Infinite Diversity (Star Trek: TOS anthology edited by Pat Harris)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Infinite Diversity |
| Publisher: | Memory Alpha Press |
| Editor(s): | Pat Harris |
| Date(s): | 1978-1985 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Infinite Diversity is a gen Star Trek: TOS anthology of fiction and art edited by Pat Harris.
The series also has fiction by Sonni Cooper, a tie-in author.
NOTE: one fan's last name, poor Maureen, is spelled at least three different ways: Donnelly, Donnley, and Donnally.
Cross Pollination With the Zine and the Pro Book
In 1987, Jacqueline Lichtenberg comments on the differences in editing between pro books and zine fiction in regards to "Black Fire":
My daughter [name redacted] picked up 2 'zines at West Coast cons, INFINITE DIVERISTY #'s 5 & 6, without knowing I have known Sonni Cooper (author of both these 'zines) for many years. But the real surprise came when I opened ID#5 and found the very illo that the artist Donna Banzhof had sent me - a haunting study of Spock as Blackfire.
Despite TREKLINK's policy of avoiding analysis of the prof, market, Trekdom, pro-STdom, and even sf fandom are becoming inextricably intermixed; the moreso since ID#5 is the "out-takes" from the pro-novel BLACKFIRE. I was eager to see these cut bits especially because I had enjoyed BLACKFIRE so much. My bifurcate taste was starkly evident as I read cut scenes from the first half of the novel. Oddly enough, even without rereading the novel, the cut scenes track very well - the editor is due applause for this feat. I enjoyed reading the bits, getting the grand, fulfilled feeling I usually get from 'zines, while at the same time the trained writer in me was going, "good cut" - "well cut" -"perfectly cut" - "pity that had to go, but it didn't belong there" - "what a shame but I'd have cut it too," - and so on to the end.
Sonni and her critics/editors did a superb professional job developing her manuscript into a pronovel. Any aspiring novelist would do well to study the novel, the "out-takes" in ID#5, and then study ID#6 which is a raw, fanzine style undeveloped novel called I CELEBRATE MYSELF, also by Sonni Cooper. It is loosely connected to the universe of BLACKFIRE by simply not contradicting what has been established about Spock's family, but it stands completely alone.
It is well and intricately plotted, full of good Trek-tickles such as Kirk acquiring a Klingon Grajgh pup from a half-human Klingon, and Spock working on Earth as an itinerant computer technician and accidentally getting promoted. Its great big gaping hole is that the cause of Spock's sudden shift in metabolism from near-Vulcan to pure-human (complete with surprise indigestion and chronic sexual needs) is never properly explained. There is a very simple explanation lying there in plain sight, but it's never used to tie the whole plot together.
The writing student would do well to study the 2 'zines as a unit, then attempt to rewrite the second, I CELEBRATE MYSELF, using the exact same techniques demonstrated with BLACKFIRE, for CELEBRATE needs the exact same editing job.
The result of that editing, however perfectly done, would not be pro-publishable simply because the basic material wouldn't please Paramount as much as it pleases fen. This is no doubt why Sonni didn't invest the effort in it, and in a way I'm glad. I LOVED the dratted thing as is. It's got what I NEED from Trek even though it contains the full set of first-draft problems that seems to be Sonni's hallmark. This is typical of all writers, neo and veteran. First drafts always come off with the same idiosyncratic problems. Learn to solve yours and take years off production time....
The point here is that Trekzine production requires just as much group effort from seasoned pros as from fen, as does sf-'zine work, and ultimately is the same as professional market work. The only difference is in CONTENT not skill. If you master Trek writing, you CAN go pro in any other field you want, simply by learning a new set of rules for what the product must look like. Don't be dismayed. The trekzine field is not being dominated by pros these days, but rather the reverse is happening. The pro-sf/ST market is becoming dominated by FANS - for once a fan always a fan. [1]
Issue 1
Infinite Diversity 1 was published in January 1978 and contains 86 pages. The illos are by Sonni Cooper and Pat Harris.
The zine's dedication:
I wish to dedicate this Fanzine to three special people who don't usually if ever get zines dedicated to them.
