O No bright comments occur to your lexicographer in connection with this
letter, so he'll leave it in peace.
OB (EFRussell) Obligation. The Gands recognized no debts, only obs to one
another [cf Avoidism].
OBLIQUE HOUSE Sort of a publishing house name. It's the Slanted-like-
the Dickens residence of Walt Willis in Belfast, on Upper
Newtownards Road. The Oblique Angles are the Belfast fen generally, from the
fact that Oblique House was their mecca; originally WAW, Bob Shaw, and James
White, tho BoSh moved and White became a [ptui!] pro; now also includes
Madeleine Willis, Peggy White, George All the Way Charters, Sadie Shaw, and John
Berry; and perhaps Carol and Bryan Willis by courtesy. Presumably the name will
carry over to Walt's new place, now he's moved.
OBLITERINE (Auslans:Ackerman) Obliterine, obliterine,
A solution of wax in Without you where would we have been?
ether, used to correct errors in To err is human, and slannish too,
mimeograph stencil-cutting. (The But we can correct our mistakes with u
word was originally the trade Few of man's blessings are less unmixed...
name of an Australian brand of -- jfs
correction fluid.) When a mistake If, once the error's fixed
has been made on the mimeo stencil, The meld is good, the fresh cut clean
the openings in the wax are closed Where typer slices Obliterine...
by rubbing, as with a paper clip, -- lhs
and obliterine used to seal the
spot, which can be retyped after a few seconds. (It doesn't work quite so well
on artwork.) The bad thing about obliterine is its habit of vaporizing and
thickening in the bottle, cap it quickly as you will.
OCS Official Cheering Section, a one-time office of SAPS devolving upon the
presumably prettiest unattached female member. Duties of the office were
those involved in encouraging the OE, but when Wrai Ballard appointed Nancy
Share she blasted him for designating her an "ox". He promptly demoted her to
Common Ordinary Woman and only reinstated her in the normal SAPS office of Vice-
President after group ingenuity had been exhausted in devising such alternate
titles as Highly Entertaining Intellectual Female Egoboo Recorder and
Pulchritudinous-Upper-Limbed Lovely Engaging Teaser.
ODD TALES After Pearl Harbor, when the situation of the proz looked black and
fen were being drafted in considerable numbers, a strong optimistic
note was introduced when FFF announced a new prozine, named Odd Tales, to be
edited by Unger, with many famous fans on its staff or producing features for
it. Unger at a New York conclave asked Lowndes not to give away the secret...
and discovered that Doc had never tumbled, tho some time back a hoax of this
sort had been discussed with him. When the announced publication date was past
and people were asking "Where is Odd Tales?" Unger apologized to the many who
had sent in subscription money, and others who'd sent in mss and art work for
consideration. He pointed out that in the "advance photograph of the cover" (by
Bok) FFF had published, acrostics had spelled "fake" and "hoax". Afterward it
was a gag with Strictly From and a few others to announce that the second or
third issue of Odd Tales would top any given feature of current proz, as for
example the paginess of Palmer's pubs back when Amazing was mattress-thick.
OFF-TRAIL Designates fantasy which doesn't seem to fit exactly under any of
the usual types. From its use by Adventure Magazine, in 1915-25, to
designate fantasy yarns.
OFFICIAL ARBITER The sole officer of the Cult. He decides disputed points,
as the title hints.
OFFICIAL EDITOR Publisher of the official organ and other official matter
such as the ballots. In fan APAs he is also the mailing
manager; and in addition to this may (in OMPA) keep track of the membership and
activity credits or even (in SAPS) be the only functioning officer in the club.
He always has considerable discretion as to what, besides prescribed material,
shall be included in the official organ. In well-regulated clubs the OE's
expenses come out of the general treasury.
OFFICIAL ORGAN or OO is a fanzine published under the auspices of some
organization and designated as official. In some cases the
editor volunteers; or he may be appointed or elected. He may offer an already-
established fanzine to become the OO in return for aid in stencilling and
running it or some other subsidy. The thing may be financed out of the general
treasury, as when membership dues to an organization include subscription to the
OO; more often it is paid for by subscriptions. Myriad organizations with few
activities on their programs have become no more than their official organs; in
such cases the OO may become dissociated and continue on its own just like a
subzine. In fact, this is a tendency even in the official organs of thriving
groups. Exceptions are the OOs of the fan APAs and the N3F's National Fantasy
Fan, which are confined almost exclusively to official reports.
OFFICIALS The poor suckers who administer a fan club; an old distinction
between officials as appointed and officers as elected is no longer
observed.
