Two Chairs Talking

By David Grigg and Perry MiddlemissArts Books

Two Chairs Talking episodes

October 28, 2019 Episode 14: The Misfortunes of Melbourne
Perry and David talk about:
Follow-up
Listening to our own episodes
Getting our facts wrong
Perry's views on diversity in the SF field
Do the awards truly indicate quality?
Other awards in the field
Interview with Lucy Sussex
Discovering Mary Fortune
Ellen Davitt
'Force and Fraud' - Australia's first murder mystery
Mary Fortune's reputation
Anticipates the police procedural
Police looked down on
French writer Émile Gaboriau
Australian interest in true crime
Wilkie Collins and 'The Moonstone'
Fascination with Australian settings
Mary Braddon
Ellen Wood
Marcus Clarke and 'His Natural Life'
'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab'
'Blockbuster'
Fergus Hume
Melbourne the centre of theatre
Nailed colonial Victoria
Unusual structure of the novel
Victoria's Chinese detective
Concept of The Great Detective
Crime novels as commentary on society
Marvellous Melbourne - only for some
'Blockbuster' story of a publishing phenomenon
Frederick Trischler
Print run of 5,000
Hume sells copyright for £50
Kicks off interest in crime fiction
Interest in Australia
Pirated in the United States
Literature a dicey business
Theatrical versions
Hume goes to England
Was Hume gay?
Oscar Wilde
Blackmail?
Theosophy
Spiritualism - Doyle, Houdini
Hume's connections in England
Haddon Chambers
Lucy's further research
Anne Perry
Further research
Windup
Image: section of the cover of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume.
56 min
October 14, 2019 Episode 13: Blasts to the Past
David and Perry discuss:
Recent reading
Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin
Ian Tregillis
The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis
The Alchemy Wars by Ian Tregillis
Something More Than Night by Ian Tregillis
Binge reading
The Hugo Time Machine 1956
Double Star by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein's sexual attitudes
Other nominees
Three to Conquer by Eric Frank Russell
End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
First woman to be nominated
Exploration Team by Murray Leinster
The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
End As A World by F.L. Wallace
Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith
Astounding SF Magazine
John W. Campbell Jnr
Controversy over Award Naming
Criticism by Jeanette Ng
JWC Memorial Award
World Fantasy Award
James Tiptree Jnr Award
Arthur C. Clarke Award
Hugo Gernsback
Perils of naming awards after people
The Oscars
2019 Hugos
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
For All Mankind
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
If At First You Don't Succeed by Zen Cho
A Witch's Guide to Escape by Alix E. Harrow
Wayfarers Series by Becky Chambers
Archive of Our Own
Into the Spider-Verse
The Good Place
Hugo Awards Website
Windup
Image is a composite based on photos from Pexels.com
1 hr 1 min
September 28, 2019 Episode 12: Don’t drop your phone on the glacier
Perry and David talk about:
Perry's Return
Hiking in Iceland
Thanks to David and Carey
Dublin Worldcon
Worldcon Business Meeting
Choice of next Worldcon site
New Zealand Worldcon 2020
Future Worldcon sites
Convention experience
Membership numbers
Becoming a convention member
Too many members
Summing up the convention
Connie Willis
Oxford Time Travel Novels by Connie Willis
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
Passage by Connie Willis
The Choke by Sophie Laguna
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Embers of War by Gareth Powell
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Photo of broken phone from pexels.com.
1 hr 4 min
September 28, 2019 Episode 12: Don‘t drop your phone on the glacier
Perry and David talk about:
Perry's Return
Hiking in Iceland
Thanks to David and Carey
Dublin Worldcon
Worldcon Business Meeting
Choice of next Worldcon site
New Zealand Worldcon 2020
Future Worldcon sites
Convention experience
Membership numbers
Becoming a convention member
Too many members
Summing up the convention
Connie Willis
Oxford Time Travel Novels by Connie Willis
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
Lincoln's Dreams by Connie Willis
Passage by Connie Willis
The Choke by Sophie Laguna
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
Embers of War by Gareth Powell
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Click here for more details and indexes
Photo of broken phone from pexels.com.
1 hr 4 min
September 09, 2019 Episode 11: The role of sheep in science fiction
A retrospective of Aussiecon in 1975
David and Carey remember Aussiecon
Organising the Hugos
The Entire Awards Committee
Who created the rocketships?
Getting the bases made
Paranoid about security
Panel with Ursula Le Guin
Videotaping the convention
Australian Science Fiction Foundation
Interview with Carey Handfield
