Transcribe
Translate
Voice of the Imagination, whole no. 36, October 1944
Page 7
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
IMAGI-NATION 7 The fact that Generation of Vipers used a word doesn't mean a periodical can get by with it. I don't believe the postal laws apply to books. Anyway, it's not what you use, it's the way you use it that counts. Your punning interpolations in Laney's letter in no way destroy the force of his arguments about having kids. Rooter-reporter-coach doesn't make a sound analogy. One is not expected to be any one of those three unless there's a particular reason why he should be. On the other hand, the necessity of race survival requires that every man and woman must be expected to reproduce themselves unless there are good and sufficient reasons against it. There's no prima facie case for you remaining a bachelor, and I doubt that you can sustain your position, which appears to be the result of some rather unlogical feelings. I don't think you're a genius, and certainly all your children wouldn't be geniuses, but your heredity is definitely better than the heredity of those who are producing most of the next generation of Americans, not to mention the misbred millions of North Africa, southern India, and elsewhere. You would do the future that you love so, an ill turn in staying childless. The old practice of taxing bachelors was maybe a good idea. For further discussion, see the Widner chain letter on eugenic policy. Also want to second Laney's suggestion that fans apply their intelligence to making changes in their personalities that they know are desirable. Entirely too many ims (not short for imbeciles) have a fatalistic attitude about correctible shortcomings--"I am what I am, and there's nothing I can do about it"--which is poppycock. The usual deficiency of social skill can be greatly alleviated by forcing themselves into social situations; an admittedly impractical, ivory-tower outlook will also yield to self-treatment. And fen are smart enuf to accomplish it. (Quote-worthy Quote: "If each before his own door would sweep, the street would be much cleaner." Applicable? i heard it from an old homespun Negro philosopher.) Milty missed a feature of the cigarettes-and-chewingum argument; it applied only to the gentle sex. Cigarette smoking is so widespread among males that it can't be considered significant of anything, tho abstinence from smoking mite have some correlation with other characteristics. I must apply the one-sex qualification to the chewingumatter too, because I've taken to the vile habit myself since arriving here, where gum forms part of our PX rations (possible excuse: drinking water is hard to get between meals). But as the Tree Toad says, it's a trivial subject to waste space on. Joe Hensley says that atheists and religiousites will never change each others' minds. After all, some formerly religious people do turn atheist, and a smaller number of atheists return to religion; and in between these there are many moderations of opinion which are accomplished by sensibly presented arguments. The doo-dads (who are they by, again?) (Dick Wortman) are exceptionally good. Some of these should certainly be considered for the stefzine anthology. # Roberto the BLOCH docks at our Box with: I am enclosing an engraved portrait of George Washington, this nation's first experimenter in biological mutation (he crossed the Delaware River with a boat, remember?) for which please send me a copy of that startling compendium of all wisdom advertised so modestly on page 13 (FANCYCLOPEDIA). Why did you have to print that letter from soldat Crozetti?Now I am found out...my secret is revealed to the mocking world. All right...you win, Crozetti...I AM nuts! Stark, raving mad. I thought I might hide it, but your keen incisive mind has hit upon the truth.... Don't you think I know? What about those little men who come out of the woodwork carrying their tiny banners...parading before my tortured eyes waving little placards on which is printed the hideous legend, "BLOCH IS NUTS"...if only they would take me out of this thing, let me use my arms ... then I could strangle those detestable minikins and smash their accursed signs... But you'd be nuts too, Crozetti...if you woke at night and found a little child clinging to your breast...her sharp canines boring into your throat... Yes, you'd soon learn the meaning of utter fear if you had a daughter like mine... Forry, don't tell Crozetti, but I am really enjoying the antics of my daughter. She is becoming interested in picture books now, and the other night I came home to find her on the floor, placidly chewing a copy of Laney's ACOLYTE. The millenium is here. Pope Guilty XIV. PS: A POEM FOR SOLDIER CROZETTI, JUST TO MAKE HIM FEEL AT HOME: AGONY IS A PAINFUL SORT OF TORMENT, AND IT HURTS, TOO...SO OUCH!!! ( a pome) If you have jumped into an eyeball... Gone swimming in a pool of woman's tears. If you've played hockey with a bleeding Heart for a puck... If you've ever had a city flushing horse- Troughs for the city... Or worn an alligator bag (Alive with the teeth still in ... If you have watched a man of keen vision Leading a blind Seeing Eye Dog on a leash. Pulled up the window shades to find It's raining blood outside... If you have known these things, my friend Then you can imagine how I feel Standing on my head at the North Pole In tissue-paper trousers... ##
Saving...
