F The pseudo middle initial of Speer. F is otherwise the most important
initial in fandom, beginning as it does such words as fantasy, fan, FooFoo,
future, fiction, feud -- well, read on and see for yourself.
FAAAAAN (Tucker) Bob's sardonic distortion of our title is pronounced
with what is almost a bray, suitable for designating a group full of
LMJ's and sheeplike followers.
FABULOUS BURBEE-LIKE CHARACTER (Laney) can probably be recognized by his
triangular halo. It means a person like fan-
humorist Charles Burbee, and you can't hardly get that kind anyplace nowadays.
FAFIA A variant of Gafia; "Forced Away From It All."
FAKE FAN Phrase coined about 1940, applied to Jack Weidenbeck, who roomed
with fans and enjoyed their company but shunned all responsibility
in fan doings and institutions. Generally speaking, one who hangs around fans
but takes no active part in fan affairs, and may not read fantasy. Fans are,
after all, at least theoretically fantasy enthusiasts; fake fans are fandom
enthusiasts. They don't read prozines. (Sometimes they don't even read
fanzines.) They don't remember vast numbers of insignificant details about
fantasy stories and their authors illustrators and publishers. They don't
collect books or proz. Fake fans do not have the haggard look that is the
mark of the true fan trying to keep abreast of the latest developments in
stfdom. And there are some fans who like to describe themselves as fakefans
to symbolize disinterest, but their continued fanac belies them.
FAN A follower, devotee, or admirer of any sport or diversion. In our case
the diversion is fantasy in book and magazine form, on film, and on the
airwaves. The fan buys, sell, trades, collects, and discusses this stuff.
Some of them even read it. Professional editors, like Palmer of old, call all
people who read their magazines pretty regularly fans; and indeed the term is
so used by the stfnists who merely write letters to the editor and collect
prozines, but the fen of fandom have a more restricted meaning in mind.
What this meaning is is difficult to say. (If the Greeks had a word for
it, they never used that word in public.) Generally one whom we designate as
a fan in fandom maintains a correspondence with other fans, and visits them
when located in the same area. He may publish or write for a fanzine -- or
several of them. He often attends local club meetings, and, finances
permitting, conferences or national conventions. This is a matter of degree,
and depending on the extent to which a given fan indulges in anything more
than local club activity he may be distinguished as an actifan (as opposed to
passifen); stress on crifanac rather than congoing, among actifans, is the
chief extensional distinction between trufans and confans.
Introspectives like fans naturally do much speculating on what and why
fans are. Medhurst surveys the following theories: Gernsback's idea of
developing potential scientific genius in his readers; the idea that fans are
a separate species, slans or whatever you want to call them, which Degler made
ridiculous; that stfanaticism is sublimated sex drive; and that fans are young
men in blind alleys of life, seeking escape from "the humdrum, workaday
world". A theory well received is Norm Stanley's "sense of fantasy", a taste
for the imaginative analogous to the sense of humor. Probably a complex of
characteristics goes into the fan type. We do, however, show some significant
variations from the average in geographical distribution, national extraction,
age, sex distribution, intelligence, introversion, and suchlike factors.
Dislike of the common connotations of the word "fan" had led to the
suggestion of various substitutes for it, such as stefnist and "imaginist".
FAN FICTION (1) Sometimes meaning by fans in the manner of pros; that is,
ordinary fantasy published in a fanzine. Properly, it means
(2) fiction by fans about fans (or sometimes about pros) having no
necessary connection with stfantasy. "Convention reports are a nice example
of this", Bob Pavlat points out. It may refer to real fans by name: "Redd
Boggs silped his Nuclear Fizz in the Insurgent manner..." or it may be about
types, especially Joe Fann. The background may be either fantastic, as "Joe
Fann into Space", or mundane, as in "Murder at the ChiCon" (tho this would be
fantasy under Speer's scheme, since it describes events we know didn't happen
on our time line). Fictitious elements may be interspersed in accounts of fan
activities, which may make them more interesting but is hell on truthseekers
like your Thoukydides. A few special categories have been distinguished from
time to time, like Ted Tubb's "Trufan fiction" (fiction about fans in fandom),
and Larry Stark's Serconfanfiction for serious, and more or less mundane,
fiction featuring fans.
FANAC Fan activity. Devoting time, energy, and money to non-profit pursuits
in the general field of fantasy and fandom. This includes reading,
collecting, corresponding, belonging to organizations, writing, publishing,
recruiting new fans, visiting fellow stfnists, perhaps living with them in a
science-fiction house, and attending fan gatherings.
Most fen pass thru a certain cycle of activeness; after getting familiar
with the field they start taking on projects left and right, not realizing
that they're building up to a peak that they haven't time to maintain.
Suddenly they announce that they must drop all fanac (except subbing to a
couple of fanzines and writing a couple of correspondents) because activities
in the mundane world are demanding most of their time and energy. Some
disappear from fandom at this point, but many others discover after a while
that they still need the intellectual companionship and means of self-
expression in fandom and can find time to take on a little more activity, and
so at length find a fairly constant level that they can keep up, barring
catastrophes like getting married or drafted. (Not that there aren't quite a
number of GIs and husbands keeping up a fair degree of activity.)
Oh, and also we note here FANAC: a news-and-chatter 'zine published by
Terry Carr and Ron Ellik, begun 1958. It was part of the trend mentioned in
the second sentence under "Seventh Fandom", and, indeed, a noble example of
it. But due to its activity the news of the series of deaths in fandom in
1958 got that wide circulation and general impact that gave the Year of the
Jackpot its name.
FANARCHISTS (1) Genuine anarchists who are also fans; New Yorkers, mostly.
(2) Those who oppose the existence of general, or even regional,
fan organizations on the ground that people are congenitally unable to form an
organization that does not involve the abuse of power... not in the sense of
an individual's lust for power but in a different way which results from group
action itself and vitiates the most enlightened decisions, with the
viciousness of any fan group tending to be proportional to its size.
Fully articulated this doctrine is a species of rugged individualism
which asserts that fans acting singly or in small natural groups of a few fen
linked by common interests can achieve more, for a given amount of work, than
thru a large and cumbersome organization. Their attitude is mainly a reaction
against the uncritical organizing instinct of young fen who say we gotta
organize to get things done and in organization there is strength and an
organization will help coordinate us, without having any but the vaguest idea
of the referents behind their words, and often trusting in false analogies.
FANATIONALISM Despite its minuteness, fandom has in its thirty-odd years of
existence developed a distinct national spirit similar to the
nationalism of modern states. The idea of a national government, covering all
the slan race, is seen in many drives for a general fan organization. The
idea of a homeland is exemplified in dens, science fiction houses, clubrooms,
and finally in the proposed Slan Center and Fantasy Foundation. This
dictionary is a work in the national language; another facet of the same thing
was the old plugging of Esperanto as Science Fiction's Tung of Tomoro. In the
matter of national religion we have Roscoe, plus such things as ghughism,
foofooism, khamsin, etc, but more truly religious is the quest for a Purpose
for fandom, and the idea of swearing on your honor as a fan. The fannish idea
of the mission of the nation has been satirized in fan fiction about the
setting up of a Fantastocracy and the like. Race superiority is implied in
the claims of starbegottenness and slanhood. A national literature complete
in all fields has encouraged work in fan and fantasy drama, narrative poetry,
music, and so on. National heroes have had tough sledding because of our
iconoclastic bent, but a few near-deities have emerged (plus a few near-
demons). Expansionism is expressed in recruiting activity. A number of
distinctive fan folkways are described scattered thru this encyclopedia.
