The Oracle Speaks

Zine
Title:	The Oracle Speaks
Publisher:	Delphi Press
Editor(s):	Theresa Holmes
Date(s):	1978-1980
Series?:
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS & other
Language:	English
External Links:
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The Oracle Speaks is a gen Star Trek: TOS anthology by Theresa Holmes.

It contains fiction, art, and non-fiction.

An ad in the back of Mahko Root #2 lists it as a "Christian-focused" letterzine. Each issue was fifty cents.

One fan describes this zine:

If you're a little tired of the radical chic contempt for Christianity even if you're not a member of an organized religion yourself, there's a new zine with a religious/philosophical theme, that will give you some relief from the more fashionable rabid. It contains stories, poems, and fan letters, sprightly, and not always pro-religious, and there's lots of ideas thrown out for seed. A terrific bargain at a tiny price!

By the fourth issue in 1980, the focus of the zine shifted to space exploration and colonization. As per a 1980 flyer, the publisher hoped that more issues would be forthcoming. The fourth issue, though, appears to have been the final one.

Issue 1

The Oracle Speaks 1 was published in July 1978.

• Psalm 8 (1)
• First Person Personal (3)
• Author's Note (5)
• Death, Where is Thy Sting (reprinted from The Sehlat's Roar #1) (6)
• Center Spread by Randy Ash (14)
• Conversation Between Friends (16)
• Psalm 23 (23)
• Food for Thought (24)
• Oracular Pronouncements (26)
• Closing Thoughts (Psalm 33:6-9, 13-19, 22 RSV) (28)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

Skimming through it ... I can see that I do not agree, but whatever I found Leslie Fish's comment re K/S and anti's at T'Con interesting. On the other hand, knowing LF pretty well, some people may have wanted to speak but may not have wanted to get into a discussion/argument with her — it depends on one's personality ... I think her "where were the anti-K/S's?” comment was interesting, but WAY over-generalized about WHO they are. I am myself, a K/S-pro, to a point, which I think you know... the "to a point' remark is partially because I do not think the idea is WHAT IS or WHAT WILL BE, but rather, given certain premises, WHAT MIGHT POSSIBLE BE IF... I think both Leslie and [Gayle F] actually wrote their K/S stories on that latter idea, not on IT WILL HAPPEN. It's an interesting possibility, but not even a probable, to my mind. Though the spin-offs like the supposed immense project Frankie Jemison and I are writing, are also what really intrigue me -- our [unclear word] REQUIEM (which I have a strong feeling you would not like at all, since it is extremely down -- what one might call a black myth, as in the sense of "black comedy" -- and the one maybe hopeful note that's supposed to be at the end is really very, very weird...) could not have happened if Frankie and I were not familiar with Gayle's K/S series... since the whole things started with a "what if" session based on the premises Gayle sets up.

My one major complaint, coming from the English Lit background I do, that whatever is written at least try to write it well. The K/S stuff has a bad tendency to get worse and worse on a strict literary basis. I bought COMPANION, and just recently gave a rebuttal review of it to SCUTTLEBUTT, who'd printed a good review of it. I happen to consider Gayle's and Leslie's stories the best written-literarily — of any of the genre, though Frankie has in some ways done them better in our zine, with her GAME OF CHANCE, which is a K/S, but done much differently, and about 1/10th as graphically. Any of the Treklit stuff within the 'adult' genre can so easily degrade into poorly written 'porn' -- with the sex scenes not even interesting because they are so badly written... I want a story that is in some way a real story, with some interesting ideas or characters, or storyline (plot) to it. I think 3 out of the 4 stories in Gayle's series does this. I think Leslie got some valid hooks in with her two (and there's supposed to be a third in the works -- well, we'll see). I can read something and violently agree with it, but still be willing to see more, if it's good. Case in point: I do NOT agree with Jean Lorrah's NTM universe; I do not really care for her Vulcans, who are too emotional in my mind... but she's a good to excellent writer, and so I am still reading her stuff. I also don't quite agree with Joanna Cantor's Vulcans, but again, she's a good writer, telling interesting tales.

