D - The letter which probably initials the greatest number of fans' calling names: Dale, Dan, Dave, Dick, Doc, Don, Donn, Doug, and others, most of these being used by more than one stefnist.
dabblers - (Wollheim) - Comics ordinarily mundane which sometimes introduce a fantastic element into their stories. These have included, at various times, Abbie and Slats, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Ben Webster's Career, Big Chief Wahoo, Boob McNutt, The Bungle Family, The Captain and the Kids, Connie, Dan Dunn, Dick Tracy, Don Winslow, Dub Dabs, Ella Cinders, Freckles and His Friends, Funny Fables, Gene Autry Rides, The Gumps, Hap Hopper, Krazy Kat, Li'l Abner, Little Annie Rooney, Little Orphan Annie, Mutt and Jeff, Myra North, The Nebbs, Oaky Doaks, Popeye, Prince Valiant, The Pussycat Princess, Skull Valley, Smilin' Jack, Tarzan, Tim Tyler, Tiny Tim, Toots and Casper, Washable Jones, and, no doubt, others. Gawd, what a rogues' gallery!
dadaism - The word comes from Dali-istic painting, where it designates drawings in which seemingly symbolic things are scattered about without there actually being any meaning intended in the pictures. If it can be used of literature, it applies to alien-sounding double-talk like this: Gram spramphis tham stampistan gram hendis stan tha gramdorcax importistan (Kornbluth), and poetry like this:
The resemblance to metaphysical poetry is apparent.
daffy poetics - (Kuslan) - Jingles which state something simply true or obviously untrue, and outrage and amuse by the unpoeticness of the sense and the openness with which they strain for rime. Take fr example this little dillie from Beling's fanzine Fan-Atic, by Archer cusp (whoever he is):
Jack Darrow - Nickname taken by Clifford Kornoelje.
Daw - Nickname for Donald A. Wollheim.
Dawnish - (Wollheim) - A universal language, like Esperanto, but universal in that no one understands its (a sly slash at Ackerman's advocacy, from the longago days when Wollheim strongly disliked him). In 1943 some samples of it were presented to the FAPA, and the Brain Trust and others ate it up. A complete exposition of the grammar and vocabulary (which is constantly building) are yet to forthcome. The following example of Dawnish means "The Fox and the Grapes": "Val Pauznik arz val Sobashlu".
deadline - Theoretical time after which materials for a fanzine or a mailing cannot be accepted. Deadlines mean little with fanzines, which almost invariably come out later than originally scheduled, anyway. In the FAPA a long, and on the whole successful, fite has been waged to get the mailings out on the dates specified.
decadence - The condition of society and especially of the arts in a period which follows the high point of a culture and precedes its complete breakup. Rome was in such a state for centuries, and according to Spengler's thesis in The Decline of the West, the entire Occidental world shows the characteristic features; and his foresite has been borne out by later events. Decadence is strongest of course in the cities, particularly , in the US, in the Eastern cities and in Hollywood. The Futurians of New York are fandom's number one exhibit. They delite in decadence, however, regarding it as a sign that a new order is on the way to replace the old. Another alternative to a gloomy view is de Camp's belief that modern technology has made it virtually impossible for the world every again to slip all the way into barbarism.
A decadent period may still produce very worth while literature, a sort of silver age following the golden age, but it is more likely to go to extremes of technique. In poetry our decadence has been marked by vers libre and something we mite call dadaism, In humor double-inversion and the New Yorker sort of detached amusement at everything are predominant. Fotografy having replaced painting in large parts of its old field, a new justification is sought in interpretations of abstractions. In music there is a striving for dissonances, unusual rhythms, and effects. Emotional content has branched into two trends, which also apply to the other arts: (1) cold, technical, and abstract, which most people find insipid; (2) sharp, pungent, and seeking for higher emotional feeling.