FAN-DANGO AWARDS In his campaign of Insurgentism F Towner Laney printed up a
number of large certificates like the ones you see on the
facing page for presentation to the conspicuously fuzzlewitted. The originals
were printed rather'n lithographed, and Laney described them as "suitable for
framing" tho none of the recipients are known to have done so. (Don Wilson
did tack his up on the wall over his desk.) Altho the awards were supposed to
be annual, they were really given out only once (in 1949) by Laney; recipients
were Russ Woodman, Don Wilson, and Sam Moskowitz, first, second, and third
ranking fuggheads for the quarter ending September 1949. The last Fan-Dango
Award was presented to Laney himself, by Walt Willis, for taking up stamp
collecting.
FANDOM The world in which fans live and move and have their being. (With an
ordinal number attached it refers usually to Speer's system of fan
history, treated under Numerical Fandoms.) Sociologically it is the class of
all fans who are in contact with others, indulging in fanac or simply being
aware of the existence of fans all over the world. Physically it might be
imagined as comprising all the science fiction houses, and all fans' dens as
well as other storage space and equipment that they use in fan activity, and
convention halls and streets and eke park benches while groups of fans are in
possession of them. Unincorporated territories include the possessions of
mere scientifictionists.
Fandom got its start in New York City around 1930 when people who had
been writing to the prozines began writing to each other. In following years
SF clubs were formed and monthly bulletins issued. The movement spread like
an epidemic. In the 30s there were perhaps one or two hundred fans at a given
time; by 1948, maybe a thousand; today there may be as many as five thousand
in all parts of the world, about 2000 of these in America. (It has been
suggested by Harry Warner that the size of active fandom is naturally limited
by the availability of its objective; namely, egoboo.)
Aside from the fandom in the United States, Anglofandom began at the same
time and at times has surpassed the Amerifans in activeness. Canadian fandom
as an entity became important about 1940; it hosted the first Worldcon outside
the US (TorCon, 1948). By 1952 it had recovered from this experience, pretty
nearly. Because of interest and friendship linkages beyond that of language,
all three of these -- and probably the small but active Anzac fandoms -- can
be considered, usually, as one unit. But fans outside the English-speaking
bloc have increased tremendously in numbers since World War II, also.
From time to time, people will stand up and ask what is the purpose of
fandom. The Michelistic reply was that fandom should associate itself with
political movements for a scientific/socialistic world state; other semi-
Michelistic replies are along similar lines in that some sort of political
interest is enjoined. Speer maintains that fandom, as fandom, should
influence the world only thru its influence on individual fans, who may be
influential men some day. Some have believed that stimulation of science is
our chief justification; others, that stimulation of fiction is our purpose --
i.e., that fans should function as connoisseurs of science fiction [persons
with trained and cultivated tastes in the field] in trying to raise its
literary standards. And there are those who hold the pleasure derived from
fanac its own justification.
NUMERICAL FANDOMS Aside from mere chronological information, study of the
history of fandom seems to show trends dominating the whole
field at different times. (One of the most obvious is the relative amount of
emphasis given by fanzines to the proz, to other fanzines, and to aspects of
fandom having nothing to do with fantasy.) Early speculations included
comparisons with various stages of Macrocosmic Occidental history (with
special reference to the Dark Ages), but Jack Speer developed the most popular
and flexible theory by application of Spenglerian principles of cyclic
history. In the first Fancyclopedia (1944) he distinguished three fandoms --
periods of distinct and marked characteristics -- separated by two transitions
in which characteristics of preceding and succeeding fandoms were mingled.
Later Bob Silverberg distinguished three more following these, in an article
for QUANDRY (Halloween '52), and drew attention to the parallel with the
varieties of mankind in Stapledon's Last and First Men. And he
predicted the rise of a Seventh Fandom following these, with results described
below.
Eofandom, from about 1930 to 1933, existed before fandom became an
entity; generally comprised of folk with no sense of group existence whose
interests were in collecting stf and scientificomics, and who eagerly hunted
down any items with any sort of stfnal significance. Such fanzines as Science
Fiction Digest and The Comet were the mags of the day. Primitive trilobites
crawled about on the ocean floor. Letter-writing was a major activity, and
stfnists depended on hcs of the past as much as, or more than, prozines for
sustenance.
First Fandom, 1933-1936, was marked mainly by interest in science and
science-fiction, with fanzines consisting mostly of forecasts of lineups in
the proz, interviews with prominent authors, fan fiction [def. (1)], sometimes
novelty fiction by pros, science snippets, and other depressing things.
Fantasy magazine was the dominant fan publication thruout this period.
First Transition ran from the decline of Fantasy Magazine in late 1936 to
the Third Convention. It was marked by a shift of interest away from the pro
field (then in recession) to the fans themselves. There was consequently more
fan news in the fanzines; more fanzines; and talk about things having little
relation to SF but interesting to the fans. The ISA was the leading
organization during its life.
Second Fandom, October 1937 to October 1938 [when the Quadrumvirs
resigned office in FAPA]. Out of the increasing interest in fandom came
Michelism, and political discussions were most noticeable tho many other
things not related to fantasy were booted about. Fan feuds reached the
proportions of fan wars, mainly between the Wollheimists and their enemies,
climaxing with the Newark Convention and the FAPA campaign (May-June 1938).
Second Transition, from the 1938 Philadelphia Conference to the ChiCon I.
It was marked by the Barbarian Invasion, the ascendancy of New Fandom, and the
consequent switch of emphasis heavily back toward professional science fiction
tho there was still lots of discussion of other things.
Third fandom, from September 1940 to late 1944 when many of the older fen
had been drafted. Warring factions healed their differences or were less in
evidence; the underlying fraternity of stfnists was prominent, and a balance
was struck between stf and other things that fans were interested in. A
general fan organization was much desired, but that which was established as
the N3F ran into difficulties as war came to America. There was much talk of
fandom "maturing"; the Brain Trust was dominant in FAPA; serious thoughtful
discussions of everything under the sun were offered; and at the same time
there was a flood of digests and indexes and bibliographies of this that and
t'other, regarded as a summation and consolidation of past achievements in
fandom. Harry Warner's SPACEWAYS, with its intellectuality and deemphasis of
feuding, was the dominant fanzine of the period.
Third Transition, setting in about the time Speer's Fancyclopedia
climaxed the last trend of US Third Fandom noted above, and continuing to the
failure of Operation Futurian in 1946. A thinning of the blood in the Brain
Trust ("a poetic way of saying they gave priority to other claims on their
time"), accumulation of deadwood, and missingness of many older fans in the
Armed Forces brought on arteriosclerosis of the Golden Age; but shortly
thereafter the rise of new fans, and the return of the early releases from the
Armed Forces, with the reunion-cons like the FPWESFC led to a revival. Chief
fan event of this period was the extinction of the Futurians in the power
struggles beginning with VAPA and the Little Interregnum and climaxing in the
X Document fight.
Fourth Fandom. The boom in stf publishing (1941-43) had been put down by
the war, and five of the eight survivors (Weird, Amz, FA, ASF, FFM) ignored
fandom, which led to a congregation of communicating fans in the lettercolumns
of the Standard Twins and Planet Stories. Ill-feeling against Ziff-Davis and
Palmer over the Shaver Mystery led to a general declaration of feud against
Rap which did not, however, come to a head till the next stage in our history.
Keynote fans of Fourth Fandom were letterhacks, who mostly dropped by the
wayside tho Chad Oliver went on from here to prodom. Their symbol and
representative was Sergeant Saturn. In the early part of this period lack of
proz led to a trend toward book collecting; a revival of prozines in its
latter half produced a small Barbarian Invasion phenomenon. And the raucous
cries of the Hucksters were heard everywhere.
