L He who calls himself Bristol didn't know how to pronounce this sound
until he was a Junior in High School; and bets you don't know, what he
learned recently, that there are two L sounds in English -- one the sobekannt
"dark l" that follows a vowel, and the other the initial l which actors use
after the vowel to get a spinechilling "Kihl! Kihl! Kihl!"
LACTIVITY Failure to satisfy activity requirements in an APA.
LASFS The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, founded 1934 and thus the
oldest local in fandom. Formerly the LASFL as a branch of the SFL, the
group also held Overseas Chapter #1 of the SFA, and when they also became a
chapter of the Science Fictioneers and seemed likely to affiliate with other
general fan organizations, they voted to take this neutral (and, Yerke says,
meaningless) name.
The most famous members of the LASFS were Ackerman and Laney, but there
have been many active fans associated with it, including Burbee, Bradbury,
Daugherty, EEEvans, Al Ashley, Joquel, Yerke, SD Russell, Morojo, and Paul
Freehafer, plus numerous immigrants from the rest of the country during the
war years, some honorary members, and persons who only temporarily lived in
LA. The LASFS is not only the longest-lived local in fandom, but up to the
Blowup was the most consistently active. In 1940 they claimed the name of
Shangri-LA, and became the Rome whither all roads led in the months after
Pearl Harbor. They have probably had the largest attendance records of any
local at some meetings, including numerous celebrities, and even maintained
their own clubroom up to 1948.
Mirta Forsto (Morojo and Ackerman; it's Esperanto for "Myrtle Forest")
dominated the club all during the war years and for a long time before and
after. Between them and the Moonrakers, Knanves, Outsiders, and Insurgents --
successively -- there had been sustained differences during all this period,
which in the end caused the Blowup and knocked the LASFS out for a decade.
For some time these clashes were kept out of the general fan press and
subordinated to club spirit; one emerged for a second in 1938, when, in the
Michelistic period, a board of censorship was set up to keep over-
controversial material out of the OO, IMAGINATION! and another one came in '42
when Heinlein resigned just before going into the Navy, giving as his reason
the attacks on him by Yerke of the Moonrakers. But at the end of 1943 a
successive series of internal explosions began with the Knanve secession, when
dislike of Ackerman personally, 4e's objections to the intrusion of drenching
and wenching on LASFS affairs, and discontent with the accomplishments of the
club as compared to its possibilities led Yerke, Bronson, and others to
withdraw briefly. Early in 1944 Ackerman's puritanism and fandom-is-all
attitude (he had taken to passing out little notes of reprimand to those who
didn't meet his standards) provoked a more general withdrawal by the Knanves
plus Paul Freehafer, SD Russell, Laney, and Pogo. Originally they were merely
disgusted with LA fandom, but Ackerman issued an attack on their intentions
which led them to declare feud on the LASFS. Their attacks apparently brought
LA fandom briefly to the verge of extinction, but as many of the Outsiders had
little residual interest in fandom the schism was temporarily healed, after
some vigorous cut-and-thrust, in May when the Outsiders were largely either
gafia or re-instated in the LASFS. Laney continued his criticism of the club
from within, however, describing the "pathologically neurotic incompetents
imagining themselves as fine minds and cultured individuals" mercilessly.
When the Slan Shack group arrived in September 1945 they soon came around
to Laney's point of view; and when they became vocal about it in their
publications and otherwise an investigation committee was appointed
(Wiedenbeck, Liebscher, Ashley, and perhaps others) which after a couple of
months' investigation returned an unanimous report that the LASFS should be
given back to the Indians; that no measures could rehabilitate the club, and
its collapse would be no loss to the world, the flesh, or the devil. Reasons
cited were violent dissimilarities of interests among the members, coupled with
mutual lack of tolerance for the opposition; the extreme prevalence of
pathological neurotic symptoms; and a lack of interest in moving to greener
pastures combined with boredom with the club as it existed. Not long
afterward the Insurgent Element arose, which unlike previous schismatic groups
did not rejoin the club but carried on war &aacu; outrance. In 1948 Ackerman,
turning pro, began to gafiate as a fan, while his old ally Morojo had dropped
out about the end of the war. The LASFS lost its dominance in fandom with
surprising speed. By 1949 the magic of its name, as the poetically inclined
might put it, had vanished quight; till the revival at the time of the 1958
con the Insurgents and new groups like the Outlanders were the only effective
portions of Los Angeles Fandom.
