C This is a most ambiguous letter, serving no good purpose in modern English.
In Latin and Anglo-Saxon it was always pronounced K; in Esperanto and
outlandish tongues of southern Europe, it stands for various unspeakable
sounds.
CAFP Canadian Amateur Fantasy Press, the imprint under which LIGHT (Les
Croutch), CENSORED (Fred Hurter) and CANADIAN FANDOM (Beak Taylor/Ned
McKeown) were published beginning 1942 and continuing in CanFan for years and
years. A few other fanzines, like Ger Steward's GASP!, were affiliated for
brief periods.
CALENDAR Activities at regularly recurring intervals, like conventions and
APA mailings, are one thing that makes the calendar subject to
fannish tampering. The Ghuists invented a special one dating from the mundane
year 1934; it resembled the World Calendar, but Ghu Year's Day fell at the
summer solstice. Months were named in dishonor of prominent followers of the
Purple. Other fans have usually been content to change month-names and
interject commentary on the conventional reckoning system. Replacing mundane
with stfnistic calendar-art was the system used in the Little Men's calendar
for 1952, and also in several from Gnome Press. Part of Berry Mythology is
the Marilyn Monroe calendar in Oblique House; her navel forms the outer
boundary of the Ghoodminton court.
CAPITALISM The economic system under which those who finance a business own
it, control it, and operate it for their own profit. It is
opposed to various forms of socialism in which control rests among a large
number of people who are interested in production for use rather than profit.
Implicit in capitalism is the idea that it is up to the individual to find
something to do that he can get paid money for. The majority of the fans who
actively engage in arguments support various aspects of capitalism, but most
of them are strongly critical of details of its actual practice.
CAPITALIZATION One of the cutenesses of modern decadence is unuse of capital
letters. This is strengthened by the fact that distinction
between caps and lower-case is unnecessary. Sometimes it stems from a pun on
distaste for capitalism by Bohemians, but considerable vers libre, as well as
beardmutterings and other art forms, habitually appears in solid lower-case.
A practice of damon knight's is to spell his own name without caps, and in the
mock wars -- First Staple War and FooFooism vs Ghughuism -- omission of
capitals in referring to the enemy was practiced by some of the combatants.
CARBONS (1) Short for carbon copies, especially those which smart people keep
of their correspondence. (2) the sheets used to make ditto and hekto
masters, because they look like the carbons used for (1) tho actually they're
coated with methyl violet or some other alcohol-soluble dye.
CARCOSA HOUSE One of the earliest fan-sponsored book publishers, Russ
Hodgkins being a leading light. They issued GP Serviss'
Edison's Conquest of Mars in 1947 and projected Enter Ghost: A Study
in Weird Fiction, which was to be a scholarly work covering the entire
field of weird and supernatural fiction with "the most complete bibliography
ever assembled on this subject". This was never published, tho parts of it
appeared in FANTASY ADVERTISER.
CARDZINE Back in the Good Old Days it was practical to print short news-notes
on the back of a penny postcard for rapid, frequent circulation. Now
that a poctsarcd costs 3¢ and printed matter is 4¢ for two ounces (1959)
economics baffle such activities.
JOAN W CARR One of the more popular hoaxes in fannish history, which boasts a
good many. She was a femmefan, first born in the mind of HP
(Sandy) Sanderson back in October 1952. When he was posted to the Middle East,
Sandy [a sergeant in the British army] concocted with Frances Evans a plot
against the male members of the Northwest Science Fantasy Club (of Manchester,
his home town). Soon after arriving in North Africa he told them of meeting a
WRAC [British WAC] who took an interest in fandom. Later "she" wrote letters to
various Manchester fans, using a typer (Sandy never did) and signing "her"
signature in green with a special pen. Later, she came into contact with fans
outside of the original Northern group, and by May 1954 was well-known in
Anglofandom. It was generally assumed that she and Sandy would be married at
the end of their overseas tour. (One British femmefan worried a bit about their
future, remarking that Joan sounded like one of those ultra-masculine sergeants
the WRACs develop and would probably not make anybody a good wife.)
Meanwhile, back in England, Frances (who had been studying the reaction
among Anglofen while Sandy animated his creation in Egypt) had been in touch
with Ethel Lindsay, and had put forward the idea of uniting all the female fans
thru a magazine of their own. Joan "volunteered" to edit it, and so FEMIZINE
came into being. It was more popular than expected. Suddenly femmefandom
turned up plenty of talent that had previously been hidden. In short order FEZ
had a circulation of 200, with up to 50% letter returns -- an amazing reader
response. By March 1955 Ethel Lindsay had been brought into the plot, Joan was
known thruout fandom, and time was running short. JoCa had grown out of all
consideration of the original idea, and began to go gafia. FEZ was turned over
to Pamela Bulmer (who produced issues 8&9) in July 1955, and presently Joan had
reduced her activity to OMPA only and was slowing down there.
When the hoax was revealed it dealt British female fandom a jolt from which
it has yet to recover (1959). The fear of this had led Frances and Ethel to
decide that Joan should go gafia; Sandy started to take over Joan's activities
in his own name, spreading talk of a quarrel between himself and Joan.
Unfortunately, in May '56 somebody blew the gaff; Ron Bennett was intending to
create a mythical wife, also named "Joan", and someone in the secret told him it
had already been done. Hints and suggestions were flying around the '56
Kettering convention, and it was decided to break the story in FEZ 9.
Joan's name in the first place was taken from a box of Carr's biscuits and
from Carrs Mills, where a non-fan cousin of Sandy's (who later posed for photos
of "Joan") lived. It was chosen without any thought of the various meanings
that could be read into it and its contractions JoCa and JWC. It says something
for the differences between Yanks and Britons that many of Sandy's Army
acquaintances knew of his hoax yet didn't think there was anything odd about it,
even picking up "her" mail and holding it while Sandy was on leave.
