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Vampire, whole no. 7, September 1946
31858063101335_025
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in some general impressions of a newcomer to the fan field. I note a sentimental tendency to glorify fan mags, fan writing, fan activities, fans (and even in some cases pro-mags) as something laudable and commendable per se, regardless of the quality or results. P'raps I'm not a true fan at heart, but I see fan activity as a means to various ends and not an end in itself. Granting that there have been many notable examples of unselfish sacrifice (from some of which I suppose every fan has at some time benefitted -- e.g., the activities of convention backers, various help to collectors, assorted free fan publications) -- still any unprejudiced observer must admit that a lot of time and money has been squandered to no good end, the postal revenues have been swelled by the passage through the mails of a lot of unmitigated crap, fans innumerable have wasted time that might better have been spent drinking or wenching in dutifully wading through or writing stuff that neither they nor anyone else really enjoyed, etc. und so weider, all as a result of this undiscriminating and unpragmatic attitude. (Wotta sentence!) The worst consequence is the reduction of fan publishing to a general level of mediocrity. I should rather see a dozen or fewer solidly-established, regularly appearing fanmags, enjoying almost universal support and able to select for publication the cream of a sufficiency of spontaneous carefully-written material, than the past and prevalent production with the comparatively little of worth scattered throughout bales of trash and even the best mags struggling to keep alive and having a very brief average life-expectancy. (Call me Heartless.) It will be noted that I don't agree with Warner or Laney, nor those who favor "letter-hacking". There are some (like Speer) with active and sometimes brilliant minds who can write reams of stuff, all of it good and sparkling with ideas. They are rare. You may argue that a lot of fans who have little or no writing ability would be unable to inflate their egos by getting their stuff in print regularly and might eventually get discouraged enough to stop trying -- except on rare occasions when they really have something to say. To this I say that you are probably right, at least it is devoutly to be hoped so. Lessee now. Oh yes. Alpaugh finds Lovecraftian fantasy in pop tunes. I can go him one better, I think: there's a definite esseffish element in "Gotta Be This or That". The whole lyric, in fact, is a popularized statement of the principles of Aristotelian black-and-white "logic". Thus we see a dastardly, insidious attempt (obviously dero-inspired) to impede the progress of A and hold back the Semantic Millenium by evoking an emotional association of Artistotelianism with music. The forces of unenlightenment and reaction are ubiquitous and never-sleeping; one must constantly be on guard against them! Here and now, come later what may, I want to nominate Jenkins' "Atoms Over America" for s-f story of the year. George Ebey's letter was fun- -25-
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in some general impressions of a newcomer to the fan field. I note a sentimental tendency to glorify fan mags, fan writing, fan activities, fans (and even in some cases pro-mags) as something laudable and commendable per se, regardless of the quality or results. P'raps I'm not a true fan at heart, but I see fan activity as a means to various ends and not an end in itself. Granting that there have been many notable examples of unselfish sacrifice (from some of which I suppose every fan has at some time benefitted -- e.g., the activities of convention backers, various help to collectors, assorted free fan publications) -- still any unprejudiced observer must admit that a lot of time and money has been squandered to no good end, the postal revenues have been swelled by the passage through the mails of a lot of unmitigated crap, fans innumerable have wasted time that might better have been spent drinking or wenching in dutifully wading through or writing stuff that neither they nor anyone else really enjoyed, etc. und so weider, all as a result of this undiscriminating and unpragmatic attitude. (Wotta sentence!) The worst consequence is the reduction of fan publishing to a general level of mediocrity. I should rather see a dozen or fewer solidly-established, regularly appearing fanmags, enjoying almost universal support and able to select for publication the cream of a sufficiency of spontaneous carefully-written material, than the past and prevalent production with the comparatively little of worth scattered throughout bales of trash and even the best mags struggling to keep alive and having a very brief average life-expectancy. (Call me Heartless.) It will be noted that I don't agree with Warner or Laney, nor those who favor "letter-hacking". There are some (like Speer) with active and sometimes brilliant minds who can write reams of stuff, all of it good and sparkling with ideas. They are rare. You may argue that a lot of fans who have little or no writing ability would be unable to inflate their egos by getting their stuff in print regularly and might eventually get discouraged enough to stop trying -- except on rare occasions when they really have something to say. To this I say that you are probably right, at least it is devoutly to be hoped so. Lessee now. Oh yes. Alpaugh finds Lovecraftian fantasy in pop tunes. I can go him one better, I think: there's a definite esseffish element in "Gotta Be This or That". The whole lyric, in fact, is a popularized statement of the principles of Aristotelian black-and-white "logic". Thus we see a dastardly, insidious attempt (obviously dero-inspired) to impede the progress of A and hold back the Semantic Millenium by evoking an emotional association of Artistotelianism with music. The forces of unenlightenment and reaction are ubiquitous and never-sleeping; one must constantly be on guard against them! Here and now, come later what may, I want to nominate Jenkins' "Atoms Over America" for s-f story of the year. George Ebey's letter was fun- -25-
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