N Ah! Halfway thru the alphabet, and about two-thirds of the stencils done.
NAMELESS ONES The Washington (state) stfans, with main membership in
Seattle. Not too well known outside its own area till the late
50s, but apparently one of the few local groups to exist year after year
without major schisms. The Busbys, Wally Weber, and Gertie Carr are the most
widely known members & alumni.
NECRONOMICON Abdul Alhazred's handy guide to demonology, in the Lovecraft
mythos. All fulla dread secrets and tales of the Elder Gods,
not to mention darker Hints about the Universe. Rare as it is, many a pallid,
sensitive young intellectual has come to a messy end by study of its direly
blasphemous pronouncements. (Many collectors have gone digging around in
libraries for it, but actually the nearest thing to such a volume is the
grimoire, several of which were written by medievals. The index-cards you'll
find in the files of the Library at Yale University ["In rare book
collection... bound in leather believed human"] turned out to be a hoax.)
Only a meagre portion of the text has wide circulation; bibliophile Coswal,
cautioning against fakes, explains that the only genuine Necronomicon quotes
are those forged by HP Lovecraft. All other forgeries are imitations.
Necronomicon apparently was used as a name for the league organization
sponsored by Weird Tales, from which the Washington Outsiders descended.
NED MED ØLED "Down with Beer", the motto of Ølforbundet, in the
original Ger Danish.
NEOFAN That which is new and recent. It is a recruit, either newly arrived
in fandom or just introduced to stfsy. Generally speaking, new fans
are classified as neofen for the first year. If they persist in being
idiotic, or hide under a bushel to such an extent that nobody ever hears of
them, the name may stick for another year or so. "Neofan" is often used to
indicate Goshwow characteristics, because neofen who aren't brash and
noisy don't call immediate attention to themselves.
NEOTRIC (Hearst:Ackerman) An adjective of vague meaning, seeming to involve
hospitality to new ideas [odd thing for Wm R Hearst to support!],
startling innovations that are little more than whimsy, and novelty for
novelty's sake. But neotric habits as the wearing of green-rimmed harlequin
spectacles, use of green-and-brown typeribbon, and streamlynd or simplifyd
spelng were just a Pacificoastfan version of Bohemianism.
NEW FANDOM (Speer:Moskowitz) Name derived from a series of articles entitled
"Annals of the New Fandom", altho they referred to the Second
Fandom, while New Fandom rose and fell in the Second Transition.
The organization was launched in the late summer of 1938, about the time
that reaction was setting in against the Wollheimists and Second Fandom
generally. Moskowitz initiated it, strongly assisted by Sykora and Taurasi,
and to a lesser degree by Racic, van Houten, and others. The dormant SF
Advancement Association, led by van Houten, formed the basis of the
membership. New Fandom announced that it would put on the convention (NYCon
I) in 1939, and at the PhilCo in fall 1938 was recognized as the organization
to take responsibility for this first Worldcon. NF also ignored the existence
of fan feuds, and won the support of the great majority who were opposed to
their continuance. Thereafter, fans generally joined up. Regional
representatives were appointed, OO issued, dues paid, etc. The pros
gave much cooperation. The Convention was put on, very successfully on the
whole; exact relationship of New Fandom to this was never clear, since NF was
treated as an organization contributing to and receiving from the convention
fund when the accounts were published, while the Triumvirs actually ran
things.
Up to this time Managing Secretary Moskowitz had held absolute power, it
being explained that it was necessary to have a going organization to get
people to join, and time-pressures of the oncoming Convention precluded
decision of details by democratic vote. SaM called it a democratic
dictatorship, meaning that NF had to regard the fans' opinions just as pro
editors did. After the NYCon they spoke of putting NF on a democratic basis
and presented a constitution which essentially only substituted elected
officers for the appointees, rather than incorporating changes suggested by
Rothman, Speer, and others. The Triumvirs agreed to submit this constitution
to a vote along with any other endorsed by a given number of members of New
Fandom; such a constitution was presently brought forward by Speer, but the
Unholy Three delayed voting, calling a conference at Newark in Spring of 1940
to which the Phillies, Warner and Speer were invited. The two latter sent
regrets; the Phillies attended and the con appointed temporary officers for
New Fandom in line with the setup of the Triumvirs' proposed constitution.