In all fields there's a striving after something which may provide the basis for a new and vigorous art to arise. Eroticism is strong. Social customs in our decadence come under the headings of thrill-seeking and Bohemianism.
den - Long before Science Fiction House or clubrooms were thot of, individual fen had their own bits of territory dedicated to fandom. The walls are covered with Vargas and originals from auctions. Hearthstone around which the furniture is polarized is the tripewriter. Files of the pros going back to the `20s and cases of books and folders of fanzines pretty well fill the room, but in addition to these are the correspondence files, "awaiting answers" box, "unread" box of pros and maybe hams; and the tripewriter [sic] and duplicator must be put somewhere. Add such optional miscellanea as scrapbooks, foto albums, camera and developing equipment, and radio-recordplayer and records, and then consider that the fan has to keep his wardrobe somewhere and sleep in the room too. The most amazing den this writer has ever seen was Lester del Rey's in Washington, where you would actually and literally dig down two decimeters in the litter on the floor and come up with an empty milk bottle and half a loaf of bread. Of course, not all fans can boast such Bohemianism; some keep quite genteel, bourgeois-looking rooms.
Devention - (Wollheim) - The Denver Convention of 1941.
Denver Science Fictioneers - A local which included Wiggins, Martin, and Hunt. It soon reorganized as the Colorado Fantasy Society.
departments - Every magazine must have departments, and some, both in the pro and in the fan field, have become overloaded with them. They include the editorial, the contents page, a letter section, reviews of pro and fanzines, and artistic and argumentative quotations, and various columns and polls.
-- dept - Articles with titles such as "Two Letters from Harry Schmarje Dept" are a peculiar form of humor, it being understood that the item is not a department and will never recur.
Detroit Science Fictioneers - Local group in Detroit Mich, Dick Kuhn, Lynn Bridges, et al.
DFF - The Dixie Fantasy Federation, an org to which fans in a rather hazily-defined South could belong. It was launched by the Columbia Camp in 1940, but soon became no more than its official organ, and never had officers except the temporarily appointed ones. There were supposed to be a conference at Columbia in 1941 which would get things going, but this fell thru. A group trip by car to Chicon or Devention went unrealized, but the Spiritrip was made to the 42 Boskone. A coat-of-arms was suggested, but none adopted.
Di - Pet name for Fantasy Digest.
dictator - A title applied at various times to Tucker, Wollheim, and Moskowitz, for their power in spwsstfm, Wollheimists, and New Fandom, respectively.
digest - At times when there have been so many subscription fanzines being published that only the most active fans can keep up with them all, demand has arisen for a Reader's Digest of the fanmags. A few issues of such digest have been published by various fans, and LeZ and others sometimes ran reprints from their contemporaries, but no one appeared to handle the job as a steady thing.
director - Title of the head of any SFL chapter and various other organizations. With the SFL, he is supposed to be the member with the lowest SFL number, membership certificates being numbered in order of issuance.
Directorate - Variant name for the Advisory Board.
distimming - hat which characterizes the relation of the Gostak to the doshes.
Dittoing - The Ditto company's direct process is related to hektoing, but stands somewhat beyond it. Hekto carbons are used, laid face up under the master sheet, so that drawing or typing on one side of the master gives mirror writing on the other side in hekto pigment. The master sheet is put face outward around a revolving drum similar to a mimeo's, and as each copy sheet goes in, it is slitely moistened with something, and takes off just enuf of the pigment on the master to make a good copy. Besides the reproduction-range up to 300 copies because no ink is wasted, there is the further advantage that some copies may run off now and others next week.
Dixiecon - Originally, a proposed World Convention in Washington for 1942. When the Devention decided in favor of Los Angeles, "Dixiecon" was used to refer to the proposed conference of the DFF at Columbia South Carolina.
Dixie press - Publishing house which included the Columbia Camp and Harry Warner round about 1941-42. Later used by Raym Washington.
