AGENDA . Peer to Peer

Philadelphia Science Fiction Society: Andy Duncan

Brian James Kirk Geeks Out


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: May 5, 2010

In the last 70 years, little has changed for the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society — not since 1935, when a handful of teenage boys formed the group to support their interest in science-fiction writing.

"That spirit is still with us," says current president Mark Trebing of the society, which found its way into this column through a classic, book fair guerrilla-marketing technique: free bookmarks. Trebing, whose scruffy beard is a stronger shade of white than gray, has been a science-fiction fan since he was 8 and a member of the society since 1977. He even met his wife, Margaret, at a meeting: She's a third-generation member whose father and grandfather persuaded her to join.

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Even the number of active members has stayed steady through the years. About 60 people pay an annual fee to attend monthly events, like movie nights and writer's workshops. Every November, the group hosts Philcon, a sci-fi conference that began in 1936 and Trebing says was the world's first.

This month, short-fiction writer Andy Duncan (pictured) — whose work has been nominated for a Hugo, the sci-fi equivalent of the Pulitzer, and has appeared in such venerable publications as Asimov's Science Fiction — will discuss his stories with members. As Trebing would say, Duncan's canon blows away sci-fi flicks like Avatar. "Today, science-fiction plots have been dumbed down," he says. In traditional science fiction, "If a rocket ship takes off and it's in space for 143 days, you better believe [the writer] did the calculations." As of press time, there's about 192 hours left until the event. But I'll leave the calculations to the experts. Andy Duncan, Fri., May 14, 9 p.m., free, Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 877-656-3914, psfs.org.