Part II
Mae Strelkov - End of Nov, 1995
SKUG 11 just came and many "thank yous."
Let's start with your mystic experiences.
"Grandma Mae" says:
Never try those out-of-body "astral" experiences. I know some folk who did. It leaves a
body unstable. While you're in your body be nice to it, treat it well, enjoy what it can share
with this nebulous other "you." I've learned to view my body the way I do our pet animals:
friendly and tolerant, and sorry for its mortality. "Me," (an immortal, briefly paired with it)
regrets its vicissitudes. But I believe we merely get new bodies when we die -- become
new infants, to start or continue learning from a new point of view. There are empirical
reasons why I believe it. I'll not repeat the stores -- I must have mentioned them in
bygone fanzines. But for my part I'm so sure one's essence "goes from strength to
strength," I'm sorry that one's temporary "companion," the body, can't share the soul's
experience but must be left behind.
No! I flatly do not believe in the dogma of "the resurrection of (the same old) flesh!" Those
disintegrating atoms won't be reassembled. Always something new lies ahead every time!
Now: your other experience: "Inventing a monster."
Actually, you were evoking something, something that has not rightful place in our Space-Time
Dimension of mortality. Lucky if now, when you "try to call it forth . . .; nothing happens, not even
the feeling of closeness."
Good heavens, why want to be close to some vacuous nonentity that can only "exist" by
devouring your life-energies?
You "see violence under the surface of it?" "It'll rip your spirit out of you?" You do know what
I'm telling you!
Why do you hate yourself, want to punish yourself so much? (It's what I deserve? - GSM)
"Brain-squashing, anger, sex, violence." Our lower instincts tugging us back to that age
when we were gorilla-like beast! But we're homo sapien folk now, an evolutionary step up,
with another evolution to follow. (I'm not so sure I can wait. - GSM) Let it be
still up! For goodness sake! You're listening to rhythms that shatter a brain, not build it
up! (If you prefer terror, canned in books, shows, etc.)
So enough on "mystic experiences." I've had some, but how I do and always did avoid
them! Anyway, "mystic" isn't the term. "Spooky?" Sometimes.
As for "thanking St. Jude for favors" as in the newspaper ad? Even saints I keep at bay,
though I tried out "being a Catholic" years ago. No Christian would see in me a
fellow-Christian. Yet I still love the old hymns of my childhood in China -- they were written
with such passionate truth.
What I celebrate is the truth of each human forever, and try to recognize temporary flaws
as what they are: the "goads" we must respond to, lessons to be learned.
"Saintly necrophilia!" "Let the dead bury the dead" I say! -- no honoring relics in processions.
Very good questions you ask about such fanatical folk: Those who "hold up a holy platform
on their long march to some shrine" . . . "Do they . . . drag something out of their soul?" You
bet. There's lots of it here. In the little town of P.S. (Palma Sola is the P.S. or Postscript tacked
on to my long life.). 20 kms from us here, they have processions.
One sleepy hot noon hour as old men and women, girls and children, stumbled along in the
dust, they didn't even see when their Virgin's statue fell of the platform along the route.
Reaching the church, they found her missing. Galvanized, the tottering worshippers RAN
back till they found her none the worse from her fall; brushed off the dust, and carried her
back so the worship could continue.
"They think they'll be heard by their much speaking." Jesus said that, about worshipping by rote. Jesus simply is not known to Christians, save for those who ignore all the dogma and
mumbo-jumbo, and appreciate his easygoing way.
You like Aboriginal music? Wish I could hear some. (Do you have a cassette
player? - GSM) I adore pre-Colombian music from the high Andes. Nothing like
it, for me. It evokes those wild, lofty pastures where guanacus rove, so well!
What's wrong with the USA so even "mowing the lawn" is RISKY? They spend all their
time looking into their refrigerators for solace, do they? (Yep - GSM) Break
out the "ecstasy." That'll cure them. Years ago in the times of Seattle's "Cry" some
young fellow wrote me and asked what drug was I taking. They wanted to take it too!
"No drug, save tea and coffee," I said. And the ecstasy of just simply savoring each
moment whether of joy or pain. I do add: "Thank you, Father (mother?) I love being
alive in this amazing Creation!"
It gives one a charge of energy each time we remember to say "Thank you for life!" Who
needs medications? Only the statue-toting type! They're always worn out; "Something's
hurting?" Only at fiestas with lots of wine, do they really have flings. Charmingly! We
admire! "Growing old, dying." I was born in West China in mid-1917. Had some brushes
with death -- a sweet and reassuring experience it always was, yet not to be deliberately
sought. (That's treating "Friend Body" ungratefully!)
What's wrong with ordering "clothes bought by mail from Sears," in your boyhood? (The
popular social crowd seemingly did not wear clothes from Sears when I was in high school.
Even with the "right" clothes I would not have fit in but in my mind slightly more fashionable
apparel would have not so extremely placed me in the "out crowd." At this point having those
more fashionable clothes might even have been detrimental. I think I would be a different
person than I am now and I'm not sure whether that is bad or good. Teenage angst is always entertaining. - GSM) Good you missed the crazy "60s". I entered Fandom by 1962
(thanks to Don Wollheim to whom I'd submitted a novel - rejected - at Ace). I was puzzled by
fandom. Now I'm not. Each new generation "goes through it again"; but the 90's has more
thoughtful young folk, I feel. In fanzines, it seems so. (I disagree but I could not immediately
offer you any solid proof. They were/are probably all equally thoughtful just with different
reactions to different times and environments. - GSM)
Being "wild and crazy" is an urge best fulfilled by long walks or trips or stays in really wild
and even dangerous places. We do it here and always did.
