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Spacewarp, v. 5, issue 4, whole no. 28, July 1949
Page 5
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VICIOUS CIRCLE by DAN MULCAHY [[illustration text]] JOIN the [[illegible]] [[end illustration text]] SPACEWARP, the Lurid Fanzine, has come up with one of its periodical kernels of wisdom, this time to the effect that fandom is decentralizing, its character (?) changing. In the words of the smokestack that walks like a man: "There seems to be less and less activity on a national scale, more and more on the local level." And for once Daniel J. Mulcahy is in agreement with what he reads in these unhallowed pages. Sure enough, fandom is decentralizing. The last two attempts at a national organization -- Young Fandom and Science Fiction International -- flopped pretty miserably after a brief period of activity. The current attempt, Linda Bowles' American Science Fiction Association, may be more of a success, but I have my doubts. The truth is horridly simple. Joe Phan has become isolationist. To get ahead today, a club must adopt a name like the Lower Altoona Slightly Frenetic Society, or maybe North Farragut Fantasy Fans. It must elect to its executive position Homer Glunk, who once had a subscription to Cosmic Circle Commentator. It must rush right out and but a mimeo and put out a sloppily-printed newsletter called maybe the Goshwowboyoboy Gazette, one half of whose pages are filled with ads inviting you and you to become auxiliary members for only one lousy buck, while the other half will consist of letters from Sam Moscowitz and Charles Edward Burbee regretting that they are too busy at the moment to dash off the requested twenty-page article. If a page or two is left over, the President's Message will place the Lower Altoona Slightly Frenetic Society (or maybe North Farragut Fantasy Fans) squarely on the side of right and justice, as opposed to the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Having made such a fine start, our embryo fanclub is all set to take its place in the TWS listing right between the Kimball Kinnison Fan Club and the Moscowitz for President Society. Why, I forsee a day when the National Fantasy Fan Federation will have gone wherever old fan clubs go to die, and the Fantasy Amateur Press Association will be as much a memory as the Science Fiction League; a day when where will be no national convention, but merely an endless procession of Beercons and Whitcons; a day when the Insurgent Element will have rejoined the LASFS from sheer boredom, or moved across the border en masse to set up the Baja California SFS. Fantasy Commentator will become the organ of the Greater Brooklyn Futurian Society, and SaM will perforce limit his history to the exploits of Messers. Taurasi and Sykora. And then, someday in the distant future, some benighted Manhattan fan will discover that there are others of his ilk as far away as Passaic. They will start an intensive correspondence, and presently organize a society called the International Scientific Association. And the whole mad cycle will have started once again. --END-- (5)
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VICIOUS CIRCLE by DAN MULCAHY [[illustration text]] JOIN the [[illegible]] [[end illustration text]] SPACEWARP, the Lurid Fanzine, has come up with one of its periodical kernels of wisdom, this time to the effect that fandom is decentralizing, its character (?) changing. In the words of the smokestack that walks like a man: "There seems to be less and less activity on a national scale, more and more on the local level." And for once Daniel J. Mulcahy is in agreement with what he reads in these unhallowed pages. Sure enough, fandom is decentralizing. The last two attempts at a national organization -- Young Fandom and Science Fiction International -- flopped pretty miserably after a brief period of activity. The current attempt, Linda Bowles' American Science Fiction Association, may be more of a success, but I have my doubts. The truth is horridly simple. Joe Phan has become isolationist. To get ahead today, a club must adopt a name like the Lower Altoona Slightly Frenetic Society, or maybe North Farragut Fantasy Fans. It must elect to its executive position Homer Glunk, who once had a subscription to Cosmic Circle Commentator. It must rush right out and but a mimeo and put out a sloppily-printed newsletter called maybe the Goshwowboyoboy Gazette, one half of whose pages are filled with ads inviting you and you to become auxiliary members for only one lousy buck, while the other half will consist of letters from Sam Moscowitz and Charles Edward Burbee regretting that they are too busy at the moment to dash off the requested twenty-page article. If a page or two is left over, the President's Message will place the Lower Altoona Slightly Frenetic Society (or maybe North Farragut Fantasy Fans) squarely on the side of right and justice, as opposed to the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. Having made such a fine start, our embryo fanclub is all set to take its place in the TWS listing right between the Kimball Kinnison Fan Club and the Moscowitz for President Society. Why, I forsee a day when the National Fantasy Fan Federation will have gone wherever old fan clubs go to die, and the Fantasy Amateur Press Association will be as much a memory as the Science Fiction League; a day when where will be no national convention, but merely an endless procession of Beercons and Whitcons; a day when the Insurgent Element will have rejoined the LASFS from sheer boredom, or moved across the border en masse to set up the Baja California SFS. Fantasy Commentator will become the organ of the Greater Brooklyn Futurian Society, and SaM will perforce limit his history to the exploits of Messers. Taurasi and Sykora. And then, someday in the distant future, some benighted Manhattan fan will discover that there are others of his ilk as far away as Passaic. They will start an intensive correspondence, and presently organize a society called the International Scientific Association. And the whole mad cycle will have started once again. --END-- (5)
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