And, I think, that on a subject which unfortunately seems so touchy, one should be a good writer -- or at least trying harder -- or one can blow it worse than if one is writing on something readily accepted. One tends to ignore the minor scrape acquired on the callused fingertip, but when someone runs into the broken toe...

Enjoyed reading "The Oracle Speaks" despite feeling that there is a sort of evangelical feel to it here and there -- I certainly don't feel the Vulcans or anyone else should be steered towards conversion to the Christian faith, but the story was entertaining....

I didn't care at all for the ending of "Conversation Between Friends" as that "Tomorrow" has a disturbingly (to me, anyway) missionary zeal to it...

I hope in the future to voice a few things I feel about fandom, but right now I'm too busy trying to write it right.

"Death, Where is Thy Sting" is the best story written as of today, but "Conversation Between Friends" comes close. I think I like them best because you seem to write them with more feelings than the other stories.

Your pair of stories, "Death, Where is Thy Sting?" and "Conversation Between Friends" were concise, well-done, and it the point. I think I shall show them to a few friends I have who feel man’s religions will evaporate once contact is made with alien cultures, and man finds himself face-to-whatever with other creatures who believe themselves also "created in god’s image." I don’t think man will relinquish his religious heritage once he colonizes the galaxy and earth becomes just a suburb in the galactic village. Strip away the trappings too cumbersome to carry into space, and I believe you’ll find beliefs and: teachings too valuable to be discarded. However, man can’t be selfish with his faiths — I feel it is probable other worlds will have a faith similar to the Christian tone in ideas and precepts (and/or to the Jewish faith, to the Islamic faith, etc.) I think the teachings Christians attribute to Christ are too universal to be the sole property of one set of religions on one small world in the ideas of one of many, many galaxies!

What human woman would accept an arranged marriage after she found someone else to care for? To admire? To honor! To want? To respect? To prefer?

What human woman would not choose divorce to free herself from an unwanted mate?

What human woman would not scheme to get the mate she wants?

What human woman would not try to escape a marriage that is distasteful and abhorrent?

What human woman would doom herself to a lifetime of misery and despair, without a fight?

What human woman would not seize every opportunity to save her beloved from death?

Yet, what fan doesn't vilify, castigate, scorn, and detest T'Pring for choosing the kali-fee and Kirk for her champion? T'Pring admitted she wanted Stonn and he wanted her. Not only do fans ignore that as an emotional act from supposedly cold, logical, unemotional Vulcans, but they ignore the fact that they would do the same thing themselves. For Shame!!

As a side comment to Leslie's letter: I've had several heating debates with people on both sides of the K/S question, and I don't think it is possible to convince someone that they're wrong. In one series of letters, the underlying opinions stood out especially clearly. My feeling: Homosexuality is not wrong, and sex can enrich an already loving relationship. Her feelings: Homosexuality is wrong, and sex is not necessary in an already loving relationship. We both have reasons for our views. Although I wish she shared mine, I don't want to force mine on her -- any more than I would like her forcing hers on me. I don't thing different opinions are bad. I kind of think they're valuable -- as shields. Not as swords.

"Death" seems not so much to advocate the existence of God, as to proclaim the serenity of the believer in the face of death--I'll buy that! As an agnostic (not an athiest; I don't make a religion of my disbelief) I don't understand it, but as a historian, I know the profound courage and integrity faith endows (it has balancing uglier qualities, but we won't go into them). Perhaps the dying Vulcan would seek that. Vulcans are proud; and a shared exultation in death would overcome the sense of defeat she might feel. I don't agree, though, with your note that bonded Vulcan couples would ever choose a suicidal meld — such a death would be purposeless and wasteful, two sins in the Vulcan philosophy.

It might be interesting to see a philosophical zine get started, though I'm coining to the conclusion that most of fandom watched the series less for what was meant for above their ears, than below their navels. I've never heard anyone, in all the years, comment on the quite apparent Humanistic slant in the series -- the undertone that said of "Alternative Factor" this is what Man does for Man --condemns himself to eternal hell, not for a hope of divine reward, or human worship, but for simple willingness to sacrifice himself for his unknown fellow man; or in "Adonais"'that we have outgrown ritual superstition, and reject the shadowy un-kind with a bag of tricks for a duty to the outstretched hand of our fellow human in need; or in "The Apple" that organized religion is sterile and dangerous when it advocates any means to protect itself.