Fifth Fandom, tho short-lived (From the PhilCon I to just before the
Korean War) left a sharper impress on history than the Fourth. It was a
period of escape from the juvenile aspects of Fourth Fandom; Art Rapp's
SPACEWARP summed up the essence of the era, which its lifetime spanned. As
after the first Barbarian Invasion, fans began to notice the prozines once
more -- and vice versa with the establishment of Rog Phillips' Club
House column in Amazing. As Sarge Saturn was the pro sounding board for
Fourth Fandom, RPG was that of the Fifth. The pure-stefnistic opposition to
the Hucksters passed into the Insurgent Movement; one of its symptoms was
Ah! Sweet Idiocy! Others such as the Shaver War (which ended during
this period with the ejection of the Mystery from Amaziff and resignation of
Palmer from his editorship), the uproar over the Miss Science Fiction
promotion at the CinVention, and the soulsearching about the Literary Value of
Science Fiction which led to a session of Bradbury worship were also aspects
of the struggle against commercialism.
Fifth Transition, from about the beginning of the Korean War to the last
of 1951, saw a diffusion of interests in fandom, with a wartime boom in stf
coinciding with Campbell's amazing advocacy of crackpottery like Dianetics
while the Gafiation of opposition leaders like Rapp and the Insurgents left
Tucker's Bloomington News Letter briefly the top fanzine. The rise of Quandry
ended this period.
Sixth Fandom as a real force began in Room 770 at the NOLaCon. At least,
tho not actually born there (for correspondence and the letter-columns of Q
and Fanvariety had clearly given the impetus some months before the NOLaCon),
its first central meeting may be said to have been there. Contrasting to
Fourth Fandom, Sixth Fandom existed at a time when there was too much science
fiction -- twelve to eighteen proz a month, several hc specialist houses, and
many stf books appearing in pb form. The cleavage between the trufans on the
one hand, and the pros and their satellites on the other, was evident,
reflecting in such things as the Big Convention movement, the opposing move to
small informal gatherings like the MidWestCon, and, later, Serious
Constructive Insurgentism. The size of Sixth Fandom led to an assortment of
trends of which the split mentioned was only the most notable, but it is
generally held to have centered around Lee Hoffman's Quandry and to have
followed Pogo as its fictional hero. Big names were people like Hoffwoman,
Shelby Vick, Walt Willis, and Max Keasler, tho veterans of previous fandoms
like Tucker, Silverberg, Warner, and Boggs were influential. It was alleged
that it folded with the gafiation of Keasler, Vick, and Leeh (especially) and
the corresponding lapse of their fanzines.
Sixth Transition. The major phenomenon of the Sixth Transition was 7th
Fandom, self-so-called. This was organized at the HECon (at Harlan Ellison's
apartment, May 1953) shortly after the black-bordered Quandry announcing
Leeh's gafiation arrived. A group of neofans, mostly youngsters, there began
a formally organized campaign to begin "Seventh Fandom", whose arrival
Silverberg had earlier predicted. (They did not understand that historical
eras do not begin by somebody's arbitrary decision.) Old fans refused to lay
down and die, but 7th Fandom ("the phoney Seventh") was an important influence
during its day in that the war against these "noisy juveniles" marked the end
of the old Sixth Fandom. Some fans, poking fun, proclaimed the rise of 8th,
69th, and 200th Fandom on the ruins of 7th; others withdrew into the APAs,
which became the main carriers of fannish tradition while the barbarians
howled outside.
Seventh Fandom (the era) arose after the downputting of 7th Fandom (the
movement) amid general indignation after the shoddy exhibitions at the
MidWestCon and SFCon in 1954. It led to renewed interest in fandom as fandom,
exemplified in such publications as The Enchanted Duplicator and also in later
phenomena like the attempts to start a regular fan monthly as a "rallying
point" and the rise of weekly and biweekly fan magazines of the letter
substitute (news-and-chatter) type, more fannish than the older formal
newszines. Re-emphasis on fandom brought a clash with the commercializing
element which showed up in dissatisfaction with the NYCon II and a violent fan
feud over the definition of a "real" fan. These clashes and the disgraceful
fight over WSFS' plane trip may be phenomena of Seventh Fandom or symptoms of
a transition which cannot be distinguished at this point in history. From
close range it seems that diffusion of interests is the keynote of Seventh
Fandom, as diffusion of trends was of the Sixth. It is not impossible that a
Third-Fandom-like Brain Trust will develop.
FANDOM IS A WAY OF LIFE "Fandom as a Fandom is a way of life
way of life", Where each boy is like a wife
originally; it was the title of a tongue And yet they think it odd of me
in cheek article by DB Thompson in which That I won't sponsor sodomy.
(FAPA, 1943) he pointed out some pecu- -- Charles Burbee
liar folkways in Fandom. The notion that
Fandom was a serious business -- a way of life or whatever you want to call it
-- was taken quite seriously by Ashley, Speer, and even Laney about this time,
tho even that early they saw the defects in the concept. Since the Insurgents
began debunking it with such comments as the quoted one, it has become a
slogan used proudly, disgustedly, apologetically, or how you will, depending
on the mood and attitude of the user. Often heard is Burbee's other counter-
crack, FANDOM IS JUST A GODDAMN HOBBY.
FANDOM'S OLDEST ORGANIZATION -- ESTABLISHED 1937 (Or, more usually, approxi-
mations and parodies of
this) refers to FAPA, which was and is the oldest Fandom-wide organization.
There are other clubs like the LASFS and PSFS which are older but are locals.
JOE FANN (Tucker) Originated as a sort of pename in LeZombie; credited with
JOPHAN various gaglines and criticisms which Tucker thought up and wished
some reader had remarked. Then Perdue began sending Tucker
postcards from all over the country, signed by Joe Fann, and Joe was finally
adopted by fans in general as the fans' idea of the typical fan.
He is a young fellow, not long out of adolescence, who faunches to set
the world on fire but isn't sure how to go about it. He hasn't had much
experience with the opposite sex, but shows a great eagerness to learn. He
gets grand ideas about putting out forty-'leven different super-duper
fanzines, of which one or two may materialize in unprepossessing formats. He
reads all the proz thru his thick-lensed glasses, even when there are a dozen
a month, and writes detailed letters to the editors (especially picking out
flaws in science) and goes into ecstasy when one of them is published. He
thinks fans are the swellest people on earth, and would murder his grandmother
for money to go to a convention; but since he hasn't a grandmother will ride
the rods if necessary. He puts stf into everything he says and does -- his
work, school papers, den, 'n' everything. He's a good deal of a fuggheaded
dope. Fortunately the picture is not true to life, is it?
Jophan, the hero of Walt Willis' The Enchanted Duplicator, is
quite a different character despite the derivation of his name from the above,
and in his pilgrimage from the Land of Mundane to Trufandom manages to avoid,
or be rescued from, the grisly neofannish characteristics outlined above. But
then Jophan had the Spirit of Trufandom to guide him.
FANNE (pronounced "fan"). A female fan; also femmefan. Nancy Share tried to
introduce Firl, but this didn't catch on. Feminine objection to this
term is caused by clods giving the silent E full value (of Fanspeak).
FANNETTES Prime mover of this all-girl fan club was Marion Cox. Her club
included 50 or more femmefans, such as Carol McKinney, Maril
Shrewsbury, Vee Hampton, DEA, and others, but not Marion Z Bradley, who
wrote in the club OO, The Femizine, for Jan '53: "Frankly, I think it's
impossible for women, with no help from the 'sterner sex', to do anything in
the literary fanzine field. Man alone can manage something of strength and
talent without feminine influence. It may be graceless, even ugly, but it
will be strong. Women alone, sans masculine influence, impetus, or admiration,
produce nothing of any worth." [Aw, shucks, Marion...] To justify this
vigourous opinion the club, formed in 1952, ran down in 1953, was revived in
mid-1954 by Honey Wood and Noreen Falasca, and collapsed once more.
FANS ARE ABOVE SEX This'll show you what crazy ideas people have about us.
