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Voice of the Imagination (VOM), whole no. 6, April 1940

Page 9

VOICE OF THE IMAGI-NATION                 9

discredit to the ideals of fantasy. Talk about the ' Four & Twenty jarring sects!' (Omar.) You seem to have one sect per fan. And each sect, with a positively theological zeal, appears determined to exterminate the others with fire, sword & raygun. ~~ Enough of this. If you publish it, it should help to keep America out of the war. ~~ I see that, as one might expect, Ted (Carnell) has a letter in. We get intermittent letters from Hanson (one-tym ed of Novae Terrae), who has been in France for about five months. He is now starting to learn French, so you can bet it's going to be a long war. I have had my calling up postponed for a few months while I have some synthetic teeth installed. We are basing the design on Boulder Dam. ~~ I hope to get into one of the RAF ground services, as I have a good general knowledge of math, science & that sort of thing. Recently I have been learning navigation, with an eye on the B.I.S. space-ship. I intend to get as much useful information as I can out of this war, and if I can learn to navigate a bomber it will be useful when I have to unravel contangential ellipses out in space. ~~ It is now impossible to get any of the pro. mags through the normal channels. I doubt if more than half a dozen fans have seen an issue of Astouding since September. Imagine it! ~~This war has one or two compensations. In the heart of London, where once one could barely see Jupiter at perigee, you can now count the stars in the Pleiedes. And the great ballon barrage is one of the strangest, most impressive and at times most beautiful sights you can imagine. In the morning, the hundreds of aluminum-painted balloons gleam like drops of molten metal against the blue of the sky. They lie row upon row, in all directions, often as far as the eye can see. Looking up at their glistening teardrops, one can dream that the centuries have rolled by, and that some great fleet from beyond the stars is coming in across the skies of earth. And then one trips over a pile of sandbags and goes sprawling. ~~ One night we were driving away from London towards the east and passed right through the barrage into the country beyond. From many miles away, we could look back on the city. The sun had set and the western sky was ablaze with gold and crimson. And across the purple pageant of the dying sun lay the immense network of the barrage, like some gigantic barrier reef, giving poignancy and a deeper meaning to the superb but passionless beauty of the sunset. ~~ I hope that this rambling & inconsequential letter is of some interest to you half way round the world where there is still peace and some measure of personal security. I imagine that most of you are interested to know what's happening in England now, so I have let my vagrant pen lead me where it will."
                              Pertinent Parts from a 3 pg letter from JACK CHAPMAN MISKE, "The Star-Treader", of 5000 Train Ave, Cleveland, O: "Dear Voice, Given eternity, all things must happen. Thus it is that I'm finally writing you again. O, I suppose it's two or three hours short of eternity since my last letter, but even so it must be more than a year ago." He characterizes the Exclusion Act as the Bolshevick Barring, continuing "However, just because I side with Mosklowitz, Taurasi, & Co. in this particular item, don't think I do always. The fan world has no place for ruling cliques, irregardless of wheter their purpose is, as with the Bolos, political agitation, or, as with M.-T. & Co., personal aggrandizement. I have no more use for the lopsided reporting of FANTASY NEWS than I have for that of the Communists. I must say, tho, that the latter are by far the worst, since they resort to out-and-out lies, hypocrisy, and personality-villification; irregardless of their degree, however, each side lies and distorts unbearably. That's the big thing. I can't and do not indorse the New Fandom dictatorship of Moskowitz and Taurasi; I do not indorse the incredible attitude Taurasi has shown in his handling of the records of the FAPA; I do not like, at least, Moskowitz' exaggerations of his own importance and his absurd ideas as to his omnipotence and the way in which presumably his word must be taken as law. ~~ However, on the other side of the ledger, the aforementioned hypocrisy of the Communists...and their repeted efforts to dominate the fan field by method foul of fair, for purely subversive purposes, is deserving of far greater criticism. The longer each side continues its juvenile tactics and gross

Saving...

