kipple n.
useless or unwanted (household) objects; junk; rubbish
[Introduced by Ted Pauls as the title of the fanzine Kipple. Pauls later claimed that the ‘junk’ definition was created by prominent fan Terry Carr, in reference to an old joke having the general form ‘Are you fond of Kipling?’ ‘I don’t know, I’ve never kippled’ (see the Quote Investigator entry for the history of the joke). Popularized outside of West Coast fanspeak by its appearance in the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.]
SF Encyclopedia
Fancyclopedia
SF Fandom
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1960
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Kipple I.
(title of fanzine) 10 May -
1963
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Bruce Pelz
The Emperor’s desk was described as just about that messy. Though no apple core was specifically mentioned, there was a half-eaten sandwich among the kipple.
in Ankus (#8) Aug. 4 -
1968
Philip K. Dick
bibliography
Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody’s around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there’s twice as much of it.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1981) vi. 77 -
1981
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James Tiptree, Jr.
The trash-line was different…. No basura, no kipple at all—just a little natural tar, and weed and sea-fans.
Lirios in Asimov’s Science Fiction Sept. 153 -
1988
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Paul J. McAuley
bibliography
His files…had been filled to overflowing: appeals from UFO cultists…, jargon-riddled letters from space freaks, political appeals…. He couldn’t be bothered to wade through all the kipple to find the updates.
Transcendence in Amazing Stories Nov. 60 -
1994
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Paul Di Filippo
The props burdening the characters are the everyday kipple and kitsch one hardly notices anymore: souvenir plastic tomahawks and melmac cups.
On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Dec. 161/2 -
2005
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Neil Gaiman
bibliography
If one wasn’t an author one would be a really boring person filled with peculiar bits of trivia…. For an author, all of this ‘white knowledge’, the kipple in the back of your head, no longer is old keys and broken batteries, abandoned buttons, forgotten paper clips; it’s actually useful!
Different Kinds of Pleasure in Locus Feb. 9/1 -
2012
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Kim Stanley Robinson
bibliography
Rock scattered everywhere, rubble, kipple, ejecta.
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Research requirements
antedating 1960
Research History
We would like to verify the P. K. Dick cite from an earlier edition of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".
Last modified 2021-08-31 15:59:49
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