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Fan Slants, v. 1, issue 1, September 1943
Page 31
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FAN SLANTS................................................................31 Another little point---in re new fans and their early efforts. Fan-dom usually manages to hit fans in their "burning idealism stage" (apol-ogies to Milty.) So their early efforts are likely to be extremely en-thusiastic, with their feet, as well as their heads, locates somewhere among the clouds, or perhaps even among the stars. And the older fans sneer, scoff, and denounce. I might estimate that more promising fans are lost or ruined in this manner than in any other. For most persons practically laughed out of a club because he continually asked questions which seem ridiculous to the older members----and why do they seem so? Merely because the older fans have been in the field long enough to know all the answers. And must a fan be ridiculed and even de-nounced because of ideals which others have forgotten? And then fans heap coals of fire on the heads of authors and ar-tists for turning out material which is not up to the best fan-critic standards of quality. They forget that most of the stories and illus-trations are of quite high quality, in comparison to the meager compen-sation the writer or artist receives. Sometimes I feel that most fans have egos like leaking balloons. They (perhaps unconsciously) feel themselves inferior, like a deflated balloon, and they have to blow like hell to keep the bag inflated. [all underlined] HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! AT LEAST GIVE US A CHANCE TO DEFEND OURSELVES. (First, I criticize fans for a prevalent trait. But now my pen must turn to the defensive.) Rather recently, the LASFS received a letter from one of our ex-science fiction writers in regard to his withdrawal from fandom. With-out dwelling on the more personal points in this affair, I think that some of the charges made in regard to fandom as a whole, and the men-tality of fans, requires some sort of rebuttal. For instance, one of the charges was (and I do not recall the exact wording) that no person of mature mentality would long continue to read science fiction or fantasy. Well, it seems to me that a magazine such as ASTOUNDING might be able, in a poll of their readers, to uncover at least one person who would rate somewhat over 100 in a I. Q. test. As for the fans I have met, while few of them are psychologically normal, (please do not confuse the norm with the ideal) the majority have been at least a little above average intellectually. Fans have a fairly wide general knowledge which delves into almost every known field. Someone here protests that most fans merely know a little about a lot and a lot about nothing. Fans have very shallow technical knowledge of science, the critic will say. Maybe technical knowledge of science is shallow in most fans, although I know several to whom this does not apply. Anyhow, I still claim that most fans know far more about science than the aver-age man. Understand, I am not attempting to compare fans with the class of technicians which is in itself far above average. And then the aver-age fan has a better-than-average acquaintance with such subjects as music, art, mysticism, and politics than the man in the street. Please understand, I am not claiming that fans, per se, are subnormal. [underlined] HOT FOUT: Once upon a time, there was a bunch of centuries that was called the Dark Ages. During those days, the chief sport was burning. Just burning. In fact, the people in those days loved to burn anything that came in range. They burned everything from cities, witches, vampires,
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FAN SLANTS................................................................31 Another little point---in re new fans and their early efforts. Fan-dom usually manages to hit fans in their "burning idealism stage" (apol-ogies to Milty.) So their early efforts are likely to be extremely en-thusiastic, with their feet, as well as their heads, locates somewhere among the clouds, or perhaps even among the stars. And the older fans sneer, scoff, and denounce. I might estimate that more promising fans are lost or ruined in this manner than in any other. For most persons practically laughed out of a club because he continually asked questions which seem ridiculous to the older members----and why do they seem so? Merely because the older fans have been in the field long enough to know all the answers. And must a fan be ridiculed and even de-nounced because of ideals which others have forgotten? And then fans heap coals of fire on the heads of authors and ar-tists for turning out material which is not up to the best fan-critic standards of quality. They forget that most of the stories and illus-trations are of quite high quality, in comparison to the meager compen-sation the writer or artist receives. Sometimes I feel that most fans have egos like leaking balloons. They (perhaps unconsciously) feel themselves inferior, like a deflated balloon, and they have to blow like hell to keep the bag inflated. [all underlined] HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! AT LEAST GIVE US A CHANCE TO DEFEND OURSELVES. (First, I criticize fans for a prevalent trait. But now my pen must turn to the defensive.) Rather recently, the LASFS received a letter from one of our ex-science fiction writers in regard to his withdrawal from fandom. With-out dwelling on the more personal points in this affair, I think that some of the charges made in regard to fandom as a whole, and the men-tality of fans, requires some sort of rebuttal. For instance, one of the charges was (and I do not recall the exact wording) that no person of mature mentality would long continue to read science fiction or fantasy. Well, it seems to me that a magazine such as ASTOUNDING might be able, in a poll of their readers, to uncover at least one person who would rate somewhat over 100 in a I. Q. test. As for the fans I have met, while few of them are psychologically normal, (please do not confuse the norm with the ideal) the majority have been at least a little above average intellectually. Fans have a fairly wide general knowledge which delves into almost every known field. Someone here protests that most fans merely know a little about a lot and a lot about nothing. Fans have very shallow technical knowledge of science, the critic will say. Maybe technical knowledge of science is shallow in most fans, although I know several to whom this does not apply. Anyhow, I still claim that most fans know far more about science than the aver-age man. Understand, I am not attempting to compare fans with the class of technicians which is in itself far above average. And then the aver-age fan has a better-than-average acquaintance with such subjects as music, art, mysticism, and politics than the man in the street. Please understand, I am not claiming that fans, per se, are subnormal. [underlined] HOT FOUT: Once upon a time, there was a bunch of centuries that was called the Dark Ages. During those days, the chief sport was burning. Just burning. In fact, the people in those days loved to burn anything that came in range. They burned everything from cities, witches, vampires,
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