Hope this will be of some help to you to stir up interest in the new zine.

I got a copy of THE ORACLE SPEAKS a while back. Thanks very much for sending it.

The repro was good, and I like the digest format. It is very comfortable.

I haven't read "Conversations Between Friends" yet -- but I have read everything else. I enjoyed "Food for Thought" and I agree with Leslie totally.

There were only two things that I didn't really like about the zine: 1) the artwork not being electrocstencilled and 2) the psalms. However it is your personalzine, so I guess you can do anything you want. Just though I'd mention it.

I really enjoyed "Death..." and "Conversation..." I felt that both were well done, and for such short stories, the characters were not cardboard or stereotyped.

I was impressed by your cover-cum-envelope; that is really a nifty idea, and if I ever do the personalzine Jeff Johnston and I have been talking about for the last year, I may borrow the idea.

I liked your editorial, partly because you expressed some things that I wanted to write about in the mythical personalzine: namely, the pervasive hostility towards the professed Christians in fandom. I do not understand why it is all right -- and even admired — to be a strict orthodox Jew or a.practicing Buddhist, but the heinous crime against humanity — not to mention random — to be a practicing Christian. I've heard people accusing so-and-so of entering fandom simply to make converts, evangelize, etc., as if it is impossible to be an ST fan for the same reason everyone else is if you are a Christian. And there is, of course, the stereotyping you mention: say the word "Christian" and ninety percent of fandom thinks immediately of Anita Bryant. (I think, personally, that in some ways she may have done her own cause more harm than good, as whatever her intentions may have been, her message comes across as a message of hate toward a particular group of people; there is an old saying that Bryant unfortunately does not heed: "Hate the sin but love the sinner.")

[much snipped]

This all reminds me that the subject of religion in general has been neglected in ST: I don't mean any specific religion, but religion itself. It has been of immense interest and importance... for thousands of years, so I can hardly belie that in the next two hundred years it will suddenly become completely unimportant. What does the experience of traveling among the stars and consorting with non-humans do to one's religious belief, if any? What will the mere existence of non-humans do to religion in general and in particular? Will they be regarded as sentient beings or as "animals," devoid of soul -- and what will they think of humans in terms of their own religions? If some humans regard aliens as soulless animals, what does that make a being like Spock? What does that do to the way in which someone like Amanda, who marries a non-human, is regarded by some people? Are there planets settled by extremely conservative religious groups, and what would be their relationship with the rest of the Federation, especially the non-human races? Surely somewhere on the Enterprise there must be individuals with strong religious beliefs of some sort. Some might argue that the Enterprise crew are all highly trained technicians or scientists -- but look at the fairly high percentage of astronauts who profess to some sort of religious beliefs -- which were often intensified after their trips into space. It was also said once by one of my science professors, who was not notably religious himself, that a large number of astronomers, particularly cosmologists, had ' strong religious beliefs, and that these beliefs tended to become stronger the longer the person worked in the field of cosmology. He found the phenomenon curious, but not incomprehensible; it's probably impossible to deal with the deepest mysteries of the universe and not feel something that that. might be described as 'religious.' How does this affect starship crews? There are any number of ways in which the place of religion in the life of a star-faring race might be explored, and I think they ought to be.

If you want controversy, I will throw out an idea a friend of mine mentioned to me. She showed some K/S stuff to three friends of hers who happen to be homosexual men, and they had an interesting comment. Do these writers — all women -- know, they said, that they are unconsciously writing lesbian relationship stories? Male homosexual relationships, according to them, are, not characterized by intense emotional attachment, being more physical and often brutal; they said, however, that lesbian relationships, at least among women of their acquaintance were characterized by exactly the sort of clinging, possessive affection displayed in many of the K/S stories, aside from poor writing, they thought the greatest fault of the K/S stories they saw was their lack of realism. (I would also refer people to the last issue of New Times, on decadence, and specifically the article on homosexuality and the homosexual lifestyle; this is quite an eye-opener, folks.)