After the Insurgent Blowup the club was left with few active fans and
became mainly a science-fiction club, with some large well-attended meetings
in 1948-52 but without contact with fandom. A few members crashed the proz
and the annual Fanquet was inaugurated; in 1948 the annual series of
Westercons was begun. Shaggy, once a top fanzine, became a disconnected
series of one-shots. ("Just as fabulous things happened to us as to the
Wheels of IF," complained Sneary, "only there was no Willis or Shaw to write
them up.") Another blowup, whose details are obscure for the reasons just
mentioned, took place at the end of this period, when (1952) Jim Wilson, Ed
Clinton, and Rick Sneary resigned in protest over certain club actions that
were forced on them. By 1955-56 things had gotten so bad that only three
people showed up for some meetings ["and one of them was a guest", adds
Rick]. But in 1957 a revival of activity, at least locally, took place,
sparkplugged by Bjo Wells, who dragged the LASFS back into fandom via the
activities connected with the SoLACon. Several members became active
independently. Whether this renascence can be made good is at this writing
hidden.
LAUREATE AWARDS More or less annual certificates in recognition of excellence
presented to outstanding fans by the N3F. The FAPA
institution which is sometimes called the Laureate Poll (right name: Egoboo
Poll) doesn't present real Laureate Awards any more, but actually the custom
was introduced to fandom here. Silkscreened certificates were awarded
laureate and runner-up in each division (publishing, editing, writing, poetry,
and artwork) as determined by a poll conducted by the VP and 2-4 others,
including the Official Critics. The custom lapsed with the disturbances of
1945.
LAWS OF ROBOTICS One of the real inventions in the field of stfantasy. The
laws worked out by Isaac Asimov in his US Robots and
Mechanical Men (aka Positronic Robots, and Susan Calvin) Series declare (1) a
robot may not harm nor allow to be harmed any human; (2) a robot must obey all
orders given it by authority unless they conflict with (1); (3) a robot must
preserve its existence except when this would conflict with (1) or (2).
Others have also developed the idea, if not in just this form then at least as
a definite set of built-in laws of robotic behavior whose consequences are
fictionally explored.
LAZY LETTER (Shelby Vick) a homemade, domesticated airletter-sheet type of
thing, invented and used by Shelby Vick in 1953. It consisted of
a sheet of mimeo paper with room for a message on one side, and the return-
address and a place to address it mimeoed on the other.
LEE HOFFMAN HOAX was not really meant as a hoax. When Leeh entered fandom she
didn't bother to state her sex, which many assumed on the
strength of the first name and the well-known predominance of he-fans to be
male. Not till she appeared at NOLaCon was the truth generally realized.
LEGAL MATTERS Fans in their separate universe ordinarily have little to do
with the processes of the civil law, tho its judgements of
what's right and wrong in the relations of literary men are generally accepted
as authoritative morally as well as legalistically; a few requirements of our
own regarding exclusive rights to fanzine titles, pen names, ktp, are added
for our own use. Speer, who has a career in the infamous profession, has made
amateur expositions of such subjects as the common-law copyright.
The only lawsuit connected to fandom which actually came to court was
Wollheim's suit against Wonder Stories, in which he represented several other
new authors whom Wonder had forgotten to pay. They won their case, and the
ISA-SFL war resulted.
In fan feuding it is almost universally held that resort to legal action
is outside the pale of permitted tactics, and various New York fans have
reflected great discredit on themselves by resorting to this sort of foul
play. Wollheim and Sykora have at various times threatened legal action
against one another in connection with their long-standing feud, but this has
never materialized. Sykora did put the postal authorities on the Futurians'
trail in connection with the Christmas Card incident, hoping they'd uncover
some activities of a subversive nature too. [They didn't.] A lawsuit was
filed in the X Document split but never came to court. Taurasi was threatened
in '56 by Random House, which alleged that JVT's use of the name "Fandom
House" in publishing Fantasy Times constituted unfair competition. Tho
somewhat flattered, Jas decided not to fight it, having learned that simply
bringing the case to court would rock him $300. And in 1958 a lawsuit -- or
rather a pair of them, one brought by each opponent -- between Dave Kyle and
the Dietz-Raybin faction, tho never brought to trial (as of July '59) led to
the ruin of WSFS Inc.