First to Sonni Cooper without whom this zine would never have been thought of.
Second to Bruce Hyde (Kevin Riley to those who don't know him) because he was the inspiration for the story which I corroborated with Sonni on and a good friend besides.
Last but not least to Grace Lee Whitney because' she is such a sunny, person and I've always liked Janice Rand.
From the editorial:
To begin with I wish to apologize for the dirty pages, it is caused by run-off (wet ink), and Diana's contrary mimeo, and of course the typo's are the fault of the typewriters that have minds of their own. We tried to catch them but of course as always some got away.
I do hope you like our stories. "I Celebrate Myself" is the reason that this zine was ever thought of. Mostly because everytime I mentioned to Sonni that she should send her stories to a fanzine she ignored me. Kevin 0'Riley was my brain child but as I am a lousy story writer (I should say writer period), all I had was an idea and an outline without an ending. So knowing that Sonni is a very good writer I asked her if she would whip my idea into a good story, on which I think she had done a good job. We also have two poems (I hope we have two poems, if page 80 is blank [2], then it is my fault because as of this moment I have lost Donna's poem). If there is only one then the other one will be in the next issue with my apologies to Donna.
Donna also sent me a story called "Pastel", which we plan to use in our next issue. Donna is also in the middle of putting out a zine and for information send a note and SASE to Donna Hutt, The Hungry Tribble Press [address redacted]. The name of her zine is Trekanalia.
Yes, as you can see we are already planning to put out another issue, and yes, I know I'm crazy to even be thinking about it, but I enjoyed doing this one and so what, it helps to be a little nuts in this world. Sonni is working on a story for us about sabotage on the Enterprise and Capt. Kirk rescuing Mr. Spock from a new group of alien bad guys which even has our usual trio of protagonists working together.
The original drawings of the full page off-set pictures in "I Celebrate Myself" are being offered for sale in a mail bid auction. They are all color washes on matted 10" x 13" poster board and signed. Mail Bid Rules are: 1. Minimum bid first round $8.00 and specify which picture you are interested in.
[snipped]
I do hope you enjoy the stories in this fanzine and would love to hear from you, good or bad. Also if any of you would like to contribute to our next issue please send submissions to address on table of contents page. And please do not send your only copy and if you want the story returned if we can't use it then please enclose a SASE with it with enough postage to cover the return mailing. Other wise we will assume that you do not want it returned.
- Table of Contents (ii)
- Dedication (ii)
- Editor's Comments (iii)
- I Celebrate Myself by Sonni Cooper (the short version, see issue #6) (what happens to Spock when his human side becomes dominant) (1)
- Child of the Stars by J. Strodecke (55)
- Kevin Riley: King of the Irish by Pat Harris and Sonni Cooper (a shuttle craft crashes on Planet Erin and Kevin finds out he really is King of the Irish) (56)
- In the Fog by Donna Hutt (80)
- Puzzled Universe, puzzles by Molly Clark, Pat Harris, and Mark Sloan (81)
inside page from issue #1
inside page from issue #1
inside page from issue #1
inside page from issue #1
inside page from issue #1
inside page from issue #1
inside pages from issue #1
Issue 2
Infinite Diversity 2 contains 102 pages and was published in 1978. Art is by Pat Ortega, Franny Moore-Kyle, and Pat Harris.
[The editorial]:The Captain's Chair:
Explanation of the title of this short epic! When I first got into ST fandom, I found that all the new friends I made (at that time) were Spock fans and poor me always having been a Kirk fan, was out numbered by many, and so they started calling me 'Captain' and that's the reason for the title. By the way, I have met quite a few Kirk fans since.
First , I'm sorry to say that the Kevin O'Riley sequel by Franny and myself is not in this issue for several reasons. Number one reason being it's not finished yet. When I wrote the story outline I never realized what kind of a. monster I created. When Franny started writing it seems to have grown much larger than I ever expected, and it's still growing. So we decided about an month and a half ago that it wouldn't fit in Number 2, it will be in Number 5 as the main story. Why Number 5 you ask? That's very simple to explain (I think).- - -You see, Sonni wrote a novel which was going to be Number 3, but then she wrote a continuation of same story, and as I hate continued stories with a passion, (Leslie Fish - -where's the rest of "The Weight"?), the second half of the story will be Number 4 and they will be published together as a double issue.
