Wynn Manners
Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan

I think the main objection to New Maps Of Hell was not its source -- Amis is as
good and legitmate a source as anyone else, and has as much right to speak his
piece as does Steve Pickering or Judy Merrill or Algis Budrys.  The objections
to his ideas were so intense because of the sense of authority they gained,
simply by being published in a-mass-circulated paper back book.  Not that much
s-f criticism gets very large circulation; and none has had the circulation 
New Maps Of Hell had.  And by golly, people believe books and fans didn't want
Mr. Amis's personal image of s-f to become the accepted image of an authority.

I'm far from a "fannish fan" -- in fact, it rather pickles me pink to see Steve
tear into them so nastily.  But please, Steve, you've got it backwards:  it's
for you as a sociologist (sociology is supposedly a science now, isn't it?) to
prove your assertions; not for the fannish fans to disprove them.  But I must
say you've got them over a barrel -- who can disprove your "data" and
"statistics" when you haven't shown any?  And dare I wonder if you have
any......?

By and large, I'm afraid Steve does a pretty slam-bang-'em-up-job of creating a
McCarthyian bogeyman that just doesn't exist -- and preaching hard and
furiously against it.  But as nasty a sermon as I preach vs. what a pernicious
fellow Cthulhu is, it's not going to do much good since Cthulhu just ain't --
and neither is Pickering's "fannish fan."

Incidentally, how fannish fans invade one's perogative to write mature material
I fail to see.  I'll grant that most fannish fans are immature, and I'll agree
that they and their publications are far from intellectual.  But lack of
intellectualism doesn't equal anti-intellectualism.  Their lack of
intellectualism is to be expected since most of them are too young to be mature
yet. However, however immature they may or may not be, they certainly don't
stop anyone from writing mature material; and since all it takes to get it
printed is a bit of money for supplies and postage, and access to a ditto or
mimeo, I see no restriction.  Every fan, intellectual or non-, has to either
get his stuff in print himself or locate (or be located by) someone of like
tastes who'll print it for him.  It isn't as if there's some kind of monopoly
in fandom.  Anybody can write, print, distribute, as long as he's willing to
expend the time, effort and money.

I'm afraid Steve's last paragraph -- where he touches on labels -- hits his own
nail on its own pointy point.  He, too, is an individual who likes labels --
namely, that of anti-intellectualism; and he too constructs a "Wonder Picture
of What those Fools Really Think in 'Fannish Fandom' Circles."

 [pp. 38 - 40, "Your 5 Cents Worth," Letter 4, NO-EYED MONSTER #10, Winter 1966-
                                                                             67]

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