Parergon Papers
Parergon Papers was a fanzine published in Australia by John Bangsund between 1977 and 1979, first in Norwood, South Australia and then from issue nine in Kew, Victoria. Issues were distributed through ANZAPA and FAPA and independently. A supplement, In the Gums of a Mumbling Gale, appeared between issues 4 and 5.
Bangsund explained its origins in the first issue:
During 1974 I decided to publish a fanzine called Parergon. It was to be a serious fanzine of high moral tone and deep intellectual commitment, with a dash of humour to reassure constant readers that I had not suddenly been afflicted by what the philosophers call gravity, and with a fair amount of writing about science fiction to reassure fandom that I had not lost sight of my roots. Parergon would have been a lovely fanzine, if I'd had the time and money and enthusiasm to do it. [...] In Parergon Papers I will be writing my own personal stuff, pretty much as I have been writing it in variously-titled fanzines for the last ten years or so, and also publishing the articles and letters that people send me that I want to share with you. You may well ask what is new about this, and the answer of course is that there isn’t anything new about it — except that I am no longer attempting to produce a balanced fanzine. What appears here will be what I like, when I have time to do it.
Pages are numbered consecutively across the issues allowing for a slight inconsistency about covers. Thus the first issue has the two cover pages followed by pages 1–6 and issue two has two unnumbered cover pages and then picks up with pages 8–19 followed by two more unnumbered pages. Issue three has two unnumbered cover pages and then resumes with page 23.
In the Gums of a Mumbling Gale is billed as a "A supplement to Parergon Papers published for FAPA" and appears between the fourth and fifth issues and isn't included in the page numbering.
The eighth issue is also billed as "Australian Science Fiction Review Twelfth Anniversary Issue" ("This should confuse [The Australian National Library] no end"). A large part of issue 10 is acknowledged by Bangsund as "a second instalment of Australian Science Fiction Review: Twelfth Anniversary Issue" and it seems that those pages, 151–169, were also issued separately for a meeting of the Nova Mob discussing George Turner's novel Beloved Son.
Issue 11 is billed as "The Times Bicycle Pump Supplement" and is described by Bangsund as "First attempt, restricted to ANZAPA". It includes early versions of material that later appears in issue 12, also billed as "The Times Bicycle Pump Supplement".
The APA distribution is a little unclear. According to Marc Ortlieb's index to ANZAPA, issues 1–2 and 5 onward appeared in ANZAPA but issues 3 and 4 say they were intended for ANZAPA and FAPA. Issues also received additional non-APA distribution.
Slightly confusingly, fanzines bearing the title Parergon Papers are also retrospectively issues of the earlier and later title Philosophical Gas. Bangsund explained in the latter's 50th issue (November 1977):
According to Bruce Gillespie (scholar of this town, publisher of the estimable SF Commentary), I am still publishing Philosophical Gas – indeed he has suggested warmly in SFC 55/56 that people write and ask me for copies – and thinking about it, I realize that of course I have gone on publishing that journal; it was but a momentary aberration that I should have misspelt the title (as Parergon Papers, an easy enough slip of the pen) on the issues that appeared from time to time during 1977-79, and absent-mindedly numbered those issues from 1 to 12. They were in fact Philosophical Gas nos. 38 to 49, and this is no.50. tentatively dated November 1979.
| Issue | Date | Pages | -Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 1977 | 8 | Philosophical Gas 38 |
| 2 | August 1977 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 39 |
| 3 | September 1977 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 40 |
| 4 | September 1977 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 41 |
| - | October 1977 | 4 | In the Gums of a Mumbling Gale, a supplement published for FAPA |
| 5 | December 1977 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 42 |
| 6 | December 1977 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 43 |
| 7 | February 1978 | 18 | Philosophical Gas 44 |
| 8 | March 1978 | 38 | labeled as the ASFR 12th anniversary issue; also Philosophical Gas 45 |
| 9 | August 1978 | 8 | Philosophical Gas 46 |
| 10 | October 1978 | 28 | Philosophical Gas 47 |
| 11 | December 1978 | 10 | Philosophical Gas 48 |
| 12 | February 1979 | 14 | Philosophical Gas 49 |
- Parergon Papers online at fanac.org
- Index to Parergon Papers online at fanac.org (PDF)
| Publication | 1977—1977 |
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