The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 9, 1977-Page 5 CI-FI FANS ARE NORMAL PEOPLE, TOO: TWO UNIQUE BOOKS ~2~A\ ~JiAFREUJD'S "~A I Tr~LTI I ysca owers atray locals By.R.J. SMITH bers of the "Stylyagi Air Corps" and occasionally," he noted with a snicker, But among the Air Corps, the o By day, they are unassuming, incon- practice the craft of what they call "sci- "we discuss science fiction." servable similarities to the stet iuous citizens "of Ann Arbor The fi fandom." The group, consisting of a roster of are enthusiasm, energy and ar L only ob- reotype n often l/I1%LOA11L V& 1211 1 V . y AM re librarians, biologists, part-time writers, students and computer pjogrammers, among other things. ey are a group as varied and un- specified as all the stars and planets circulating in the heavens. But once a week, as the moon. rises and night falls, an "unusual" transfor- mation takes place. Summoned by those mystical powers that seem to possess that atypical breed of human called a "science fiction fan," these self-same Ann Arborites become mem- THE CRAFT IS not clearly definedl; a typical "meeting" conspicuously resembles a volleyball match. And what purports to be a discussion of business often rapidly disintegrates in- to a group of 20-odd people gathered around a table trading stories, quips and chides. "What we largely do is sit around and jabber at each other," and "social director" David Innes. "We work on planning our annual convention, and corps people that fluctuates between 30 and 40, got its name from the novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a science fic- tion classic by Robert Heinlein. "THEY WERE characters in the book . .. it's sort of a jargon term-it means young punks in Russian," said Innes. The term "science fiction" carries an unfair connotation among people who know nothing of the craft. A stereotyped fanatic immediately springs into the minds of many, one of an overgrown kid with a calculator for a brain and Coke bottle bottoms for glasses. consuming spirit of wonderment. "IT EXPANDS your, viewpoint," claimed graduate student Janis John- son, one of the handful of University students in the group. "I can look at myself as a citizen of the United States, a member of humanity and as a citizen of the galaxy. I don't think most people have that viewpoint." Along with the general exchange about the latest "fanac"-for those un- familiar with the lingo, fanac is sci-fi jargon for fan activity-the business meetings of the Air Corps have been concerned with the final preparations for their annual convention. FBI probed details of sadschildhood Uk ~ ~ ~ A~Ad a F -'y}!y ti! ,,,L''+?! > e,,,3. ;± r.R_ .r 'Y.y-yr". >- ,+.: r? a'"' '' '-a"'y'3 .''s' >' . -± -. > r;r;, _;-'^; - " WASHINGTON (AP)-FBI agents delved .into the recesses of Lee Harvey Oswald's life but newly released documents show they could only , guess whether the scars of childhood spawned the urge to assas- sinate'a President. Thousands of FBI documents ex- amined Wednesday and yesterday a Afresh details to the once-sketchy pj ture of Oswald as a troubled child a da lonely man. the 40,001 pages made available on V ednesday are half of the total FBI fi on the assassination of President J hn Kennedy, who was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas on Nov. 22; 1963. The rest will be released in January as the bureau unseals the material to comply with requests under the Freedom of Information Act. A PRELIMINARY review of the files has turned up nothing to dis- prbve the Warren Commission's cdnclusion that Oswald killed Kenne- dy and that he acted alone. The documents show that J. Edgar Hoover, "then the FBI director, believed the evidence proved that Oswald was the assassin though he expressed concern about the possibil- ity of a conspiracy. Questions about Oswald's reasons for killing the President arose at the time and have lingered since. Psychi- atric reports and other material in the FBI files portray Oswald as a truant reared on a daily diet of television, a boy who seldom ex- pressed love and felt no one loved him, a teen-ager who lacked curi- osity despite above-average intelli- gence. "Lee was given a place to sleep in the living room and' admitted that this was very much in line with what he had always been led to expect from grownups - nobody ever had any room for him," social worker Evelyn Strickman wrote in an evalu- ation of Oswald's home life as an adolescent in New York City in 1953. He spent several months of that year at Youth House, a home for young- sters in trouble. "It seems fairly clear that he has detached himself from the world around him because no one in it has ever met any of his needs for love," said a psychiatric report written in the same period. ---- We Now Offer XEROX. COLOR COPIES . "while you wait service" Dec. store hours-" Mon. & Fri. 'ti 8:30 Open Sunday noon-5 p.m. Camera Shop, Inc. : 665-6101 1115 S. University m "RICKY JAY. .. is the court magician of the countercul- ture.. . . Jay's weapon? An or- dinary playing card. Amazing. Jay describes the techniques that allow him to throw a card higher, faster and farther than anyone else in the world. .. He once felled a prized springbok with his trusted sidearm-a four of clubs." -PLAYBOY "A suitable gift for the guy who is full of macho games but cashes in his chips when some- one lays a real gun on the table." -L.A. TIMES "An essential handbook for the urban dweller." -NEWSDAY "Looking something like a cross between a Rube Goldberg wet dream and a Claes Oldenberg nightmare, Podwal's pictures insult the theories of Freud which psychoanalyzed Da Vinci. A bizarre new satirical book." -VILLAGE VOICE 'Podwal's pithy pen rarely slips in Freud's Da Vinci. " -DAVID LEVINE "Freud's Da Vinci is a unique experience of a young contem- porary artist delightfully exe- cuted with a delicate intensity." -RICHARD LINDNER Published by Images Graphiques, New York City. $4.95 softcover/$9.95 hardcover. Available at your bookstore. ay THE OR. " s..>Y-^..'%. .-AT%'1 c -" !, -.Ol -r" M-INI 711_,.*'Tm '"c . -Z - h.. ^ry.' in 2%ff On All Perfume, Colognes And Make-Up In Our Cosmetics Department MA RSHALL'S 235 S: STATE AT E. LIBERTY E TSCOF LIGHE. A Concert of Medieval and Renaissance Christmas Music- Sunday, Dec. 11 at 2:30 p.m. Canterbuy House ~2l8 N- DIVISION STREET-corner of Catherine ..} :"?'.tip:}aC": ' vI. X. 7. ALL WELCOME -- 18 W " I r' S N ' M