I A letter whose so-called "long" sound is actually a close diphthong, as the
Greeks and Romans recognized in spelling it ai and ae respectively. The
mistake occurred in English, according to de Camp, when the vowel shift made E
represent the Latin I-sound, and drove the I up to where there was nothing to
do but become a diphthong.
I HAD ONE GRUNCH BUT THE EGGPLANT OVER THERE (Roger Price:Hoffwoman) In
Price's In One Head And Out
The Other, the bible of Avoidism, his character Clayton Slope "had a
clever trick of saying any conceivable sentence so that it sounded like 'I had
one grunch but the eggplant over there'". Fans find the expression useful,
too.
I HAVE A COSMIC MIND -- NOW WHAT DO I DO? (Speer) Fannish gagline stemming
from juffus' mailing Claude Degler
postcards thus inscribed from various parts of the country. Earlier, Perdue
did something similar to Tucker, signing his cards "Joe Fann".
IGNATZ (Harriman:Share) The Rat in the old comic strip, Krazy Kat. Nancy
Share has granted him divine honors and many confess that the strip
partakes of the ghodlike.
[LATER: damon knight firmly corrected this blunder. "ignatz was a mouse", he
chid me. "that was his name, ignatz mowz."]
ILLO An illustration. Either the original or a reproduction may be meant.
IMAGINATION Not the minor prozine of modern times, but Ackermanese for the
collectivity of all fans; the Imagi-nation is what they're
citizens of, even as territorially defined states like Timbuktu, Patagonia,
Slobbovia, and like that.
IMMORTAL STORM Fandom; more particularly, Sam Moskowitz' epic history of
pre-war fandom under that title, to which you are referred if
you want more historical information than we can include in this volume.
Moskowitz has been criticized for excessive emphasis on New York happenings,
and there has been a cry that fan history should be deMoskowitzized as
American history needs to be deAdamsized -- because Moskowitz, like the Adams
family, has the advantage of being almost the only source on some data.
IMMORAL STORM Joe Kennedy (in The Gorgon) and Walt Willis have both published
histories of butterfly fandom under this title; Walt's got Fan-
variety banned from the mails.
IMMORTAL TEACUP Somebody would inevitably have thought up this parallel title
for a history of British fandom. Walt Willis it was that
actually yielded to the impulse, in a 1952 SF Digest.
IMPECCABLE TASTE (Burbee) What Walt Willis has. Bite him and see.
IMPOSSIBLE STORY CLUB Original of the ISFG-TFG. It is supposed to have ante-
dated Amazing Stories, thus being one of the oldest
fantasy organizations.
IN THE ORIGINAL GERMAN (Hawks:Cole) When the movie "The Thing" was made from
John W Campbell's "Who Goes There?", Les 'n Es Cole
panned the Hollywoodizing of it corrosively. Invited to visit the lot they
were given a treatment intended to impress them with the care taken to produce
an "accurate" picture, the climax being the introduction to one of the stars
who claimed to have read "Who Goes There?" in the original German, just to see
whether any of the delicate nuances had been missed in translation. Unhappily
the Coles knew that Campbell had written in English. What the poor man could
have been thinking of is unknown to your GC Merriam, the story not having been
translated into German till 1952, two years after the film.
INCHMERY FANDOM Inchmery is a street in Catford, London, and the fandom that
lived there was Joy & Vin¢ Clarke and Sandy Sanderson. They
deluged fandom with vast store of fanzines in 1958-9 and became so well known
under their old address that when they moved to Queen's Road, New Cross, they
retained the "Inchmery" name for their apartment.
INFERNAL TRIANGLE The pulpcover trinity of bum-babe-BEM, notably as appearing
on the covers of Bergey-illustrated Standard Twins. Also
practically any 3-fan group, especially the WO3W and Wheels of IF.