Now that I have made myself unpopular with several people in fandom, . . Oh, well, nothing like a good controversy to liven things up!

Issue 2

The Oracle Speaks 2 was published in October 1978 and contains 24 pages.

wraparound cover from issue #2

• Psalm 100 (1)
• First Person Personal (3)
• Author's Note (5)
• Man's Best Friend (7)
• Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (submitted by Eileen Roy) (11)
• Centerpiece: Surak's Lament (12)
• Food for Thought, letters of comment (14)
• Review of the book "Lucifer's Hammer" (18)
• Oddy-Con con report by Cathy Czene, see that page (19)
• Zines (21)
• News Notes and Quotes (22)
• Why Did I Get This Zine This Time? (23)
• Psalm 131 (24)

From Holmes' introduction:

...some of the LoC's I've received prompt me

to say a few words about the pernicious human habit of stereotyping. Why? Well, because several people have completely missed the points I was trying to make in the two stories presented last issue, apparently as a result of applying their stereotypes of Christians to me. This is hardly new; Leslie's been doing it to me ever since we ..first locked horns over Death, [Where is Thy Sting] two and a half years ago - and it's even happened with the story you're about to read; but it is annoying -- or it would be if it were not so laughable. After all, I do go to some pains to create interesting and enjoyable or thought-provoking stories and to communicate my points as- clearly as possible without bashing my readers over the head with them (not an easy task to learn, I've discovered.) It's disappointing to be misunderstood.

• 

  from issue #2

• 

  from issue #2

• 

  from issue #2

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

The Oracle Speaks' is a Theresa Holmes personalzine/letterzine/reviewzine/etc. Issue #2 is 24 pages in length, discounting wraparound cover (the P.O. managed to mangle my copy nonetheless.) LoCs on any subject from any point of view are eagerly sought, and poetry, songs (with music), cartoons, artwork, and stories no longer than seven double-spaced pages are also hoped for. Mimeo'd zine, artists not that art should be simple enough to hand-draw on stencils. Theresa asks readers not to stereotype her as 'the typical Christian' (don't ask me what the stereotype is!), and her editorial makes a good point. Like #2, future issues will run fiction, poetry, art, reviews (books, cons, movies, etc.), LoCs (best part of most zines!, well, sometimes...), and zine listings. It's an interesting little zine, just starting out, and how can you go wrong for 50 cents? Besides, if you don't like what you read, yea, verily, you are encouraged to be vocal about it in the LoC column. What's to lose?

THE ORACLE SPEAKS arrived yesterday, in a baggie. Sigh. Fortunately I didn't lose any typed portions, but the wrap-around cover (with that gorgeous John Broadbent art!) was rather badly mangled. (Blush. And I thought it was such a great idea. From now on, I use tape, too! ED.)

Nice editorial. I liked "Man's Best Friend," maybe because it had a more ambiguous feel to it than the stories, in OS #1. (Sulu could simply have been hallucinating, maybe something mystical did occur, maybe the doggy creatures were indigenous to the planet--after all, there was that dry dung! And so few people write short stories nowadays.

Food for Thought was interesting, but then, everyone likes to read LoC's, and reviews (whether they be of books or cons or movies) are also always interesting. Zine listings are always appreciated, and thank you for listing WARPED SPACE. I loved the Women's Lib Motto!

Issue 3

The Oracle Speaks 3 was published in April 1979 and contains 40 pages.

cover of issue #3

From the editorial:

Greetings, Gentlefolk.

I can hear you grumbling from here: "What's her excuse this time? She said Ish II would be out in October." Uh huh. Go take another look at the center spread in Ish II. Can you read it? Good. Before I went over each and every copy with my trusty rapidograph, you couldn't make head nor tail of it. That, friends, is what you call a gross miscalculation, and it's the sole reason both issues are late. Again, sorry for the delay, but it takes time to do seventy-five copies by hand (not to mention will-power). Henceforth, I shall electrostencil all major art or hand-printing.

