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Voice of the Imagination, whole no. 33, June 1944?
Page 4
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4 VOICE OF THE Raym[[?]] - the science fiction Oakolyte of Live Oak, Fla, doth rite from 117 Hamilton St, commenting firstly on #30: The pictures this time were better than those in recent issues; they are all well-drawn and do not take up very much space. Outside of the girl struggling in the treey embrace ("Tree's a Crowd"--I was forest to do it!) on page 13, I like best the damsel reclining at the bottom of page 5. I would like to see discussions on the "topix Jimmy suggests". Larry's letter is worth the space it occupies. However, it does not preserve a continual unity of tone. But I agree with most of it. As for the part I don't agree with: so "calling fans slans is moronic"? The conclusions reached by Lynn Bridges and I at the Second World Conference at Live Oak tend toward supporting this claim, but I still believe that a science fiction fan is something more than an average person with a leaning toward Flash Gordon. It is very hard to divide "fans" from "non-fans", that is, intellectually speaking, and not bringing up whether the non-fan collects or corresponds. I believe that all of the fans exibit certain mental traits or tendencies, or still better, attitudes. One of the best editorials I have ever read in my years as a stf addict was Hornig's "In Tune With the Infinite" which I believe appeared in an early Science Fiction. That editorial certainly crystallized some sort of differentation between the science-fiction reader, and the ordinary Joe who cares not for such things. (Heinlein said in his Denvention speech: "Science fiction fans differ from most of the rest of the race by thinking in terms of racial magnitudes." And: "I hope to be a fan of science fiction for at least another 50 years.") Also to be praised is Donald Wollheim's fine comments on the Cosmian League. sponsored a few years ago by Stirring Science Stories (or was it COSMIC STORIES?) (the latter). Anyway, if any of the index-minded people want to look up these two editorials, they'll get a better idea of what I think constitutes a fan. ((THE COSMIAN LEAGUE was introduced with such statements as: It will serve as a bond banding together in fraternity those hundreds of persons who feel the throb of the cosmos in their blood, whose minds soar with the concepts of the worlds to come, with the urge to see and know, to do or help to do all those things which will bring about the construction of that future that can only be identified as "Cosmian"...A Cosmian is one who feels that he is by right of the cosmos, that he is not bound to one planet or one plane, that he is by right free to traverse the universe, to conquer worlds, to master forces, to change and alter the stars to suit himself. A Cosmian feels no barriers, he acknowledges no boundaries to what is possible and what is impossible...We are those whom HGWells termed "Star-Begotten", we are the forerunners of those men of the future who will call no planet home but all planets theirs...And so, in similar vein. Italix are Vom's. And remember, this was professionally printed, several years BC--Before Circle.)) As for this professor, his writing style is so absurd and outmoded that I am inclined to wonder if it's not a hoax. Surely, any intelligent Victorian still around would realize that such cliches as "hardened heart" and "manly breast" went out long ago, are merely ridiculous now, and are, in short, simply ineffective. His eloquent warning to Ackerman draws only a loud bellow of laughter from me . . . "Someday when on your detahbed you lie, your earthly body ravished by the fires of disease brought on by your lavish indulgence in the delights of sensualism, you will remember my words of warning, and wish that you had led a different existence while on this earth of God's. And as you stand befor your maker, naked in the Blinding Light of His Glory, you will remember the myriads of young people you led into the realms of sexual debauchery through the means of the printed word, the drawn line, the subtle innuendo." Well, Prof, I hope you're not right. I don't believe you're right; but if you are, I will also be stricken for my atheism and general free thinking, and must standing there in the Blinding Light too. My only hope will then be that there will be Forry, Claude, Larry, Jenkins, Gilbert, and some other fans I know around to burn with me; for, my dear Professor, I would rather go to hell with stfans than with any relative or any friend or associate outside of fandom. Vom 31 seems to have a number of distinctly individualized letters. The tragedy of little Tommy Daniel's 6-month exile from free thought saddened me and caused me to mumble a few mental curses. For, you see, I am in complete agreement with the "Plans for Slans" theories, and only wish that they had been applied in my case. I was a born fan, and recognized stf and fantasy as my natural element when I found it; but I lived for twelve or thirteen years before I discovered it.