Getting anything done by a fanclub administration is about as difficult as
pushing an oil-rationing bill thru the Texas legislature. This is not because
the officials don't want to be active, but because members will elect a
governing body, then sit back and wait for the crew they've elected to
accomplish mountains of work with molehills of energy. An inevitable
consequence is that such club projects as get carried out will be accomplished
by the two or three fans who were elected, not to work for the club, but to
coordinate the efforts of all the members.
Of course the sins are not all on one side. One of the banes of fandom is
the official who loses interest in stf, gets mad at some other fan, or finds his
time taken up by other matters -- and quietly drops out of the picture, letting
his correspondence remain unanswered, not informing the other officials of the
situation, and keeping the records or even funds in his custody.
Probably there is no remedy for the disease, which can be averted only by
the fanarchistic method of not trusting organizations to accomplish anything
important. Even groups like the APAs, which must depend on an active
administration, observe the custom of pointedly dealing extra rations of egoboo
to officials.
OLD TIMERS Read stf in Argosy, All-Story, and Science and Adventure, welcomed
Weird Tales, bought the April 1926 Amazing off the news-stand and
read it before there were any other proz. Later, "old-timers" were fans who
were acquainted with fandom in the Fantasy Magazine days. Later still Art Rapp
chuckled at "-He's an old-timer; he remembers the Shaver Mystery"- till he
realized that by Roscoe anybody who remembered the Shaver Mystery now was
an old-timer. The word is not exactly synonymous with "veteran"; fairly recent
comers sometimes call themselves old-timers, as compared with those of less than
a year's standing.
ØLFORBUNDET (Danish: "Beer Association") Poul Anderson's society of
constructive abolitionists, limited to the Anderson family but
with cooperative and allied groups all over the world. Its purpose is to rid
the planet of brew in conformity with its motto, DOWN WITH BEER.
OMPA The Off-Trail Magazine Publisher's Association, formed 19 June 1954 to
provide British fen wit an equivalent of FAPA. Ken Bulmer and Vin¢ Clarke
organized it, and were first president and first Association Editor
(respectively) of the group. "We weren't proud", says Vin¢; "we borrowed
wholesale from the rules of FAPA." This isn't quite right, since FAPA's
Secretary and Vice-President duties were combined with, respectively, the
Association Editor's and President's, and the group was smaller (45 members plus
the Keeper of the Printed Books [British Copyright repository, carried as
"Member #0"]). Founder members included eminent Anglofen like Chuck Harris
(first Treasurer), Joan Carr, Ron Bennett, and Archie Mercer. The group grew
rapidly; original membership of 25 had to be increased to 29 with the first
mailing and later to its present level. Beginning in 1956 it became extensively
infiltrated with Americans and some alarm and despondency over possible loss of
British character was heard.
COMPOSING ON MASTER or ON STENCIL or IN THE STICK Making up what you're going
to say as you put it down
on the stencil, or master, you'll use to run it off. A great deal of the
contents of individzines, and editorials in other fmz, are composed this way,
without dummying. The last expression comes from handset printing, where the
letters for each line are set in a holder called a composing stick.
102% FAN Similar to a Serious Constructive, but without the saving quality of
occasional worthwhile purposes. The sort denounced as the Beanie
Brigade, or Goshwowboyoboy fans. 102% N3F isn't quite the same thing; Art Rapp
used it during the ARP battles to designate those who believed that the N3F was
a Way of Life, and its status quo must be preserved.
ONE-SHOT A fanzine produced (perhaps imagined and cut, perhaps just run and
assembled) at a single session. A one-shot session is either the
session at which this is done or, sometimes, the fen comprising the session.
Originally it meant a publication actually, and avowedly, intended to have only
the one issue, as distinguished from "periodicals" which fold after one issue
and other fmz which don't indicate whether they're periodicals or non-recurrent
pamphlets. One-shots may be produced to commemorate an occasion or take
advantage of a gathering of fannish manpower; such are those put out when the
cry "Let's put out a one-shot fanzine!" arises. Or they may be intended to deal
with their subject thoroly enough not to require further issues --
bibliographies and works such as this one fit here. The most famous one-shot
sessions were the four at which various issues (1,3,5,7) of WILD HAIR were
produced; the Insurgents seem to have been responsible for designation of
periodicals as one-shots when they were produced at a one-shot session.