Role of Sheep in Science Fiction
Ursula's GoH speech
Interview with Perry Middlemiss
Hearing about the convention
Travelling from Adelaide
Experience of the convention
Life-changing event
Legacy of Aussiecon
Subsequent Australian Worldcons
Interview with Leigh Edmonds
First DUFF winner
DUFF as promotion for '75
What actually happened at Aussiecon?
The notorious Wang Girls
Before and after the con
Hugo presentation interrupted by cricket scores
Producing daily newsletter
Room parties
Talking to individuals
An opportunity for fans in Australia
Audio-visual trend in SF
Changes nature of SF and fandom
Aussiecon this little jewel
Interview with Bruce Gillespie
Suggestion by Andy Porter
Foyster forms committee
Main effort went into fanzines
First female fans
Merv Binns and MSFC
Space Age Books
Bidding at Torcon
Travel to the US and UK
Arrives in US in 1973
Arrives in UK
Meeting Bob Tucker
Choice of Le Guin
The Writer's Workshop
Impact of Aussiecon
Photo of sheep by Michael Pearl at Pexels.com.
1 hr 4 min
August 26, 2019 Episode 10: Meet Ursula Le Grong
David Grigg and stand-in host Carey Handfield discuss:
Carey and David's long association
Getting into SF fandom
David's fiction writing
ASFR and John Bangsund
Discovering a new world
1970 Australian National SF Convention
Launch of the Australia in '75 bid
Victoria Hotel venue
The Nova Mob
Carey as an organiser
Monash University SF Association
David as fanzine editor
John Bangsund
University of Melbourne SF Association
1975 Writer's Workshop
Choice of Ursula Le Guin as GoH
Idea of a Writer's Workshop
Choosing the venue
Getting the photocopier
Publishing the Altered I
'Stabbed Alive' by Randall Flynn
Ursula's challenges
Two-word challenge
Love Story challenge
The Grongs
Highlight of 1975
Legacy
Pip Maddern
Altered I book
The Fives
Intro to Ursula's speech
Ursula Le Guin's GoH speech
Wind-up
Image: the cover of "The Altered I" book about the Writer's Workshop, designed by Irene Pagram.
1 hr 16 min
August 12, 2019 Episode 9: Voyage to the inverted world
David and Perry talk to Robin Johnson about Aussiecon 1975, and discuss:
Attending Conventions
Career of going to SF cons
Aussiecon
How did Robin get involved?
Coming to Australia
Meeting Merv Binns
Sydney Fandom
Murumbeena convention 1969
Syncon '70
Starting the muttering about '75
Attending Worldcon 1970 in Germany
Garry Hoff
Heidelberg
Big push
Help from the UK
Becoming chairman
Anti-fan movie
Promotional matchboxes
Moving through '72
Winning the bid in '73
A problem with Ursula
Jerry Pournelle's demand
Charter of Americans arrives
Art Show crisis
Slide Presentation panic
Convention starts
Don Tuck MIA
Continuous state of panic
Movie Program
Amount of programming
Costume Parade
Evaluation
Schools program re artwork
Art Show
Legacy
Wrap-up
Club houses for SF clubs
Image of Melbourne by Bernard Spragg on Flickr.
1 hr 2 min
July 30, 2019 Episode 8: Encountering irony in the womb
Perry and David discuss:
Introduction
Perry's overseas trip
Hugo Time Machine 1955
They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell
Kate Atkinson
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
John Le Carre's Karla trilogy
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
An Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre
Smiley's People by John Le Carre
Windup
Image based on photo of sunset by Ali Arapoğlu from Pexels
41 min
July 15, 2019 Episode 7: All this I speak in print, for in print I found it
David and Perry discuss:
What are fanzines?
Amateur Press Associations
John Bangsund and ANZAPA
They also interview Bruce Gillespie, who talks about:
Melton
Bacchus Marsh
Hears about fandom
ASFR
Invited to stay with Bangsund
Meeting Harding, Turner, et al
First convention, MSFC
First 'fanzine' produced as schoolboy
Duplicators
Starting to produce fanzines
ANZAPA
Sent to Ararat
First two issues of SFC
Response from o/seas
Critical reviews of SF outside academia
John Foyster
Resigning from teaching in Ararat
Meets Gerald Murnane
Acquires own duplicator
Aussiecon
1977 extraordinary year
How have things changed?
Nostrilia Press
IBM Composer
Typesetting for Highland House and others
Desktop publishing comes in
Applying this to fanzines
Modern challenges
Bill Burns' Efanzine site
Comeback of fanzines
Will you continue?
Awards
Windup
52 min
July 01, 2019 Episode 6: Moth, rust, and men with matches
Perry and David discuss:
Are you a serial or parallel reader?
Hugo Time Machine 1954
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Telling by Ursula Le Guin
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Chesley Bonestell
Ex Machina
48 min

About Two Chairs Talking

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Two ex-chairmen of the World SF Convention talk about books, movies, science fiction fandom, and much else.

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Two Chairs Talking

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