However, by this time the Official Organ had ceased to come out; no activity
had been shown by the organization since the NYCon, except for the leaders'
making various declarations in the name of New Fandom; and both leaders and
members seemed willing to let the whole matter drop.
NEWSIES Fanzines intending to give news of fan activities. Certain usage
distinguishes the newszine, a fanzine full of news, from the
newsletter, often no more than a flier, often put out by convention/conference
committees to report on local activities. (But Bob Tucker's Bloomington/SF
News Letter was full of general news.) Before and during World War II they
ordinarily appeared weekly, but there have been triweeklies (once every three
weeks) and there was a publication by McPhail in the quarterly FAPA mailing
which called itself a news sheet. Dick Wilson's Science Fiction News Letter
was the earliest, but the most important historically was Taurasi's, which as
Fantasy News soon began to compete. Will Sykora took over Fantasy News for a
while and it folded during the war, but Taurasi began again with Fantasy News
when he came home from the wars. Its name was changed to Science Fiction
Times later (1957) when fantasy became a negligible part of our field. FT
early in its life attained maybe the largest circulation of any fanzine since
Fantasy Magazine days at least, and has had the longest publication life of
any fan magazine.
Since 1938 there has nearly always been at least one more-or-less regular
newsie in fandom; a biweekly schedule is normal at the moment of writing. A
brief thing was the Fanewscard (tho Ted Carnell published a cardzine for some
months after Great Britain went to war.)
NEWSPEAK The intended language of 1984, in Orwell's novel. In line with the
Party's scientific approach to dominance, Newspeak is composed of
words with limited -- and, naturally, non-heretical -- associations;
ultimately it will consist only of words with which no rebellious thoughts can
be expressed. It was the analogy on which Fanspeak was formed, and donated to
us such customs as reversing the meanings of words by giving them negative
prefixes.
NICKNAMES Besides penames and the usual English nicknames, Bob, Jack, Don,
Bill, ktp, fans use several kinds of distinctive monickers.
Some are a sort of Demolishism, like 4e/4sj, DaV, ATom, Tripoli, and
r-tRapp (Forrie/Forrest J Ackerman, Dave Rike, Arthur Thomson, E Everett Evans
and Art Rapp). Similar are various combinations and unEnglish corruptions of
first and last names, exemplia gratia JoCa, Eshm, SaM, Morojo, Urk Buncliff,
and Goon Bleary (Joan Carr, Ron Fleshman [in imitation of pro-artist Ed
Emshwiller, "Emsh"], Sam Moskowitz [or sometimes -Martinez], Myrtle R Douglas,
Eric Bentcliffe, and John Berry.
Something different are names based on various personal characteristics:
The Amiable Bulldozer, the Newark Neanderthal, Foghorn Samuel, Scribe JH,
Squirrel, Sweet Unspoiled Miss Nanshare, and Small Sister Lindsay. (William
Rotsler, from his disposition and build; Sam Moskowitz, from his residence and
physique; ditto, because of his voice; Jack Harness, Scientological "priest",
from the Rosicrucians' designation of their illuminati; Ron Ellik, from Boyd
Raeburn's comment that Ronel was careless and irresponsible and reminded him
[Raeburn] of a silly little squirrel running around aimlessly; Nancy Share,
that rosy-cheeked flower of Pennsylvania girlhood; and Ethel Lindsay, who's
short and a Nursing Sister [Registered Nurse].)
There are also several names used as official which aren't legally the
bearers', like Bob Tucker.
NIRVANA A very ordinary fanzine published by Ken Bulmer. Only one person
[Walt Willis] commented on it and Ken folded it immediately. But a
legend grew up about its mythical following issues (cf. Odd Tales)... fabulous
material, subs by invitation only, a sort of inner circle fanzine for the
elite of the elite; those in the know, especially Walt and Ken, mentioned it
only in hushed tones and reverent voices. It has, I hear, never previously
been explicitly revealed as a hoax.
NONSTOPARAGRAPHING (Ackerman) Paragraphing in which no line is skipped
between paragraphs, and the new paragraph is indented the
length of the last line of the preceding paragraph. That sounds complicated
but isn't.
When the typist reaches the end of a paragraph he drops down a
line, maybe hits the space bar a time or two, and then goes on writing, as is
done here. If the paragraph happens to end flush with the right-hand margin,
as ours did, Speer recommends use of a # mark (typewriterese for ¶) to
create a new fractional line; Ackerman skips a line and indents five spaces as
with the beginning of conventional paragraphing. The system flourished
mightily in Third Fandom and is still popular.