OPERATION ARMAGEDDON At the height of ill-feeling between the London Circle
and the Bloody Provincials, 1954, the Elsie Horde devised
a wonderfully complicated scheme to wreck the ManCon, and gave it this ominous
title. It included such things as printing up a rather dismal fake program --
and following this with a fake indignant denial with announcement of an even
more dismal program; hunting imaginary rats during speeches; getting the con
committee drunk; going around measuring odd lengths with string during the
program ("-not anything in particular -- just lengths"-); starting card games on
the floor when/if things got boring, and other resourceful diabolisms. But when
it came to the sticking point they relented and fraternized with the Uitlanders,
producing the first US-style con -- or so say witnesses who may be giving US
cons too much credit for amiability.
OPERATION FANTAST Ken Slater organized this group to get around the exchange
restrictions on stf and money just after World War II. It
prospered well till Ken retired it from activity as a fan group around 1955.
[Still thriving as a commercial enterprise, Operation Fantast (Medway) Ltd.]
Useful work included publication of a large and well-duplicated Official Organ
named after the club, including data of current and historical interest. Ken
apparently kept most of the reins and responsibility in his own hands, a point
deserving the attention of others who meditate on general fan organizations.
OPERATION FUTURIAN In STEFNEWS Speer gave this code name to the launching of
the Fantasy Foundation. The conspirators planned to spring
it suddenly at the Pacificon and put it over with a bang, replacing the moribund
N3F. (Perhaps this explains the hoax on Dunkelberger on that occasion.) The
Foundation failed to make much impression, partly because of 4e's illness, but
more, Speer believes, because of the Zeitgeist. After the convention, when an
effort was made to organize a Board of Trustees, most of those picked for it
failed to respond. This signalled the collapse of the Brain Trust and therewith
the end of Third Fandom.
OPERATION SHAMROOKIE Sort of preview of the Operation Armageddon idea. Mike
Wilson, a neofan friend of Arthur C Clarke's, was called
up (:drafted) and sent to Ireland for training. Vin¢ and Ken Bulmer seized this
opportunity for a ploy and briefed Mike carefully. They had him present himself
at Oblique House in the character of a Londoner who had never heard of fandom;
Vin¢ even supplied him with a short story, envisioning its publication in HYPHEN
with plonking comments about this marvellous new fan the Londoners had entirely
overlooked. But what with too many fannish allusions being made by Mike, and
his training schedule (for Commando work) a crowded one, Walt realized that he
was being led up the garden path before any useful errors were made. Still, it
helps explain why Willis is leery of Belfast neos and the London Circle
suspicious of strangers with Irish accents.
ORGANIZATIONS Both local and general organizations exist in fandom, with many
historical efforts at state and regional ones. Fan organizations
have been called clubs, guilds, leagues, societies, associations, federations,
and by miscellaneous names like Scienceers, Fictioneers, Artisans, Orders,
Legions, New Fandom, Futurians, Fanarchists, Washington Worry-Warts, The Cult,
Galactic Roamers, and Michifen.
Some groups, like various Insurgent aggregations, have no formal setup --
only a collective name; but usually there is a formal constitution and officers.
Requirements for membership may be nonexistent and are almost always easy. Dues
and usually an official organ are de rigueur for those with formal organization.
Officers may include president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and
sometimes official editor; and there are such variant terminologies as director,
chairman, Dictator (spwsstfm), Grand High Cocolorum (isopetc.), general manager,
pic, BEM, Hi Priestess, chief pilot, ktp. Other officials include various
boards and committees, most of these appointive.
The first organizations, locals, go back at least as far as 1928. The
demand for a general fan organization has been persistent, tho the path is
strewn with wreckage and with the accumulation of experience many veterans
become fanarchistic. Fly-by-night organizations flowered particularly in the
First Transition and Fifth Fandom, and became nothing but their OOs or nothing
at all. "The organizing instinct/ cannot be suppressed".
OSA Oklahoma Scientifiction Association, the first state organization. Begun
1936 by Dan McPhail. Tho never formally organized, it continued for years
in a near-dormant state. Such active Southwesterners as McPhail, the Rogerses,
Hart, and Speer were part of it.
OUTLANDER SOCIETY A fanclub (formed October 1948) for people living outside
the city limits of LA; Rick Sneary's group. It met
approximately monthly till mid-52. Sneary, Moffatt, Woolston, Pederson, van
Couvering, and Rory Faulkner were important members. Thirteen issues of OO The
Outlander were published, and the Third Westercon was produced.
OZARK REST CAMP Cosmic Degler offered vacationing fans a site in the Arkansas
mountains where they might, so to speak, raise a super-race
from scratch. It was supposedly land owned by his mother; may have been
mythical.
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