We're not herd animals and shouldn't try to be. As for "freewill," the little daily decisions are
what count. The simple little doings and/or refrainings, that "sum up the soul" at last, as we build ourselves into what we'd like to become.
You're not "very supportive?" Supportive? Just identify, be vulnerable and open and feel
what your fellows feel. Nothing to do with "supporting." Sharing -- not just with individuals
but with "all Creation" (undergoing birth pangs) "groaning and travailing, till now," as Paul put
it (Giving birth to the new, a new type of human).
Feel the intensity of every sparrow, every adorable kitten trying to catch (play with) the cute
little sparrow. Feel the fear of the viper who'll "pierce your heel" if you "step on its head" in
what I call the "Shup Encounter." Shup! I read somewhere it's the rare Hebrew term used
in Genesis for the prophecy where the Seed of the Woman will Shup the Seed's heel.
Everybody has an Achilles Heel. It's our vulnerable love and need for our fellows
everywhere.
You want proof of life after death? There's "no particular point in living?" (Or dying?) But you
must select the "point" on which you'll focus; and then "all" comes alive and vividly real.
(I think there have been times when I have selected these points but I guess I just
keep losing the point. - GSM)
"Fish eyes still watching as you eat the fish?" It would bother me too. You do identify -- this
is already your problem and can be your release! Try it with living things (sparrows, even
their worms!) (as you watch their little moments of drama.)
"Brewing beer!" "Patty is patient?" Good girl!
Wm Breiding! In your story, you must have run into someone "worshipping Satan." Humans
don't sacrifice little animals ritually now. (At butcher-shops, it's "business"; in war, it's "politics."
It used to be "religion" that invented Inquisitions, pogroms and crusades -- far worse!)
Yes, Wm! You ran into horrible evidence of a sick mind. How did you dare linger for a night?
I'd have moved away.
Here we've no movie-houses; our TV serves only for videos: (the mountains cut off broadcasts,
even radio here doesn't work). I can't discuss movies, etc., therefore. We've no library nor
bookstore near, either.
The names of fans in SKUG are familiar. Some of you even used to write to CRY, didn't you?
So you're in your 40's? Just beginning! I started my language-study (of archaic Chinese)
around 45, at the beginning of "the Sixties" and am deep into my study's old relationships
linking Chinese with echoes worldwide all the time. Very fulfilling it's been! So Start
something BIG and living daringly, I advise.
"Sez Grandma Mae!" And a kiss and hug for each of you.
With "holy love"
Mae Strelkov
Jujuy, Argentina
(Thanks! Thanks also for the artwork under which you noted: "From 1977.
Our 30 year old Danny died in 1976, and I still hadn't the heart to resume hectography,
though I tried. This should appear right below this letter.)
Brad W. Foster - 12/05/95
Hey, thanks for sending along the 11th issue of SKUG. Now there's a title to reckon with!
SKUG the mighty! SKUG the conqueror! SKUG the thing stuck in your throat! SKUG!!!
Hey, a couple of years between issues is no problem. And since this is the first time I'd
seen an issue, why, I barely noted the span of time!
Nifty cover - I particularly liked the hood ornament.
Woo! I could hear banjos being plucked more and more rapidly while reading "Lost Empires
of the Soul." Of course, the ending brought it all back to earth. How an accumulation of different
things from different times can suddenly take on all new, and sometimes frightening, meaning
when seen later by someone else who doesn't know the background. Cool.
The beer labels were wonderful. I don't even drink beer, but I might have to if they were as
interestingly labelled as "Tragic Snowman Xmas Ale!"
I liked "But Is It Art?", though I think the comment on the release forms was not so much that
Malcolm didn't have confidence in his project, but that he probably knew he was the only
one who really knew what was going to happen, and wanted to make sure someone else
walking in didn't decide later it was more than they had bargained for.
So, looking forward to seeing #12 in a few more years!
(Ha, less than half a year. I amaze myself. (Doesn't take much.) - GSM)
(I know most people don't care what music I have on in the background but
Israel López "Cachao" in the background makes typing this up much more entertaining.
Mambo, mambo, mambo, mambo, over and over again. - GSM )
Brad W. Foster
Irving, TX
Cy Chauvin - 12/09/95
Thanks for the copy of Skug you sent my way - it seemed even more stream-of-conscious
than usual (maybe that's me). Bill Waldroop occasionally threatens to revive Seldon's Plan,
blaming all delays on my lack of desire to write an editorial. I think I understand more and
more why the Beatles waited 25 years to do another couple of songs . . ..
Cy Chauvin
Detroit, MI
Spike - 12/10/95
Liked the Skug Page. Are you the first sf zine on the Web? Well, you're my first. It is (was)
good for me.(No, I'm not the first. Someone told me who was but I forgot. - GSM)
Spike
Steven Black - 12/23/95 - (sblack@library.berkeley.edu)
Wow. Never expected to find Wm Breiding on the WWW. Have you told him?
(Yes - GSM)
Steven Black
San Francisco, CA
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