Fancyclopedia I : W - Dirk Wylie

W - "the W" is a nickname for Wollheim.

Wacky - Another nickname of Ackerman's. The wacky logic that Campbell walks so much about is usually much like the surrealistic joke. An instance from fandom: -"He looked back and saw that a martian was following him. Not a big Martian; that would be fantastic. But a little Martian."-

WAFFF - (Tucker) - A burlesque organization probably inspired by ghughuism and the Sacred Order of FooFoo, tho it fot no war. The significance of the name is a secret known only to sworn members, for whom the chief membership qualification was that they send in a proof that the world is flat. Your d'Alembert is authorized to hint that the membership stipulation is the clue to the significance of the name.

war - Immediately Great Britain and France declared war on Germany in 1939, Gallet's plans for a french stf pro were abandoned, the SFA andBIS were suspended for the duration, their official records were placed in a safe place, and several members living outside London who would likely still be in the same place after the war were named for members to contact after the duration so that things could be set going again. Several leading British fanzines were suspended, and some fa ns called into service.

As a means of keeping British fandom in contact with itself, Chris Youd started chain letters circulating. Young fans kept coming in, eventually making the BFS; even at the height of the German bombings, fan activity continued, minor get-togethers were held, several old and new fanzines continued publishing, and new pros were set on foot. It was prohibited to import American stf pulp in quantity (because of shipping shortage) into British nations, or to send money outside those countries, so Britishers had to get American fanzines and pros by using credit previously established, exchanging British periodicals and books, etc; small reprint editions of some of the pros were issued inside the countries. Ackerman, and later the BSFWRS, were active in sendi ng bundles of pro and fan magazines to the British.

As the great debate in America over intervention grew hotter, some bad feeling arose between such British fans as Youd, who had come to support the war, and American fans, who were predominantly noninterventionist. American Futurians later expressed di slike for Gallet's collaboration with Vichy in becoming a censor in the unoccupied zone.

Amerifans' opinions about the war had fluctuated at such events as the Sitzkreig, the invasion of Finland, the fall of France, and the invasion of Russia. After Pearl Harbor, however, most of them supported the war. Certain fans not subject to the draf t, such as Tom Slate and Russell Chauvenet, expressed weariness and gloom, and others who had held pacifistic ideas before the war registered as conscientious objectors and either were sent to work camps or let alone -- these included Rosenblum, Hornig, a nd Joquel. The later Pvt Ack-Ack felt he could not conscientiously be a conscientious objector, but disliked the army intensely, especially at first. Altho no study has been made, it seems that more fans were deferred from conscription than was true of th eir age group on the average. Defects included fallen armpits, hypertension, insanity, homosexuality, underweight, osteomyelitis, deafness, heart murmur, a short foot, asthma, Twonk's disease, and over- and underage.

Be that as it may, fans of fandom were found in all branches of the armed services, the Air Forces, Ground Forces, Service Forces, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and auxiliaries, not to mention the merchant marine, CO camps, Government war offices, and wa r industries. One had gone to Iceland before Pearl Harbor and another was in Hawaii; still another was on his way to the Philippines on 7 December, and ended up in Australia. French, British, or American fans took part in Dunkirk, Guadalcanal, North Afric a, and other operations.

Inside the various countries, fans of war were shifted from place to place, trying to contact fellow fen whenever they came near them; many landed near Shangri-LA. Several service fans went into the Army Specialized Training Program, and all in all the fans ranked much higher in the services than average inductees, as was natural with their higher intelligence. Those fen who were deferred, and those anxiously awaiting call, kept up activity in fandom and did work for the dogfans and in some cases suppl ied them with fanzines gratis. If anything, activity per capita increased, and serious discussions seemed to be stimulated, not only those related to war problems, but on universal principles. The NFFF failed and subscription magazines declined in number for a while, and the FAPA grew in importance. FAPA members in the armed forces stationed abroad were exempted from activity requirements.

As of the end of 1943, there is no report of any fan being killed in the war.

Warbul - Pet name for Fantasy War Bulletin of Great Britain.

Washington Worry-Warts - (Rothman) - The stfans of the District of Columbia; no formal organization. Chiefly they were Rothman, Speer, and Perdue, joined at times by del Rey, Slate, and others; in 1942 a wave of immigration from LA came in and soon left again.

we - An avoidance for I. It gradually infected fans from its use in the general press, and the remaining fans who didn't take it up found themselves caving in unawares. They are mainly troubled about their inability to keep from indiscriminately mixing "I" and "we".

weird fiction - Fantasy based upon ideas of the universe which science has discredited. It was originally fiction which aimed to produce an emotional effect of horror or the like - the "make 'em shiver" move ment - but in fan classification designates all fantasy of the type which is neither s-f nor pure fantasy, and it does not include scarey stories with a mundane explanation.

