One of my ongoing side projects with the @norwescon historical archives [1], in addition to adding new (old) material, is updating already uploaded videos to add captions and transcripts. As I do this, I’m often listening to these videos for the first time.
While working on a 1992 (Norwescon 15) interview with Fritz Leiber [2], I was not expecting this exchange:
NWC: Over the fifty or so years, what kind of changes have you seen in science fiction and fantasy in general, from say the time you were first writing into how we are now?
FL: Well, one thing was I remember witchcraft seemed to be a rather far-off, mysterious, and faintly suspect thing when I started out, and yet today we are accepting witchcraft. It’s part of our culture.
NWC: Alright, um…. How about in the, um, the way the fans of the the genre react. How do you feel the fans of science fiction and fantasy have changed over the fifty years?
FL: Well they’ve grown more sophisticated that’s for sure. And they like witchcraft more, and science rather less.
I had no idea witchcraft was quite so present in late-80s/early-90s fandom.
[1]: https://history.norwescon.org
[2]: https://history.norwescon.org/items/show/241
#Norwescon #NWC15 #FritzLeiber #ScienceFiction #Fantasy #Fandom #Witchcraft