlatch 4, 1995 : '' The Only Neat Thing to Do'' by James Tiptree, Jr. * Potlatch 5, 1996 : ...
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Readercon
Readercon is an annual science fiction convention, held every July in the Boston, Massachusetts area, in Burlington, Massachusetts. It was founded by Bob Colby and Eric Van in 1987 with the goal of focusing almost exclusively on science fiction/fantasy/slipstream/speculative fiction in the written form (on the rare occasion that there is a discussion held about non-written science fiction, it will have a tongue-in-cheek title such as "Our biannual media panel"). Past guests of honor have included authors such as Greer Gilman, Gene Wolfe, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Karen Joy Fowler, Brian Aldiss, Nalo Hopkinson, Joe Haldeman, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Peter Straub, and China Miéville, and editors such as Ellen Datlow and David G. Hartwell. The convention also makes a point of honoring a deceased author as the Memorial Guest of Honor. In 2009, for instance, the guests of honor were the living writers Elizabeth Hand and Greer Gilman and the memorial guest of honor was Hope Mirrle ...
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Fanspeak
Fanspeak is the slang or jargon current in science fiction and fantasy fandom, especially those terms in use among readers and writers of science fiction fanzines. Fanspeak is made up of acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, puns, coinages from science fiction novels or films, and archaic or standard English words used in specific ways relevant or amusing to the science fiction community. Evolution Many terms used in fanspeak have spread to members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Renaissance Fair participants, fantasy football players, and internet gaming and chat fans, due to the social and contextual intersection between the communities. Common examples of widespread usages are: * ''fen'' as the plural of ''fan'' * ''fannish'' "of or relating to fans and fandom" * ''gafiate'' (verb), an acronym for "getting away from it all" (i.e., leaving fandom, temporarily or permanently) * ''fafiate'' (verb), an acronym for "forced away from it all" (i.e., being forced to ...
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