• A Song of Ascents, Psalm 120 RSV (1)
• the editorial, First Person Personal, contains I was going to do an editorial on the "pernicious evils" spawned by the K/S relationship stories (3)
• Author's Note (5)
• "Concerto for Sehlats," fiction by Theresa Holmes ("Author's Note: Originally the story you're about to read was part of the middle section of "The Danforth Gambit," the next major novella after "The Fall of Babel." TDG, interestingly , enough, was one of two novellas first conceived behind the dealer's table at SeKWesterCon -- the first one. Unfortunately, the other one comes even later in the chronology, so it will likely be quite awhile before you see it, for all that it's more or less printable. Anyway, about "Concerto", I removed it from TDG for two reasons; first, Randy wanted it for the mythical SR VI. And second, it eventually be-came obvious to me that TDG was going to have to be rewritten in such a way as to leave the incident out. It's too interesting for oblivion, so here it is, probably the only place you'll ever see it.") (6)
• "The Starlight Night" by Gerard Manley Hopkins (Hopkins was a 19th Century Jesuit priest and an avid amateur naturalist, this centerpiece is one of his poems, plus some fan art) (20)
• "To Cut or Not to Cut" by Kathy Czene (article: How do Vulcans tolerate getting touched so often seeing how very short exact haircuts dictate frequent haircuts?) (22)
• Food for Thought, letters of comment (25)
• Oracular Pronouncements
  • Reviews: Double Vision (two reviews, one by Lori Chapek-Carleton and one by Theresa Holmes, of the movie "Superman," two reviews, one by Lori Chapek-Carleton and one by Theresa Holmes, of Battlestar Galactica) (30)
  • Zines and a Con (34)
  • News, Notes, and Quotes (36)
  • Next Ish (38)
• Why did I get this zine this time? (39)
• A Song of Ascents, Psalm 121 RSV (40)

• 

  from issue #3, from "Concerto for Sehlats," illo by Holmes

• 

  from issue #3, from "Concerto for Sehlats," illo by Holmes

• 

  from issue #3, from "Concerto for Sehlats," illo by Holmes

• 

  from issue #3, centerfold

Proposed Issue 4

The Oracle Speaks 4 was to have been published in 1980, but it is very likely it was never completed.

a flyer printed in Warped Space #43 explaining the new direction the zine is taking

The plans in April 1979, from issue #3:

NextIsh: Tentatively scheduled story is "Werewolf," which deals with a member of the Hounds of Heaven, the very elite Delphian police force. It's sure to stir up a storm of controversy. The centerpiece will be another installment in our continuing Battle of the Poets, "The Oracles" by A.E. , Housman, contributed by ML Dodge. Also included will be an article of explanation by her, and another hilarious article by Cathy Czene, this one on the women of Star Trek and how they manage to be so uplifted with no visible means of support. Other features will be potty, cartoon, and your LoC's, so get out your trust little ballpoints and START WRITING!! I'll print anything except profanity or obscenity, and will edit only for length. (They say editors are ghouls and cannibals, so I have to act the part, don't I?)

The plans in February 1980, from a flyer printed in Warped Space #43:

I've been reading (dangerous thing to do) about the colonization of space, and I'm convinced it really is possible within my lifetime. Since I've always been intrigued by the idea, I've decided now is the time to get involved in making it happen. To that end, I've joined the L-5 Society and am broadening the scope of OS accordingly.

OS IV, currently in production, will be a transitional issue. It'll be the same size, 40 pages, but I'm going to offset with reduction so I can bring you all the letters recieved so fare, an article about fandom reprinted from a national magazine, the third installment of the "Battle of the Poets," 'Soul Objection,' a short story based on comments in III, and a variety of other goodies, including reviews of STAR TREK; The Motion Picture. I'm aiming for publication by March 1st, so if you have news notes, con info, zine plugs, etc., please send them to me before 31 January 1980... Personally, I'm excited about the whole idea of exploring and colonizing space. Come explore with me in the new ORACLE SPEAKS!