JOHN CARTER Hero of ER Burroughs' Barsoom series, this fearless and invincible
swordsman (his Earthly strength was three times a Martian's),
arriving on Mars in his astral body, rapidly rose thru the ranks to marry the
heiress-apparent to the Heliumetic Empire, become Warlord of the civilized races
of Mars, and generally be a success in the largest way known to pre-
Skylark fantasy. The stories were just as corny as the Tarzan tales, but
immensely popular. (This popularity, in fact, may explain the curious penchant
of pre-Tremaine stf for having interplanetary-pilot heroes transport planet-
conquering armies across millions of miles of ether in their atomic-powered
ships and then fight things out with longswords, tho that anachronism's more
likely in order to explain the hero's victories by preternatural skill rather'n
incredible luck.) Several fan-words trace back to the John Carter series:
Barsoom itself (the Martian for "Mars"); Helium, the mighty empire whose red-
and-yellow towers are triple-starred in Baedecker's appendix; Tharks, green six-
limbed BEMs whose barbarian hordes are sure to show up whenever action begins to
drag a trifle. Of interest to the historian is the appearance, in these 1910-
vintage tales, of atomic guns and radar fire control.
CARLSBAD CAVERNS Sure would hold a lot of peanuts.
CARTOONS A cartoon is usually a single drawing in which, if a story is
implied, the conversation or actions of the characters must convey it.
Cartoons are simplified drawings (if the picture is realistic or artistic it is
not a "cartoon"). Caricature is a near cousin. Bei uns this art-form is
usually fan-fictional; a fan takes a look at his young son and exclaims
"Omigawd! Tendrils!" ktp.
Several varieties of cartoon-character must be distinguished. Aside from
obviously non-human creatures like Jean Young's Roubidoux Bird and Archie
Mercer's Trufins, humanoid cartoon-characters may be classified as actually
manlike, stick figures, or phallic symbol men. William Rotsler gave widest
circulation to the latter, whose name will readily be understood from a glance
at the illustration. ("You might add", mentions WR, "that 99% of the captions
you see on them are not mine. People will use my drawings and then add captions
of their own. I wouldn't have minded if they were any good at it...") Obviously
related are Ray Nelson's Globlies, J&dYoung's Poo and Yobber, the Laney
Character, and Charles Wells' Foofs. Jack Speer has contributed whole pages of
stick figures doing varied things in the manner of American Legion cartoonist
Wallgren; to this category also belong Lee Hoffman's Li'l Peepul, Jean Young's
Jeff City Men, some of Jean Linard's drawings, and Dean Grennell's Blork-men...
tho here we begin to shade into the actually manlike creatures like Shelby
Vick's Puffins, the Dave English character, and Harlan Ellison's Max J
Runnerbean. Hard to classify are a few whimsical anomalies like Terry Carr's
face critturs and the faces Walt Liebscher used to do with the typer-keyboard.
CCF The Crusade to Clean Up Fandom. A campaign for fanzine censorship
launched by Russ Watkins in 1951. Its targets were anti-religious and pro-
sex fan writings. Most fans agreed with Art Rapp that the name should be
changed to Organization for Getting Pornography Unpublished, so that the
initials would agree with the character of the group; when Watkins joined the
Air Force and went fafia the thing faded out.
CECIL Ron Bennett's pet elephant, in Anglofan mythology. He also invented a
pet octopus and wife (Oswald and Joan) [respectively], but these failed
to catch on the way Cecil did.
CENSORSHIP Something bound to be encountered by any form of writing advocating
or depicting different standards in morality, politics, or other
fields. Various fans have threatened it, like the CCF and Marion Z Bradley
during her feud (1950-1951) with Laney. [She claimed later that her threat was
a hoax (on Boggs, the OE, not on FTL); cf Sick Sick Sick Jokes.] In March '45
Langley Searles began to voice threats of turning objectionable material over
to the post office, which FAPA resented to the point of making the
organization too hot to hold him. Curiously, the only available records of
fan censorship -- as distinguished from editing -- were by fans opposed to the
practice; at various times items were excluded from the FAPA bundle by OEs
Laney (for libel), Burbee, Boggs, and Eney (for indecency). [The FAPA bundle
is mailed under the Official Editor's name; he therefore has the power to
exclude anything that'd get him in trouble with the Post Office.] Various
generalzines have had difficulties with the PO, mostly for publishing
indelicate illustrations ("Postal inspectors can usually see, even if they
can't read") but Max Keasler got in bad with Them on account of an article on
butterfly fandom, "The Immoral Storm", and they kept after him so persistently
on subsequent issues that OPUS 4 had to be smuggled into a different postal
area and dispatched from there. ("The only border-run fanzine!", he called
it.) During World War II Bill Danner was abused for "slipping one by the
censor" when he wrote a humorous ad for ASF which concealed in its price list
the words SUM FUN HEY KID, and in 1951 the Detroiters published an issue of
SPICY STF STUFF which had originally had lots of racy dialogue -- but before
distribution they carefully crayoned out all questionable words! This,
however, was to suppress a feud and was not honest-to-Roscoe law-imposed
censorship. Similar was the New Jersey Spectators' publication of a fanzine
in which the four-letter words were left blank in the stencil and written in
by hand for trustworthy recipients. Vernon McCain and Dick Geis both report
having been warned to delete objectionable material before distribution of
WASTEBASKET and PSYCHOTIC, but here censorship begins to fade into editorial
warnings.