VOICE OF THE IMAGI-NATION 9 discredit to the ideals of fantasy. Talk about the ' Four & Twenty jarring sects!' (Omar.) You seem to have one sect per fan. And each sect, with a positively theological zeal, appears determined to exterminate the others with fire, sword & raygun. ~~ Enough of this. If you publish it, it should help to keep America out of the war. ~~ I see that, as one might expect, Ted (Carnell) has a letter in. We get intermittent letters from Hanson (one-tym ed of Novae Terrae), who has been in France for about five months. He is now starting to learn French, so you can bet it's going to be a long war. I have had my calling up postponed for a few months while I have some synthetic teeth installed. We are basing the design on Boulder Dam. ~~ I hope to get into one of the RAF ground services, as I have a good general knowledge of math, science & that sort of thing. Recently I have been learning navigation, with an eye on the B.I.S. space-ship. I intend to get as much useful information as I can out of this war, and if I can learn to navigate a bomber it will be useful when I have to unravel contangential ellipses out in space. ~~ It is now impossible to get any of the pro. mags through the normal channels. I doubt if more than half a dozen fans have seen an issue of Astouding since September. Imagine it! ~~This war has one or two compensations. In the heart of London, where once one could barely see Jupiter at perigee, you can now count the stars in the Pleiedes. And the great ballon barrage is one of the strangest, most impressive and at times most beautiful sights you can imagine. In the morning, the hundreds of aluminum-painted balloons gleam like drops of molten metal against the blue of the sky. They lie row upon row, in all directions, often as far as the eye can see. Looking up at their glistening teardrops, one can dream that the centuries have rolled by, and that some great fleet from beyond the stars is coming in across the skies of earth. And then one trips over a pile of sandbags and goes sprawling. ~~ One night we were driving away from London towards the east and passed right through the barrage into the country beyond. From many miles away, we could look back on the city. The sun had set and the western sky was ablaze with gold and crimson. And across the purple pageant of the dying sun lay the immense network of the barrage, like some gigantic barrier reef, giving poignancy and a deeper meaning to the superb but passionless beauty of the sunset. ~~ I hope that this rambling & inconsequential letter is of some interest to you half way round the world where there is still peace and some measure of personal security. I imagine that most of you are interested to know what's happening in England now, so I have let my vagrant pen lead me where it will." Pertinent Parts from a 3 pg letter from JACK CHAPMAN MISKE, "The Star-Treader", of 5000 Train Ave, Cleveland, O: "Dear Voice, Given eternity, all things must happen. Thus it is that I'm finally writing you again. O, I suppose it's two or three hours short of eternity since my last letter, but even so it must be more than a year ago." He characterizes the Exclusion Act as the Bolshevick Barring, continuing "However, just because I side with Mosklowitz, Taurasi, & Co. in this particular item, don't think I do always. The fan world has no place for ruling cliques, irregardless of wheter their purpose is, as with the Bolos, political agitation, or, as with M.-T. & Co., personal aggrandizement. I have no more use for the lopsided reporting of FANTASY NEWS than I have for that of the Communists. I must say, tho, that the latter are by far the worst, since they resort to out-and-out lies, hypocrisy, and personality-villification; irregardless of their degree, however, each side lies and distorts unbearably. That's the big thing. I can't and do not indorse the New Fandom dictatorship of Moskowitz and Taurasi; I do not indorse the incredible attitude Taurasi has shown in his handling of the records of the FAPA; I do not like, at least, Moskowitz' exaggerations of his own importance and his absurd ideas as to his omnipotence and the way in which presumably his word must be taken as law. ~~ However, on the other side of the ledger, the aforementioned hypocrisy of the Communists...and their repeted efforts to dominate the fan field by method foul of fair, for purely subversive purposes, is deserving of far greater criticism. The longer each side continues its juvenile tactics and gross