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Fantasy Digest, v. 1, issue 6, August-September 1939
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THEY NEVER COME BACK! by Sam Moskowitz ((The May, 1938 issue of "The Science Fiction Fan" there appeared Bob Madle's pertinent, "They Always Come Back." It so happened that I had composed the about-to-be-presented article at exactly the same time. Madle's beat mine to print so I decided, in order to avoid repetition, to consign my efforts to the junk heap. However, I recently reread another copy I had retained and upon comparing it to Madle's found my effort actually radically different in thought and manner of presentation. I have therefore, brought the article up to date and present it herewith. SM.) "A laughter of forgotten gods that were Echoing still in waste oblivion." taken from SANDELWOOD, by Clark A. Smith If I've heard it one, I've heard it a hundred times. "Oh," some fan would sagely comment, "so John So and So is going to quit science fiction for good. Think's it's only fit for nincompoops... That's what they all say. He'll come crawling back for another dose of his poison." And time time again those statements have, to all surface appearance's been corraborated. Few science fiction fans over condemned stf Kalotsky showed up at "The First National Science Fiction Convention." When asked why he came, he replied: "I really can't say, except that a criminal always returns to the scene of his crimes." I feel that it is undeniable that fans who have once read stf., and quit, do occasionally return as regular readers. Such facts are incontestable, but I can contend that no fan, once active in fandom to any great extent, has ever been able to denouce stf., lay off for a year or two, and then return to his previous position of importance. They remind me of pale, lingering shadows. Ghosts of their once great scientifictional robustness. Striving, desperately to understand and fit into the niche of fan prominence. Old, there have been many who have tried and tried hard too, but few, if any, have ever managed to measure up to their former scientifictional specifications, and ineveitably they once again drop far into the background, wondering at the inexplicableness of it all. A sorrowful spectacle they have made. Fans who belonged to another time, another era, refusing, stubbornly, to change their mode of fan activity to fit the requirements of the present, and those very same wondering yet, why it 'twas that their comeback was far from brilliant, and still further from winning, the friendliness and accord of fandom as it was. I won't delve too far back in citing my examples. That is to say, not entirely. I am sometimes wont to pride myself upon my "salesmanship" or persuasive qualities, but I shall always remember one of the most fruitless bits of campaigning I ever did. CorwinF. Stickney was, at one time, an active and interested fan. Her participated in fan activities to some extent, though never very widely until he and Willis Conover, Jr. created the idea of the "Science-Fantasy Correspondent." The historic split of these two parties is well remembered, as is the resultant campaign of Wollheim to disparage Stickney as a dirty double crosser. Wollheim was not alone. Other members of fandom also took up the
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THEY NEVER COME BACK! by Sam Moskowitz ((The May, 1938 issue of "The Science Fiction Fan" there appeared Bob Madle's pertinent, "They Always Come Back." It so happened that I had composed the about-to-be-presented article at exactly the same time. Madle's beat mine to print so I decided, in order to avoid repetition, to consign my efforts to the junk heap. However, I recently reread another copy I had retained and upon comparing it to Madle's found my effort actually radically different in thought and manner of presentation. I have therefore, brought the article up to date and present it herewith. SM.) "A laughter of forgotten gods that were Echoing still in waste oblivion." taken from SANDELWOOD, by Clark A. Smith If I've heard it one, I've heard it a hundred times. "Oh," some fan would sagely comment, "so John So and So is going to quit science fiction for good. Think's it's only fit for nincompoops... That's what they all say. He'll come crawling back for another dose of his poison." And time time again those statements have, to all surface appearance's been corraborated. Few science fiction fans over condemned stf Kalotsky showed up at "The First National Science Fiction Convention." When asked why he came, he replied: "I really can't say, except that a criminal always returns to the scene of his crimes." I feel that it is undeniable that fans who have once read stf., and quit, do occasionally return as regular readers. Such facts are incontestable, but I can contend that no fan, once active in fandom to any great extent, has ever been able to denouce stf., lay off for a year or two, and then return to his previous position of importance. They remind me of pale, lingering shadows. Ghosts of their once great scientifictional robustness. Striving, desperately to understand and fit into the niche of fan prominence. Old, there have been many who have tried and tried hard too, but few, if any, have ever managed to measure up to their former scientifictional specifications, and ineveitably they once again drop far into the background, wondering at the inexplicableness of it all. A sorrowful spectacle they have made. Fans who belonged to another time, another era, refusing, stubbornly, to change their mode of fan activity to fit the requirements of the present, and those very same wondering yet, why it 'twas that their comeback was far from brilliant, and still further from winning, the friendliness and accord of fandom as it was. I won't delve too far back in citing my examples. That is to say, not entirely. I am sometimes wont to pride myself upon my "salesmanship" or persuasive qualities, but I shall always remember one of the most fruitless bits of campaigning I ever did. CorwinF. Stickney was, at one time, an active and interested fan. Her participated in fan activities to some extent, though never very widely until he and Willis Conover, Jr. created the idea of the "Science-Fantasy Correspondent." The historic split of these two parties is well remembered, as is the resultant campaign of Wollheim to disparage Stickney as a dirty double crosser. Wollheim was not alone. Other members of fandom also took up the
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