While I think of it, we definitely need some contributions for I.D. #5 in all categories - Stories, Art, Puzzles and Poetry.
In this issue we do have a Kevin Riley sequel, special thanks to Maureen S. Donnelly even tho it's not the one I promised. I liked it very much. We also have a Captain Kirk story by Sonni Cooper. This is the story which got me into this crazy part of fandom as" I couldn't get her to send it to anyone else. The other stories are Roses are Red ... and the Logical Thing To Do, by Franny Moore-Kyle, whom we met thru selling our 1st issue to her at the Oakland Con in February. She wrote me a nice letter after the con and included Roses are Red ... and volunteered to help. She didn't know what she was getting herself into when she did that. So I sent a note accepting Roses and asking her if she wanted to write the ' Return of Kevin O'Riley' from my story outline, and that's how our friendship started. We would like to thank her for typing most of the stencils for this issue. Diana Barbour and I did a few of them, but she did the most, and she also did the Calligraphy for the Dedication and Memoriam. I told you 'she didn't know what she was getting into but thanks for volunteering Franny -Without you we would still be typing the stencils, instead of running off the zine.
We would also like to thank Diana Barbour and her mimeo machine. Without her we'd have no zine. Be sure to send her a lot of SASES (see zine page) so she will get busy and out out the Best of Amanda and Sarek.
I want to thank all the people who have or are going to help with this zine that includes the collators.
We would like to hear from our readers - any comments you'd like to make on our stories or the zine in general - send them to me and I will forward any specific comments to the authors. We really would like to hear from you.
[Excerpts from the interview with George Takei]:[TAKEI]: ... I think that there's an aura of unreality that develops around an actor. When you just see that person on the television screen and read about him and hear about him, the image created by the scripts, and the lighting, and the make-up becomes the reality. And so what these conventions do, I think, is to give us an opportunity to humanize ourselves. The conventions, I think, help strip away some of the unreality and it will expose whatever it will expose — the human being behind it. I think it's a healthy thing both for the audience and for the actor. Being somewhat of a political activist, I find that it's somewhat like a politician who goes out to, as they say, to press the flesh — to meet the people, hear the concerns, to get a first-hand understanding and the feel for some it, the issues. For actors I think it's important for us to get a feel for the audiences to know what they're thinking, how they view us, and so forth, and for the audience to see us as people other than just those characters that we created. If we were successful in getting them to believe that character, it may be, in some way, flattering to us for them to know that we're so different from the character that we created.
I think particularly for younger audiences to recognize the thing called an actor is not what they see, but a person who has an identity in his or her own right. I frankly enjoy the conventions. Some people don't, and some, I suppose, come to them purely for mercenary motivations — and I think that this should be recognized. Many people think that actors come to these conventions out of the love for it. It is also our livelihood and business and that's part of that, too. I think that there shouldn't be that kind of unreality of fiction built around it — that we love conventions so much we keep coming back. But I do think, personally for myself — it's an enriching experience. I may be selfish in this respect, but I try to use, and I use that in its purest sense.
I try to use every situation that I'm involved it for my personal benefit, education, or maybe learning from a bad experience, but I still use that experience for my benefit. And for actors I think it's essential to be able to be exposed to many, many different people — different kinds of people — different attitudes, and to use that for our creative purposes. The negative aspects of that "using" however are that it's manipulated and used for self-serving purposes frequently. There are, as they say, "rip-off artists involved," and I think the commercialization of it has gotten — and here I'm saying that we get remunerated for these appearances — participation in these gatherings — so it may seem contradictory, but I think some of the crasser aspects of the commercialization are coming to the fore. The bigger conventions are becoming less a gathering of people who share a common interest but a mass marketing event, and so there's that element of exploitation that comes into play. So there's the positive and the negative aspects of it. I do see the negative aspect coming to the fore a little more strongly now, in many of these conventions.
