Subject: (urth) Newt's main referent

From: Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 2002 08:41:22 +0000

Considering when EXODUS FROM THE LONG SUN was being
written (1994-5), Councillor Newt has a pretty obvious
real-life referent: Newt Gingrich, elected Speaker of
the US House of Representatives after the unexpected
Republican congressional election victories of
November 1994. From what we see of Newt, the
resemblance is pretty profound...

--Nick Gevers.

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 01:03:41 +0000

Good call, Nick. Some major convention (WorldCon, I guess) was held in, I
think, Atlanta in the 80s and Newt, for reasons that I think had to do with
Bruce Sterling, was the banquet speaker. Though I'm not much of a
conventioneer, I attended this (my parents lived in Atlanta) as a friend of
Lucius Shepard, and, though I never met him there, I'm pretty sure Wolfe was
on hand. I'd only barely heard of Gingrich at that point. But, among the
more politicially minded, there was much furor, and a contingent, including
Lucius (but not me), ostentatiously walked out of the banquet as Gingrich
was introduced. Can't remember much about the speech or the evening
otherwise except that both were boring--but that you expect. Gingrich seemed
more menacing later, but that was the explicit SF connection. (Sorry to be
so vague on particulars, but I've sort of accidentally attended a few
conventions or parts of them; the only ones I remember well are those I'd
planned in advance, and this was a last-minute thing--if it wasn't Atlanta I
apologize, but it was somewhere else I just happened to be for other
reasons.)

-alga

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From: Michael Straight <straight at email.unc.edu>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 05:16:54 +0000

On Sun, 1 Sep 2002, Alice K. Turner wrote:

> Bruce Sterling, was the banquet speaker.

Also, at the time, Newt was one of the most famous science-fiction writers
in America (along with William Shatner and, arguably, Stephen King).

-Rostrum

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 02:39:00 +0000

From:  rostrum

> in America (along with William Shatner and, arguably, Stephen King).

No, I'm almost certain that this was before his novel was published, though
it was in the works, and Sterling would have known of it. I can't remember
the name of the novel, so can't check it out against dates--there's a lot of
Newt stuff on Amazon. Just wanted to note that I thought Nick was on the
right track. (But sf die-hards can surely check the con date--if I am
correct that it was a WorldCon--the Newt pub date and the Wolfe pub date).

-alga

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From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 19:41:12 +0000

Alga wrote:

> No, I'm almost certain that this was before his novel was 
> published, though it was in the works, and Sterling would
> have known of it. I can't remember the name of the novel,
> so can't check it out against dates--there's a lot of
> Newt stuff on Amazon. Just wanted to note that I thought Nick 
> was on the right track. (But sf die-hards can surely check
> the con date--if I am correct that it was a WorldCon--the
> Newt pub date and the Wolfe pub date).

According to http://web2.iadfw.net/tharvia/charts/worldcons.gif,
there have been two Worldcons held in Atlanta. One of them was
in 1986 and so fits pretty well with what you've described. 

Gingrich's SF novel, 1945, was published in 1995.

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From: Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 20:35:50 +0000

Blattid bleated:

> > published,

> Gingrich's SF novel, 1945, was published in 1995.

That feels exactly right. Lucius Shepard would not have been at a DragonCon,
nor would Wolfe, nor Sterling, nor is there a banquet. (I, on the other
hand, did go to at least one, maybe two--the Atlanta connection.) And the LS
books began to appear in 1993, which means that they were most likely
beginning to be drafted just about then or shortly after. Kudos again,
Nick--and I feel pleased to have put a jigsaw piece in place! (With help
from Blattid.)

-alga

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