INNER CIRCLE Aside from the distinctions between fans and stfnists, and
trufans and confans, the super-active group is sometimes
considered separately. Inner Circle fans may be considered as those who
subscribe to a significant fraction of all fanzines, including all the leading
ones; who correspond with other leading fans; publish one or several fanzines;
play politics and perform duties in fan organizations; promote activities such
as fan gatherings; and author many pieces published in others' fanzines. They
are the ones who at a given time may be considered essential to fandom's
continued existence. In fandomwide polls the top ten fans should all come
from this group.
INITIALESE Words compounded from the first letter(s) of each word of a
phrase. It became popular in fandom from the government of the
New Deal period. Initialese expressions may be contractions of names;
bynames; simple or complex catchphrases; etc. Fan clubs are so commonly
referred to by their initialese designations that we have used the latter for
making entries in this lexicon.
Practically all prozines have initialese designations: AS may mean
Amazing Astounding or Astonishing Stories (wherefore preferred contraction for
the former is Amz); ASF is Astounding Science-Fiction (and it's sometimes aSF,
after 1948 when JWC began to de-emphasize the first word); AmQ, Amazing
Quarterly; FA, Fantastic Adventures; FFM, Famous Fantastic Mysteries; FN,
Fantastic Novels; F&SF (or MoF&SF) Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction;
GSF(N) are Galaxy Science Fiction (Novels) tho use of initials for Gold's
stuff isn't frequent for some reason. OOTWA was Out Of This World Adventures
(with color fantasy section) [two issues this abomination lasted, proving that
it is too possible to lose money underestimating public taste]; OW,
Other Worlds; PS, Planet Stories; SF+, Science Fiction Plus; SS, Startling
Stories, sister to TWS Thrilling Wonder Stories; ToW Tales of Wonder; WT Weird
Tales. The old Gernsback WS (Wonder Stories) had a lot of relatives; WSA,
Wonder Stories Annual; AWS Air Wonder Stories; SWS Science Wonder Stories; SWQ
ditto Quarterly.
Besides ekenames of other sorts, some fans and pros have initialese
monikers properly so called: EKB Earle K Bergey; de Dave English; V2 AE
vanVogt; 3E, E Everett Evans; RAP Raymond A Palmer; FTL Francis Towner Laney;
and two that you find almost everywhere in fandom, WR William Rotsler and DAG
Dean A Grennell. Yet others are dealt with under Nicknames.
Some Initialese contractions or catchphrases, like Gafia and Mafia, are
words in their own right, now; some that haven't yet made the grade include
KYHOOYA Keep Your Head Out Of Your Armpit; FLEAC Fandom's Leading Expert And
Critic [Walt Willis]; LNF Little Name Fan; LMJ Loudmouthed Jackass; SCF
Serious Constructive Fan; XOE Ex-Official Editor; GH&CBNF Good Humored and
Condescending BNF [Lee Hoffman]; FB Fine Business [from radio ham slang];
FIJAGH Fandom is Just a Goddamn Hobby; TA Thanks Awf'ly and QBA Quite Bloody
Awful [both of these from Anglofandom]; w/dj of a book with dustjacket and
better yet JAM (with dust-) jacket and (in) mint (condition); not to mention
FPWESFC.
As suggested above, organizations and institutions were the original
victims of this sort of thing, almost universal in fandom. Some fan groups
not elsewhere mentioned are NFFF for what we define under N3F; PSFS Portland
SF Society (the Philadelphia ditto is the most important in fandom); ORT
Official Round Table (a chain-letter thru which the N3F directorate conducts
business); Z-D, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.
A sort of initialese are things like QX, "All right", from EE Smith's use
of these letters to mean that in the futuristic slang of the Lensman series;
and Øred, Fred Pohl from his use of Greek alphabets on the covers of Mind of
Man. For further constructions of this type, see Demolishisms.
INLACON The MidWestCon at its earliest location, at Beatley's Hotel on
Indian Lake, Ohio.
INSURGENTS The funloving actifans; the rebels against Serious Constructive-
ness; in Fifth Fandom and thereafter, leaders of the opposition to
commercialization and thus deriders of hucksterism and the Organization mania.