It was attributed, with dubious validity, to Ackerman as a
result of the actions described in paragraph 3 under LASFS.
FANS ARE SLANS Literally understood, "fans are superman mutants" -- or, at
least, "fans are smarter than most people" -- but actual
semantic content is according to the mood and attitude of the user.
FANS ARE THE RACE OF TOMORROW A Cosmic Circle motto; same significance as
the next above.
FANS OUTSIDE ANGLOPARLANTIA Impinge only marginally on us, tho the exchange
with our fellow stficionados in Spanish America,
France, Germany, and Scandinavia adds that je ne sais quoi to fannish
life. Before the end of World War II all known stfnists lived in America or
the British Empire, except for Gallic Georges Gallet, Deutschlander Herbert
Häusler, and Hungarian Andrew Lennard. But after the war a tremendous
increase in the popularity of science-fiction in other countries must have
occurred; concerning the details your Plutarch has been unable to make any
determinations. The International SF Society, Erwin Scudla in charge, claims
3000 members and branches in practically every nation of Western Europe. Some
of its affiliates are the SF Club de Paris, Club Futopia, SF Club Europa,
Transgalaxis, Cosmos Club, and Clube de Literatura Policiaria. Fan life has
been discovered in Japan and Greece and is reported in the Communist Empire.
This doesn't count isolated people scattered from South Africa to the Formosa
Straits who are, so to speak, expatriated members of other national fandoms.
FANSMANSHIP (Bob Shaw) "Fansmanship is the art of convincing other fans that
you are a much bigger fan than they are; it will help to relieve
fandom of some of that disgustingly genuine good fellowship of which there is
at present far too much." (SLANT 5) The idea derives from
Gamesmanship.
FANSPEAK (Orwell:Rapp) The language (a dialect of English, say philologists)
employed by fans in communication; the contractions, coined words,
and adopted expressions met with among fans; one of the glossaries (by Art
Rapp in 1948, revised by Redd Boggs and Lee Hoffman in 1952) of the same name
defining common expressions in the tongue. Tho often spoken, Fanspeak is
demonstrated by its construction to be basically a literary language; such
things as Ackermanisms and the significant variations in spelling of many fan
words are unintelligible -- and commonly undetectable -- off the duplicated
page.
FANTAST Roughly the same as "stfnist", but indicating a larger interest, both
as regards other types of fantasy and fantasy outside the proz and
well-known books.
FANTASTIC Properly should mean "pertaining to fantasy", but its connotations
have made it seem to indicate irresponsible flights of fantasy,
causing fans to object to such names as Ziff-Davis' Fantastic, even tho it is
appropriate in that case. In fact, we object to Ziff-Davis' Fantastic period
FANTASY As a general term, describes the whole field of science-fiction, pure
fantasy, and weird fiction; it's also used as synonymous with "pure"
fantasy. Other divisions of fantasy in addition to the three above have been
proposed but are not generally recognized, so that the whole field remains
somewhat arbitrarily divided among these three. When used to designate a
division of the general field of fantasy equivalent to the classifications of
science-fiction and weird fiction, fantasy means the sort of thing whose only
believability is in the reader's acceptance of it for the sake of the story.
It may take beliefs which were once widely held, like Hellenic mythology, but
if it does it must mix in a modern element; otherwise you're in the province
of weird fiction. And there may be a gesture at a pseudo-scientific or "you
can't be sure" explanation, but this doesn't make it science-fiction because
the explanation isn't meant to be taken seriously. Wollheim suggested the
designation of this sort of fantasy as "pure" fantasy to avoid confusion with
the general field.
Historically, general fantasy began with primitive mythology and
religious stories, and went on thru tales of fays, little men, and the like,
paralleled by the darker superstitions of ghosts, ghouls, vampires, etc. In
all countries, tho, there are early stories, told for pleasure, of flights to
other worlds, as well as the "imaginary wars and battles", "imaginary
voyages", and "Utopias" under which Sam Russell says fantasy is still often
classified by scholastics.
Distinction of the three types we have given may be traced to the middle
of the Eighteenth Century, when the Gothic Weird story arose sooner and
developed more highly than SF. Science fiction, of course, could not truly
begin until the age of science, and may be said to have started at the end of
the Eighteenth Century, when writers like the American Charles Brockden Brown
added the element of plausibility thru a scientific explanation to the Gothic
tale. Pure fantasy as a regular form appeared late, aside from fairy tales
for children, or (like Lewis Carroll's) allegedly for children. The "modern
mythology" of Unknown was for the most part pure fantasy; so were the
Lovecraft Mythos.
In the decades around 1900 many writers touched fantasy at times:
Burroughs, HR Haggard, etc. By the World War, mundane magazines published
science fiction occasionally, and there were a few minor all-fantasy
periodicals. Weird Tales appeared in March 1923, and Hugo Gernsback (who had
been publishing at least one stfyarn a month in Science and Invention since
1920) launched Amazing Stories in April 1926, first of the Big Three proz.
The rest you know.
FANTASY ART SOCIETY A British club supplying art work to British and American
fanzines; Alan Hunter and others were wheels. Flourished
in the early fifties.
FANTASY ARTISANS A sort of correspondence club for fans interested in fantasy
and SF artwork, existing for the exchange of information
about technique of drawing, stencilling, etc, as well as exchange of
criticism, and for fulfilling requests of fan editors for fantasy artwork.
(The word "Artisans" was obviously a misnomer.) Organized in early 1948, they
held a meeting at the CinVention and collaborated there with Art Rapp on
production of a CinVention Daily which folded (after one day) from lack of
support by the other fans. Published an issue or two of the OO, Fantasy
Artisan, before folding in 1951. One Ken Brown was "pic" (: President); the
leading lights of the group were John Grossman, Russ Manning, Bill Kroll,
Jerri Bullock, and, later, Frank Dietz.
FANTASY FOUNDATION In ancient times did Ackerman Well, reasonably
A stf Academie envision ancient; when 4e
(Nothing from his mind farther than was drafted in
The thought that any sort of fan the fall of 1942,
Would view it with derision...) he willed his
collection to
fandom and set up a $1000 insurance policy to help fandom maintain it. At the
Pacificon Ackerman decided not to put things off till his death, and
presented to the assembled fen a scheme for the present Fantasy Foundation,
inviting support and contributions. Tho intended to publish bibliographies
and similar material and create a Master Library of Imaginative Literature,
the thing never really got off the ground. Laney developed the idea of an
organization which would be of utility to any student or lover of fantasy, but
at present the thing is merely a museum-appendix to Ackerman's own collection.
Only important production: the 1948 Fantasy Annual.
FANTASY SECRETARY A secretarial service for busy SF writers which would type
manuscripts, and also do duplicating, envelope-addressing,
etc, at 27a Wynell Rd, London.
FANTHEOLOGY The ghod-lore of Each fan sometime in his career
fandom -- distin- To Inner Voices lends an ear
guish, please, from its mytho- And with true fannish asininity
logy, which concerns fans On fandom foists a new divinity.
themselves as a rule. The It has been done before, he knows,
source of these deities is As when the glorious Ghu arose
indicated by Art Rapp in the And gathered in believers true
verses at right, and other- Until opposed by famous Foo.
wise in his observation that Then Cosmic Circle had its birth:
the fannish religions, as "To hell with heaven; Clod's on earth!"
explained under "Ghods", are And it might be alive today
sublimations of our actual If Clod had washed his feet of clay.
impulses in religious matters. Then Mighty Roscoe's Cult arose
(As every SPACEWARP reader knows)
KNIGHTS OF ST FANTONY Invented Interpreted by deacons three:
by the Rick Sneary, Edmund Cox, and me.