Canada and Australia, however, have offered some of the most hair-raising
exhibitions in the English-speaking fan world. The Canadian Minister of
National Revenue has the power to ban books and magazines sent into Canada
(because they fall under Customs authority) for being of a "treasonable,
seditious, or of an immoral or indecent character". Under this authority
Canada banned Horror Stories, Strange Stories, Terror Tales, and Weird Tales
(all weird magazines) at various times, as well as such books as Heavenly
Discourse and The Arabian Nights. The Minister incumbent at this
time declared that he banned an item "if he wouldn't want his young daughter
to read such a book". Since he had no daughter, "the final criterion of what
Canadians may or may not read is the moral sensitivity of a young lady who
doesn't exist!" And as a rule censors do not reveal which publications they
have banned; thus, as Alastair Cameron pointed out, not only can the censor
"suppress the opinions of whomever he chooses, but he can go further and
suppress the fact of his suppression". Over at the antipodes the Australian
Customs has a very large list of "prohibited" books, but this list is held in
the greatest secrecy. They won't tell anybody whether a particular book is
prohibited or not; the only way you can find out is to try and import it and
see whether it gets seized. And once OK'd, a publication is not then in the
clear permanently; it can be reclassified at any time. The Ziff-Davis
Fantastic was allowed thru at first, but when one issue ran a Mickey Spillane
story the entire publication, including the previous issues which had been
passed, was immediately placed on the banned list. Roger Dard lost a set
of pb's to this sort of conduct; he got some that were on the banned list, and
the police and postal authorities rifled his home and confiscated some
paperbacks by that noted subversive writer, A. Merritt.
CFG The Cincinnati Fantasy Group, of Ohio; Don Ford, Roy Lavender, Lou
Tabakow, and Stan Skirvin are notable members. They put on the
CinVention in 1949, and are sponsors of the annual MidWestCon.
CHAIN LETTERS (aka Round Robin Letters, tho this name is inaccurate). In
Great Britain, after the outbreak of World War II, CS Youd
organized chains of fans to each of which he would circulate a page or more of
news; each fan would make additions and pass the bundle on to the next guy.
When they all came back, Youd made selections from the material for the first
sheet of a new cycle. Some of these also came to America and on their
example, after Pearl Harbor, AL Joquel and Harry Warner jr started several
chains thru the US. The system here was slightly different, in that Harry
sent the whole bundle on; each fan as he added a new letter withdrew his
former one and sent it to Harry for file. Quasi-chain letters also grew out
of the circulation of sonodiscs (and, later, magnetic recordings) and other
chains were started by various fen to get material for fanzines; e g one by
Tucker to which each person was to contribute a photo, which would be
reproduced in LE ZOMBIE. These chains were not intended to circulate
indefinitely, but sooner or later they always seemed to get hung up somewhere
in the circuit.
CHEECH Nickname associated with Harlan Ellison. In the days before he
started selling in professional profusion, he did a bit of research on
juvenile gangs, turning out a "straight" article on the subject which he
submitted to a slushzine called LOWDOWN. The article appeared in the October
'55 issue -- only it wasn't; Harlan's work had been replaced with a staff-
written text, illustrated with shots from newspaper morgues. Sole exception
was a photograph of the author, looking unreconstructed and captioned with the
sobriquet, "Phil 'Cheech' Beldone". For the use of his picture and other
services Harlan was paid $25; evidently no douceur for mental cruelty was
forthcoming. The introductory paragraph of the article perhaps bears quoting,
as the source of a fannish gagline: "He sat opposite me, savage, sullen,
defiant and contemptuous. He came out of the city jungle swaggering, vicious,
and ready to swing out..."
CHICAGO Despite its two conventions the Windy City has always been fairly
quiet as far as fan activity goes. Of old the Windy City Wampires
existed there, but this was an informal group; the ChiCon I was put on by a
special con-promoting organization. Later a Chicago SFS came into existence;
Earl Kemp was its most famous member. It produced the gigantic ChiCon II.
CHORP DIMENSION No silly story is complete without a scene laid here.
("Meanwhile, in the 410th Chorp Dimension...")
CHRISTMAS CARD The most fannish of those circulated in our microcosm is Walt
Willis' annual Xmas Card, which takes the form of a short pun-
filled 4x5 fanzine, sort of an official organ for WAW's More Reading On
Christmas Cards Movement. We should also mention John Roles' edible
Xmas Card, YUM. The crew at INCINERATIONS published a slightly blasphemous
one, with reproductions of the Mona Lisa, Last Supper, and Madonna and Child
indelicately retouched, which got the Post Office after them. But the most
significant historically was the one received by Will Sykora, in 1939, when he
was at feud with the Futurians. It was a card with a slit in it thru which
was thrust one of the fingers of a rubber glove, with the legend: "To help you
make merry Christmas Eve, here's something else to screw your friends with".
He assumed this to be a Futurian joke, and sicced the Postal Authorities on
them for transmission of such stuff thru the mails. Despite the offer of a
reward for information, neither Sykora nor the Post Office was able to find
any evidence against the FSNY.
CLASSIFICATION OF FANTASY Any attempt to tell outsiders "what fantasy (or
science-fiction) is" brings the average fan up
sharply against the fact that there are at least three major types of
fantasy, as well as scattered stories which cannot be pigeonholed even under
the subdivisions -- political fantasy, for instance.
Of the making of definitions there is no end, but bibliophiles really do
need some standard for determining what is and is not fantasy. Intensionally,
the essence of fantasy is probably imaginativeness; perhaps this accounts for
its inclusion of some apparently unlikely subjects like stories of the
prehistoric past or political fantasy. Considering fantasy extensionally
brings us to the classification schemes worked out by several stfnists.
Speer defines the field of our interest by exclusion; using a three-
dimensional time scheme, he categorizes mundane fiction as that which takes
place in the present or the historical past, involving only the operation of
known natural laws, and with the events lying within the bounds of what we know
happened in the past of our history or is true of the present day. All fiction
lying outside any of those boundaries is fantasy. Excluded from this class,
however, are certain types that logically fall within it; religious imaginings
(tho in early fantasyarns religious elements were sometimes present), fairy
tales and children's animal stories (which do not come within the fantasy fan's
field unless they are translated into another medium, like Snow White or
The Jungle Book), and stories in which seemingly fantastic elements turn
out to be hoaxes, like John Dickson Carr's He Who Whispers (tho the
device of "it was all a dream", or that of a stranger telling a story the
reader is not asked to believe, are so conventionalized that their occurrence
does not remove the tale from the fantasy classification.) Tucker's suggested
exclusion of salacious fiction with a fantastic background would be impossible
without leaving obvious holes in the listing of contents of Amazing, Marvel,
etc; but this sort of material is usually considered rather borderline. Also
borderline are features which tho fantastic in nature do not influence the
action of a story (for instance, a detective story in which an invention is
stolen); these are defined as fantastic elements, and stories in which they
appear are proper subjects for listing in bibliographies, etc.
