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Diablerie, February 1944

Page 11

diablerie                                                   11
                       Dirty old Kepner

   Let us wander on to chapter two of this opus where I can work the GGFS in as a guinea pig. 

   We disbanded, you know. That is, one day Riggs and Wyers and Fortier were wafted away to the military life. And Louis Smith, who weilded the gaval, moved from Prince Street into a relative's home where it was little more than impossible to continue his fanactivity. That meant Larry (Lorraine Smith) went too. And Kepner, as has been mentioned, went down to Los Angeles when he should have known better.

   Which left Wright and Watson and I. (Other fans mentioned in fan and pro-mags were generally visiting members.) Not a lot of materials for a fan club, come to think of it. Therefore - no fan club.

   The funny thing was that there was still a hell of a lot of activity - mostly in the amateur publishing sense, but some of Watson's and my letterantings appeared in the various prozines. Tom Wright issued Dawn - if you were lucky, you got a copy - which in one issue rated among the top ten in the Widner Poll. We noticed a lot of poetry floating around so Bill and I gathered it up and called it Sappho The mag is heading toward its fourth issue. diablerie, edited by Watson, is another. Kepner took Toward Tomorrow to Los Angeles, but Harry Hornig is amassing material for Arcana.

   The idea is, even after the GGFS broke up we were as active as ever before. Maybe more so since club business may have used up extra energy. The club constitution contained something to the effect that our raison d' etre was the advancement of stfiction. It seemed to us that we were still helping that advancement whether we were part of an organization or not. And we still threw beer bottles out the bathroom window. 

   This business of "advancing scientifiction" puzzled me for a time. I suppose it was a problem to other fans also. My notion at present is summed up like this:

            Science fiction is a type of literature 
            appearing in a number of pulp magazines. 
            Sometimes the fans knock and sometimes 
            they boost it. But the best way to improve 
            science fiction is to improve the 
            magazines. (This is rather obvious but it 
            won't do any harm to set it down.) And 
            publishing fanzines, or writing letters to the 
            editors, or articles for the fmz all serve this 
            purpose by either giving newer writers and 
            artists a critical audience or else giving the 
            editor a chance to know what his audience 
            is thinking.

   The individual fan fits into this set-up quite nicely but I'm damned if I can see how a nation-wide organization will be useful. Or necessary.

   These ideas don't seem very original. Perhaps I read them someplace; at any rate they make sense to me. 

   Wherein you may note the thought processes of an individualist. If you are looking for the point in this second section it's contained in the third paragraf reading upwards. Just informing you in case you hadn't noticed, and I'll wager that a good many of you didn't.

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diablerie 11 Dirty old Kepner Let us wander on to chapter two of this opus where I can work the GGFS in as a guinea pig. We disbanded, you know. That is, one day Riggs and Wyers and Fortier were wafted away to the military life. And Louis Smith, who weilded the gaval, moved from Prince Street into a relative's home where it was little more than impossible to continue his fanactivity. That meant Larry (Lorraine Smith) went too. And Kepner, as has been mentioned, went down to Los Angeles when he should have known better. Which left Wright and Watson and I. (Other fans mentioned in fan and pro-mags were generally visiting members.) Not a lot of materials for a fan club, come to think of it. Therefore - no fan club. The funny thing was that there was still a hell of a lot of activity - mostly in the amateur publishing sense, but some of Watson's and my letterantings appeared in the various prozines. Tom Wright issued Dawn - if you were lucky, you got a copy - which in one issue rated among the top ten in the Widner Poll. We noticed a lot of poetry floating around so Bill and I gathered it up and called it Sappho The mag is heading toward its fourth issue. diablerie, edited by Watson, is another. Kepner took Toward Tomorrow to Los Angeles, but Harry Hornig is amassing material for Arcana. The idea is, even after the GGFS broke up we were as active as ever before. Maybe more so since club business may have used up extra energy. The club constitution contained something to the effect that our raison d' etre was the advancement of stfiction. It seemed to us that we were still helping that advancement whether we were part of an organization or not. And we still threw beer bottles out the bathroom window. This business of "advancing scientifiction" puzzled me for a time. I suppose it was a problem to other fans also. My notion at present is summed up like this: Science fiction is a type of literature appearing in a number of pulp magazines. Sometimes the fans knock and sometimes they boost it. But the best way to improve science fiction is to improve the magazines. (This is rather obvious but it won't do any harm to set it down.) And publishing fanzines, or writing letters to the editors, or articles for the fmz all serve this purpose by either giving newer writers and artists a critical audience or else giving the editor a chance to know what his audience is thinking. The individual fan fits into this set-up quite nicely but I'm damned if I can see how a nation-wide organization will be useful. Or necessary. These ideas don't seem very original. Perhaps I read them someplace; at any rate they make sense to me. Wherein you may note the thought processes of an individualist. If you are looking for the point in this second section it's contained in the third paragraf reading upwards. Just informing you in case you hadn't noticed, and I'll wager that a good many of you didn't.