U is Ackermanese for "you". Superscript 235 gives you atomic power and
visits from the AEC.
UNCLE HUGO Gernsback, who else?
FANNISH UNDERGROUND An amorphous outfit including Gordon Black, Harry Moore,
Roger Sims, Bob Briggs and Elliot Broderick, plotting to
preselect cities to back for the '53 and '54 cons. Three or four issues of an
OO, Night Action, were produced, but general gafiation ruined plans for what
was essentially a DC-Michigan coalition.
UNENDURABLE PLEASURE INDEFINITELY PROLONGED (Moskowitz) SaM claimed that
attendees at the NYCon I would
enjoy this sensation, tho he didn't mean it as it was originally used in My
First 2000 Years. In that story the Wandering Jew pursued the equally
immortal Wandering Jewess thru two millennia in order to enjoy the aforesaid
u.p.i.p. and her, tho this ultimate objective does not prevent him from
stopping off at numerous other places en route.
UNIVERSAL MUSKETEERS A club for younger fans formed in 1949 by Ronald
Friedman of Brooklyn. Friedman was elected president in
the first election, and had all dues sent to him instead of to Secretary-
Treasurer Rose Davenport "because of the bill he had to pay for mimeoing the
Official Organ, XRAY". Elsberry, from whom our data comes, was appointed
Welcome Chairman, but neither he nor the other officers were able to contact
Friedman after taking office, and no official publications ever again came out
except for one Universal Musketeers News dated June'50. (In his Science
Fiction Weekly -- not a club organ -- Friedman said a lack of publishing
facilities had forced temporary cessation of activities.) In July '50 an
attempt was made by Elsberry, Knapheide, Rose Davenport, and Jack Schwab to
oust Friedman from the prexyship, but this failed for lack of a majority in
the club's officialdom. The club was supposed to have about 100 members in
January 1950, says ODD, tho Friedman never made public the membership roster.
Around the end of 1950 Friedman denied that he let UM "go to pot due to
lack of interest and embezzlement of UM funds", and claimed that the club owed
him more than $100, explaining that "illness, business, and National Guard
duties" prevented him from having any contact with fandom for "many months".
In March 1952 he announced that UM had combined with another club, the Teens
Fantascience Club (of which he was also president) into a group called
International Scientific Council. Further history, if any, is unknown to your
Suetonius.
UTOPIA (More) Any story based on an imaginary Earthly civilization, with the
purpose of satirizing or criticizing present social practices, is
technically a Utopia, but the term strictly should mean a tale in which the
portrayed civilization is a desirable one. Those undesirable are dystopias --
or -- better -- Brave New Worlds.
= = = = = = = = = =
V If you lived thru the Second World War, you know plenty about this letter.
VAMPIRE A man-thing who keeps alive indefinitely by sucking blood from the
living; Dracula is the classic example. In the case of Dracula, the
vampire form of semi-human was able to change to bat or werewolf form.
Vampires are identifiable by, among other things, being invisible in a mirror;
they can prowl only between sundown and sunrise, having to rest in their
native soil at other times. They are killable by a wooden stake driven thru
the heart, in case the need arises. We should mention (1) Joe Kennedy's
Fourth Fandom 'zine from which the '45 and '46 Yearbooks got the name of
Vampire Yearbooks, as being published by the ed of VAMPIRE, and (2) Karen
Anderson's frightening V costume worn to the SolaCon masquerade ball,
displaying a wingspan of some 13'6" and, naturally, copping the Best Classical
Fantasy Costume prize for that year.
VANGUARD or VAPA The Vanguard Amateur Press Association was announced by the
Futurians in March '45. Since key Futurian FAPAtes had quit
in the Little Interregnum of Feb '45, and since Futurian control of the
new organization was solid, much hard feeling over "attempts to torpedo FAPA"
resulted, and it was alleged that, having failed to dominate FAPA (which they
had founded) the Futurians wanted to destroy it and start a new organization
they could rule. (Actually, informs Larry Shaw, it was true that VAPA was
formed by Futurians as an organization they could control, but not that their
intention was to scuttle FAPA; they didn't care what happened to the older
group.)
The group was originally conceived as the Gothic Amateur Press
Association, and the first publication (Wollheim's GAPA VANGUARD) came out
with that name. Shortly afterward, a move began to change the name to Modern
APA, and Jim Blish put that name on the first issue of TUMBRILS.
Finally a compromise was reached between Gothic and Moderns in the title
Vanguard (and the first mag to bear this tag was Lowndes' AGENBITE OF
INWIT).