Cheltenhamites (Eric Jones, The moral of this history, fan,
Peter Mabey, and Bob Richardson) Is: Cults ain't founded by one slan;
who maintain a Shrine of St. Attempts by two make fandom nod,
Fantony and initiate the For only T'ree can make a ghod.
deserving into the order of
his knights.
FANVARIETY ENTERPRISES An affiliation of fan publishers, built up by Max
Keasler and Bill Venable about 1952. At its height
the group included Keasler's OPUS (he had folded the eponymic FANVARIETY),
Venable's PENDULUM, Bob Peatrowsky's MOTE, Dave English's FANTASIAS, Nan
Gerding's CHIGGER PATCH, Harlan Ellison's SF BULLETIN, Ian MacAuley's ASFO
(ex-COSMAG), Hirschhorn's TYRANN, Browne's VANATIONS, Nydahl's VEGA, Orma
McCormick's STARLANES, Mosher's PROJECT FAN CLUB, Don Susan's THE PIT, and
John Magnus' SF. Gawd, what a rogue's gallery!
FANZINE (Chauvenet) An amateur magazine published by and for fans. Aside
from this practically nothing can be predicated of the "typical"
fanzine except its size (quarto) and means of reproduction (mimeo). Much of
fandom's energy is expended on these fanzines, which range in quality from the
incredibly excellent to the abysmally illiterate. Some species of genus
fanzine may best be described here:
Generalzines are fanzines with numerous contributors and a wide range of
subjects appearing in any one issue. They may be of subclasses APAzine,
Subzine, or OO: namely, published for circulation in an APA, to a subscription
list, or as the Official Organ of some organization. [OOs in principle go to
all members of an organization; they may or may not have outside circulation.]
Individzines, on the other hand, are written practically entirely by one
individual, the editor-publisher. There were one-man fanzines at least as far
back as 1936, when Dollens launched the SF Collector, but this type is really
a product of the APAs and comprises most of the contents of any bundle. Two
subtypes are distinguished by Speer: alpha has the outward appearance of a
subzine, with separate articles on unrelated subjects, departments, fillers,
cover illos, ktp. Subtype beta is very much like a conversational monolog, in
which the editor moves along from one subject to another as he is reminded of
it, with no attempt at formal or objective, timeless style. Letter
substitutes are the end product of this.
The first fanzines were club organs, published mainly for members and a
few non-locals who might be interested. The first important fanzine was The
Time Traveller (1932) which was absorbed by Science Fiction Digest and the
combined mag shortly re-named Fantasy Magazine. Subscription fanzines
blossomed thereafter at a quickening rate; in 1937 came the newsie and around
1940 the individzine.
Originally the names of fanzines were simply descriptive: The
International Observer [ISA], The Science Fiction Fan, Fantasy-News, etc.
Gradually the stock of such names ran low, and titles were taken from anything
pertaining to fantasy to feed the insatiable publishing mania of stfans: Le
Zombie, Skyhook, 2000 AD, usw. Eventually even apparent reference to fantasy
was lost in such titles as Wild Hair, Grue, Archive, and Garage Floor.
However, these three stages overlap, and new pubs still appear with explicit
titles. Many also have pet names.
The longest run enjoyed by any fanzine is that of Taurasi's
Fantasy/Science Fiction Times, currently working on its third hundred; first
to appear was RAPalmer's The Comet (May 1930); most ornate was Bill Rotsler's
Masque, "The Gaudy Fanzine", which had artwork of every possible type except
statuary (indeed, there were some photos of that). Largest was EYE #3
with 185 pages; most reliable, perhaps, was Lee Hoffman's SF Five-Yearly,
which really did appear at the stated intervals; most cosmopolitan in point of
production was the wartime Fantast's Folly, run in the US from German-made
stencils captured in France and cut in Austria.
As to announced periodicity, there have been: one hourly fanzine, several
dailies (all these continuous for short periods only), weeklies, biweeklies,
and triweeklies, monthlies, bimonthlies, quarterlies, annuals, one (Wild Hair)
biseptimensual, the abovementioned five-yearly, and of course one-shots and
frankly irregular items. Unfortunately, most of the others are irregular too,
generally appearing much less often than their announced frequency, and
suffering such a high mortality rate that the mag that reaches an annish is a
real achievement. (Forbye, when subzines fold it isn't considered sporting to
return your money; Harry Warner and AL Joquel are the only stfnists known to
have done so.)
Fan magazines are the great vehicle of thought in our republic of
letters, and our most characteristic product.
FAPA ("FAP-uh") The Fantasy Amateur Press Association, constituted in 1937
by Wollheim and Michel. Others soon joined, up to its constitutional
limit of 50 (raised to 65 in 1943). The first year of FAPA was stormy with
party politics and sociological feuds, and its third year, 1939-40, was marked
by the Interregnum. Thereafter the prophets of Third Fandom came into
control. At the beginning of 1945 withdrawal of the Futurians, some of whom
were officers, precipitated a Little Interregnum and during the next two years
a series of officers who refused to function plagued the group (see
Blitzkrieg). In 1947 Speer reformed the Constitution, and the Insurgents
quashed the last inactive OE, Perdue. Since then official troubles have not
disturbed FAPA, and red tape has been held to a minimum. The Constitution was
again revised in 1958 (also by Speer) to incorporate amendments, bylaws, and
practices adopted since 1947.
FAPA is primarily an agency for distributing to its members publications
put out by its members at their own expense. This it does by mailings every
three months. Members are required to be active in some way -- writing or
publishing -- and produce at least 8 pages of activity a year. There are
annual elections (August) of a president, vice-president, secretary-treasurer
and official editor; the two former cannot hold the same post again for five
years. Other officials have included Official Critics, a Laureate Committee,
and ballot counters.
FAPA was the stronghold of the Brain Trust during Third Fandom, and has
always been the most influential general fan organization; in fact, such APAs
are the only general fan organizations that are really active.
FAPACON The get-together of faaaans living near the Official Editor, to pack
and wrap the FAPA's quarterly mailing; especially those held at Dick
Eney's place in Virginia during 1956-1958, when the name was instituted.
FAPATE, FAPANS, FAPS All names designating members of FAPA. The second is
that endorsed by usage (prob'ly by analogy with "fans")
but really the first is correct; FAPA is an association, so its members are
associates.
FATE In the fannish sense is not the quasi-mystical prozine put out by Ray
Palmer, but refers to the Fantasy Amateur Tape Exchange; an organization
started by William McCory Danner in 1955. He donated the 1200-foot roll of
tape which constituted FATE's stamping ground, recording about 15 minutes and
sending it on thru a suggested chain of members which included, eventually,
Lee&Larry Shaw, Harry Warner jr, Boyd Raeburn, DAG, Wrai Ballard, Leej, WR,
Burbee, and of course Danner himself. Later, when Leej dropped out, J&dYoung
were added, on the ground that they had descendants to carry on the next cycle
of the tape. As this motive suggests, the reel moves but turgidly around the
circuit, and may visit any member rarely oftener than twice a year if that.
The same idea is used in various other chains such as KISMET and, before tape
recorders became common, was used by wirecorder fans.
FAUNCH A sort of vague, indeterminate yearning or tendency; sometimes, the
physical activity resulting therefrom.
FEDERATION Union of smaller organizations which are equal in importance to
the union. This type of setup is most generally favored in
theoretical proposals for a general fan organization, but an effort by the N3F
to live up to its name by creating an hierarchy of state and regional
organizations came at an unfortunate time. Groups calling themselves
federations include the N3F, MWFFF, and Degler's Planet Fantasy Federation.
FEMMEFANS Explaining everything is contrary to our philosophy of
education.
FEN Plural of fan, by analogy with man/men; it came into wide use after a
Maine conference solemnly voted its adoption. But the term is not
universally accepted, and some dislike it.