[COOPER]: I wanted to comment here about the exploitation. To some degree I view the cast as partially responsible for raising the fees. I know some people get a great deal of money per hour to appear at these conventions, making it impossible for the entrepreneur to be able to afford to do something out of love and not out of profit. It's only the entrepreneur with a lot of capital that can now produce the large conventions.
[TAKEI]: There's the other side of that aspect, too. Many of us who become actors go into it because of our love of the art and the craft, but in order to survive in the business — show business — we can't all be Pollyanna and altruistic. We have to recognize that it is show business. And, unfortunately, and I say "unfortunately" because sometimes the business aspect determines artistic decisions in developing a career. Hollywood evaluates the quality of a performer in terms of the dollars and cents that that performer commands, and this is really the worst measure of artistry.
- Table of Contents (i)
- Editorial (ii)
- Dedication (iii)
- You Can't Go Home by Sonni Cooper (1)
- poetry by Dayle S. Palko (50)
- Roses are Red by Franny Moore-Kyle (52)
- Methuselah Renascent by Jean Moss (57)
- Go Ask Alice by Jean Moss (sequel to Methuselah Renascent) (60)
- In Memoriam (63)
- A Game O' Blarney by Maureen S. Donnelly (66)
- The Logical Thing to Do by Franny Moore-Kyle (74)
- The Patriotic Thing to Do by Jenny Peckham-Vanzant (82)
- Puzzled Universe by The Committee and Pat Harris (88)
- Interview with George Takei (The interview was conducted by Sonni Cooper while George was a guest in her home in the summer of 1977. "The George interview was done last summer at Pool-Con 1 with the intention of using it for a book we were planning which is permanently shelved, but he gave us permission to use it here and I think it is very interesting and different.") (This interview's topics: Takei's role as Sulu as a hinderance and help to his career, Takei's views on Star Trek conventions, much discussion about the injustices against Japanese-Americans in the United States and other racial intolerances, Takei's interest in politics and the betterment of the human condition.) (95)
dedication page from issue #2
inside issue #2, Pat Ortega
inside issue #2, Pat Harris
inside issue #2, Pat Harris
inside issue #2, some marginalia, a fan talks back to the text: "He would not do that!"
Issue 3
Infinite Diversity 3 contains 65 pages and was planned for about August 1979, but did not see publication until perhaps early 1980. The art is by Leslie Fish and Pat Harris.
From the frontispiece: "This Edition is Dedicated to GENE RODDENBERRY Who Created the Star Trek Dream & THE FANS Who Kept the Dream Alive."
[The first editorial, written in late August 1979]:Sorry this is late, but with moving, going to Hawaii for vacation, and Leslie Fish's illos being stranded somewhere in that limbo called the U.S. Snail where they were sent in early July, it is now late August, and they haven't arrived yet. I called her when I got back from my vacation to see if they had been sent -- that's when I found out that we had trouble with the Snail. I would like to thank Leslie for doing the illos to begin with and when I told her they were missing, she offered to do four more for us. So unless the illo-eating monster strikes again, "His Majesty" will have Leslie Fish illos.
Some others I'd like to thank are Sonni Cooper and Franny Moore-Kyle, my co-editors. They are the ones who go over the stories for me checking punctuation and grammar and spelling. Franny also helped with the typing which was a very brave thing, especially when part of what I asked her to do was go over my typos in "His Majesty" after saying, when she gave it to me originally, that she was not going to have anything to do with typing it again. [I don't really hate it; I'm just tired of it. It took seven months to write. - F.M-K.]
Thank you, Dorothy Bradley, for being our proof-reader, and I'm sorry you never got the last chapter of H.M. It got misplaced and I think Franny took care of it.
As of this moment we still haven't heard when Sonni's book IS going to be available. If we find out before we go to press, we'll tell you.
We also don't know yet whether there will be a Special Supplement or not with the optional ending to My Friend, My Foe.
We could use some contributions for which I hope to have out in the Spring of 1980. So far, I have only 2 stories! One finished about a Dreadnought and one (unfinished, get busy, Franny) and a Battlestar Galactica story. We still need more stories, art work, and poetry.