prev
next
IMAGI-NATION 7 The fact that Generation of Vipers used a word doesn't mean a periodical can get by with it. I don't believe the postal laws apply to books. Anyway, it's not what you use, it's the way you use it that counts. Your punning interpolations in Laney's letter in no way destroy the force of his arguments about having kids. Rooter-reporter-coach doesn't make a sound analogy. One is not expected to be any one of those three unless there's a particular reason why he should be. On the other hand, the necessity of race survival requires that every man and woman must be expected to reproduce themselves unless there are good and sufficient reasons against it. There's no prima facie case for you remaining a bachelor, and I doubt that you can sustain your position, which appears to be the result of some rather unlogical feelings. I don't think you're a genius, and certainly all your children wouldn't be geniuses, but your heredity is definitely better than the heredity of those who are producing most of the next generation of Americans, not to mention the misbred millions of North Africa, southern India, and elsewhere. You would do the future that you love so, an ill turn in staying childless. The old practice of taxing bachelors was maybe a good idea. For further discussion, see the Widner chain letter on eugenic policy. Also want to second Laney's suggestion that fans apply their intelligence to making changes in their personalities that they know are desirable. Entirely too many ims (not short for imbeciles) have a fatalistic attitude about correctible shortcomings--"I am what I am, and there's nothing I can do about it"--which is poppycock. The usual deficiency of social skill can be greatly alleviated by forcing themselves into social situations; an admittedly impractical, ivory-tower outlook will also yield to self-treatment. And fen are smart enuf to accomplish it. (Quote-worthy Quote: "If each before his own door would sweep, the street would be much cleaner." Applicable? i heard it from an old homespun Negro philosopher.) Milty missed a feature of the cigarettes-and-chewingum argument; it applied only to the gentle sex. Cigarette smoking is so widespread among males that it can't be considered significant of anything, tho abstinence from smoking mite have some correlation with other characteristics. I must apply the one-sex qualification to the chewingumatter too, because I've taken to the vile habit myself since arriving here, where gum forms part of our PX rations (possible excuse: drinking water is hard to get between meals). But as the Tree Toad says, it's a trivial subject to waste space on. Joe Hensley says that atheists and religiousites will never change each others' minds. After all, some formerly religious people do turn atheist, and a smaller number of atheists return to religion; and in between these there are many moderations of opinion which are accomplished by sensibly presented arguments. The doo-dads (who are they by, again?) (Dick Wortman) are exceptionally good. Some of these should certainly be considered for the stefzine anthology. # Roberto the BLOCH docks at our Box with: I am enclosing an engraved portrait of George Washington, this nation's first experimenter in biological mutation (he crossed the Delaware River with a boat, remember?) for which please send me a copy of that startling compendium of all wisdom advertised so modestly on page 13 (FANCYCLOPEDIA). Why did you have to print that letter from soldat Crozetti?Now I am found out...my secret is revealed to the mocking world. All right...you win, Crozetti...I AM nuts! Stark, raving mad. I thought I might hide it, but your keen incisive mind has hit upon the truth.... Don't you think I know? What about those little men who come out of the woodwork carrying their tiny banners...parading before my tortured eyes waving little placards on which is printed the hideous legend, "BLOCH IS NUTS"...if only they would take me out of this thing, let me use my arms ... then I could strangle those detestable minikins and smash their accursed signs... But you'd be nuts too, Crozetti...if you woke at night and found a little child clinging to your breast...her sharp canines boring into your throat... Yes, you'd soon learn the meaning of utter fear if you had a daughter like mine... Forry, don't tell Crozetti, but I am really enjoying the antics of my daughter. She is becoming interested in picture books now, and the other night I came home to find her on the floor, placidly chewing a copy of Laney's ACOLYTE. The millenium is here. Pope Guilty XIV. PS: A POEM FOR SOLDIER CROZETTI, JUST TO MAKE HIM FEEL AT HOME: AGONY IS A PAINFUL SORT OF TORMENT, AND IT HURTS, TOO...SO OUCH!!! ( a pome) If you have jumped into an eyeball... Gone swimming in a pool of woman's tears. If you've played hockey with a bleeding Heart for a puck... If you've ever had a city flushing horse- Troughs for the city... Or worn an alligator bag (Alive with the teeth still in ... If you have watched a man of keen vision Leading a blind Seeing Eye Dog on a leash. Pulled up the window shades to find It's raining blood outside... If you have known these things, my friend Then you can imagine how I feel Standing on my head at the North Pole In tissue-paper trousers... ##
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
