Damon Knight - Orbit 15

Eleanor Arnason (“Ace 167”) lives in Detroit, and likes it because it has no culture and a lot of energy. “The poets here talk about their jobs in factories instead of about literature.” She lives in a hillbilly/black/Slavic neighborhood with a lot of Arabs moving in. “I ate breakfast at the local greasy spoon this morning. The Greeks there were talking about how the bar down the street, that used to have such good hamburgers, had been bought by camel jockeys.”

George Alec Effinger (“Biting Down Hard on Truth”), a Clarion alumnus, now lives in New Orleans, where he is working hard to acquire Southern decadence. The first step, he says, is to distinguish between decadence and “mere depravity.”

Sonya Dorman (“The Living End,” Orbit 7) wrote a long time ago, “I have a hideous radical suggestion for Orbit, which no doubt you have thought of and discarded. You know, I am your book review fan from way back. . . . What if: for each Orbit, you were to do one in-depth review of a book which interested you? Or two or three shorter reviews? And not necessarily fiction, but perhaps some things reasonably relative to s.f.?” And Wally Macfarlane (“Gardening Notes from All Over,” Orbit 13) also wrote: “Got a suggestion: Orbit theme. With the whole number in small numerals somewhere. Orbit Around Mars, Orbit into Worlds that Never Were, Orbit in the Head, Orbit for Good, Orbit for Bad, Orbit around and about Nekkid Women, How to Robot Orbit, In the Literary Orbit, you know like that.” We followed Ms. Dorman’s suggestion in Orbit 14 and may do it again; and as it happens, the stories in this volume are all about love, “all the different kinds there are or could be.” That was an accident, but we may do it again on purpose with another topic. Your comments are invited. Letters, and manuscripts for publication, should be sent to Damon Knight, Editor, Box 8216, Madeira Beach, FL 33738.