Fandom centers around science-fiction, so that weird is a sort of off-cousin, but for certain purposes, such as poetry and humor, is found to be a better field than s-f.

Since the treatment id at least as important as the subject-matter, for a survey of the field of weird fiction, we reproduce here by permission of Weird Tales, from its November 1938 issue, Robert E Howard's poem, "Recompense" (Copyright 1938 by Weird Tales.)

I have not heard Lutes beckon me, nor the brazen bugles call,
But once in the dim of a haunted lea I heard the silence fall.
I have not heard the regal drum, nor seen the flags unfurled,
But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world.

I have not seen the horsemen fall before the hurtling host,
But I have paced a silent hall where each step walked a ghost.
I have not kissed the tiger feet of a strange-eyed golden god,
But I have walked a city's street where no man else had trod.

I have not raised the canopies that shelter revelling kings,
But I have fled from crimson eyes and black unearthly wings.
I have not knelt outside the door to kiss a pallid queen,
But I have seen a ghostly shore that no man else has seen.

I have not seen the standards sweep from keep and castle wall,
But I have seen a woman leap from a dragon's crimson stall,
And I have heard strange surges boom that no man heard before,
And seen a strange black city loom on a mystic night-black shore.

And I have felt the sudden blow of a nameless wind's cold breath,
And watched the grisly pilgrims go that walk the roads of Death
And I have seen black valleys gape, abysses in the gloom,
And I have fought the deathless Ape that guards the Doors of Doom.

I have not seen the face of Pan, nor mocked the dryad's haste,
But I have trailed a dark-eyed Man across a windy waste.
I have not dies as men may die, nor sinned as men have sinned,
But I have reached a misty sky upon a granite wind.

Welcom - The Welcoming Committee, a recruiting adjunct of the NFFF, which would watch the pro letter sections for promising letters from non-fans, and have committee members in the same section of the country write them lett ers "welcoming" them to fandom and explaining what it is all about.

Braxton Wells - Pename of Donald Wollheim.

werewolf - A hybrid of humans and a once-dominant wolfman (in the Williamson mythology); at any rate, one who can change at will from human to wolf form, and then has extraordinary powers, being killable only by a silver b ullet. A sprig of wolfbane, or a crucifix, gives protection against them.

Western Pennsylvania Science Fictioneers - An organization scraped together by Len Moffatt. They were gonna hold a conference in Pittsburgh, but nobody at all showed up.

WGCC - World Girdlers' Correspondence Club. One of the mushrooms of the First Transition. No other information available.

whimsy - A manner of writing or speaking in which you toss out whatever pops into your mind, especially if it's irrelevant, tho it may permissibly be relevant in a surrealistic way. Maybe you take some cliché literall y, and say "All the luck in the world in your new job (no not all; save some for other people)", or you get an urge to send someone a telegram saying CONE HOME COMMA DEAR STOP ALL IS FORGUV LOVE BERTHA, and do so; or perhaps you're writing a dra ma and get the idea that it would be funny if an alligator came crawling onto the stage, so you put that in. It looks easy, but only a certain kind of mind can do it acceptably. Wilson is the great master of this art form, tho George R Hahn before him som etimes used the pename of Whimsy.

whithering - (deCamp) - Moskowitz and Speer have been the chief whitherers of fandom, tho others have turned a hand to it, as in Ecco's "Recent Stabilizing Developments in Stf Fandom". Early whitherings include d comparisons of the history of the prozines to the history of Occidental civilization (with particular reference to the Dark Ages), but aside from an occasional article on the order of "Is Science-Fiction in a Rut?", filosofizing has been over why the history of fandom has followed the pattern it has, and what comes next. Opinions differ as to the pattern of the past, but the swinging-pendulum model used in Speer's original history, involving three fandoms, is most generally accepted. A prize-w inning profetic article by Speer, published in the LASFL, was realized in the main by the Second Transition and Third Fandom. Moskowitz, during the Second Fandom and Transition, wrote many discussions of the course fandom was following, but was handicappe d by having to get his history largely from old fanzines. He was, however, the first to point out the shift from the First Fandom to the Second in "This Changing Tendency Among Fan Magazines."

widget - This name has been incorrectly given to a variety of gremlin. Actually, according to Campbell, it means "wonderful gadget".

