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En Garde, whole no. 17, April 1946
Page 4
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page 4. making of such statements. You admit that circumstances justified the lateness of the Secretary's report. Then you charge that that was no excuse for not sending the mailing out on time anyhow, and printing the report in a later FA. Could some touch of personal animosity have blinded you to the obvious fact that without the Secretary's report the Official Editor had no valid mailing list? When there is a fixed number of bundles to distribute, and when the membership may change by six to a dozen members from one mailing to another, the Official Editor could scarcely be justified in distributing the mailings according to an old list. Dissipating part of the mailings to members no longer entitled to them, and thus robbing new members who were, hardly falls within the proper duties of an OE, impatience with delayed distribution notwithstanding. INSPIRATION: Hello, Civilian! Can't entirely agree with your tendency to deplore fandom as separated somewhat from stf and fantasy. I shall always enjoy good stf, but that enjoyment is quite distinct from my appreciation of what fandom has to offer. Especially for one whose interests cover a wide variety of things, any effort to plunge into such things in the world at large necessitates considerable specialization. Writing, art, publishing, politics, are all fields where a fan might make a successful effort to excel in the macrocosm, but usually it means selecting one of them and forgetting one's interest in the others. In fandom, on the other hand, one may explore the possibilities and depths of one's interest in any or all of things, and more, without devoting more than a fair portion of one's spare time and a comparitively small sum of one's cash. Going to the extreme of devoting nearly all one's time and effort to fan activity naturally smacks of sheer escapism. I too, would deplore that. But as a major spare time activity, I believe the microcosm can teach one great deal, and is far more worthwhile than the majority of generally accepted spare time occupations. HORIZONS: I share your hopes, Harry, that Art may come to change his mind about completely dropping Yhos. It is easy to understand how onerous the chore of publishing can become. It is also very easy to grasp how one might be driven to work out a chain of reasoning to justify quitting the chore. But is the latter necessary? If the chore becomes too great for some individual, the only thing for him may be to simply quit. But isn't it rather a poor question for generalization? Personally, I still find enough angles of interest in publishing to warrant the effort. I genuinely hope Art reconsiders. "Lebensraum" is probably common to the experience of most fans. At present, I have 2 small cabinets; a 2-drawer file cabinet; a desk with five drawers; and about 60 lineal feet of foot-deep shelf space. Yet I have about 80 cubic feet of books; 50 cubic feet of magazines; and 40 cubic feet of assorted stuff all still packed away in boxes it was shipped out here in, and no place to put it if I unpacked it. That's why my desk and the area around it usually manifests a fine example of the "growing pile" system of filing---which, of course, permits me to find any given item without too much trouble, providing nobody disturbs the pile. If I could once start out with a room about 12 X 20 feet and all the materials I need to build shelves and cupboards, etc., it would
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page 4. making of such statements. You admit that circumstances justified the lateness of the Secretary's report. Then you charge that that was no excuse for not sending the mailing out on time anyhow, and printing the report in a later FA. Could some touch of personal animosity have blinded you to the obvious fact that without the Secretary's report the Official Editor had no valid mailing list? When there is a fixed number of bundles to distribute, and when the membership may change by six to a dozen members from one mailing to another, the Official Editor could scarcely be justified in distributing the mailings according to an old list. Dissipating part of the mailings to members no longer entitled to them, and thus robbing new members who were, hardly falls within the proper duties of an OE, impatience with delayed distribution notwithstanding. INSPIRATION: Hello, Civilian! Can't entirely agree with your tendency to deplore fandom as separated somewhat from stf and fantasy. I shall always enjoy good stf, but that enjoyment is quite distinct from my appreciation of what fandom has to offer. Especially for one whose interests cover a wide variety of things, any effort to plunge into such things in the world at large necessitates considerable specialization. Writing, art, publishing, politics, are all fields where a fan might make a successful effort to excel in the macrocosm, but usually it means selecting one of them and forgetting one's interest in the others. In fandom, on the other hand, one may explore the possibilities and depths of one's interest in any or all of things, and more, without devoting more than a fair portion of one's spare time and a comparitively small sum of one's cash. Going to the extreme of devoting nearly all one's time and effort to fan activity naturally smacks of sheer escapism. I too, would deplore that. But as a major spare time activity, I believe the microcosm can teach one great deal, and is far more worthwhile than the majority of generally accepted spare time occupations. HORIZONS: I share your hopes, Harry, that Art may come to change his mind about completely dropping Yhos. It is easy to understand how onerous the chore of publishing can become. It is also very easy to grasp how one might be driven to work out a chain of reasoning to justify quitting the chore. But is the latter necessary? If the chore becomes too great for some individual, the only thing for him may be to simply quit. But isn't it rather a poor question for generalization? Personally, I still find enough angles of interest in publishing to warrant the effort. I genuinely hope Art reconsiders. "Lebensraum" is probably common to the experience of most fans. At present, I have 2 small cabinets; a 2-drawer file cabinet; a desk with five drawers; and about 60 lineal feet of foot-deep shelf space. Yet I have about 80 cubic feet of books; 50 cubic feet of magazines; and 40 cubic feet of assorted stuff all still packed away in boxes it was shipped out here in, and no place to put it if I unpacked it. That's why my desk and the area around it usually manifests a fine example of the "growing pile" system of filing---which, of course, permits me to find any given item without too much trouble, providing nobody disturbs the pile. If I could once start out with a room about 12 X 20 feet and all the materials I need to build shelves and cupboards, etc., it would
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