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Voice of the Imagination, whole no. 23, June 1942
Page 4
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WIDNER, who Gallupt up the aisle (or was it a civil trot to a Justice of the Peace, Art?) with his slanhood sweetheart about 6 mos. ago but didnt let fandom in the noo til recently, rites from their new adres, 25 Arnold St. Quincy, MASS: "The last two issues of VoM seem to be on the road back. At least they were interesting enough to prompt me to write a letter when I have scads of other things to be doing. I guess I'm like Milty. I write to VoM when I should be boning away stenciling Fanfare or whittling down the pile of unanswered letters on my desk, because I'm a rebel, and like to say whathell every once in awhile, and do something because I feel like doing it instead of because I ought to do it... Incidentally, it's guys like Milty, Chavonot, DBThompson, and the everbright Britishers that make the mag interesting. And me, of course. (Yes, one fan - a 'big name' at that - said VoM wasn't as good without me, so nyaaahh!) "First I will write about things in issue #21. Deeby T. has something when he says that fandom is dependent on the pros for new blood. And that disturbs me. Most of the time I have been in fandom, I have been working to help fandom independent of the pros. The NFFF is a case in point. For its own safety and continued thriving existence, fandom should be independent. Suppose the war causes the flopulation of all the pros? I've thot about it before, but I can't seem to figure out any device by which those over-so-important first contacts can be engineered. I would very much like to hear any ideas on how fandom may be rid of its umbilical cord. "And now to Mr. Tackett. My personal greetings to you sir. You are a fan I like. In respect to your letter in #21 VoM, I'll attempt to clarify myself. 'World conditions' is a definitely unsemantic term, and I shouldn't have used it so loosely. I was referring to the mental attitude of homo sapiens that keeps this particular species from developing to the full its unique powers and opportunities - rather than any actual material 'conditions'. "'Tis true that progress is being made - housing projects and flood control; vitamains and plastics; stratoliners and television -- but I am dissatisfied with the rate thereof, and I think many of the 'serious-minded' fans are too. You must admit that the above-mentioned 'progress' could be doubled and trebled or better yet if it wasn't clogged with such useless and vicious things as wars, politics, powermad financiers, superstitious religion, senseless social taboos, etc. "But I suppose the main reason goes back to personal considerations. If humanity doesn't get a wiggle on, in a measly fifty years more or less I'll be dead, and I won't ever get to see the glorious world of the future -- the projections of which I have been buying at 15 and 20c and two bits n throw. That's why I don't read the pros very much anymore. I want to do something, however little, to help make a good tomorrow, instead of merely reading about it. "The Real Fans are characteristically the doors rather than the 'readers'. That is what I meant by my statement in #20. 'The Inner Circle' seem to have a creative instinct, which finds its outlet in writing, publishing, etc. I've often thot that this creative instinct might lead to something more than fanmags and authorship. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But that is why I regard fandom as more than just a 'hobby'. "That may be why Fortier wrote such a peculiar letter. The 'drive' is in him, as in many of us, and it bothers him, because he knows that fan 'activity' isn't the proper outlet for that 'drive', yet, what else is there? He can't crystallize his ambition, so he is trying to forget it. But you can't, can you, Joe? And I bet there are others, even as you and I, with that 'desire to bawl his heart out into the night's dead ears.'..... "Medhurst's 'idiom' is obvious enuf. 'A can of porridge' would be practically the same as our 'puddin'head' expression. I'm surprised, 4e, that such as old word-phenagler as thou couldn't figure that one our. ((I am still in dout, Art, remembering my ingenious deduction that a "nostril mat" was British for handkerchief; only to learn later my logic was wacky, 'cause it meant lip-brow! So I shouldn't wish to stick my tongue out & get burnt on my any hot porridge. I may be a moron but I'm no idiom!)) "In case nobody is interested, the readers of VoM get a real break at this point. I'm going to let the remarks I have made on the subject of nudes, in 'Widner's Column' in SCIENCE FICTION FAN and in YHOS, constitute all I will say for the present. "Tigrina is a silly girl. She would no more go thru with all of the disgusting orgies of a real Black Mass than I would. Her pose as a Servant of Satan is just that another nothing more. It appeals to her schoolgirlish sense of the dramatic. No doubt, mental rebellion from puritanical parents is back of it. "One Art must back up another, (you might say this was 'Art for Art's sake'!)((Art, for stfsake, watch yourself! U may have to eat your words someday! Do U like corn? 'cause that aint hay!)) and I'm right behind Art Young in beefing ((what's the stew?)) about the crowded, run-together appearance of VoM. Did you ever hear the old saying: 'Penny-wise and pound foolish.'? ((we gotta count the pennys, 'cause they ain't heaven-cent; but--special British joke--the expennysive covers we can present as long as angels are found willing to go on shilling out!)) Well, coe-eds, you're it - right up to the hilt. Tsk! Scrimping and pinching with regal size, no paragraphs, etc, and laying out ten smackers for a cover. 'Phooey!' says I. Gimme a nicely done cover, and a well arranged interior, and I'm happy. And I'm not talking about a zoot suit and a real meal, either. "Your prediction that the 'crowded' fanzine will result as a rule for the duration, is going to be upset if I can possibly get my crowbar under the apple cart. FANFARE and all the