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4 VOICE OF THE Raym[[?]] - the science fiction Oakolyte of Live Oak, Fla, doth rite from 117 Hamilton St, commenting firstly on #30: The pictures this time were better than those in recent issues; they are all well-drawn and do not take up very much space. Outside of the girl struggling in the treey embrace ("Tree's a Crowd"--I was forest to do it!) on page 13, I like best the damsel reclining at the bottom of page 5. I would like to see discussions on the "topix Jimmy suggests". Larry's letter is worth the space it occupies. However, it does not preserve a continual unity of tone. But I agree with most of it. As for the part I don't agree with: so "calling fans slans is moronic"? The conclusions reached by Lynn Bridges and I at the Second World Conference at Live Oak tend toward supporting this claim, but I still believe that a science fiction fan is something more than an average person with a leaning toward Flash Gordon. It is very hard to divide "fans" from "non-fans", that is, intellectually speaking, and not bringing up whether the non-fan collects or corresponds. I believe that all of the fans exibit certain mental traits or tendencies, or still better, attitudes. One of the best editorials I have ever read in my years as a stf addict was Hornig's "In Tune With the Infinite" which I believe appeared in an early Science Fiction. That editorial certainly crystallized some sort of differentation between the science-fiction reader, and the ordinary Joe who cares not for such things. (Heinlein said in his Denvention speech: "Science fiction fans differ from most of the rest of the race by thinking in terms of racial magnitudes." And: "I hope to be a fan of science fiction for at least another 50 years.") Also to be praised is Donald Wollheim's fine comments on the Cosmian League. sponsored a few years ago by Stirring Science Stories (or was it COSMIC STORIES?) (the latter). Anyway, if any of the index-minded people want to look up these two editorials, they'll get a better idea of what I think constitutes a fan. ((THE COSMIAN LEAGUE was introduced with such statements as: It will serve as a bond banding together in fraternity those hundreds of persons who feel the throb of the cosmos in their blood, whose minds soar with the concepts of the worlds to come, with the urge to see and know, to do or help to do all those things which will bring about the construction of that future that can only be identified as "Cosmian"...A Cosmian is one who feels that he is by right of the cosmos, that he is not bound to one planet or one plane, that he is by right free to traverse the universe, to conquer worlds, to master forces, to change and alter the stars to suit himself. A Cosmian feels no barriers, he acknowledges no boundaries to what is possible and what is impossible...We are those whom HGWells termed "Star-Begotten", we are the forerunners of those men of the future who will call no planet home but all planets theirs...And so, in similar vein. Italix are Vom's. And remember, this was professionally printed, several years BC--Before Circle.)) As for this professor, his writing style is so absurd and outmoded that I am inclined to wonder if it's not a hoax. Surely, any intelligent Victorian still around would realize that such cliches as "hardened heart" and "manly breast" went out long ago, are merely ridiculous now, and are, in short, simply ineffective. His eloquent warning to Ackerman draws only a loud bellow of laughter from me . . . "Someday when on your detahbed you lie, your earthly body ravished by the fires of disease brought on by your lavish indulgence in the delights of sensualism, you will remember my words of warning, and wish that you had led a different existence while on this earth of God's. And as you stand befor your maker, naked in the Blinding Light of His Glory, you will remember the myriads of young people you led into the realms of sexual debauchery through the means of the printed word, the drawn line, the subtle innuendo." Well, Prof, I hope you're not right. I don't believe you're right; but if you are, I will also be stricken for my atheism and general free thinking, and must standing there in the Blinding Light too. My only hope will then be that there will be Forry, Claude, Larry, Jenkins, Gilbert, and some other fans I know around to burn with me; for, my dear Professor, I would rather go to hell with stfans than with any relative or any friend or associate outside of fandom. Vom 31 seems to have a number of distinctly individualized letters. The tragedy of little Tommy Daniel's 6-month exile from free thought saddened me and caused me to mumble a few mental curses. For, you see, I am in complete agreement with the "Plans for Slans" theories, and only wish that they had been applied in my case. I was a born fan, and recognized stf and fantasy as my natural element when I found it; but I lived for twelve or thirteen years before I discovered it.
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