DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Southern Star, v. 1, issue 4, December 1941

Transcribe
Translate

Southern Star, v. 1, issue 4, December 1941

Page 3

Donovontion Daze     SOUTHERN STAR     Page 3

place, beating each other over the head for choice seats.
     When all had assembled, the program struggled to begin. Lew Martin bravely orated four lines I had written for him. Roy Hunt welcomed us all, and Wiggins fuddled around for a tense moment introducing the one who was to introduce the speaker of honor.
     Let us digress for a moment and explain a point. Wiggins, Martin, and Hunt did a magnificent job of organizing the convention. The hotel was admirable, the hall was perfect, the arrangements excellent in every way -- but Wiggins, Martin, and Hunt could not speak before an audience. They know it, everybody knew it, and there was no use kiddin anybody about it. So after that painful beginning, when the program croaked mightily and it appeared as if the whole thing would stop short Wiggins did the very best thing he could have done. He quietly turned over all the chairmaning to Walt Daugherty, and there was no one more suited to the job.
      That came later, however. In the meantime, Ackerman introduced Mr. Heinlein, who hardly needed introducing. Heinlein is a medium sized person, extremely good-looking, wears glasses, has a faint mustache speaks slowly and with great deliberation, is very serious in manner and thought, and looks like a cross between Errol Flynn and George Brent. Being serious, he spoke seriously. His message that afternoon (I hesitate to call it a speech) was of great significance and interest. I wish I had a copy of the speech here so I could report it more accurately than from memory. Perhaps it will be published elsewhere word for word.
     He first spoke of what made s-f fans different from other people; why it was that the world was divided into two parts, s-f readers and non-s-f readers. He spoke of that which distinguishes man from the lower animals, and he called it time-bending, which is the ability to think of the past and the future and relate them to the present. He believed that s-f readers had greater powers of time-bending, this being related to their great interest in the future. 
      In this connection, he spoke of prophecy and the manner in which prophecy relates to sanity. He told of how animals went mad under experimental conditions which caused their prophecies to fail over and over again. He spoke of how many people today are faced with insanity because their prophecies keep failing to come true. He spoke of how s-f fans can overcome this tendency to insanity by combining scientific thinking with their already present powers of time-bending and prophecy.
     By scientific thinking, he explained, he meant the use of facts, and the ability to distinguish between facts and non-facts. Facts, he defined as things which have already occurred, as distinguished from things which might occur, which are going to occur, or which are opinions. By sticking rigorously to facts, scientific thinking may be accomplished.
     He said many more things, but I find that if I start to dig into my memory further I begin to confuse what he said with my own ideas, and to go further would not be reporting, but editorializing.
      After a short intermission, Mr. Heinlein again took the stand to answer questions which had been written down and handed to him.
      The first question asked whether Mr. Heinlein approved of the use of drugs such as the benzedrine surrogate which was mentioned in one of his stories. Heinlein answered that upon occasion he had partaken of certain drugs and approved of their use when the situation called for them, which was the answer to be expected.
      The next question mentioned the impossibility of believing what

Saving...

Donovontion Daze SOUTHERN STAR Page 3 place, beating each other over the head for choice seats. When all had assembled, the program struggled to begin. Lew Martin bravely orated four lines I had written for him. Roy Hunt welcomed us all, and Wiggins fuddled around for a tense moment introducing the one who was to introduce the speaker of honor. Let us digress for a moment and explain a point. Wiggins, Martin, and Hunt did a magnificent job of organizing the convention. The hotel was admirable, the hall was perfect, the arrangements excellent in every way -- but Wiggins, Martin, and Hunt could not speak before an audience. They know it, everybody knew it, and there was no use kiddin anybody about it. So after that painful beginning, when the program croaked mightily and it appeared as if the whole thing would stop short Wiggins did the very best thing he could have done. He quietly turned over all the chairmaning to Walt Daugherty, and there was no one more suited to the job. That came later, however. In the meantime, Ackerman introduced Mr. Heinlein, who hardly needed introducing. Heinlein is a medium sized person, extremely good-looking, wears glasses, has a faint mustache speaks slowly and with great deliberation, is very serious in manner and thought, and looks like a cross between Errol Flynn and George Brent. Being serious, he spoke seriously. His message that afternoon (I hesitate to call it a speech) was of great significance and interest. I wish I had a copy of the speech here so I could report it more accurately than from memory. Perhaps it will be published elsewhere word for word. He first spoke of what made s-f fans different from other people; why it was that the world was divided into two parts, s-f readers and non-s-f readers. He spoke of that which distinguishes man from the lower animals, and he called it time-bending, which is the ability to think of the past and the future and relate them to the present. He believed that s-f readers had greater powers of time-bending, this being related to their great interest in the future. In this connection, he spoke of prophecy and the manner in which prophecy relates to sanity. He told of how animals went mad under experimental conditions which caused their prophecies to fail over and over again. He spoke of how many people today are faced with insanity because their prophecies keep failing to come true. He spoke of how s-f fans can overcome this tendency to insanity by combining scientific thinking with their already present powers of time-bending and prophecy. By scientific thinking, he explained, he meant the use of facts, and the ability to distinguish between facts and non-facts. Facts, he defined as things which have already occurred, as distinguished from things which might occur, which are going to occur, or which are opinions. By sticking rigorously to facts, scientific thinking may be accomplished. He said many more things, but I find that if I start to dig into my memory further I begin to confuse what he said with my own ideas, and to go further would not be reporting, but editorializing. After a short intermission, Mr. Heinlein again took the stand to answer questions which had been written down and handed to him. The first question asked whether Mr. Heinlein approved of the use of drugs such as the benzedrine surrogate which was mentioned in one of his stories. Heinlein answered that upon occasion he had partaken of certain drugs and approved of their use when the situation called for them, which was the answer to be expected. The next question mentioned the impossibility of believing what