2002 - 07/2002 Meeting

Page Created: 09/23/10. Last Update: 09/23/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 05/27/08.

GLENN HAUMAN

Author's Blog: http://www.glennhauman.com/.

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: July 13, 2002.

Meeting Site: Borders Books & Music, Garden State Plaza Mall, Paramus, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 32.

Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Writer.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The July meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held at Borders Books & Music in the Garden State Plaza Mall, Paramus, New Jersey on Saturday, July 13, 2002. We had a reasonable attendance and a really exciting meeting despite a host of complications and problems leading up to the event.

What sort of problems, you may ask. Well, for starters, there were three East Coast science fiction conventions in the DC - Boston corridor scheduled that weekend. Not only did the cons siphon away club members who would ordinarily attend our gathering, but they also made it very difficult to arrange for a guest speaker. The string of rejections delayed the newsletter until well after the meeting, further depressing the turn out. Borders regional event coordination compounded matters by listing the meeting as happening at a different store.

Fortunately, the correct store was ready for us. Earlybirds who came for the Final Frontier discussion of television shows were soon part of a fun, free-wheeling dialogue. When speaker Glenn Hauman arrived, he joined Gary Blog at the moderator's table to add his perspective on the subject.

Mr Hauman is best known for his STARFLEET: CORPS OF ENGINEERS stories, but he has also written tales featuring THE X-MEN and has appeared in original anthologies. He has also been an e-publisher and an editorial consultant for STAR TREK and FARSCAPE projects.

Our speaker has written a number of stories about the U. S. S. Da Vinci of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. The ship is commanded by Captain David Cohen ("the first Jew in the Federation") who is basically an administrator in charge of a crew of engineers.

The author has a problem with how engineers are portrayed in STAR TREK--they don't behave like any engineers he's ever met. This led to a digression of Scotty's adventures with tribbles and transporters as well as Dutch Day stunts pulled by the University of Southern California engineering students. What gonzo stunts would they pull with access to matter duplicators, transporters, tractor beams and other cool toys?

The existence of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers has been mentioned from time to time in the various STAR TREK series, but no details are given. Mr Hauman assigns them two roles: clean up and research.

Imagine you are a native of a world in which a mad computer controls every aspect of your life, including the weather. So, one day this Kirk guy arrives and fries its harddrive. Well, you know that the Enterprise is not going to hang around and reprogram the traffic lights and organize pothole repair crews. Those kinds of things are handled by the Corps. While they attempt to reglue a kinder, gentler Humpty Dumpty, they are also doing some reverse engineering. You never can tell where you'll discover some useful technology for the Federation.

Glenn Hauman had the same set of experiences of many fans of his age bracket: comic books, STAR TREK reruns on Channel 11, computers, and the like. He remained in touch with his college crowd and was later able to introduce two writer/editors who worked in different fields to each other. Both wanted to broaden their marketability. One friend was a STAR TREK editor.

The TREK contact would gain him entree to the sf/comics work-for-hire crowd. Unlike many writers, he does not write tie-ins as a way to grab some quick cash while pursuing his personal vision. He welcomes the opportunity to play around with ideas in someone else's sandbox.

His first THE X-MEN story illustrates this process. He got the go ahead on the basis of a one sentence pitch to packager Keith De Candido: Warren Worthington III (aka, THE X-MEN character known as the Angel), interviewed on NIGHTLINE. For those unfamiliar with the character, the Angel has wings and can fly. It's a really weak power. But in his civilian identity Warren has another superpower. He's rich. Real rich. Bill Gates rich. So what would a mutant multi-millionaire do with his money?

Plenty, as Mr Hauman sees it. Warren founds an R&D venture capital arm, Angel Investing. Hey, Peter Parker. Your spider web formula is really neat. The police would love to have a non-lethal way to apprehend criminals. My lawyers will draw up the papers. Hey supervillain bank robber. That's doing things the hard way. We'll put you on the payroll as long as you toe the line.

Being a wordsmith is not Glenn Hauman's primary avocation. His background in computers led him to becoming one of the pioneers in electronic publishing. He became one of the early plaintiffs challenging a censorship law which worked its way to the Supreme Court. Interviewed on cable, he whipped out his first edition FAHRENHEIT 451 and waved it declaring that the line had to be drawn here before the book burning began.

Another of his interests was in internet domain registration. While trying to register Marvel as a domain name for Marvel Comics, he discovered that Microsoft was trying to register it for one of their products. Marvel was owned at the time by a conglomerate which also owned Revlon, among other companies. Soon he was watching the writs from some of the biggest corporations in the world flying back and forth.

A lot of the discussion dealt with copyright and trademark law. U. S. Copyright Law has been changed numerous times in the past half century. The net effect has been to keep a number of properties which previously have fallen into the public domain in the hands of well-heeled corporations. Some works had actually fallen into public domain and were retroactively made property of corporations and estates.

The constitutionality of many of these laws is being challenged and will likely be reviewed by the Supreme Court in the next couple of years. It promises to get interesting.

Glenn Hauman was a top flight speaker with many interesting things to say and a forceful, exciting delivery. We are in his debt.