Aside from the general question of classifying a given story as fantasy or
non-fantasy, bibliophiles have worked to devise a classification system like
that in use in libraries (Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress systems) or
among scientific abstractors (Universal Decimal Classification). The three
classical main divisions of fantasy -- science-fiction, pure fantasy, and weird
fiction (each defined under its own heading in this volume), tho fundamental to
a fan's orientation, are not suitable for main divisions of classification.
For one thing, they often refer to the treatment a story gets rather than to
the nature of the theme treated; for another, they are each so broad that there
is much difference of opinion as to the exact coverage of each category.
Decimal systems of classification have been set up at various times by Sam
Russell, Jack Speer, Langley Searles, and Alastair Cameron; of these, Speer's
is by far the most widely used. (Cameron's has been praised as an excellent
coverage of the field, but leads to so many multiple classifications that it
has never been adopted.) To illustrate, categories of Speer's scheme are: (1)
The Future: Space travel; Extraterrestrial life and adventures on other
planets; Extraordinary astronomical phenomena (e g destruction of Earth);
Catastrophes to civilization (intensified Ice Age, plague, sole survivors, our
barbarous descendants); Political, social, and economic life (oppression and
revolt, matriarchy, decay of man). (2) The Prehistoric Past: Prehuman life;
early men; legendary civilizations; early historic cultures. (3) Timespanning
(including going forward and back in time, changing the past or the future,
suspended animation, and might have been worlds). (4) Impossible by
contemporary science: Supernatural elements in the known world (wishes,
charms, occult arts, curses, miracles, cults, haunted places and things,
"possession", beings of religions, of medieval tradition and of modern
conception); Unrationalized permutations and alterations (humanoid animals,
unliving things personalized); Science's cosmology denied (as in subjective
idealism); Life after death; Adventures in mythological worlds; Mythologies of
modern conception. (5) Extrapolations taking place in the present or the
known past; Robots; Atomic energy; Invisibility; Super-speed; Duplication of
persons; matter-radio television spyray and projector; laboratory creatures;
strange animals and plants; non-carbon life; immortality; supermen; ESP; mind
transference; Hypnotism (for old stories); lost Amerind and Arctic lands;
Earth's Core; Subterranean life; subsea civilization; fourth dimension and
two-dimensional; Macrocosm; microcosm [not in our sense, of course];
Littleness. Substantially the same categories are used, in a different
arrangement, by Russell's and Cameron's systems.
FAN CLUB The best fan club is about two feet long, made of hickory or ash,
with a ring of sharp steel spikes at the end. It is useful for
clearing an escape-route from a smokefilled room and in various other ways
which will suggest themselves to the reader. But the organization which we
designate by this term is a group of persons who meet face-to-face every so
often; the word is often misused. Fan groups actually called clubs include
ISFCC, JVPC, Impossible Story Club, and an indefinite number of local groups;
quite aside from the colloquial designation of any organized fan group as a
"club".
CLUBROOM Some fans hold their club meetings in varying locations --
circulating among the homes of members, for instance -- and others
at some regular location which is considered a "club room", but the LASFS at
various times in its history has actually had a clubroom in the sense of a
room rented for the club's exclusive use. There mimeos and typers were
available for the members to use. The club library of fanzines, proz, and
books was there, and even a cot for anyone working so late as to find it
inconvenient to go home. Not only on meeting nights but at other times
members could come in to work on publications, read, or talk.
CLOSED-DOOR PRO PARTY That's what they are when you're on the outside.
WILLIAM CLYDE Another hoax-identity, this one created by Sam Martinez of
Tulsa. Wm was responsible for a number of ribald stories and
sexy drawings in FAPA before one of his publications, proving too raw to go
thru the mails, was banned, causing him to be dropped for lactivity. People
composing this sort of literature are invited to draw conclusions from the
fact that Clyde survived possible exposure at a Tulsa con when Sam told the
attendees that William was a teenager and his mother had made him stay home --
and they believed him.
COLLECTING A deep instinct of man, particularly strong in fankind. A typical
old-time stf fan began by excerpting and binding the particular
stories he liked best in Amazing and Weird; then, either because excerpting
was too much trouble, or because he saw the desirability of having all the
stories on file, began to save all the prozines without tearing them up; when
fanzines came along, he saved them too as a matter of course; and eke Buck
Rogers 2429 AD. The real trouble begins when you become a completist.
Storage space eventually becomes a problem. Fans' filing methods vary, but
they really do need to have their collections where they can be easily
referred to. Scrapbooks are a common supplement to magazine collections.
Part of any fan visit is inspection of the visitee's collection.
COLLECTIVISM Public control of industry, farming, and associated activity,
directed toward the general welfare. It is one of the few ideas
on which there is general (tho not unanimous) agreement among stfnal
sociologists concerning future trends in civilization.
COLLOQUIALISM Much of the material in fanzines, and practically all the
correspondence of fans, is to be regarded as conversation
rather than "finished" writing. It rambles on from point to point in a manner
like the Stream of Consciousness, with many a parenthesized remark.
Contractions are freely employed wherever they'd be used in speaking, and some
places where they wouldn't. Slang and dialectic pronunciations are flung about
freely, such phrases as "mah pappy's jernt" not being at all unusual. Foreign
languages are interlarded whenever the writer feels the urge. To avoid
confusion, however, people are usually called by their surnames or some
distinctive byname.
COLUMNIST When a guy is a columnist, he can talk about anything he wants to,
tho the editor may censor him. Usually a secondary duty is to give
any news items or information that haven't been published elsewhere, the
primary duty being to comment on things in general. Every so often a
calumnist will attract notice by the Menckenian vigor of his denunciation.
COMMENT-COVER Another name for a quote-cover.
