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Nucleus, v. 3, issue 2, Winter 1941

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2 Are Fans People?

Of all the unsound generalizations which have in the past been made about science fiction fans, perhaps the least dubious is the one regarding the excessive egoism of fans as a group. They like themselves even more than average people do. Consequently, fans have always been glad to have other fans, and even a few stray authors, tell them what fine fellows they are, the wonderful elite group which reads stf. pulps. Similarly, those who are not especially concerned with obtaining the plaudits of the fans in general have always been tempted to take the other extreme, if only out of sheer boredom with the usual selfgratulations which pass between fans. Fortier and Kuhn, for instance, speak with apparent seriousness of the possibility that stf. fans may be "slabs", while Gertrude Kuslan (our own editor) has maintained the proposition that the majority of fans are insane. In my opinion, both of these views are simply silly; it is my purpose in this article to delineate what I think to be the true nature of stf fans, and their place in the present world.
The claim to superiority merits consideration first. There are millions of people who read pulp magazines of various kinds -- love, western, sports, detective, science-fiction, etc. Of these, a minority of a few hundred thousand read science-fiction. Of this number, perhaps as many as five hundred are sufficiently interested in what they read to be drawn into fandom, if only by way of a subscription to one or two fanzines. If we ask now, whether such semi-active fans are superior to the great bulk of stf readers who don't care a curse for fandom, the answer is clearly no. If A reads a pulp stf mag, and then throw it away while B writes off the a fanzine editor whose letter appears in the letter section, this is scant proof that B is a better specimen than A. Perhaps A has sufficient intelligence to realize that what he has been reading is mostly hogwash, with only minute traces of science, and little care for plausibility. No one can deny that scientists, by and large, are not readers of science-fiction. The mental quirk which leads a person into the fan world is, therefore, not necessarily, nor even probably, associated with scientific ability, or any other particularly useful trait. That this is so is clearly indicated by the fact that the only things in which all fans have in common is an interest in science or fantasy fiction.
Of the few hundred fans, perhaps thirty or forty are "active", having made  their names known to the brethren in one way or another, usually by publishing, or contributing to, one of more fanzines. There is, of course, no sharp line marking off the inner circle fans from the less active ones, but it is easy to name twenty fans without whom there would be no fandom as we know it. Are these individuals actually superior to the rest of fandom and to the average person? If so, in what way? Interest in science-fiction, per se, cannot logically be called a grounds of superiority in this inquiry. If we search for other grounds, what do we find? These active fans edit small magazines, and write for them -- but so do members of such organizations as the NAPA and the AAPA, which have no connection with fandom. So, also, do the editors and staffs of innumerable high school and college publications throughout the US.
Evidently publishing magazines for limited circulation within a select group is not an especial distinction which fans may claim for their own. The fact that fans are interested in expressing themselves this way does not set them off particularly from those non fans of their own age who are also interested in writing and publishing. No one in his right mind
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2 Are Fans People? Of all the unsound generalizations which have in the past been made about science fiction fans, perhaps the least dubious is the one regarding the excessive egoism of fans as a group. They like themselves even more than average people do. Consequently, fans have always been glad to have other fans, and even a few stray authors, tell them what fine fellows they are, the wonderful elite group which reads stf. pulps. Similarly, those who are not especially concerned with obtaining the plaudits of the fans in general have always been tempted to take the other extreme, if only out of sheer boredom with the usual selfgratulations which pass between fans. Fortier and Kuhn, for instance, speak with apparent seriousness of the possibility that stf. fans may be "slabs", while Gertrude Kuslan (our own editor) has maintained the proposition that the majority of fans are insane. In my opinion, both of these views are simply silly; it is my purpose in this article to delineate what I think to be the true nature of stf fans, and their place in the present world. The claim to superiority merits consideration first. There are millions of people who read pulp magazines of various kinds -- love, western, sports, detective, science-fiction, etc. Of these, a minority of a few hundred thousand read science-fiction. Of this number, perhaps as many as five hundred are sufficiently interested in what they read to be drawn into fandom, if only by way of a subscription to one or two fanzines. If we ask now, whether such semi-active fans are superior to the great bulk of stf readers who don't care a curse for fandom, the answer is clearly no. If A reads a pulp stf mag, and then throw it away while B writes off the a fanzine editor whose letter appears in the letter section, this is scant proof that B is a better specimen than A. Perhaps A has sufficient intelligence to realize that what he has been reading is mostly hogwash, with only minute traces of science, and little care for plausibility. No one can deny that scientists, by and large, are not readers of science-fiction. The mental quirk which leads a person into the fan world is, therefore, not necessarily, nor even probably, associated with scientific ability, or any other particularly useful trait. That this is so is clearly indicated by the fact that the only things in which all fans have in common is an interest in science or fantasy fiction. Of the few hundred fans, perhaps thirty or forty are "active", having made their names known to the brethren in one way or another, usually by publishing, or contributing to, one of more fanzines. There is, of course, no sharp line marking off the inner circle fans from the less active ones, but it is easy to name twenty fans without whom there would be no fandom as we know it. Are these individuals actually superior to the rest of fandom and to the average person? If so, in what way? Interest in science-fiction, per se, cannot logically be called a grounds of superiority in this inquiry. If we search for other grounds, what do we find? These active fans edit small magazines, and write for them -- but so do members of such organizations as the NAPA and the AAPA, which have no connection with fandom. So, also, do the editors and staffs of innumerable high school and college publications throughout the US. Evidently publishing magazines for limited circulation within a select group is not an especial distinction which fans may claim for their own. The fact that fans are interested in expressing themselves this way does not set them off particularly from those non fans of their own age who are also interested in writing and publishing. No one in his right mind (continued on next page)