NON-POETRY (Ballard) Wrai invented this classification for the benefit of
those who hate poetry; it describes a form of literature which
looks and rimes like poetry, but, being enjoyed by poetry-haters, obviously is
not poetry. Nancy Share calls some of her stuff Am-So Poetry, in rivalry.
N3F The National Fantasy Fan Federation, the chief general fan organization.
(Forbye, it's international, despite the name.) It was organized in 1941
by elements of the Stranger Club of Boston, Mass, stimulated by damon knight's
article "Unite -- or Fie!" in Art Widner's Fanfare, which had suggested
formation of a new general organization with the decline of New Fandom. In
1941 the group began functioning after a preliminary election, and President
Chauvenet drew up a rather long constitution. Plans were laid to finance the
Federation by a tax on activity by amount, rather than by equal dues; a
majority of members had approved this notion when Widner advanced it, but when
the Finance Committee offered a concrete plan (omitting calculation of how
small the sums would actually be) a great babble went up about "penalizing
activity", "paying tribute", usw. This prevented the adoption of the
constitution at first; an altered one was finally adopted, but did not prevent
the Interregnum in June 1942. And after Evans' Blitzkrieg the removal of
active fans by wartime difficulties made it impossible to work the
governmental structure envisioned for the N3F. Tho this trouble, as explained
under "Interregnum", was eventually resolved, the N3F has never since gotten
out of a sort of permanent embryonic state. It continues to day by an act of
faith among those who Believe in it, but few knowing outsiders would dissent
from some such opinion as the one Harry Warner expresses:
"I've heard this assurance that big things were around the corner for the
N3F so frequently... it's funny by this time. The N3F invariably has a half-
dozen energetic members who can get things done, and several hundred who are
either content to let the others work hard, or jealous that the others are
active. The organization may be justified by serving as an outlet for fans
during a period of six months to a year -- the period when they're just
getting acquainted with fandom, with a yen to read long lists of fan
addresses, high-sounding words about purposes, and so forth. After that, a
verbal arrangement with two or three other people can accomplish more than the
N3F has ever done."
The organization started out with fine plans for recruiting fans,
inspiring activity, setting up regional subordinate organizations (for New
England, Dixie, the rest of the East, the Midwest, West [Mississippi-Rockies],
and Pacific areas), selecting convention sites, and so on. The central
administration of the Federation, besides the elected officers and the
Advisory Board, would include several committees and a permanent judicial or
legal body of certain middle-aged fans.
It is said to have a membership of about 400, give or take 100 either
way, and supposedly publishes a frequent bulletin, The National Fantasy Fan.
But the N3F has never managed to be an important force in fandom, tho some
of its aims -- organizing, standardizing, and coordinating fan activities,
providing a common meeting ground, and publishing informational booklets like
this one -- would be worthwhile. It is so large and unwieldy that it never
gets off the ground; the normal official lethargy of fan organizations is
multiplied by the fact that the N3F officers consult by correspondence; and
the "benefit list" of projects whose fruits are going to drop into the N3Fers
laps Real Soon Now is a standing joke in fandom.
The chief complaint seems to be inertia among the membership, which
require to be treated like the rank-and-file of large mundane organizations.
N3F officials have usually included active and competent fans, even some BNFs
of legendary status like Speer, Warner, and Rapp, but the routine of
administering a flaccid mass of marginally interested stfnists is such as to
drive personalities of the sort fans have into gafia, Insurgency, or paper-
doll-cutting. The efficient chaser of details who forms the backbone of any
administrating organization is not a type plentiful in fandom, and even when
found can usually get greater rewards of egoboo through individual fanac.
Fans would probably do better at coordination -- which was the original idea,
after all -- and the activities which call for it to exercise only this
function, like the Round Robins (chain letters) and N3F APA are the most
successful in the club; but as a rule activities to coordinate is just what
the N3F lacks.
NUCLEAR FIZZ (Bob Pavlat) The fannish mixed drink. "Here's what a
Fizz is, and how it came about. It is: 1 ½ shot gin, 1 shot
cointreau, 1 shot lemon or lime juice (and a lemon-lime mixture is better
yet), 2 shots soda, 2 or 3 drops bitters. If you like them sweet, add more
cointreau, and vary the amount of soda to suit your taste.