Tho Hornig performed a quasi-judicial function in connection with a
dispute over the SFL rule on correspondence, the first legal authority set up
by a fan organization is the Vice-President of FAPA. More or less legalistic
debates have been waged between members of FAPA over strict observance of the
Constitution vs ignoring it where it becomes inconvenient.
LEGALENGTH A paper size, 8½ x 14. The US equivalent of foolscap.
LEGION: BLACK or SACRED or HOLY The followers of FooFoo, sometimes, tho they
originally called themselves a Sacred Order.
We leave you to sort out which factions use which adjectives.
LEEH Lee Hoffman. Coined by Boggs, 1953, to differentiate between Hoffwoman
and other Lees then active in fandom: Lee Jacobs (who adopted "Leej" in
imitation), Lee Riddle (who published fanzine Leer in APAs), Lee Tremper, and
Lee Bishop.
LEMURIA Originally an hypothetical [in paleontology] continent connecting
India and Africa, it was taken over by the Theosophists and weird
tellers, both of whom credit it with the origin of intelligent Earthly life;
in the Lovecraft Mythos, for instance, Nyarlathotep began the human race when
he took human form there. And "I Remember Lemuria!" was the yarn that kicked
off the Shaver Mystery.
LENSMAN SAGA (EESmith) The Lens is a semi-living telepathic transceiver,
provided by the super-mentalities of Arisia to the Galactic
Patrol [our side]. Special officers of the Patrol who by a training of Gothik
rigor have Proved Their Worthiness are entrusted with these gadgets, and
designated as Lensmen. Doc Smith was ever popular with fans, and in this
series he surpassed himself. The saga (Triplanetary, First Lensman,
Galactic Patrol, Grey Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens)
is the longest to come out of magazine science-fiction, and contributed many
expressions to Fanspeak: Delameters, the standard sidearm; Grand Base and
Prime Base, Boskonian and Patrol HQs; "free" (inertialess) faster-than-light
flight; and superexplosive duodec. Clean-minded heroes swore by Klono, a god
remarkable for the number of his anatomical appurtenances (all formed of some
alliterative metal: brazen bowels, tungsten test tentacles, etc). Primary
beams were ships' main armament; they were produced by overloading a normal
ray-projector to the point of blowout, creating a beam against which nothing
can stand (Campbell anticipated the obvious objection by pointing out that if
Doc Smith knew how the ray projector worked before being overloaded he'd be
writing for the Patent Office, not ASF). A Grey Lensman [they wear grey
uniforms] is one responsible only to the Galactic Council; the Grey
Lensman is Kimball Kinnison, hero of the last four volumes, and an uncommonly
powerful superman. Galactic Civilization, the good guys, is relieved of
governmental troubles by virtue of the absolute trustworthiness of the Lensmen
and by implication is a kind of utopia -- note the tacit assumption that there
exist True Principles of Honest Government, Accept No Substitutes. Boskonia
[the baddies] is a sort of totalitarian empire made in the image of what naive
democrats believe totalitarian empires are like -- caste systems, whip-
wielding overlords in palaces, ktp; it derives its name from the Council of
Boskone, the ruling body of the Eich, who direct operations during the second
thru fourth volumes. For the same reason Boskonian biggies used the command-
line "speaking for Boskone". [The Futurians held that Boskonia was more
desirable than what Smith had described of Civilization, hence the gag-line,
"Wollheim, speaking for Boskone".] Jarnevon was the home of the Eich; Ploor
was a planet of baddies higher up in the hierarchy (now used as an
exclamation, or as a synonym for any far-away place like Savannah, Ga); Eddore
was the source of Boskonian culture, a planet of mCLASS=""
amoeboids, materialistic opposites of the Arisians. And Zwilniks were evil-
minded folk generally, tho the word originally meant "any entity connected
with the [interstellar] drug traffic".
LETTERHACK A fan who seeks egoboo by writing numerous letters of comment and
criticism to the prozines. A harmless druj.
LEZ Pet name for Bob Tucker's legendary fanzine, Chapter 1:
LE ZOMBIE. (It began as a satire on Doc Lowndes' Vampire
LE VOMBITEUR, but the tail began to wag the dog.) Chapter 2:
Lez-ettes, invented by Tucker for this 'zine, were Mirror
the ultimate in literary condensation; one is Chapter 3:
displayed to your right. Long time no see
LIBERAL A person willing to see the other guy's viewpoint and let him do as
he wishes on non-vital questions, and willing to experiment to find
the solution to sociological problems. Futurians of old were at times
infuriated by the apparent inability of people like Rothman and Speer to make
up their minds on a point and consider it a closed subject; Ackerman came in
for sharp criticism when, on grounds of tolerance, he blocked moves to end the
Cosmic Circle's use of LASFS facilities. More recently some fans from the
other end of the philosophical spectrum have organized things like the CCF, or
flung accusations of disloyalty at most everybody left of Douglas MacArthur,
and others have opposed various movements to provide FAPA with a means for
ejecting undesirables on grounds of the unfairness of such actions.