COMMENTZINE An APAzine given over to comments on the previous mailing. Less
frequently, a fanzine with comments on other zines received by
the editor/publisher.
COMMITTEES Groups of people, usually three or five, appointed to render
decision or recommendation in some matter, or to perform some act
like producing a con. Standing committees are prescribed by the constitution
of a group; others exist for temporary purposes. Committees of fan
organizations include things like con committees, the ballot committee
appointed at election time, Laureate committees, WelCommittee, et autres
COMMUNISM Communism with a small c designates a society which gets production
from each according to his abilities and gives products to each
according to his needs. It is more or less anarchistic and idealistic in that
it hopes coercion by the state will be unnecessary.
Communism with a large C, which is what fans usually mean, is Marxism as
modified by Lenin, Stalin, and certain of their lieutenants; or, even more
simply, outland organizations of the CPSU (B).
COMPLETIST A dope who tries to have a complete collection in some line. The
line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published, or
as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official
correspondence during one's incumbency in some office. (It is tacitly
understood that the completist is a specialist to some degree, if only because
nobody can cover the whole field of stfantasy.) The fun begins when
the collector misses purchasing an issue, or fails to keep a carbon, or
whatever; or when his ambitions extend back to a time before he started saving
the stuff. Then he prowls the secondhand magazine shops, writes letters to
everybody who might know where a particular prize is, worries librarians and
other public servants, and occasionally makes a miraculous find in some
unexpected place and goeth about rejoicing. A novel type of completism was
Milt Rothman's determination to attend every major convention held in this
country.
CONAN Easily the most indomitable of fantasy heroes, in RE Howard's series
built around him this redoubtable barbarian from Cimmeria adventures
around the world of the Hyborian Age and in the process raises himself from a
blacksmith's son to a king. Unlike the Lensman, Barsoom, and Oz sagas
relatively few characters and place-names from the Conan stories have entered
general fannish mythology. On the other hand, it has given rise to the
Hyborian Legion, a group rather like the Sherlock Holmes fans' Baker Street
Irregulars and not quite comparable to anything else in fandom. This group,
including Marty Greenberg, Sprague deCamp, Dave Kyle, Poul Anderson, George
Scithers and others, celebrates the exploits of their hero and subjects their
canonical literature to exhaustive analysis.
CONFUSION Shelby Vick's fanzine which sparkplugged the WAW WITH THE CREW IN
'52 campaign; but also the little character who appeared on the
inside back cover with Something Up His Sleeve.
CONVACATION Invented by Eric Bentcliffe and Nigel Lindsay. Nigel had
suggested that fans combine a vacation with a con (he had been
unable to attend any conventions on account of work schedules). Urk and one
or two other Mid-West [of England] fans took up the idea and three of them
actually met at Torquay for the affair.
CON Comingtogether of fans from various localities, usually at a call issued
by some organization or local group. And the designation is used as a
combining word to make up some distinctive name for the brawl -- either "con"
itself or its completions, -vention, -ference, -clave, or -fabulation. These
words are not equivalent, for convention usually refers to the principal
annual gathering; other formal get-togethers are conferences or conclaves. A
confabulation is an informal meeting larger than a mere fan visit but not
built up or conducted like a conference; the word is pretty near obsolete, tho
popular in the early 40s.
The most important thing about a con is that the slans can get together
with their own kind of people, perhaps forgetting their introversion for a
while, and do what they want to do and fangab about mutually interesting
things and develop their stfnic personalities.
CONFERENCE A small local convention; of old they were held to accomplish some
CONCLAVE specific purpose aside from the camaraderie. "Conference" came
into use after the Newark Convention; the first gathering thus
designated was the PSFS Conference of October 1938, beginning the longest
series of annual conferences in fandom's history. Other series of annual
conferences are the WesterCons and MidWestCons, both originating after World
War II. "Conclave" is essentially synonymous, tho it originally meant a
secret conference of the smoke-filled-room type.
CONVENTION Before late 1938, any largeish fan gathering; thereafter, a more
or less successful policy of restricting the word to the annual
national/international convention was followed in fandom. The World Science-
Fiction Convention is usually held on Labor Day Weekend [in the United States
the first Monday in September is a holiday, guaranteeing a long weekend], and
allows a good year for recuperation between cons. Attendance is anywhere from
200 to 2000, tho the big-convention trend has been viewed with Alarm and
Despondency by many fans.
The first Science-Fiction Convention was in Philadelphia in October 1936,
when the NYB-ISA visited the Philadelphia Branch. It was marked with horseplay
and camaraderie. This was the first of all stf conventions.
The Second Eastern States Science-Fiction Convention was held in New York
the following year under ISA auspices; rumblings of a World Convention were
heard. It was essentially a return visit by the Phillies to New York.
The Third Eastern States Science-Fiction Convention was back in Philly,
Hallowe'en 1937. Most notable event was the speech launching Michelism. On the
lighter side was the Shaggoth 6 thing.
The Newark Convention, officially the First National SF Convention, was
held at Newark 29 May 1938, at the call of Will Sykora and Sam Moskowitz. The
first con to pass the hundred mark in attendance, it was marred by feuding and
sniping over Michelism, the ISA, the planned WSFC, and any other convenient
theme. Since it had no representatives from west of the Appalachians the
Wollheimists called it Fourth Eastern for a long time.
After this "convention" should be restricted to the chief annual gathering
of fans, which is usually designated as somethingcity World Science Fiction
Convention by the committee which produces it, and by the fans who refer to it
as some word starting with part of the host city's name and ending with "con" or
"-ention".
1939 NYCon I was held in New York 2-4 July under the auspices of New Fandom
as the World Science Fiction Convention, "First" being added later. (Annual
Worldcons were not at first contemplated; idea and site for the ChiCon were not
formally approved by fans till the PhilCo later this year.) With a total
attendance of 200, it was the largest before World War II ended major
conventions. It set the pattern for subsequent conventions lasting more than
one day, but was marred by the Exclusion Act. The name of NYCon (or "Fifth
Eastern") was tagged on it by the Wollheimists to downgrade the claim implicit
in "World", but after the ChiCon such portmanteau-names were always used.