FEN COMMANDMENTS Are elaborated at various times by the whimsical. The only
one on which there is general agreement is #7, "Thou shalt
not drink up the bheer before I get there." Don't go confusing this sort of
thing with the Fan Commendments, a best-of-the-year poll instituted by
newszine Fanac.
FERSCHLUGGINER A Mad-word; "a sort of clean dirty word". From Yiddish
"far-schlogner", which we may translate "all beat up".
FEUDS In principle a feud exists when one party to an argument tries to drive
the opposition out of fandom, or to get fans as a whole to follow some
course he opposes or refuse to follow one he advocates. And the word is also
often applied to the mere slinging of bitter words.
The cause of a feud may be an important issue which isn't settled
peaceably, such as the failure of Wonder Stories to pay young authors which
brought on the ISA-SFL war; or the scrapping over a fan organization which
characterized the Insurgent Wars; or it may be something as minor as the rights to
the pename Franklin Ford. A number of conflicts we consider as feuds spring
from apparently idealistic motivations: opposition to crackpottism in fandom
with some of Degler's opponents; ditto in the proz with Palmerism in general
and the Shaver Mystery in particular; opposition to commercialization in the
TAFF fracas. Or feuds may rest upon differences of opinion or ideology which
continually show up in fan writings, as on sociological questions (example:
the origin of the Wollheim-Moskowitz feud in the latter's denunciation of
Michelism as "-Communism"-.) A necessary ingredient to a feud as distinguished
from a disagreement, however, is personal antagonism. (This antagonism, it
may be defended, is based on the person's actions and opinions; anyway, it
exists.)
"Real" or classic feuds have been the serial Sykora-Wollheim and
Moskowitz-Wollheim hassles in New York; Ackerman vs various Bohemian elements
in Los Angeles; Degler and the Sane Fringe; Ackerman against Palmer, Shaver,
and Graham; and the brawl over WSFS and its Plane Trip. The middle class of
feuds-by-usage includes frivolous matter like Pete Vorzimer against the world,
intermittent cuss-fests between Gertie Carr and anybody left of the late
Arthur Wellesley, and the three-cornered cat-fight between the various NY
clubs in 1947-50. Some feuds, like Vorzimer's, were possibly attempts to gain
BNF status thru notoriety; results are usually disappointing to people who try
this. There are also fake-feuds in which perfectly sensible faaans burlesque
the ravings of the fugghead element and sometimes are almost as funny as the
real feudists; such was the Chuck Harris-James White feud of 1952 which
introduced the zapgun to Anglofandom. In this connection we should mention
the Ballard Code.
It was thought by many at one time that fan feuds were a good thing;
articles have been written to say so, but apparently the knock-down-drag-out
kind aren't meant.
Fans usually take the form of vituperation in fanzines; intemperate
language is used by non-veteran fans and was used by the veterans in their
wars, words like "lie", "vicious", and "sneaky" being thrown around freely,
not to mention the colossal effort to seem merely amused by your opponent's
actions. Heat has never risen so high, however, that fans could not
occasionally commend a good story or article by one of their opponents, and it
should be remarked that when fans meet face to face, they are usually quite
fraternal, regardless of the fights they've been waging on paper; the worst
usually found is an insulting coolness. At the 1939 PhilCo, after tempers had
been rising for some time, violence was threatened by Sykora with the words
"You can say whatever you want to about me behind my back, but you can't call
me a liar to my face!"; when the Triumvirs tried to eject Futurian visitors
from a QSFL meeting in early 1941 there actually was rough stuff; and during
his anti-Degler feud T Bruce Yerke once was at the point of laying hands on
the Cosmic One when he, Yerke, suffered a heart attack [!!!!] But the
unfavorable reaction of fandom at large indicates the unusual character of
such incidents.
FFF The publishing house symbol for Unger's pubs; it stands for Fantasy
Fiction Field. Suddsy Schwartz pronounced this "triple ef".
TYPE FIFTEEN FAN In a graphology article Joe Gilbert analyzed the
chirographies of a number of well-known fans, and left it to
the reader to guess which was which. Number 15 on the list was supposed to be
a dangerous maniac that you shouldn't allow behind your back especially in a
dark alley. Immediately each fan on the list of analyzees, and some others,
leaped forward and identified #15 -- as himself. Finally Gilbert said that
he'd known very little about graphanalysis at the time, and his sketch of #15
was all wet; there was merely a little mental quirk in that fan. But fandom
wouldn't have it so. Speer finally found out from Tucker that #15 was
Fortier.
FILE An arrangement of papers so that what you want can be found quickly.
Your encyclopedists have found it of especial importance in preparing
this work. Correspondence files are usually arranged by person corresponded
with, carbons of outgoings being kept with incomings. Magazine files are
usually segregated according to name, but Speer, a file clerk for several
years, thinks it most practical to file these like letters, loose in folders,
because titles are so often short-lived and changeable, and it is often
desirable to refer back and forth from fanzines to correspondence about them.
For prozines shelves of some sort, where they can be stood on edge or end with
the spine visible, are the usual method of storage. There are several card
files in fandom, of stories, fans, magazines, etc; the most famous, perhaps,
was Swisher's, which in part was the source for his check-list of fanzines.
FILK SONG (Share) A type of music which, if it weren't fannish, would be
called a folk song; fan parodies or pastiches of this or other
types of mundane chansons.
FILLERS Stuff stuck in to fill up a page which the regular longer pieces in a
fanzine don't cover. "Frequently the fillers are better than the
material listed in the table of contents", observes Speer. The oldest are odd
science snippets and the well-known "-A quatrain is a four-line rime / It's
never out of place / It may be used at any time / To fill an empty space"-.
Cartoons, quotations, and short bits not long enough to give a title to often
perform a filler function; as do expiration notices, apologies for the poor
duplication, and such stuff, and the little pointless sketches Boob Stewart
calls fillos. But most fillers consist of remarks conversationally addressed
to the readers by the editor, expressing his opinion on something, an
interesting thing he ran across the other day, something he forgot to say in
an article he wrote, or a whimsy like "'I go now, Earthling; perhaps I shall
return', said the vampire, vanishing."
FINAL BLACKOUT (Hubbard) The collapse of civilization after the final war;
from the novel of the same name and theme (ASF, 1940).
FINE MIND (Perdue:Laney) Another thing fans can be recognized by. Perdue
was asking Laney what to talk about when with Women, FTL being a
recognized authority. "Oh, anything", said Towner. "Just be light, witty,
frothy. Hell, Elmer, you can chatter like a magpie with me; just carry it
over onto your date." Perdue gave a great, shuddering sob. "But I can't turn
off my fine mind!" he said.
FIREWORKS Speer and Chan Davis caused the PhilCon (I) Fireworks Furor by
shooting Roman candles off the roof of the con hotel, for which
they were picked up by the Lawr Dawgs and released after a warning. Next
year, at the TorCon -- which the Canadians had scheduled for the July 4
weekend in a fit of absentmindedness -- American fans celebrated Independence
Day to the alarm of King George's loyal subjects. And the WSFA once had a
high old time shooting Roman candles out the tenth-floor windows of the
Association of American Railroads building, but got off scot free.
FIRST CONTACT In Murray Leinster's story of that name, the first encounter of
humans with intelligent ETs; by extension, with us, the first
meeting of stfnist with actifan.
FIRST FANDOM No direct relation to the era. Don Ford, Bob Madle and some
others organized this group too close to our deadline for any of
its activities to become evident. Its membership is restricted to folk who
indulged in any sort of fanac before 1938, and apparently it is intended as an
historical and continuity-maintaining group.
FIRST WORD ON PAGE 28 Actually was "Harry", but refers to what he was
saying in the phrase "Harry Turner says ***** to Mike
Wallace...". The page 28 was that of Hyphen #11, in the letter column; the
word from which we are protecting the Post Office's tender sensibilities was
"a rather vulgar synonym for testicles".