"And here's how it came about. At the PhilCon I, Chick Derry and I [Bob
Pavlat] were drinking with Tom Hadley of the Buffalo Book Company... we liked
the looks of Hadley's drink, and ordered one from the bartender. Hadley gave
the bartender the formula... the Nuclear Fizz formula. I don't know where
Hadley got the drink, but fandom obtained it from Hadley.
"As to its popularization: Derry and I remembered our drink (it was ours
by right of discovery, if not invention)... shortly after the CinVention,
Boggs wrote that Kerkhof and I had saved his life at the con by dragging him
into the bar and feeding him a drink. I don't remember whether he used the
name Nuclear Fizz [yes -- ed.] but that's what it was, and if he did that was
the first appearance of the name in the fan press. The occasion of the
drinking was the first time any fan other than Derry or I had silped a Fizz,
Boggs and Kerkhof being introduced to it simultaneously.
"The drink was introduced to the rest of WSFA after our return from the
CinVention... and various WSFA members had a small Fizz party during the 1952
PhilCo." From this, and the propagandizing of WSFAns, the Nuclear Fizz spread
over fandom. "Two final facts: as far as I can recall, the name Nuclear Fizz
is my creation. Silping was the invention of Lee Jacobs, who perfected and
named the art." -- Bob Pavlat in SPACEWARP.
Tho not a needful part of the drink, Karen Anderson's custom of putting
vegetable coloring in it as a warning measure is well advised. Variations
include vodka instead of gin, making a Nuclear Fuze; vodka and gin, a
Nuclear Fuss.
NULL-A Non-Aristotelian logic; Breathes there a fan with soul so dull
specifically, Alfred He sounds his A without the null?
Korzybski's General Semantics. Fen look aghast at all such antics
It's multivalued rather'n two- Because they are not good semantics.
valued, hence much better suited -- Art Rapp
for showing off the hero's mental
agility. VanVogt popularized Korzybski's doctrines in one of his more
impressive save-the-world-with-a-gimmick sagas, the World of A -- Players
of A series [symbol A with line above it read "null-A"], tho the chief
null-A discipline practiced by hero Gosseyn is not mentioned by Korzybski: the
cortico-thalamic pause, in which the rational cortex is "integrated" into
control of the emotional thalamus, whereat semantically clever words sound
forth. (Wrai Ballard was often disappointed when Gosseyn performed this
maneuver; he kept expecting somebody to clout G over the head in the middle of
it. Nobody ever did.) As you'd expect in a pulpyarn, however, the hero wins
not by application of philosophic principles but -- in this case -- by developing the
double brain (a group of nervelike cells, not a second thinking mind) he
possesses to such a point that it can be used to control matter and energy and
goshwow (also).
NULLCON The Seattle Nameless Ones, or their more active members, hold house
parties under this name from time to time. And in 1956 the LASFS had
a confabulation thus tagged, for Westcoasters who couldn't make it to the
NyCon II.
#1 FAN FACE Ackerman, from his rating as top fan in the polls for years and
years and years. Bob Tucker just as consistently ran a high
second, hence his occasional ekename, Fan Face 1 ½.
NUNNERY A slanshack on Cooper Square, New York, occupied by Bill Donaho, Art
Saha, and a mort o' transients. It was the scene of several parties,
including the Fanarcon.
NWT IN '53 Slogan of Bill Morse's campaign to take the 1953 convention to
Tuktoyakuk in North West Territory (where the Mounties come from).
He promised whale blubber lamps in every igloo, but Philadelphia managed to
divert enough of his support to win on the balloting.
NYBISA The New York, and principal, Branch of the ISA. All officers of the
ISA on the eve of its dissolution were from the NYB; Sykora
(President), Kubilius (Secretary), Wollheim (Treasurer), and Fred Pohl
(Official Editor); vice-presidency vacant. In the NYB itself, Sykora was
Chairman and Wollheim Vice-Chairman; so with the resignation of Sykora,
followed by Pohl, Wollheim became the only officer of either ISA or NYBISA,
except for Kubilius who was in the hospital and agreed to let DAW take over;
results are told under ISA. The NYBISA was the most active club, with the
greatest assortment of later famous fans and pros, that New York has had; it
provided the background for the next five years of New York fandom, and became
something of a Golden Age in retrospect.
Updated January 8, 1999. If you have a comment or question about these Web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.