Applied by extension to any faction which devoted itself to needling the
leadership of a club, since this was a notable feature of the eponymic group
-- Laney, Burbee, Rotsler, and Art Widner, and to a degree GG Dewey and Cy
Condra -- who laid waste the LASFS 1948-50, and who were known as the
Insurgent Element in full. (At various times Redd Boggs, Al Ashley, Rog
Phillips, John van Couvering, Syd Stibbard, and Rick Sneary cooperated in
Insurgent Element activities.) With the abovementioned extension in meaning
the term "Insurgent" was applied to such people as Art Rapp, on account of the
aftermath of the Blowup, and to the Elders in Washington DC.
Insurgents are known for their attitude of active enmity toward
stuffiness, Authority, and fannish fuggheadedness in general, but the
Insurgent Attitude is an inaccurate expression for the scorn of fantasy and
organized fandom, and enjoyment of partying, women and the social pleasures
with which the original Insurgents were identified by their opponents. (The
Bohemian tradition was of long standing in the various groups of anti-LASFS
Angelenoes.)
Moderns may call themselves Insurgents when they are merely motivated by
the sadistic joy of making life horrible for SerConFans; VolDesFen fit here.
Or they may be only at feud with chosen targets. And sometimes, as in Walt
Willis' Serious Constructive Insurgentism, the word is a tag to indicate that
its bearers' enthusiasm is adult rather'n that associated with goshwowboyoboy.
INTELLIGENCE The individual and collective egoism of fans over their superior
mentalities is not without sound basis. From actual tests such
as those given by Speer to the '43 Michiconference and the Slan Shackers, and
by Bob Pavlat to WSFA members, tentative conclusions were drawn that
practically all fans fall into the upper 25% of the population in
intelligence, with the average within the top 10%. Fans in the Armed Forces
went up quickly, and many instances can be cited of fans grasping points in a
discussion too subtle for the average person to pick up. Of late, however,
actual statements of genius qualities have been somewhat discredited by
exuberant claims of superhuman IQs on the part of the Degler fringe.
For those who are not satisfied with general intelligence ratings, it may
be said that fans' intelligence manifests itself primarily verbally rather
than mechanically, altho we have a number of artists and other craftsmen.
Whether our general intelligence correlates inversely with social intelligence
is a mooted point.
INTERLINEATIONS (Speer) ("IN-ter-lin-A-shuns"; incorrectly pronounced
"IN-ter-LI-ne-A-shuns" by people who forget that the "e" in
line is silent. But hot words have been slung on this subject of
pronunciation.)
A development of one-line fillers which were used to mark the end of articles
and separate fillers since early times. It has developed into quite a popular
literary form, with numerous variations.
____________________________________________________________
The classic interlineation was set off with underscore-marks,
____________________________________________________________
and this
custom long defied efforts to substitute lines of periods or hyphens [courtesy
Walt Willis] surrounding the phrase.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"These were unfavorable mutations", says Speer, but they later became dominant.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The borders of the modern interlineation may extend all the way across
the page or fit the length of the phrase set between them; the latter is
always centered on the page except by the uncouth and those who fill the line
from one side of the sheet to the other.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
repetitionmaybeusedforthisrepetitionmaybeusedforthisrepetitionmaybeusedforthis
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The last custom is almost obsolete, as is the omission of spaces between
words (probably an influence of the Beardmuttering).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That sounds vaguely obscene - and if there's one thing I can't stand...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Oftentimes, especially when there are several interlineations on the same
page, they may be connected in sense, as are the two on either side of this
sentence.
- - - - - - - -
it's vagueness.