LINO (1) interlineation; mostly a Briticism. (2) Short for linoblock;
a means of reproduction something like the woodcut, except that you cut
it out of a slab of linoleum (which is easier to carve) glued to a block of
wood to make it type high.
LIQUORS Defy our enumeration. Fayalin, Bolega (Lensman saga); Blog; Marghil
and Vuzd (Boucher presented these Venerian and Martian [respectively]
potables in "QUR"); Soma; and Xeno (affected by Sergeant Saturn and his crew)
are a few of the fictional ones; Nuclear Fizz, Voodoo Priestess, Vaca Morado,
Super Science-Fiction Special, Moth Ear, Golden Treachery, and non-alcoholic
rhubarb wine are, tho improbable, real. Recipes can be found in various
places around fanzines.
LiSFS The Liverpool Science-Fiction Society, of England. Prime spirit Dave
Newman till he went gafia; other notable members include John Roles and
Norman Shorrocks. They brought the art-form of the tapera to its greatest
height, and have recognized fannish eminence by award of the designation of
Ex-Chairman [ECLSFS]. They are not noted as fanzine publishers, but rather go
in for local social activities such as formed the basis of their famous
symposium on Sex and Sadism and for the productions noted under "Movies".
LITHOGRAPHY Reproduction by adhesion of ink to prepared surfaces; metal
sheets are used nowadays (stone was the original surface, hence
the name) which can reproduce in accurate detail and with large solid areas;
photos can be reproduced in half-tone. The process came into considerable use
with Assorted Services, tho presently commercials were found who could do the
job cheaper than Ackerman & Co. (It costs plenty anyway.) Our front cover
[in first ed] is an example of this process.
LITTLE JARNEVON (EESmith:Suddsy) A slanshack in 1943 inhabited by Suddsy
Schwartz, Larry Shaw, and such visitors as they couldn't get
rid of. W 18th St., Manhattan.
LITTLE MONSTERS OF AMERICA Lynn Hickman organized this club for people who
were stared at "as though (they) were a little
monster or something" when they left a newsstand carrying an stf magazine.
Group aim, Hickman said, was to promote stfsy reading so that fans wouldn't be
regarded as "something apart". Some locals were set up, and several sectional
conferences were held (including one in New York City, July 1952) but main
activity was publishing TLMA, the club magazine, edited by Hickman. The
organization lasted from mid-51 to the end of '52, when it was suspended;
Hickman claimed 365 members at the end.
LITTLE WILLY VERSES A form of poetry mundane in origin but now widespread in
fandom since Art Rapp's introduction of them. They are
quatrains, almost always beginning with
the words "Little Willy (-ie)..." and Little Willy, very spritely
going on to celebrate some grisly Also quite affectionate,
domestic tragedy, as in the specimen Held his little sister tightly
at right. They became endemic in 1953 (With both hands, around the neck)
and are still found intermittently,
especially in the APAs.
LOCALS Fans living in the same city or metropolitan area usually form some
kind of organization at whose meetings they may get together, tho in
some cases, like the Washington Worry-Warts and the Windy City Wampires, there
is no formal setup. Of old many locals had titular links with one or more
regional or general fan organizations (the main advantage of which was
publicity of the fact that they existed, so that other interested people
nearby might join) but the absence of such inclusive groups today means that
modern locals must be independent. In many cases, like the old LASFS, a local
group might be a branch of several organizations.
Occasionally strong active locals are found in small communities, like
the Decker Dillies, but the longer-lived ones are in metropolitan areas. New
York and Los Angeles are the only cities that have supported more than one
local for any considerable length of time. Even in the large cities, like
Chicago and Washington, there have been periods when there was no active
fandom, and in smaller places periods of nothingness have been more frequent
because of the weakness of locals, which have a way of folding up with the
loss of one or two active fans.
In spite of this, they are the strongest type of fan organization,
because they present an opportunity for fangabbing, cooperative publishing,
visiting, and similar fan activity, which in larger organizations (where
contacts are chiefly by mail) can be had only at fan gatherings.