FLAGPOLE (Magnus) was coined to replace the wornout Seventh Fandom cry of
"Birdbath!" The Bb was an indeterminate symbol, sometimes phallic
sometimes kteic, but the flagpole leaves no such doubts. Magnus and Ted White
used it constantly at the CleVention ("The Flagpole Has Risen!") but it was
not picked up till further plugging in the Cult led Dave Rike to adopt it; his
cartoons led it on to new conquests. Other early proponents were Jim
Aletaster and Larry Stark. The word itself has almost as many meanings as its
precessor.
THE FLAT 88 Gray's Inn Road, London WC 1, England. It is perhaps necessary
to explain that "flat" is British for apartment. This science
fiction house was established in mid-1938 by the two dizziest Londoners, Bill
Temple and Ego Clarke, soon joined by Maurice K Hanson, and continued until
after war broke out, thus being the first such establishment.
FLYING SAUCERS (Arnold) Tho the books of Charles Fort are full of reports of
mysterious flying objects, the flying saucers or flying discs
sailed into the headlines in June 1947 when Kenneth Arnold reported seeing
some over Mt Rainier, Wash. Shortly, they were seen all over the US and in
many other countries, as well; public interest grew to such a point that the
Air Force made a full-scale investigation, finding no support for the
existence of "genuine" saucers. (Saucer fans promptly accused the AF of
"covering up".) Numerous fanzine articles and a good deal of writing in proz
and mundane publications have assumed the saucers to be interplanetary
vehicles, other conclusions being beneath the dignity of our consideration,
and of course all fictional treatment of the things, as Sturgeon's "Saucer of
Loneliness", assumes that the flying saucers are "real", i.e. interplanetary
vehicles. Such quasi-fan organizations as ETRO have been organized to
investigate them, and Fantastic Universe ran a "Civilian Saucer Intelligence"
column for reports on the things. Not exactly of this sort was the
collaboration visualized by the Flying Saucer Master Plan, a scheme to use the
existence of fans all over the world in a timed series of sighting reports
that would create the biggest saucer scare ever. (Happily for our public
relations this didn't pan out.)
Many "saucer" sightings were laid to "skyhooks" -- high-altitude balloons
-- airplane lights, bright stars and planets, reflections of all sorts, kites,
and odd-looking planes.
FMZ (Brazier:Joquel) Abbreviation for fanzine. Pronounced "femz" but
distinguished from "femmes" by accompanying the latter word with a
whistle and descriptive gesture.
FOO (1) While "Foo" is synonymous with FooFoo, and always capitalized by
loyal followers [and dutiful Rosconian lexicographers -- RE], "foo" is a
common word to be used for whatever part of speech is convenient. "A foo more
days for to tote the weary load", "foothful foorever", "yours fooly", etc.
These foo-proverbs are a chief source of Fooist theology; the Great Source of
course is the Writings of the Prophet, Bill Holman creator of the Sacred Foo-
Cat [in the comic strip "Smoky Stover"] but other proverbs which suggest
themselves, and are in harmony with preexistent teachings, may be trusted.
(2) As a nickname, Th' Ol' Foo was E Everett Evans; Th' Youn' ditto his
daughter Jonne.
SACRED ORDER OF FOOFOO A glorious [Speer doubtless meant to say "glutinous"]
foolosophy which saves its adherents from the purple
doomnation of ghughu, and guarantees their future bliss, but at what a price!
While Ghuism's setup is roughly that of an episcopal church, FooFooism's more
resembles a militant monarchy. Of old the Western branch centered around the
Hi Priestess of All Foo, Pogo; Forrest J Ackerman was her Right-Hand
Man, Morojo her Handi-maiden, ktp. In the East was her Sacred Highness' Left-
Hand Man, the Royal General of FooFoo. F Speer, who bore this proud title,
counter-signed and issued to neophytes such tags as Chief Scientist, Poetess
Laureate, Vanday Oon, Grand Vizier, Nen Nen, Baron Yobber, and others.
Permanent membership cards were not given until the persons were proved thru
long adversity. In addition to these officers, the Order counts as rank-and-
file members all persons wheresoever who are moved to go around reciting Foo
proverbs.
FooFooism began in early 1938 when, as the faithful quaintly express it,
FooFoo implanted in the mind of Pogo, and about the same time, of Speer, his
Call to form the Sacred Order to oppose Ghughuism in all its forms, however
monstrous. Till the early 40s the ranks of Foomen grew by leaps and bounds
(and shuffles). Victory, they cried, was assured, for FooFoo had promised it.
As Tom Paine said, Ghughuism, like tyranny, is not easily conquered, but the
struggle is a glorious one. A fearful weapon given by All-blessed Foo was the
Poo, far mightier than the Yobber. FooFooism has a number of highly
inspirational songs. One of these the entire ChiCon (even the accursed Ghughu
and Guggle, who were there) joined in singing.
With the close of the war FooFooism, like its old antagonist, fell on
evil days and the ranks of the faithful rapidly shrank. Today the only known
members of the faith are Speer, Redd Boggs, Dean A Grennell, Bob Silverberg
and Bob Pavlat; their virtue being evident, Rosconians hold that FooFooists as
a class represent the moiety of fankind which is capable of being saved by the
operation of reason alone. Since, as fans, they are Saved already, the
utility of such a categorization is questionable.
FORMAT The mechanical makeup of a publication, especially its size and shape.
The word is sometimes misused to mean layout, which refers to the
presentation of the text. Among the proz, Gernsback's Wonder Stories and the
1941-44 ASF are remembered for their dizzying shifts among standard, bedsheet,
and digest size. Fanzines for the most part appear in quarto size, or powers
fractions of it; less often, in legal (British foolscap) size or odd
dimensions from 9x12 down to little over an inch square (for midgimags). Page
numbers vary from single-sheeters up to 50 or 100 pages for special issues,
but 24-30 is common for subzines, since this is just under the weight limit
for a certain amount of third-class postage. White 20-pound paper is the
usual thing; since about 1952 a strong tend toward various pastel shades has
been evident. Thinner paper doesn't work so well, tending to have too much
showthru when anything is printed on the back. Pages are usually held
together by staples, but paste, pinch-fasteners, brad paperfasteners, thread,
and other means have been used.
CHARLES FORT An iconoclastic individual whose delight was in the flaw of the
horde, meaning clots like us who believed what we were taught in
school about the world. Fort, boasting [!!] that he believed what he read in
the papers, culled from them and the rubbish heaps of the sciences (especially
astronomy) a considerable mass of reports on unexplained occurrences, such as
the well-known mystery of the Marie Celeste. In arranging and
commenting on them, he seemed to be maintaining, among other theories, that
the Earth is visited and considered as property by superior beings (a notion
Eric Frank Russell developed into his novel Sinister Barrier); that
there is a power of matter-transmission which he calls teleportation being
evidenced from time to time, as by showers of objects from within a room near
its ceiling; and that the Earth is surrounded by a shell not far away, the
planets and stars being eruptions on the shell similar to volcanoes.
Forteanism is not necessarily these beliefs themselves, but the
iconoclastically anti-orthodox attitude associated with them; the main idea
being that modern science is a tissue of outworn saws, holes continually
appearing in it and being patched up or glossed over by new explanations. (It
has been suggested that Fort himself didn't believe the theories mentioned
above, but advanced them as being no more ridiculous than the suggestions of
science.) The Fortean Society, founded 1931, publish an OO, Doubt, devoted to
reporting of Fortean incidents, and claim to seek the company of all who want
a belly laugh at the powers that be; a number of fans are members. A strictly
fannish organization with the same purpose, the Frontier Society, was founded
by Donn Brazier in 1940 and died when the US entered the war.