- - - - - - - -
Speer gives an instance of things that make good interlineations:
"-brilliant remarks wrencht out of context to make them twice as brilliant and
three times as puzzling"-. The subject matter of the interlineation may be
anything under the sun or in it, but it's most successful if a bit esoteric so
that one
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The right to buy women is the right to be free.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
must study it to guess what the editor had in mind. Another convention, not
always observed, is that the interlineation should be able to stand alone,
either as a complete epigram or an allusion to matters which if they are not
well known refer to the text of the magazine in which it appears. It should
not be spelled out to the reader nor otherwise directly referred to in
the text, because an interlineation is something extra -- like an inside cover
or a stunt on the wrapper -- and should not be counted a necessary part of the
mag, just as a parenthesized passage should not be grammatically necessary for
a sentence. (If this is too metaphysical for you, let it pass...).
INTERPLANETARY STAMPS Two stamps were designed by Russell Swanson for the
PhilCon II. One was marked "Luna Colony Postage; First
Moon Rocket -- 1965"; a $5 blue horizontal. The other was a $10 red vertical
"Mars Postage; First Mars Expedition, 1974", and depicted "Preparing the
Atmosphere Rocket". They were sold in sheets of 40 of either issue for 50¢ by
the PhilCon II Committee for publicity and revenue.
INTERREGNUM A period of no government. It has occurred in fan organizations
when terms of an administration have expired without a new set of
officers having been elected to take their place; tho in the case of FAPA
Speer advanced the legal fiction that the President had appointed himself and
others to keep things going, under his power to appoint auxiliary officials.
The FAPA Interregnum began in July 1939. The Official Editor, Rothman,
had resigned irregularly and turned his office over to Bob Madle. Madle
failed to supply the Secretary, Taurasi, with a list of the active members,
and a new constitutional amendment had restricted the vote to the active
members for the first time [!!]. Taurasi finally sent ballots to all members;
Wollheim put the matter to V-P Marconette, who (in July, after terms would
normally have expired) declared Taurasi's ballots void and authorizing
President Wiggins to issue new ballots. This the latter did, without
mentioning the VP decision authorizing the action; but the list of active
members he drew up contained several errors and was accompanied by Futurian
propaganda. Wollheim, named as counting committee head, announced the results
of this ballot as the official administration. (Speer, who had condemned the
ballot, was elected VP.) At the PhilCo that September agreement was made for
a referendum, in which a majority approved this administration. But Taurasi,
personifying FAPA as Wollheim, failed to turn over the records and funds. In
the course of the year a mailing was elided, and each of the remaining three
was sent from a different place. It was thought in many quarters that FAPA
was dead. Then came the Blitzkriege. (The Tenth and Eleventh Mailings were
the combined ones.)
A Little Interregnum was produced in 1945 by the resignation of OE Larry
Shaw and President Lowndes in February of that year; almost simultaneous
announcement of the formation of VAPA led to accusations that this constituted
an attempt by the Futurians to wreck FAPA. Speer took over as OE and, barring
a six-week delay in appearance of the Fall mailing due to difficulty getting
outgoing Treasurer Sudday Schwartz (another Futurian) to turn over records and
funds to the new administration, little trouble was experienced.
The N3F started out with no constitution, and the one drawn up was
cumbersome and, because of the FinCom report, was rejected by the membership
when it was submitted. A constitution was finally adopted, but the machinery
remained cumbersome, and the negligible results for the early labor plus the
difficult requirements for nomination (all under the shadow of the stress of
war) caused insufficient candidates to file to fill the necessary offices when
the first administration lapsed. EEEvans, Plancom chairman of the first year,
got a new set of officers by Blitzkrieg methods; but before the organization
could gather momentum again Evans, the new President, was forced to drop
activity. VP Tucker turned the presidency over to Evans' neighbor (at Slan
Shack) Al Ashley. It being conceded that the old Constitution was unworkable,
Ashley planned to carry out Evans' idea of a pyramiding state-regional-
national scheme with many officers (the "Battle Creek Plan") including as
"citizens" all who could be called fans, while Harry Warner spoke for an
organization with few officials and stiff membership requirements. A wrangle
over whether the directorate should pick one plan for submission to the
membership or have a vote on both led to stalemate, again the terms of
officers ended with no replacements, and the N3F lapsed. In the fall of '43,
at the height of Cosmic Circle furor, Ashley questioned the Board members with
a view to revising the group under an emergency for-the-duration constitution;
this was realized next year, with Walt Dunkelberger in the Presidential chair.