LOGO The title layout of a magazine, from logotype - the permanent setup of
type used for the cover or masthead on professional publications.
LONDON CIRCLE (aka LONDON O or ELSIE HORDE). An informal club, originally,
with no dues, no rules, and no actual membership aside from the
regular attendees at the "White Horse" pub in Fetter Lane on Thursday nights.
(More informal than this it is hard to be.) Renowned for its wit,
intelligence, and lethargy. Most famous member is Arthur C Clarke (whose
Tales of the White Hart are a references to the Circle's old assembly-
point), who never misses a Thursday unless he's off somewhere annoying the
fish. Other members are such eminentissimi as Ted Tubb, Ted Carnell, Vin¢
Clarke, Bill Temple, Ken Bulmer, and every London-dwelling pro-author plus
most area fans. Vin¢ is the leader of the trufan set among them, and has had
at least a hand in almost all their fanzines. The Circle is famed also for
its conventioneering; despite slanders from the North-English fen they are
fine organizers and seldom get the credit they deserve.
When the licensee moved to another pub, "The Globe" in Hatton Gardens,
the Circle moved with him, but the new place proved inadequate and Vin¢ Clarke
began agitation for separate quarters for the club; repercussions have not
clarified themselves as of this writing. Declining attendance in mid-1958 led
to the establishment of a more formal organization, with "official" meetings
once a month.
LOVECRAFT MYTHOS Howard Phillips Lovecraft practically dominated weird
fiction in American proz till his death in 1937, and his
mythos still march on in the hands of friends and pupils like Bob Bloch, Clark
Ashton Smith, and August Derleth, who have added independently to the canon.
The Mythos centers around the exile to Earth of the Great Old Ones, who had
rebelled against the Elder Gods (not those of the Shaver Mythos, fergawdsake)
and still scheme to try again. A touchstone for stories of this cycle is the
exclamation "Iä! Yog-Sothoth!"; it's part of the ritual for opening the Path
Whereby the Spheres Meet (Yog-Sothoth, as every good fan should know, is the
Key and the Guardian of that Path's Gate) and rarely fails of utterance. The
Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred, the mad Arab, is a source of much
knowledge of the Great Old Ones; other books of incredible secrets like the
R'lyeh Text, Comte D'Erlette's Cultes des Goules, Freidrich von
Juntztz' Unausprechlichen Kulten, and the Pnakotic Manuscripts
have also proved baneful to over-curious folk. Dreadful events center around
Arkham, Massachusetts, where Miskatonic University has one of the few known
copies of the Necronomicon, and whose neighboring towns Dunwich and Innsmouth
are effectively in the hands of the Cthulhu Cult, as inquisitive scientists
find out too late. The Great Old Ones themselves are numerous; important ones are
Nyarlathotep, Their messenger, who originated the human race; Yog-Sothoth;
Azathoth the Lord of All (a "blind, idiot god" who, Fritz Leiber conjectures,
symbolizes the mechanistic cosmos); and Cthulhu the sea-god -- a being very
like a cross between an octopus and a jellyfish, tho capable of "lumbering
slobberingly" in pursuit of humans and such tasty morsels. Other
approximately mortal creatures like the Deep Ones, Shaggoths, Tcho-Tcho People
and suchlike which your compiler would rather not think about are more or less
servants of the Great Old Ones.
Pronunciation of such names as Cthulhu has worried many fans -- Cthulhu,
incidentally, was the first to be the subject of one of HPL's stories, whence
the mythos are sometimes called "Cthulhu Mythos" -- who were not helped by
Lovecraft's insistence that the name was rendered into those English letters
phonetically. This is nonsense -- C has no definite phonetic value in English
-- but would make the original some such sound as Kh-thool-hoo or Ss-thool-
hoo. "Sykora used to pronounce it with a whistle in the middle; I heard him",
says damon knight. "Thool-thool" is the only so-called authentic
pronunciation Coswal has heard, which obviously evades the C problem. Harry
Warner cites a valuable source of information, approved by weird authors:
"Just give a click with the tongue at the start of the word, just as you do
with many Russian words, and ignore the second H, with accent on the first
syllable. I've never heard it pronounced, you understand, so that knowledge
must be instinctive inheritance from the Old Days."
LUSTRUM A period of five years. Ackerman says he uses it compulsively.
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.