Doc - Most often the nickname means Robert W Lowndes, but frequently it designates R D Swisher Ph D, and sometimes refers to C L Barrett M D or E E Smith Ph D.
dogfan - (Ackerman) - A fan who is in the Army; from Armynian "dogface".
doshes - Those which are distimmed by the Gostak.
dots - What J Ackerman and F Speer insist on not having after their pseudo middle initials, what Britishers and other purists use entirely too much of after contractions like "mags" and "dept", and what Virgil Finlay's drawings are characterized by.
Doubledoubletoilandtrouble Mimeograph - A sort of publishing house name taken by Shakespearean Harry Warner some time after Dixie Press ceased existence.
double-inverted humor - Ordinary humor consists of upsetting the usual connections of things and using a new one, as in puns. A joke of this type is the story told by Doc Lowndes, of a girl whom a giant was trying to catch and eat. After eluding him a number of times, she somehow caused him to fall unconscious, and sat down and gobbled him up. The essence of humor is probably incongruity, but a necessary element of a joke is surprise. After one has heard or read several thousand jokes in which the natural order of things is upset, he comes to expect and anticipate it, so the only way to surprise him is by resorting to the logical, the obvious. Such humor may fail if the reader does not realize that it pretends to be a single-inverted story to start with, if he is not advanced enuf on the naive type to appreciate the re-inversion. An extension of double-inverted humor is when the naive type has been left so far behind that no one expects it to be used. Then a bald pun or other simple witticism is the thing that will surprise and delite the reader at the same time that he pretends to groan. The above story from Lowndes may belong to this secondary stage.
Dr Acula - (Stoker:Ackerman) - Penname for Franklyn Brady.
drama - Numerous weird and a few s-f plays have been noted or reviewed in fanzines. Dramas written by fans themselves have usually been of the "closet drama" type, that is, intended for reading, not for acting. The only play to be performed by fans was the Widner adaptation of Chauvenet's "Legion of Legions" burlesque, at Boskon II. On the sonodisc a few radio plays have been recorded by fans. Mention should not also be made of Rothman's marionette show at the 38 Philcon.
dressed-up mundanes - Hack stories in which non-fantastic elements could be substituted and the plot remain substantially unchanged. (Copied from the ERRATADDENDUM)
drinking - More talked about than practiced (and practiced plenty) is hard drinking among fans. Very few get disgracefully drunk, but the way they talk you'd think they all did. Most of them have no objections to touring the joints around midnite following a hard day at the convention. Your correspondent has no data on their preferences among the various liquors, but mention should be made of the Super Science Fiction Special, even if not half a dozen fans ever heard of it before. As usual, the Futurians are the outstanding bad boys, but one of the reasons for the strife in LA in late `43 was the intrusion of drinking on LASFS getogethers, transmission of the habit to young members and Ackerman's objections to same.
il Duce of Flushing Flats - (Michel) - Nickname for James V Taurasi, because his home was in swampy Flushing New York, and as one of the Triumvirs he could be called a dictator.
dummy - a miniature of an issue of a fanzine which is being prepared, indicating what material will be on each page. The proposed fanzine Fantasia is the classic example of the dummied but never published fan magazine; by 1938 Hahn had made 22 dummies for the thing, and advertised it all over creation, but it has never appeared, and according to Sw the subscription money has never been returned.
The word is usually improperly used to mean the dummy copy, a typing-up of all the material which will be in the issue, with marks at the end of each@¢@¢ line to indicate how many spaces must be skipped, when cutting the stencil, to@¢@ get even right-hand margins. [THIS IS VISUAL look at the original text.] It's a lot of additional work, and many publishing@ fans refuse to do it.
duplication - Synonym for reproduction.
DW3 - Don Wollheim, Dirk Wyle, and Dick Wilson, so called at the time they occupied the Ivory tower.
dyktawo - (British:Ackerman) - Derived from initial of "Don't you know there's a war on?", a customary British reply to kicks about poor service, shortages, usw. The J began calling his outputs dyktawo pubs when war conditions cut into his time and threatened their existence. After being in the Army a while, he changed the name to Snafu Publications.
Data entry by Judy Bemis