Elections were resumed in 1947.
INTROVERSION Most fans are introverted to a greater or less degree, it's
generally held. The characteristics of introspection,
imagination, greater interest in oneself than other people, and in ideas than
people, are well marked in our writings and face-to-face personalities.
(Extroverts are characterized by "practicality", salesmanship, inability to be
alone, and concern about tangible honors and other people's opinion of them.)
But the intensity appears less marked today than before the end of World War
II, and some of our members even go the length of being professional salesmen.
The only actual figures were obtained during the early 40s by the Poll Cat,
which circulated a psychological questionnaire answers to which indicated that
92% of fans were introverts, 8% ambiverts, and none extroverts.
INVENTION (Elsberry) A convention held by a group of MFS members 1 April
1952. Name was given because admission was by invitation only.
This weeding process made it easily the most brilliant fan gathering in
history, marred only by the double entendre of the title.
The thing was brainstormed at a one-shot by Elsberry, Boggs, Grossman,
Shay and Shapiro; Elsberry did most of the writing on the report of this
imaginary con, which was much enjoyed by frivolous fans.
IPO See Polls.
IRON MAIDEN (Gerding) A mimeograph used, originally, by Manley Bannister to
publish NEKROMANTIKON and donated to TAFF -- or, more correctly,
to the WAW With the Crew in '52 Fund -- when the original owner went gafia.
It was an electric AB Dick. Nan Gerding won it; when she gafiated for a spell
in late 1954 she passed it on to Lee Jacobs, and Terry Carr got it from Leej
some time after he dropped out of fandom. Probably other fan mimeos have
equally wandering histories, if we only knew.
ISA The International Scientific Association. Apparently there was an early
organization of the same name, with RAP among its head men, but the ISA
of history was originally the International Cosmos Science Club, a group which
sought to combine amateur scientists and faaans only to find the latter
becoming dominant. It was scarcely "international", the chief branches being
the NYBISA and the PSFS. Will Sykora was the chief leader, but numerous later
Futurians and other fans were prominent members. The ISA backed its members
who were among the young authors taking legal action against Wonder Stories
for non-payment, and when some were expelled from the SFL it warred against
the SFL -- and also against the Fantasy Magazine group who leaned toward the
pros.
The ISA put on the first two conventions, and was the outstanding
organization of the First Transition. In consequence of that transition,
President Sykora resigned in 1937, protesting the increasing neglect of
science; repercussions were so grave that Donald A Wollheim (the only active
officer left) got informal permission from the Philly and New York members to
wind up the affairs of the ISA and dissolve it. This was done in good order
except for trouble with the library, which was stored at Sykora's. In 1938
Sykora, returning to activity, claimed that the ISA had never been legally
dissolved and formed the ISA Committee for Reorganization, to which the
Wollheimists opposed the Friends of the ISA; the Committee for Reorganization
was one of the organizations in whose name the Newark Convention was called.
But Sykora failed to get support for his movement there, and presently dropped
the notion.
ISFCC The International Science-Fiction Correspondence Club, organized by
Richard Abbott in 1948-49. ISFCC, which was run by Ed Noble for a long
time after Abbott turned it over to him, is a fairly large and active
international group which avoids the difficulties that beset the N3F by
restricting itself to keeping the members in contact with one another thru the
OO, Explorer. Various projects have been accomplished by ISFCC members, but
fanarchistically and not as official club activity. A President and Official
Editor are the only functional members.
IT'S ENEY'S FAULT Masthead-notation of Operation Crifanac publications,
adopted in reaction against fans who urged everyone to
identify himself in his fanzine with name rank and serial
number and address in full. Bloch has protested the phrase as
incorrect, offering a more truthful form: "It's Eney's Parents' Fault."
Updated January 8, 1999. If you have a comment or question about these Web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.