Letter from Buzz Dixon

Publication: Science Fiction Review
Date: issue 33 (Nov. 1979)
Author:
Page: 24
Language: English

LETTER FROM BUZZ DIXON 7058 Hazeltine Avenue, #22 Van Nuys, CA 91405 August, 1979

Your comments in regard to localized power sources are intriguing, but I doubt they would be safer on the whole than the more centralized power we have now. There will always be someone, somewhere, who can do it cheaper by cutting corners. I'd think that lots of small, local power sources would be harder to oversee for safety reasons than a few large centralized operations.

'I gape in amazement at the payment schedule GALAXY is offering to writers. Some people are going to get paid about $12.50 a month for the next two years.

'Frankly, this situation is ridiculous -- and it's a sign of the morbund attitudes plaguing most SF writers. I urge everyone to read Ellison 's SEPIA resignation speech again and again until what he's trying to say finally sinks home.

'Shit. Geis, a magazine like GALAXY that pays peanuts to begin with and then pays late (if at all!) is strictly amateurville: I write Saturday morning animation shows for a minimum of $1250 for a script fifteen minutes or less long (that comes out to about 22 pages) and if I don't get paid within two weeks I raise a big, nasty stink. If a producer tried stiffing writers out here the way GALAXY stiffed its writers he would soon find himself permanently out of business. Ellison is right, the bulk of science fiction writers in this country are living in 1927 and Hugo Gernsback is still editor of AMAZING STORIES.

'Your comments in regard to BOTTLESCAR: GALAXITIVE were most appropriate -- though at this stage of the game it's like beating a dead horse (maybe not -- Glen Larceny -- who "created' ((sic!)) BS: GALL -is producing BUCK ROGERS for this fall. He says he's learned his lesson and will not make each episode of BUCK a special effects test reel but try to have some decent stories. We shall see. NBC is committed to 12 shows -- if they pick it up for another 12 I may have a chance to sell a script to them). In particular I agree with your opinion that the show failed because it dare not offend. BBC-TV's DR. WHO does not have excessive violence or sex, in fact, the program is considered children's viewing in England. DR. WHO, unlike MDRINGSHOW GALACIAL, gives people Unsettling Thoughts. Since they don't have a big effects or set budget, BBC much dazzle with intellectual ideas, not models.

'They also did a mini-series STAR MAIDENS, about a planet with a female-dominant society coming in contact with Earth that's probably the most intelligent and witty TV science fiction program since THE PRISONER went off the air. The Japanese also put a little punch into their programs -- most Japanese TV shows give their characters failings and weaknesses as well as strengths, making them a hell of a lot more interesting than 90% of all American TV.

((There are advantages to centralization and bigness, of course. Though cost-cutting and cutting corners isn't restricted to the small operation.

((It's a matter of philosophy, I prefer decentralization to the point of diminishing returns. This could get down to neighborhood power stations---or even, with the advent of super batteries---solar-powered homes. It's a matter of how much dependence upon others you are comfortable with, I guess. I prefer to be as self-reliant and as self-sufficient as relative costs allow))

Letter from Buzz Dixon

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