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WIDNER, who Gallupt up the aisle (or was it a civil trot to a Justice of the Peace, Art?) with his slanhood sweetheart about 6 mos. ago but didnt let fandom in the noo til recently, rites from their new adres, 25 Arnold St. Quincy, MASS: "The last two issues of VoM seem to be on the road back. At least they were interesting enough to prompt me to write a letter when I have scads of other things to be doing. I guess I'm like Milty. I write to VoM when I should be boning away stenciling Fanfare or whittling down the pile of unanswered letters on my desk, because I'm a rebel, and like to say whathell every once in awhile, and do something because I feel like doing it instead of because I ought to do it... Incidentally, it's guys like Milty, Chavonot, DBThompson, and the everbright Britishers that make the mag interesting. And me, of course. (Yes, one fan - a 'big name' at that - said VoM wasn't as good without me, so nyaaahh!) "First I will write about things in issue #21. Deeby T. has something when he says that fandom is dependent on the pros for new blood. And that disturbs me. Most of the time I have been in fandom, I have been working to help fandom independent of the pros. The NFFF is a case in point. For its own safety and continued thriving existence, fandom should be independent. Suppose the war causes the flopulation of all the pros? I've thot about it before, but I can't seem to figure out any device by which those over-so-important first contacts can be engineered. I would very much like to hear any ideas on how fandom may be rid of its umbilical cord. "And now to Mr. Tackett. My personal greetings to you sir. You are a fan I like. In respect to your letter in #21 VoM, I'll attempt to clarify myself. 'World conditions' is a definitely unsemantic term, and I shouldn't have used it so loosely. I was referring to the mental attitude of homo sapiens that keeps this particular species from developing to the full its unique powers and opportunities - rather than any actual material 'conditions'. "'Tis true that progress is being made - housing projects and flood control; vitamains and plastics; stratoliners and television -- but I am dissatisfied with the rate thereof, and I think many of the 'serious-minded' fans are too. You must admit that the above-mentioned 'progress' could be doubled and trebled or better yet if it wasn't clogged with such useless and vicious things as wars, politics, powermad financiers, superstitious religion, senseless social taboos, etc. "But I suppose the main reason goes back to personal considerations. If humanity doesn't get a wiggle on, in a measly fifty years more or less I'll be dead, and I won't ever get to see the glorious world of the future -- the projections of which I have been buying at 15 and 20c and two bits n throw. That's why I don't read the pros very much anymore. I want to do something, however little, to help make a good tomorrow, instead of merely reading about it. "The Real Fans are characteristically the doors rather than the 'readers'. That is what I meant by my statement in #20. 'The Inner Circle' seem to have a creative instinct, which finds its outlet in writing, publishing, etc. I've often thot that this creative instinct might lead to something more than fanmags and authorship. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But that is why I regard fandom as more than just a 'hobby'. "That may be why Fortier wrote such a peculiar letter. The 'drive' is in him, as in many of us, and it bothers him, because he knows that fan 'activity' isn't the proper outlet for that 'drive', yet, what else is there? He can't crystallize his ambition, so he is trying to forget it. But you can't, can you, Joe? And I bet there are others, even as you and I, with that 'desire to bawl his heart out into the night's dead ears.'..... "Medhurst's 'idiom' is obvious enuf. 'A can of porridge' would be practically the same as our 'puddin'head' expression. I'm surprised, 4e, that such as old word-phenagler as thou couldn't figure that one our. ((I am still in dout, Art, remembering my ingenious deduction that a "nostril mat" was British for handkerchief; only to learn later my logic was wacky, 'cause it meant lip-brow! So I shouldn't wish to stick my tongue out & get burnt on my any hot porridge. I may be a moron but I'm no idiom!)) "In case nobody is interested, the readers of VoM get a real break at this point. I'm going to let the remarks I have made on the subject of nudes, in 'Widner's Column' in SCIENCE FICTION FAN and in YHOS, constitute all I will say for the present. "Tigrina is a silly girl. She would no more go thru with all of the disgusting orgies of a real Black Mass than I would. Her pose as a Servant of Satan is just that another nothing more. It appeals to her schoolgirlish sense of the dramatic. No doubt, mental rebellion from puritanical parents is back of it. "One Art must back up another, (you might say this was 'Art for Art's sake'!)((Art, for stfsake, watch yourself! U may have to eat your words someday! Do U like corn? 'cause that aint hay!)) and I'm right behind Art Young in beefing ((what's the stew?)) about the crowded, run-together appearance of VoM. Did you ever hear the old saying: 'Penny-wise and pound foolish.'? ((we gotta count the pennys, 'cause they ain't heaven-cent; but--special British joke--the expennysive covers we can present as long as angels are found willing to go on shilling out!)) Well, coe-eds, you're it - right up to the hilt. Tsk! Scrimping and pinching with regal size, no paragraphs, etc, and laying out ten smackers for a cover. 'Phooey!' says I. Gimme a nicely done cover, and a well arranged interior, and I'm happy. And I'm not talking about a zoot suit and a real meal, either. "Your prediction that the 'crowded' fanzine will result as a rule for the duration, is going to be upset if I can possibly get my crowbar under the apple cart. FANFARE and all the
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