Introduction
My first “Plumage from Pegasus” column—that’s “horsefeathers” to you literalists—appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, issue dated September 1994, under the editorship of capable Kris Rusch. After Kris left, the column continued under the wry aegis of Gordon van Gelder. And now, twenty-five years later, as I type this introduction, I’ve just submitted my latest one to easygoing editor Charlie Finlay. I mention these names so you know who’s to blame for allowing this nonsense to flourish.
Twenty-five years, under three editors, is a pretty decent track record for any enterprise. But the truth is, I’ve actually been doing this a lot longer.
The first prose work I ever did for a mass audience was humor columns for my high-school newspaper.
I attended Lincoln High School in Rhode Island from 1968 through 1972. But I don’t believe I joined the staff of The Paper Lion until my sophomore year. But when I did, I immediately began turning out humor columns modeled on such favorite influencers as Mad magazine, National Lampoon, and The Realist. I kept every issue of The Paper Lion with my stuff in it until one day around 1978 when, in a fit of “maturity,” I decided to clean house and ditch all my “juvenilia.” Try to imagine how bummed I have been ever since, when I contemplate that bone-headed move.
I contributed one or two such pieces to the newspaper at Rhode Island College (the Anchor) when I attended that institution. (They are lost now also.) When I discovered fandom in 1973, I began submitting similar stuff to various zines: mainly to Don D’Ammassa’s Mythologies, under the heading “Arrant Nonsense.”
So dating from 1969, 2019 actually marks fifty years of Di Filippovian comedy. I have to admit it’s pretty much my default mode of writing. If I can’t do anything else, I turn my hand to jokes and satire and slapstick. It’s the lens through which I generally view the world.
And that lens turns out to be plain window glass, since the world is undeniably absurd, surreal and a cosmic laugh-generator. I might spin things a bit, or exaggerate a tad, but mainly it’s plain old reality that provides the chuckles.
Here’s hoping you find more than a few in this collection, which includes a never-before-seen piece that opens the collection.
I hope to write another such introduction twenty-five years from now! Unless of course the world becomes a totally sane and well-ordered place. But I’m not counting on that!