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Scientifictionist, v. 2, issue 1, November 1946-January 1947
Page 3
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was the infamous Cosmic Circle, dreamed up by Claude Degler, a newfan of Newcastle, Indiana, who has since been proven a bit unbalanced upstairs. The history of the Cosmic Circle should be familiar to the vast majority of Scientifictionist's readers so that an overly detailed re-hash of the gory affair would be superfluous, if not in slightly bad taste. However, suffice to note that Delger envisioned a vast organization which would prove fans to be true slans, eventually establishing beautiful homes for fans, education par excellence for their offspring, with fandom having its own radio station, gradually becoming the dominant force in world politics,and eventually taking over the tire earth to be placed under fandom's benevolent and far-seeing rule! "We are those whom Wells called the Star-Begotten", thundered "Don Rogers" in half a dozen sloppily mimeographed, semi-illegible weekly gossip sheets. "Our Children will inherit not only the earth -- but the universe!!!" Though Raym Washington, Russ Wilsey, and a few others supported Degler's policies for a time, Claude ran into quite a bit of trouble when he casually lifted the names of many well-known fans for his board of directors, using their reputations to back him up-- all this without the consent of the fans! When some of the Cosmic Circle propaganda came into the hands of Ray Palmer, he threatened to bar all fans from Amazing's letter columns and withdraw all Ziff-Davis support of fandom. Palmer, it seems, was shocked by the thought that his fans would sully their lily-white hands by aiding a crackpot, and state in no uncertain terms that fans were a buncha jerks for allowing such screwballs to gain "all" the power in fandom. (Guess RAP hadn't heard of Lemuria at the time...) At any rate, fans realized that the CC had gone too far, expelled Degler from the FAPA, and began a campaign to laugh the Circle out of fandom, and Claude with it. Late 1943 saw the decline of the organization, and '44 its total extinction. The latest ambitious manifestation of fanatic super-idealism is the Animalist party, apparently a group of fans in Beacon, N.Y., under the guiding genius of one James H. Madole. The animalists propose to start a national political party for fans, and claim to have already instituted groups in New York, California, Idaho, and Kansas. Their announced intention has been to hold a national convention at which to further advance the job of unifying fandom -- though, admittedly, the group will contain some "other people besides fans" (sounds ominous!). Says Madole: "Animalism is the doctrine which calls for complete integration of all social, cultural and governmental units. This is to pave the way for greater and greater productive capacity. Bureaus would be eliminated completely to give way to ten technical councils." The animalists further advocate a ten-year reconstruction plan, during which time $5 a week would be collected from each worker,and transferred into "reconstruction bonds", with the money going toward the complete elimination of all slums and tenements, insuring free college education for the masses, generous old-age pensions etc. All in all, sounds like a very formidable undertaking. However, the whole business was summed up quite neatly by Sam Merwin Jr., in a comment on a letter in the Spring '46 Startling. Said the Sergeant: "Seriously, kiwis, your intent is noble, your resources sound weak . . don't mind the leers and sneers of this cynical old astrogator. He's seen old Terra 'improved' too many times with dire results to approve of same." Space lingo or no space lingo, the Sarge's remarks just about cover the situation. Whether the Animalists will attract any noteworthy attention or just fizzle out as did their predecessors remains to be seen. III. I'm not trying to criticize the sincere fans who have plugged this or that political movement in the honest belief that it is the pathway to Utopia. However, we cannot overlook the fact that politics and stfan activity don't mix, nor can we overlook the futility of attempting to advance sociological causes materially by ringing them in with crifanac. For although idealism is widespread in fandom -- so is cynicism. To counterbalance the Utopian stf novels of the earlier Wells, we have a fatalistic, philosophical attitude reflected in such items of science-fiction as page 3
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was the infamous Cosmic Circle, dreamed up by Claude Degler, a newfan of Newcastle, Indiana, who has since been proven a bit unbalanced upstairs. The history of the Cosmic Circle should be familiar to the vast majority of Scientifictionist's readers so that an overly detailed re-hash of the gory affair would be superfluous, if not in slightly bad taste. However, suffice to note that Delger envisioned a vast organization which would prove fans to be true slans, eventually establishing beautiful homes for fans, education par excellence for their offspring, with fandom having its own radio station, gradually becoming the dominant force in world politics,and eventually taking over the tire earth to be placed under fandom's benevolent and far-seeing rule! "We are those whom Wells called the Star-Begotten", thundered "Don Rogers" in half a dozen sloppily mimeographed, semi-illegible weekly gossip sheets. "Our Children will inherit not only the earth -- but the universe!!!" Though Raym Washington, Russ Wilsey, and a few others supported Degler's policies for a time, Claude ran into quite a bit of trouble when he casually lifted the names of many well-known fans for his board of directors, using their reputations to back him up-- all this without the consent of the fans! When some of the Cosmic Circle propaganda came into the hands of Ray Palmer, he threatened to bar all fans from Amazing's letter columns and withdraw all Ziff-Davis support of fandom. Palmer, it seems, was shocked by the thought that his fans would sully their lily-white hands by aiding a crackpot, and state in no uncertain terms that fans were a buncha jerks for allowing such screwballs to gain "all" the power in fandom. (Guess RAP hadn't heard of Lemuria at the time...) At any rate, fans realized that the CC had gone too far, expelled Degler from the FAPA, and began a campaign to laugh the Circle out of fandom, and Claude with it. Late 1943 saw the decline of the organization, and '44 its total extinction. The latest ambitious manifestation of fanatic super-idealism is the Animalist party, apparently a group of fans in Beacon, N.Y., under the guiding genius of one James H. Madole. The animalists propose to start a national political party for fans, and claim to have already instituted groups in New York, California, Idaho, and Kansas. Their announced intention has been to hold a national convention at which to further advance the job of unifying fandom -- though, admittedly, the group will contain some "other people besides fans" (sounds ominous!). Says Madole: "Animalism is the doctrine which calls for complete integration of all social, cultural and governmental units. This is to pave the way for greater and greater productive capacity. Bureaus would be eliminated completely to give way to ten technical councils." The animalists further advocate a ten-year reconstruction plan, during which time $5 a week would be collected from each worker,and transferred into "reconstruction bonds", with the money going toward the complete elimination of all slums and tenements, insuring free college education for the masses, generous old-age pensions etc. All in all, sounds like a very formidable undertaking. However, the whole business was summed up quite neatly by Sam Merwin Jr., in a comment on a letter in the Spring '46 Startling. Said the Sergeant: "Seriously, kiwis, your intent is noble, your resources sound weak . . don't mind the leers and sneers of this cynical old astrogator. He's seen old Terra 'improved' too many times with dire results to approve of same." Space lingo or no space lingo, the Sarge's remarks just about cover the situation. Whether the Animalists will attract any noteworthy attention or just fizzle out as did their predecessors remains to be seen. III. I'm not trying to criticize the sincere fans who have plugged this or that political movement in the honest belief that it is the pathway to Utopia. However, we cannot overlook the fact that politics and stfan activity don't mix, nor can we overlook the futility of attempting to advance sociological causes materially by ringing them in with crifanac. For although idealism is widespread in fandom -- so is cynicism. To counterbalance the Utopian stf novels of the earlier Wells, we have a fatalistic, philosophical attitude reflected in such items of science-fiction as page 3
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