1940 ChiCon I was in Chicago about Labor Day 1940 under the auspices of the
Illinois Fantasy Fictioneers (a con-promoting organization specially organized
by Reinsburg, Tucker, and others for the event; it later merged with the MWFFF).
The ChiCon I was significant of the new harmony in fandom resulting from the
suppression of feuding, and took place in the plushest surroundings yet. A
suggestion by Speer and Rothman led to institution of the Costume Party at this
con; Dave Kyle won it as Ming the Merciless.
1941 DenVention was presented 4-6 July in Denver Colorado, by the Colorado
Fantasy Society. Guest of Honor Heinlein made an outstanding speech. Also
worthy of remark was the travelling that fans did to get there; the Widneride,
riding the rods, making the trip on a starvation shoestring, etc. The award
offered for the fan overcoming the greatest difficulties to attend was deserved
by many.
1942-45 saw no convention, at first because of the war threat to the
Pacific Coast where the next con was scheduled, later because of wartime travel
restrictions.
1946 Pacificon (no pun intended) happened under LASFS auspices; attendance
was disappointing on account of bungled publicity. The announcement of the
formation of the Fantasy Foundation was made, Rothman Liebscher and Perdue
improved the occasion with pianistics, and Ackerman had a nervous breakdown from
overwork. A wire to Dunkelberger informed him that the N3F had been dissolved
when a quorum of the members met at the con (probably the only time a quorum of
N3F members has ever met face to face since the first year of the group's
existence; Dunk hollered foul, hired a lawyer, and got ready to fight the
battle of the century before EEEvans exposed the hoax.
1947 PhilCon I produced by the Philadelphia SFS was loaded, chairman
Rothman selfcriticizes, with too much heavy science on the program, but Speer
and some friends managed to lighten things up a little with the Fireworks
Furor.
1948 Torcon, marked by the first appearance of the helicopter beanie and
zapgun, was put on by the Toronto (Canada) Derelicts over the July 4 weekend.
(Patriotic Amerifans celebrated Independence Day and defied the tyranny of
King George.) Tucker presented his Little Kinsey Report (which Bloch later
parodied), Wollheim defended sex (on prozine covers, that is) and Doc Keller
plugged for science-boosting stf. Oh yes -- and Rothman introduced a film on
atomic physics, with results told under ZAP-GUN.
1949 CinVention under Cincinnati Fantasy Group sponsorship was prefaced
by the Second Tucker Death Hoax. Guests of honor were selected from both pros
(Lloyd Arthur Eshbach) and fans (Ted Carnell, who had been brought over by the
Big Pond Fund). A group of attendees appeared on TV to plug the con, Kyle
arranged for a model to come from New York to pose for cheesecake photos of
"Miss Science Fiction", pro guests included the author of scientificomic
"Alley Oop", and Dave MacInnes recorded all on wire.
1950 NorWesCon (at Portland, Oregon) followed an intensive campaign for a
West Coast con in the name of fairness. It saw the introduction of a
Dianetics session full of people testifying to the healing powers of the New
Faith, and a lethal takeoff on such screwballism in Theobald Mackerel's
presentation of Diacybersemnetimantics.
1951 NOLaCon, the only convention yet held in the South (at New Orleans,
Louisiana), was the smallest since the War, but contributed to fannish
legendry the two-day party in Room 770 and exposed the quasi-hoax about Lee
Hoffman's sex. Harry Moore, who managed the thing, got world premieres of
"The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "When Worlds Collide" to show.
1952 ChiCon II went to the other extreme, being the largest since
the war with over 1100 attendees. Walt Willis was brought over by Shelby
Vick's WAW With the Crew in '52 campaign and the Little Men held a fabulous
penthouse party (which, however, didn't get the con for Frisco in '53); John
Pomeroy told everyone How To Be An Expert Without Actually Knowing Anything,
and Gernsback introduced the peculiar idea that writers should claim a sort of
patent or copyright on ideas they introduced in stfyarns.
1953 PhilCon II saw an incredibly lengthy auction session managed by L
Sprague deCamp but was fannishly marked by the irruption of the 7th Fandom
faction, organized earlier in the summer. Early mutterings of the
advisability of incorporating were heard and the rotation plan, which
regularized the idea of holding cons in Eastern, Central, and Western
locations successively ("orderly progression westward") was adopted.
1954 SFCon out in San Francisco saw the 7th Fandom fuggheads in full cry,
was embellished by Vorzimer's haircream caper and the activity of some
nameless goons who threw full beercans out the hotel windows, and somehow
found the management unsocially inclined; intrusions into private rooms by the
house detective were reported on several occasions.
1955 CleVention occurred after the 7th Fandomites had been kneed in the
groin by the mad dogs and hotel relations (with the Manger, in Cleveland Ohio)
were wonderful. One unusual aftereffect of the con, not previously observed,
was a justification of the last paragraph under "con"; meetings of Lee Hoffman
and Larry Shaw, and Rog Phillips and Honey Wood, were followed at no long
interval by marriages. The Terrans, who produced the con this year, were
already an incorporated group, so that question didn't arise this time.
1956 NYCon II (or NewYorkon, as some called it) was monstrously large,
estimates around 2000 being offered since a large number of visitors were not
con-society members. It was disfigured by a marked degree of unsociability, a
Little Exclusion Act (the committee restricted the audience of some speakers
to those who'd paid $7$7 [!!] for a banquet), the incorporation of WSFS by
maneuvers which provoked much resentment, and a debt of hundreds of dollars
due chiefly to some thefts of display material and an overestimate of the
number of fans who'd be sucker interested enough to pay $7 for a hotel
banquet.
1957 LonCon, London, the first genuinely international con (there was one
in Toronto, but Canada can hardly be counted as a separate country),
represented an attempt to return trufannishness to the commercialized con, but
was disturbed externally by a flap over a proposed plane trip which eventually
wrecked the WSFS Inc; the business session was delayed by a gun battle in
which the GDA retrieved the Official Gavel, BBC-TV filmed a choice collection
of interviews with attendees, worthy fen were inducted into the Knights of St.