FORWARD! Aside from its literal meaning, this word is an invocation of the
deity in the religion of Foo.
FOUT (MFS) Ill-defined but derogatory ejaculation, noun, or adjective,
almost always the first. "Hotfout!" is the superlative form.
[Later: it also illustrates the old saying about Americans being
abysmally ignorant of languages other than English, since nobody apparently
recognized French foutre, Latin futere, as English "F***".]
FPWESFC First PostWar Eastern SF Conference, 3 March 1946, signalled the
return to life of fandom's congoing tradition, which wartime travel
difficulties had cramped. It was originally planned by the ESFAns as a local
meeting to whip up interest among New Jersey fans but Moskowitz, hearing of
more and more old fans coming home from the wars, brainstormed it into a
gathering of all possible East Coast fans, promoted originals from the proz,
and got a good program together. The get-together of returned Old Fans and
wartime New Fans proved highly productive. A proposal to revive the SFL was
voted down and Merwin heard a loud "no!" in answer to his feeler on
continuing the inanities of Sergeant Saturn. And, wonderful to relate, it got
a fine writeup in a mundane publication, Harpers for September 1946.
FSY No, not some obscure prozine, but the contraction for fantasy. Charles
Wells proposed fts ("-because it's stf backwards"-) but this never caught
on.
FSNY See Futurians.
FUGGHEAD (Laney) A close relative of the LMJ. Tho Art Rapp once defined the
term as "someone who disagrees with Laney", a fugghead is more
correctly one who speaks before he thinks, if indeed he thinks at all; a maker
of asinine statements, silly assertions, and fraudulent claims. "A fugghead
is a stupid oaf with a babbling tongue", defines Tucker concisely. First part
of the word is bowdlerized; a little thought will suffice to translate it.
FUTILITARIANS (Michelists) The opponents of Michelism because (according to
the Michelists) they believed fans could do nothing to save the
World.
CAPTAIN FUTURE (Hamilton) A long-sustained series which was the quintessence
of thud-and-blunder zap-zap science fiction; appeared in its
own magazine and in Startling Stories. Cap's stooges, the Futuremen, are
worthy remark: Grag the Robot, Otho the Android, and Simon Wright, the Living
Brain. There were also iron-eating meteor pups and other feckless/frivolous
additions from time to time.
FUTURIANS Meaning, roughly, people who concern themselves with what is to
come. Various fan groups have held this title; one in Sydney NSW
Australia (organized November 1939 and revived 1947), another in Los Angeles
in the summer of 1945, and a third in San Francisco which is described under
Bay Area. But the most important fan group called the Futurians was that
which existed in New York 1937-45. It should be noted that none of these
Futurian Societies have any connection with one another, tho Michel wound up
in San Francisco where, years later, he was tracked down by Sherlockian Karen
Anderson; and the Los Angeles group moved en masse to New York to join the
Futurians there just in time to have the East Coast crew shot from under them
by the X Document split.
The Futurians of New York were a group of whom the central figures were
Wollheim, Lowndes, Pohl and Michel; others thought of as belonging to the
group were Cy Kornbluth, Harry Dockweiler, Chet Cohen, Dan Burford, Jack
Rubinson, Dave Kyle, Dick Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Walt Kubilus, leslie perri,
Larry Shaw, Jim Blish, Judy Merrill, and damon knight -- probably the highest
number of pro-crashers ever affiliated with any fan club. Tho a Futurian
Science-Literary Society of New York was formed in September 1938 after the
GNYSFL breakup the Futurians were not really a formally-organized group.
The Futurians presented a peculiar differentness in whatever sphere of
fan activity they engaged in, being, with some exceptions in each case,
Bohemian in social practices, radical in politics, Anti-Sykora in fan feuds,
Michelistic in fannish whitherings, inclined fanarchistically with regard to
general fan organization, and given to vers libre in poetry, eroticism in
literature, and decadence in all forms of art. They took part as a bloc in
the Progressive and Constitutional parties of FAPA, and this and their later
actions when VAPA was formed led to a feeling that they were trying to rule or
ruin these groups.
The Futurians, originally called Wollheimists, emerged upon the breakup
of the ISA, and were the dominant faction in Second Fandom. With Pohl's
attempt (1939) to form a Futurian Federation of the World, "Futurian" became a
common word for the type of stfnist we have described, just as "Insurgent"
came to mean many others than the LA people. In 1940 Wollheim as General
Secretary formed a Futurian League to register as Futurians their friends and
allies outside New York. For this organization DAW defined as a Futurian one
who thru SF rises to vision a greater world, a greater future for the whole of
mankind, and wishes to utilize his idealistic convictions for aid in a
generally cooperative and diverse movement for the betterment of the world
along democratic, impersonal, and unselfish lines.
After the Quadrumvirs resigned from FAPA office, they became less active,
but lived in various slanshacks, and many graduated in time from authors'
agents to editorships of some of the 1941-43 flood of proz. There they put
quite a lot of their personalities into their magazines, and were noted for
the number of Futurians appearing in Futurian-edited prozines.
In early 1945 the Futurians made a comeback bid in fandom with the
organization of VAPA, and it was alleged by the indignant that the Little
Interregnum caused by resignation of the Futurian FAPA officers was an attempt
to scuttle the older group. But later in the year came the X Document uproar,
and therewith the end of the old Futurians.
In mid-1958 another Futurian Society of New York was formed as "a refuge
for the ribald, irreverent, booze-swilling segments of NY fandom", with
recruits from other areas. At the PhilCo of that year a group banquet was
thrown and at the end of December a Fanarcon at the Nunnery gathered about 50
adherents for a three-day confabulation. Such folk as Dick & Pat Ellington,
Bill Donaho, Art Saha, Dan Curran, Martha Cohen, Larry Shaw, Randy Garrett,
Dick Eney, John Magnus, Ted & Sylvia White, Algis Budrys, Dave Kyle, 2N
Falasca, and other carefree funloving faaans are pillars of the society.
FUTURIAN HOUSES A clutch of cooperative slanshacks thru which the FSNY
filtered over the years, and which deserve enumeration as
perhaps the most long-sustained of these series ever established in fandom.
Futurian House, on W 213th St in New York, was the first of these; it was
inhabited by uncounted of them briefly in the late summer of 1939 until the
ex-owner of the house was foreclosed upon and the new landlord hoisted the
ante. The Futurians moved to:
The Ivory Tower, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn; so called from the color of
its walls. It was the most famous of the Futurians' science-fiction houses,
being inhabited by Lowndes, Michel, and DW3 all thru 1940. When the lease
expired, Wollheim went back to his family home, Wilson to Raven's Roost, and
the remnant to:
Futurian Embassy during 1941 (W 103rd St, NY); Doc and Michel later moved
to Prime Base.
Raven's Roost, E 61st St, Manhattan ("a slummy dump") was the residence
of Wilson and Kyle at first; later, Chet Cohen, damon knight and one unknown.
Prime Base, a few doors east of the Futurian Embassy, was occupied in the
1941 interval between the Embassy and:
Futurian Fortress, E 27th St, Manhattan. This was established by Lowndes
and there he and Michel and knight and the Conways [the family name of
Futurian noms de plume] lived till late 1942, when:
Futurian Foundation, E 27th St, Manhattan, was set up by Doc and Michel,
&
The Hatch, E 30th St, Manhattan, was inhabited by knight and Cohen.
These two lasted thru 1943, when knight and Cohen pulled out of the
Futurian Houses altogether and set up in Nome (E 17th St); Michel and Larry
Shaw established Station X on W 4th St; the group was held together physically
by meetings at Judy Zissman's place, Hangover House ("no, because the
floors slanted so much", explains Larry Shaw) till the X Document
blowup when all drifted apart.
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