[The second editorial, written in late January 1980]:Sorry, gentlebeings, as you've probably figured out, this issue IS just a wee bit late and not because I didn't have it ready on time. I did; except for the illos, it was ready in September and taken to the printer in L.A. in late September. In November our printer told us that they wouldn't be able to print our zine until February at the earliest, if then. So we finally got the manuscript back in December and no way can you get anything done that close to Christmas. So now it's January and we go to press the 18th. This should be getting to you by the end of February or early March.
We did get a nice Christmas present. On Christmas Eve, no less, the Illo Monster must have felt good, because on the 4th try, the illos from Leslie Fish came through. We hope you all think it was worth the wait.
- Table of Contents (i)
- Captain's Chair (ii)
- The Substance of the Vision by Franny Moore-Kyle (1)
- A Slight Change of Pace by Fran Parker (5)
- Scotty and the Dragon Prince of Berengaria by Dorothy Bradley (7)
- Changes byJo Philagios (10)
- A Rose by Any Name by Fran Parker (12)
- The Star Trek Cattlecall by Peggy Schwarz (a long poem about the process of being chosen (or more likely NOT chosen) to be an extra in the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture.) (15)
- The Sailor and the Artist by Maureen Donnley (16)
- His Majesty by Franny Moore-Kyle & Pat Harris (23)
- Puzzled Universe by Fran Parker, Pat Harris, Molly Clark (This appears in the table of contents, and has a title page in the zine but it was not included as the editor lost all of it somewhere. She promised it would be in the next issue.) (66)
inside issue #3, commentary illo: topic the postal service losing mail
inside issue #3, "The Star Trek Cattlecall"
inside issue #3, Pat Harris
inside issue #3, title page
inside issue #3, Leslie Fish
inside issue #3, Leslie Fish
inside issue #3, Leslie Fish
inside issue #3, Leslie Fish
inside issue #3, Leslie Fish
Issue 4
Infinite Diversity 4 contains 127 pages and was published in 1981. The artwork is by Trish.
From the zine: "My thanks to the following peonle who have helped nut this zine together Mary & Edna Martin, Sonni Cooper, Maureen Ramirez, Dorothy Bradley, Kendra Hunter, Linda Garcia, and if I forgot anyone sorry and thanks anyway."
- To Thee My Love by Edna Martin (Spock, Christine, their children) (3)
- A New Beginning by Edna Martin (a Spock/Christine story) (37)
- Doppleganger by Sonni Cooper (Star Trek RPF, William Shatner is accidentally exchanged for Jim Kirk during fan convention.) (also published as a standalone zine, sometime before 1989) (63)
- The Dreadnaught by Laura Ruskin (Cyble Czander/Caszander) (a new ship for Kirk, McCoy and Spock) (83)
inside pages from issue #4
inside pages from issue #4
inside pages from issue #4
inside pages from issue #4
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 4
See reactions and reviews for Doppleganger.