Widneride - The epic journey of Moneybags Unger, Tree Toad Rothman, Pretty Boy Madle, Sourpuss Bell, and The Thing Widner, in the FooFoo Special, to the Denvention. The Fantasy Boys Out West were seeing a lot of country t hey'd never seen before, and what with the Special's radiator and consequent fundlessness which left them starving between fanhabited towns, it was an experience unforgettable.

Windy City Wampires - Informal name for the gang in Chicago; apparently they have no organizational setup.

Wollheimists - Name by which the Second Fandom know the faction later called Futurians, because Wollheim was the leading Quadrumvir.

They reached their peak at the time of the June 1938 FAPA elections, when the continuance of their administration was challenged by the Philly faction, who put up Secretary-Treasurer Baltadonis for President, Jack Speer for Vice-President, and Bob Madl e for Official Editor. These had a folder in the Fourth Mailing pointing to irregularities and unconstitutional acts in the first year's administration. The Fourth Mailing was delayed, however, until near the end of the voting period; meanwhile, President Wollheim sent out the ballots in a separate envelope, and enclosed with them a sheet charging that the FAPA was being sabotaged by the Philly group: that Madle had made charges of dishonesty in a non-FAPA publication (Helios) which he didn't dare present in the mailings (the charge, in connection with the mid-term election for changing from temporarily appointed to elected officers, was not definite at the time of the 3d mailing, and was presented in the late 4th; Madle didn't write the piece in Helios); that Baltadonis had been intentionally negligent as Secretary-Treasurer in not taking care of new members or reimbursing the mailing manager for expenses (which the PSFS later denied); and that the present administration was being slandered (see illustra tion under "art"). Only the thinnest excuse was offered for bringing these charges against his opponents at such a time and in such a manner; years later, when the Phillies took SaM to the Ivory Tower, Wollheim admitted that the charges had been unjustified. When the Mailing finally came out, the broadsides there took a different note, primarily political: altho he said that the political beliefs of the Wollheimists should not influence the voting for FAPA office, he and the other Quadrumvirs to ok great space, in official and unofficial publications, to charge that the whole Philadelphia group was planning to institute censorship of the mailings and keep Michelistic Propaganda out of them. To add to the confusion, Sykora thru misunderstandng put Moskowit z up for President. However, the Wollheimist candidate, Michel, got more votes than the other two combined, and in all offices except the uncontested Secretaryship (Taurasi) they made a clean sweep. Speer immediately started a Petition of Reprim and circulating and being signed. In the Fifth Mailing, the Wollheimists as usual commented on their opponents' material in the same Mailing, and yielded not a millimeter in the charge that the Phillies had intended to destroy the FAPA and also institute censorship of the mailings. A little later, as is described elsewhere, the Quadrumvirate quit.

World State - One point on which the sociological fans were agreed. They varied greatly, however, in their ideas of how it was to come about. Youd favored Federal Union, but on the eve of Pearl Harbor renounced the idea of any connection with these rotten Americans. Speer also favored the Streit idea, but lacking that, hoped for a while that consolidation of individual states mite take place satisfactorily as a result of the war. The Michelists spoke always of a scienti fic-socialist world state, a world soviet. The Experantists believed that a universallanguage would be a powerful force for world unification.

Weaver Wright - Another of that guy Ackerman's pen names.

writing - Often used in connection with fanzines to include art work as well as fiction and non-fiction. Characteristic of the colloquial style, as distinguished from the puristic handling of grammar, of which fans are also capable, are various modified Ackermanese practices, which vary from fan to fan, considerable use of words and phrases from foreign languages (and Esperanto) whenever the writer feels like it, and a tone as tho the writer were talking to himself or at le ast determining how he shall say things primarily to suit himself.

Some people in the fan world, it must be added, do not share the excellence of the typical fan in the matter of writing ability, and if they aren't incoherent like this: "As per ammendment to entrance of my proposed ammendment, I shall get the nec essary No. of signed members named to petition", are addicted to guff of this sort:

"I'll just drool until you get back;
it's third door to the left . . .
Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I pondered weak and leary,
Came a knocking at my dome
'Ain't nobody home!'

And nothing can be done about it.

WSFC - World Science-Fiction Convention, particularly the First.

Dirk Wylie - Name taken by Harry Dockweiler before entering the Ivory Tower.

Data entry by Judy Bemis.