Fantony, and TAFF winner Bob Madle got a better reception than the later furor
might suggest.
1958 SoLACon was the culmination of the longest-range campaign in fan
history; it squashed the WSFS Inc, introduced the Lens to fannish fashion, saw
Ron Bennett come over for TAFF, and sparked off a revival of activity in the
Los Angeles area, which had been practically dead since the Insurgent War.
(Cf SOUTH GATE)
The annual conventions in Great Britain (beginning with the second con in
fan history, at Leeds on 3 January 1937; it was called to discuss an
organization to replace the moribund SFL, and gave rise to the SFA) which are
covered under their individual names, are also properly called "conventions",
since they are nationwide in scope. Reserving the expression "World
Convention" for American gatherings has been regarded doubtfully since 90%+ of
the attendees are Americans -- except at the Torcon and Loncon, of course --
but may be justified as a name on the ground that we want fans from other
countries to feel that these are their conventions too, tho circumstances may
make it difficult for them to attend; as for location, the practice might be
compared to baseball or cricket world championship play, in which only
American or Commonwealth teams (respectively) actually compete, since those
sports are played more in those political areas than all the rest of the world
combined.
Since the first convention a standard pattern for such an event has
emerged. There is one every year; other fan gatherings are scheduled in such
a way as to avoid competition. Expenses are raised and publicity arranged by
selling memberships in a convention society which is started for the purpose
of putting on the con; and, later, by selling ads in the program booklet and
holding an auction at the con itself. (Membership in the convention society
is open to all, but it is understood that stockholders' privileges are not
conferred and management remains in the hands of the local boys.) Proz give
the affair publicity, and sometimes the local newspapers write it up before --
or after. Slogans on the general model of "DC in '60!" are repeated in every
fanzine and in many letters, while every trufan tries to figure out some way
to attend. The program runs three days (tho there are get-togethers before
and after the official con dates by those who arrive early and/or stay late).
The first day may be planned for the general scientifictionist, the second day
for the faaan, and the third for sports and business. On the first day, for
instance, there will be speeches by celebrities, showing of a fantasy movie,
and a costume party in the evening. Second day may include business matters
connected with the convention organization and really should settle next
year's consite, tho that's often put off to the third day for the sake of the
suspense. In the evening there's a banquet in honor of a science-fiction
celebrity. An auction is put on wherever it can be fitted. Other features
include formal and informal talks by pros, ditto by fans, club meetings, home-
talent plays and ballets, and whatever else the committee can throw at the
audience. British conventions, especially since the SuperManCon, are
distinguished by the greater muzzle velocity of the zapguns and the greater
informality of the program. If you decide to attend, bring plenty of money, a
zapgun, and a helicopter beanie.
COMMON-LAW COPYRIGHT Under statutory copyright a person has the right for a
limited time to prohibit publication or paraphrasing of
long sections of a copyrighted work. Under the common-law copyright, however,
unless authorization to publish is implied (as in letters to the editor) or
expressed, the author has absolute power to prohibit publication in any way of
anything he has written or drawn or composed. This rests on the rule in
common law that the products of a man's labor (including mental labor, even
tho slight) is his to do with as he wishes. The common-law copyright is lost
upon registration for statutory copyright, upon general publication, or
abandonment. General publication consists in making the work available to an
indefinite portion of the general public; publication in, say, FAPA is not
general publication because FAPA has membership restrictions, but to offer
your fanzine to anybody with a dime means loss of control. Abandonment may be
inferred from acquiescence in unauthorized use; but this unauthorized general
publication does not in itself destroy the common-law rights.
We might add that statutory copyright is secured by first publishing the
thing, with a notice saying "Copyright Joe Fan 1984" or something like that,
and then sending two copies and a registration form and fee to the Copyright
Office of the Library of Congress. Publication without such a notice
constitutes dedication to the general public.
CORFLU Obliterine.
CORONCON (Bulmer) The London con of 1953, named after some mundane event or
other that took place that year; christened thus ten seconds after
the proposal for a con in 1953 had been mooted (at the '52 con, also in
London). It was held at the Bonnington Hotel during the same weekend the
Queen's Army Schoolmistresses Reunion [!!!] took place there. Site of the
Roofcon, and notorious for the quelling by unplayful porters of night party
sessions.
CORRESPONDENCE Still one of the chief fan activities, tho fanzine production
and fan visits have reduced its importance somewhat. Letters
are written and magnetic tapes talked for pros, fans, fanzine editors, and
chains of fans; subject matter includes everything that can be found in
fanzine fiction and nonfiction, and more.
Fans generally typewrite their correspondence, and most of the active
ones keep carbons and file their incoming letters. (Nobody has yet figured
out how to do this with magnetic tape.) Air mail is used when there is any
excuse for it; or special delivery; or telegrams or longdistance phone calls.
Nice people will respond to the more urgent communications within 24 hours.
And unless he is a regular correspondent and knows that you take longer to
reply a fan's letter should be answered, or at least acknowledge by postcard,
within two months. Now we quote CL Dodgson: "...don't fill more than a
page and a half with apologies for not having written sooner!"
Fans delight in whimsical details such as putting the postage stamp on
upside down, or decorating the envelope with cracks aimed at the postmaster
("Vote for J Everett Osborne!") Odd complimentary closes are a form of fan
whimsy; in time the most obvious ones, such as "Love and Kisses", ">Very
sincerely yours" (equivalent to a slap in the face), and "Sciencerely yours"
are exhausted and we find such exotic good byes as "Splfrsk!" or
"Majestätsbeleidigung!"
COSMIC CIRCLE see Claude Degler
COSMIC PUBLICATIONS Set up by Taurasi in 1938 on the foundation of
Taurasi-Thompson publications, this group was joined by
Moskowitz, Osheroff, Kuslan, Tucker, Wiggins, and many others, becoming
probably the largest publishing house fandom has seen. It eventually narrowed
down to the Queensies as a result of the Exclusion Act battles.
