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Infinite, v. 1, issue 1, [1941?]
Page 4
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Story Behind The Message by Claude Degler On Sunday, July sixth, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, there appeared in the Colorado Room of the Shirley Savoy a Western Union messenger, who delivered a message in a plain, sealed envelope. Across the face of the envelope was typed,"MESSAGE TO THE DENVENTION", and written below this in pencil; "Deliver 2 o'clock. Shirley Savoy, Colorado Room, World Science Fiction Convention In the message itself a request was made that it be read before the assembled fans, but after a short portion had been read it was decided that such a procedure would take too much valuable time, and the message was laid aside. Leonard Marlow and myself, the only fans attending from Indiana, thought, after we had heard the small portion of the message that was actually read, that it was obviously a hoax. However, it sounded interesting, and we were curious. No one else seemed to show much enthusiasm or be greatly interested. The envelope was laid on the chair mans desk, and we waited until some other business was over, then went up to take a look at this strange missive which purported to be a message from MARTIANS. Slowly we read through the first of it, and more and more we were convinced it was a hoax of some sort. We read on to see what the catch was. But astoundingly there was no catch there, and as we read on, incredible sentence after sentence, uncertainty, then a strange doubt, began to displace our firm convictions. This was no ordinary hoax. Hoax, if hoax it was, its unknown author had put an enormous amount of work into it, we felt. True, we will grant you, the contents seem similar to many stories we have all read about Martians and "messages from Mars". But the part about this one that is so strangely disconcerting, is the almost compelling feeling that the words mean exactly what they state, the uncannily realistic way it is written! After we had read the message, we felt that something would have to be done. Here was a situation unique in all the annals of fandom; an incredible situation. The message was a very sincere one, addressed to the fans attending to the convention and to all the fandom It distinctly and positively stated that the message was to be read BEFORE THE CONVENTION. Yet no one payed much attention it. An unthinkable situation! We would have to tell people about it, at least get them interested enough to read it! As I said before, this seemed so sincere, so realistic, and we didn't want to see a good thing go under. I have always been a fan of these stories with an ironic twist, that end in some entirely different and unexpected manner. The irony of this situation was readily apparent. Science-fiction fans, the people who have always believed in Martians, space travel, etc., have delivered to their convention a message claiming to be from Martians, and what do they do? They laugh at it! Cosmic irony! - 4 - (cont. on next page)
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Story Behind The Message by Claude Degler On Sunday, July sixth, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, there appeared in the Colorado Room of the Shirley Savoy a Western Union messenger, who delivered a message in a plain, sealed envelope. Across the face of the envelope was typed,"MESSAGE TO THE DENVENTION", and written below this in pencil; "Deliver 2 o'clock. Shirley Savoy, Colorado Room, World Science Fiction Convention In the message itself a request was made that it be read before the assembled fans, but after a short portion had been read it was decided that such a procedure would take too much valuable time, and the message was laid aside. Leonard Marlow and myself, the only fans attending from Indiana, thought, after we had heard the small portion of the message that was actually read, that it was obviously a hoax. However, it sounded interesting, and we were curious. No one else seemed to show much enthusiasm or be greatly interested. The envelope was laid on the chair mans desk, and we waited until some other business was over, then went up to take a look at this strange missive which purported to be a message from MARTIANS. Slowly we read through the first of it, and more and more we were convinced it was a hoax of some sort. We read on to see what the catch was. But astoundingly there was no catch there, and as we read on, incredible sentence after sentence, uncertainty, then a strange doubt, began to displace our firm convictions. This was no ordinary hoax. Hoax, if hoax it was, its unknown author had put an enormous amount of work into it, we felt. True, we will grant you, the contents seem similar to many stories we have all read about Martians and "messages from Mars". But the part about this one that is so strangely disconcerting, is the almost compelling feeling that the words mean exactly what they state, the uncannily realistic way it is written! After we had read the message, we felt that something would have to be done. Here was a situation unique in all the annals of fandom; an incredible situation. The message was a very sincere one, addressed to the fans attending to the convention and to all the fandom It distinctly and positively stated that the message was to be read BEFORE THE CONVENTION. Yet no one payed much attention it. An unthinkable situation! We would have to tell people about it, at least get them interested enough to read it! As I said before, this seemed so sincere, so realistic, and we didn't want to see a good thing go under. I have always been a fan of these stories with an ironic twist, that end in some entirely different and unexpected manner. The irony of this situation was readily apparent. Science-fiction fans, the people who have always believed in Martians, space travel, etc., have delivered to their convention a message claiming to be from Martians, and what do they do? They laugh at it! Cosmic irony! - 4 - (cont. on next page)
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