(Vanguard, for obvious semantic reasons, was a popular name with
Futurians anyway; Blish and Lowndes about this time planned a Vanguard Record
Company that came to naught after a few discs; in the stf boom of the middle
'50s, Blish edited a prozine titled Vanguard, which aroused discussion because
people thought he was trying to capitalize on the use of that name by the US
Govt for a rocket/missile.)
VAPA's setup was, to say the least, peculiar. An Official Manager ran
the club -- put out the mailings (5 a year), handled funds and records,
published the OO VANGUARD AMATEUR, and interpreted the Constitution; he was
the only officer elected by the club. But a Board of Advisors (First, Second,
and Third) dealt with admission to and renewal of membership. The idea was
that each year the Third Advisor would drop out, the others move down one
place, and the outgoing Official Manager become the new First Advisor. Since
the OM for the first year (Lowndes) and all three advisors (Wollheim, Larry
Shaw, and Virginia Kidd Emden, in that order) were pre-selected by the
Futurians, accusations of a Plot to Dominate, whether or not true, had a
certain plausibility. If such a plan existed, the Futurian split over the X
Document, later in the year, ruined it.
VAPA folded late in 1950 of inanition, for tho it contained such
illustrious braintrusters as Lowndes, Blish, Norm Stanley, Harry Warner jr,
Bill Danner, damon knight and C Burton Stevenson, only the New Yorkers showed
much activity; when their energy leaked away, there wasn't anything left.
'Tis said the treasury was turned over to CARE or some similar charity.
VERTICALINEATION An interlineation which goes up&down the page instead of
across it.
VERS LIBRE Literature which calls itself poetry, but follows none of the
rules concerning regular rhythm, alliteration, assonance, or rime.
There is a certain rhythmical quality to it, such as is also found in musical
prose, and it usually employs more figurative language than does prose, but
the main reason for calling it poetry is that it is written in lines.
VETERAN Properly, a fan who was a fan before the great Barbarian Invasion of
late 1938-39. We can use the term by analogy of anyone who antedates
the most recent Barbarian Invasion.
VICE PRESIDENT Fan organizations have done their best to make the VP
something more than the guy who sits around waiting for the
President to die.
In FAPA, this officer was responsible for recruiting before the ranks
were filled; he now is the "judiciary" of the organization, and rules on
Constitutional interpretations. After the Interregnum VPs for a while took to
giving advisory opinions on how they would interpret the Constitution, whether
or not a concrete case was at hand and whether or not there were members
arguing both sides. FAPA's VP is also ex officio operator of the Egoboo Poll,
and used to be chairman of the Laureate Committee when that existed.
In SAPS, all members except the OE and EO (and the winner of the annual
Pillar Poll) are Vice-Presidents, but this office is a whimsy and has no
functions.
VICOLOR (Shelby Vick) A method of producing multicolor mimeo work by
painting a clean ink-pad with different colors of mimeo ink.
Different areas could be done in different colors by this method, but of
course varicolored overprints were impossible. From the appearance of the
result this was sometimes called "using plaid ink".
VIRGIN COWS An intense discussion of artificial insemination of cattle arose
during Ballard's term as OE of SAPS, after Wrai (a farmer by
trade) happened to mention some aspects of modern barnyard technology which
had previously been unsuspected by many city-dwelling SAPS. Feminine members
mostly seemed of the opinion that the cows were being cheated.
VIRGULE This typesymbol / is often called a slant-bar, and thus used as
abbreviation for Walt Willis' old fanzine, SLANT.
FAN VISITS Fans living in the same city do not correspond with each other
much, but supplement meetings of locals with visits back and
forth, phoning ahead of time if they're well-bred. Visits between fans in
different localities, tho they occurred from the beginning, accelerated
greatly about the beginning of 1939. When it is a trip especially directed to
one place, arrangements are made by mail, wire or longdistance phone; and when
there is a local in the place visited, the leaders may make efforts to gather
the comrades (or the actifen among them, at least) to meet the incomers. Fans
simply off on a trip trust to luck to find the fans home and unoccupied when
they happen to pass thru. Great hospitality was shown of old to visiting
fans, even when (returning from a fan gathering pretty broke) it was obvious
that their primary reason for stopping was free food and bunks. Occasional
abuse of the hospitality of the brotherhood, to the great inconvenience of the
visitee (notably by the custodian of the Cosmic Concept) led to recognition of
a few restrictions; certainly today more than a few hours' stay calls for
advance inquiry. A special type of fan visit is the Blitzkrieg.
The visit in person accomplishes some ends impossible by other means --
getting personally acquainted, seeing each other's collections and equipment,
glimming the family background, etc.
VITONS (EF Russell) In Eric Frank Russell's Sinister Barrier, the
energy-beings which, in line with the beliefs of Fort (who, asked why
ETs hadn't visited us, replied "I think we're property") really own and
control the Earth. They were globular creatures with telepathy, ESP, and
domineering attitudes, visible in the dying state as ball lightning.