[zine]: If you enjoy strong, independent women characters, avoid this fanzine. The first two stories, one a Chapel/Kirk story and one a Chapel/Spock story, both by Martin are the worse offenders in this matter. The major female characters, Chapel and Uhura -- two women 50+ years of age, whom the author affectionately refers to as 'the girls' - both become 'wifey' types in a world in which everyone marries, spawns, and pairs off into nice little nuclear families. The men don't really come off any better. Poor Spock and Sarek are left emoting all over the place, concerning their human wives. And Kirk gets his share of sappy scenes before he dies -- because, I kid you not, he has rocks in his head. 'Doppleganger' by Cooper is much better written. However, it relies on an idea which was fresh when Jean Lorrah wrote Visit to a Weird Planet and Ruth Berman wrote Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited used it nearly 20 years ago -- but is no longer. [3]
[zine]: INFINITE DIVERSITY 4: The first two stories in the zine, one a Chapel-Kirk story and one a Chapel-Spock story, are both written by Edna Martin. They are exactly the sort of stories a beginning fan writer ought to leave moldering in her desk drawer and perhaps drag out years later to gut for the one or two good scenes, moments, or lines that are usable. They are ridden with bad metaphors (We are told at one point that Christine has "her heart in her eyes," which sounded painful to me— and, when we are later told that she has "a roaring sea" in her chest, at least we understand why she has room for it.), 1950's plots and values and mores (Everybody marries and reproduces and creates a nuclear family.), and characters that are not even recognizable to me.Sometimes when I am reading fan fiction, I feel as if there is a tiny reference computer in my head going through the series and films for appropriate references. Thus, when Sarek is going through this story thanking Christine for staying with him, thanking Uhura for liking his coffee, and so on—my little reference computer is quoting (in fact, nearly chanting) "One does not thank logic, Amanda." And when Kirk is forced to abandon his command for medical reasons and accepts it gracefully as long as he can have Christine, the logic circuits of my little computer were almost burnt out by the volume of contradictory evidence they tried to retrieve. As a final note I might point out to the authors that there is a difference between an African and an Afrikaner, that Swahili is a language and not a nationality, that Romulans do not take prisoners or treat them kindly, that women 50+ years of age are not girls. My final disappointment in this zine was "Doppalganger" by Sonni Cooper. While considerably better written, its premise and set-up are a blatant rip-off of Jean Lorrah's "Visit to a Weird Planet" (and its flip-side "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" by Ruth Berman), which have been so widely re-printed in fandom that it is hard to understand the printing of a story such as this one —at least, without some acknowledgement of one or both of those stories. I would like to be able to comment on the final story, but I didn't read it. You see, about a third of the way down the 1st page of it, I learned that Kirk had been galvanized. Now, while it is true that I may have liked him better that way, I just couldn't bring myself to read through the remaining 40 pages to find out.
The original copyright on this is 1981. I can only assume I received a review copy now because this has been reprinted. My only question is, why? [4]
Issue 5
Infinite Diversity 5 was published in 1984 and contains 126 pages. The art is by Pat Harris and Donna Banzhof.
From an ad in Datazine #32: "Do you want to know what was left out of Sonni Cooper's "Black Fire"? Then you will want a copy of ID5. [It includes] things that were changed or left out of the book."
It does not contain any of the material that was in the pro-novel itself.
From the zine, the run-on, poorly formed sentence: "Anyone who hasn't read BLACKFIRE by Sonni Cooper, published by Pocket Books, Timescape Edition should do one of two things, first would be purchase a copy and read it, second put this zine down and forget it because without reading the book this Fanzine would make little or no sense at all."
From Interview with Sonni Cooper (1896):
Q: In your novel Black Fire you've got some interesting plot twists in there. Where do you get your ideas from?
A: As I don't know. (laughter ) Ideas just seem to flow with me. I have no trouble plotting. My trouble comes with trying to make them less complicated. I just have more ideas than I can write. I did write another Star Trek novel, but they didn't print it because they said Spock was too Human in it. Of course it dealt with Spock's Human side. I don't know what they expected it to be. So it was put out as a fanzine, Infinite Diversity five or six. I was still under contract to Paramount and not allowed to read the fan stuff. So I wasn't able to read the book I put out, I had other editors do it. When you write these things you can't really read the fan stuff, because you don't want to steal ideas, even subconsciously.
title page of issue #5
from issue #5
from issue #5
inside back cover by Donna Banzhof (signed "Dee Bee")
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 5
This is really an odd issue. One of the published Star Trek paperbacks from Pocket Books was BLACKFIRE by Sonni Cooper. This issue contains what was left out of the paperback and the original ending. If you haven't read the book, this won't make too much sense. [5]
Issue 6
Infinite Diversity 6 contains 150 pages and was published in 1985. It was edited by Pat Harris, printed offset, perfect bound, and contains interior art by Trish.
This issue contains the novel I Celebrate Myself by Sonni Cooper. It is expanded from the short story in issue #1.
Summary: "The Enterprise experiences a mysterious power surge while Spock is investigating a blocked sensor in one of the engine pylons. The aftermath is only slowly discovered ... and it affects them all; Spock's human side begins to take over."