COUNT-DOWN This invaluable custom originated in a stfilm, Fritz Lang's
old "Frau im Mond."
COVER-COPPER "The one that cops the cover". The story in a prozine from
which the scene in the cover illustration is supposed to be
taken.
CREDIT In fiction, an amorphous sum of money (so amorphous that its fiscal
character is all that can be predicated of it), probably derived from
the Technocrats' use of the word to designate their substitute for cash. In
an APA, the amount a given publication counts toward fulfilling one's activity
requirements.
CRIFANAC (Crif-FAN-ac) Critical Fan Activity. Some pronounce it CRY-fan-ac,
but the i should be short as in critical. This useta mean required
activity in FAPA; later, fanac indulged in by fans to raise their relative
standing in the top ten. Now it refers simply to any efforts or their results
which may be expected to earn the author egoboo. This publication is
crifanac; so is the time spent writing and publishing it.
OFFICIAL CRITICS Appointive officials of FAPA up to the Little Interregnum of
early 1945. The offices were created before it became
customary for members with fanzines of their own to comment on the previous
mailing; but instead of attempting to work out special functions of judgement
and suggestion the OC fell into the habit of merely producing ordinary mailing
comments; thus they were not missed when the reorganization of late '45
dropped them out. The chief permanent value of their reports was provision of
a list of the fanzines in the preceding mailing, it not having been the
practice during the first six years or so to list these in the OO which
accompanied the mailing bundle.
CROGGLE (Grennell) Roughly meaning shocked into momentary physical or mental
paralysis; a portmanteau-word, apparently, combining "crushed" and
"goggled", and usually passive or reflexive in application.
CRUD Worthless or undesirable matter, like Cosmic Circle fanzines. "Every
loaf has two cruds." "Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, eating her
cruds and whey." Actually crud and curd are the same word, the r having been
displaced by the same process of metathesis that split three/third, or
sprite/spirit. Norman G Browne adds a few words derived from the root:
crudramania, insane desire for crud; crudraphobia, fear of crud; noncrudformist,
person not conforming to the crud; pyrocrudable, burnable crud; incrudable, not
able to crud.
CRY CROWD The actifans of Seattle less Gertie Carr, because they all have or
had something to do with producing CRY OF THE NAMELESS, OO of the
Nameless Ones. Wally Weber, Fm & Elinor Busby, Otto Pfeiffer, Burnett Toskey
and a few others.
CSFA Canadian Science-Fiction Association. A national association formed
thru affiliation, in early 1948, of the McGill/Montreal SFS, the Toronto
Derelicts, and the Lakehead SFS of Hamilton, Ontario. Each constituent club was
to have a vote in electing an executive group; any three fans could constitute
themselves a club and obtain a vote; individual fans could join and have all
membership privileges except a vote. Other groups later affiliated were the
CAFP, two correspondence clubs (Les Croutch's Northern Fantasy Fan Federation
and Alastair Cameron's Fantastellar Association) plus locals at London
(Ontario), Halifax, Ottowa, Windsor, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. A
newsletter was published and numerous projects were under way in 1949, but
collapse or lacktivity on the part of most of the constituent clubs soon brought
the CSFA to a standstill (Autumn 1950). In the spring of 1951 the Winnipeg
group (formed Autumn 1950) assumed the burden of reviving the CSFA. Chester
Cuthbert assumed the presidency. A circulating library was put into operation
in 1952, and Alastair Cameron's notable fantasy classification system and a
Canadian fan directory were also published that year. By early 1953 the group
included 5 clubs and 150 fans, 100 of these club members.
CUDDLYPETS A fannish verse-fad set off, Lately Cuddly-Crocodile
like many of our gags, by a Rivals Cuddly-Lion in style;
stfyarn. Cuddlypets were animals tamed Modern fashion doesn't bar
by artificial stimulation of their affection- A Cuddly-Tyrannosaur!
centers, but the thing that fans went for
was the advertising-verse used by salesmen of this peculiar merchandise.
Over right is a sample of a fannish adaptation.
THE CULT Sort of a combination APA and chainletter, founded by Peter Vorzimer
in late 1955. Thirteen members take part through publication of the
official organ, THE FANTASY ROTATOR, by each member in succession... frequency
of publication, every three weeks, making 39 weeks for a "cycle" at the end of
which a new Official Arbiter is elected. Copies go to all members and the top
five ("active") waitinglisters; all must comment on at least every other FR to
the following editor; failure means expulsion. Failure to publish in turn or at
least give notice of delay (which cannot exceed 3 weeks) also means expulsion.
The active waiting list serves either to prepare the prospective member for the
Cult before he gets in or weed out deadwood before it gets tangled in the
machinery.
Early Cultists were strictly 7th Fandom types, handpicked by Vorzimer, and
Little Peter's poorly written constitution combined with their inexperience to
produce many official snarls and wrangles. Over 30 Amendments had to be passed;
the last one turned out to have the effect of making amendments null and
void (this turned out to be a misinterpretation), and the Cultists threw the
whole thing out in disgust. Charles Wells wrote up a revised constitution
that was accepted and worked for several years with few amendments (e g one
setting up an Official Arbiter, anarchy having proved impractical) tho in
early 1959 another Constitutional hassle began.
The average Fantasy Rotator runs from 8 to 70 pages, averaging 20-30; it
features members' letters plus, on occasion, editorials, features, and
material of all kinds, mostly by Cult members. Each is given an individual
title (tho some members repeat their own earlier titles) to which "Fantasy
Rotator __" is a subtitle. A respectable amount of quality material has seen
print first in the Cult, later appearing in fanzines of larger circulation.
CUT (1) To put the prepositioned matter on stencil, the last step before
mimeographing it. The word is also used of preparing ditto and litho
masters, too, with a certain justice. Also (2) synonym for "edit out".
CYTRICON Any of the conventions at Kettering, England: 1955, '56, '58. From
Cytri, the Roman name for the place.
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