VOLDESFAN (Derelict Insurgents) From contraction of Volatile Destructive.
It is the opposite of a Serconfan, and is not synonymous with
Insurgent -- Insurgents, in their way, being Serious and Constructive too.
VOM VOICE OF THE IMAGI-NATION, 4sj & Morojo's letterzine which flourished for
fifty issues in the early 40s. It was originally just the lettercolumn
of the LASFS OO, IMAGINATION!, but later took off on its own under Acky's
ministrations. The word VoMaiden designated one of the fans' drawings of
nekkid wimmen which were published therein, sometimes with a fantasy
background to justify their appearance in a fanzine. Ackerman defended this
publication on the ground that fanzines should publish what fans want,
especially something like this that couldn't appear in a general mag because
of various silly rules. But the VoMaidens were criticized mostly for lack of
artistic merit, not for reasons of morality.
VOMB "Dear Jack: I am surprised at ya. However, -- when anything is sort
of -- well -- you know -- then it's vombic. Hence VOMBUS one who is
vombic; Vombii plural of vombus. The Vombists are those belonging to the
Society for the Advancement of Vombii...yrs, Jack Gillespie."
Another Futurian explained it thus: "-If that chair you're sitting on
turned into a stack of Bab-O at 15¢ for two cans, that would be Vombish."-
However, Ol' Doc Lowndes gave the real lowdown in SPACEWAYS. "The vombis
is an entity of intelligence fully equal, if not superior, to that of man, of
a composition quite unknown tho some have made guesses, and possessing the
ability to change form at will. So excellent a likeness can the vombis assume
to any object or living thing, that, except in cases of mCLASS=""
are not by nature mCLASS=""
and say, by virtue of this statement, the very typewriter on which I compose
this article may be a vombis... for all I know, this typewriter
is a vombis; my only reason for doubting it is, that in all the years I
have known it, it has never acted contrary to the mechanical nature of
typewriters." He goes on to cite cases in which vombii have taken the form of
rocks, trees, swords, and even the water of a swimming pool. There is a
"suggestion that the vombii are superhuman entities, well aware of man's
existence, who are using man merely as a means of amusement or
experimentation. It is they who have been the source of all man's legends and
fairy tales, and they are what men have described as demons, ghouls,
werewolves, vampires, elementals and wizards." Demoniac possession and the
evocation of familiars are also mentioned; "Further things that the 'Song of
Yste' [one of the sources of his data, the Necronomicon being another]
mentions are too soul-shattering to be described here." In other words, the
vombii are mighty medicine.
Lowndes supplied a brief glossary of vombic terms, exempla gratia:
Vombitate, to go around doing weird sinister things; Vombic, weird and
sinister, pertaining to the vombis, unpredictable; Vombulate, to put on a
Vombic attitude without actually doing anything vombic; Vombitoria, a vombic
collection or repertoire; Evombulate, to give a vombic meaning to anything
theretofore not considered vombic; Devombulate, to divest of vombic meaning;
vombitor, a devotee of vombicism; le vombiteur (for those who prefer the
French), see vombitor.
Later Lowndes traced the word to the Cro-Magnon root "waahmb", indicated
a sinister and incomprehensible emotion of fear or dread, which they
associated with the Fortean rulers of the planet when they gained some slight
awareness of them. A Roman scholar made up the Latin form, "vombis", whence
"vombicism", the study and following, serious or whimsical, of things vombic.
Lowndes published LE VOMBITEUR weekly for many issues, eventually letting it
fade as most newszines do.
VOTE FOR IKE -- HE'S BEEN SICK Slogan used by William Rotsler on his letters
during the 1956 Presidential campaign. For
our readers in the year 2000, Dwight D Eisenhower, then incumbent, had had
various attacks of heart failure, Twonk's Disease, ktp, shortlyaforethe
campaign, and some of his supporters tried to play these up to win sympathy
vote in a manner many found offensive. Rotsler, a Democrat to make Adlai
Stevenson seem pro-GOP in comparison, rubberstamped this legend on various
postcards, and the postmaster of his town, J Everett Osborne, objected and
forbade circulation of the slogan after Bill had sent postcards to such
difficult subjects for conversion as Nixon and Hagerty [Vice-President and
Press Secretary, respectively, during the Eisenhower administration]. Bill
had to cover the offending words with gummed tape before JEO would let his
mail pass. DAG suggested the obvious counterblow, and incoming letters for
Rotsler soon blossomed with "Vote for J Everett Osborne -- He's Been Sick" and
other sprightly remarks.
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