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Scientifictionist, v. 2, issue 2, whole no. 8, March-April 1947
Page 11
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step out into the sunshine -- and behold -- I'm in the dark ages. Looking around see the slums, the beggars going from door to door, (no remarks Elsner, I don't live in that kind of a neighborhood) the drunkards sprawled out in the streets. No wonder slightly "tetched" fen such as Degler get stupendous ideas such as insignificant fen molding the course of a world of two billion. (And do the two billion need it!) Artificial Socialistic Evolution. Kennedy's statement: "fortunately I believe most of fandom's serious thinkers to be light years ahead of the man on the street" was indeed provocative. I'll go him one better: I believe most of fandom to be light years ahead of the man on the street. Speaking of the man on the street reminds me of an every-day occurance that is one of the reasons for fandom's superiority complex. When in the local Technocracy headquarters, I looked out of the window to see what the average man does when he stops to look at Tech's window literature: he laughs! Laughs at that which the average fan will at least consider seriously before making any statement or sign of his opinions. [Ha Ha! --ed] Because he (the average man) is so narrow-minded, many of the neo-fen make many ridiculous remarks about him -- such as: "the average man compared to the average fan is as the Neolithic-man is to man today." It was this type of statement than Degler capitalized upon. Keep Joe coming with more like "Utopias Made to Order." A statement by Bob Stein in "Stanley Weinbaum and General Semantics" tied in directly with something Kennedy said. Bob writes: "Many people have a tendency to ascribe the actions of an individual to the entire class to which he belongs. For instance, if bitten by a dog, he would act as tho all dogs were vicious. Or if injured (morally or physically) by a Negro, or Jew, he believes that all 'niggers' and 'kikes' have the characteristics of his injurer." Kennedy says: "The Pro-Scientist opposed the use of science-fiction as a means to disseminate anti-scientific propaganda, citing Frankenstein as an example of the type of story that was doing much to harm the reputation of science-fiction." Frankenstein, then, was the dog that bit the public. Ha, that pro-scientist movement gave me a laugh. In the first place, the author didn't write Frankenstein AS SCIENCE FICTION. Again, the public read the story and probably didn't classify it as s-f. The majority of the people didn't know what the term "science-fiction" meant until quite recently. Tell an "unenlightened" person that Frankenstein is stf, then ask him what a story about rocket-ships is classified as -- 10 to 1 he won't know. The cover: ugh! Stein did a lousy job if I ever saw one. Stfist is the number 3 zine -- there's a reputation to uphold. It would have been better for you to go back to your "too conservative" cover -- the "no-drawing" type. Although I can't quite agree with him, Hodgkins' letter on Technocracy was the best in the ish. Give him the original to Stein's drawing. (Ha!) All in all, the issue was about as good as number 6, the only reason for such a high rating being Kennedy's fine article. His article is the finest I've yet read in STFIST -- more from him, please. Ben Singer, 3242 Monterey, Detroit 6, Mich. "Hodgkins Has Put Himself on the Spot" Kennedy's article seemed generally sound, and I agree that misguided idealism is better than none, but it should be pointed out that in some circumstances it may have an adverse effect. The "rantings of a would-be prophet" which don't pan out provide an occasion for cynics and people like the America First Press (Hearst, McCormick, &c) to stigmatize idealism generally with the brand of impracticality. And to the individual also precocious idealism can result in a hardheartedness in later years which would not occur had the idealism come only after the individual learned discretion and built his hopes on a sounder foundation. "Probably unintentional, but Joe's miscalling the Animists "Animalists" is amusing. He gives a detail or two about them that I don't have in the current Mopsy: The elimination of "bureaus" to give way to technical councils is a beautiful piece of attempted word magic. The proposal to collect $5 a week from every worker to establish one of the most important funds violates the principle of taxation according to ability to pay; and $250 or $500 annually out of a poor family's income would be a drastic bite. page 11
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step out into the sunshine -- and behold -- I'm in the dark ages. Looking around see the slums, the beggars going from door to door, (no remarks Elsner, I don't live in that kind of a neighborhood) the drunkards sprawled out in the streets. No wonder slightly "tetched" fen such as Degler get stupendous ideas such as insignificant fen molding the course of a world of two billion. (And do the two billion need it!) Artificial Socialistic Evolution. Kennedy's statement: "fortunately I believe most of fandom's serious thinkers to be light years ahead of the man on the street" was indeed provocative. I'll go him one better: I believe most of fandom to be light years ahead of the man on the street. Speaking of the man on the street reminds me of an every-day occurance that is one of the reasons for fandom's superiority complex. When in the local Technocracy headquarters, I looked out of the window to see what the average man does when he stops to look at Tech's window literature: he laughs! Laughs at that which the average fan will at least consider seriously before making any statement or sign of his opinions. [Ha Ha! --ed] Because he (the average man) is so narrow-minded, many of the neo-fen make many ridiculous remarks about him -- such as: "the average man compared to the average fan is as the Neolithic-man is to man today." It was this type of statement than Degler capitalized upon. Keep Joe coming with more like "Utopias Made to Order." A statement by Bob Stein in "Stanley Weinbaum and General Semantics" tied in directly with something Kennedy said. Bob writes: "Many people have a tendency to ascribe the actions of an individual to the entire class to which he belongs. For instance, if bitten by a dog, he would act as tho all dogs were vicious. Or if injured (morally or physically) by a Negro, or Jew, he believes that all 'niggers' and 'kikes' have the characteristics of his injurer." Kennedy says: "The Pro-Scientist opposed the use of science-fiction as a means to disseminate anti-scientific propaganda, citing Frankenstein as an example of the type of story that was doing much to harm the reputation of science-fiction." Frankenstein, then, was the dog that bit the public. Ha, that pro-scientist movement gave me a laugh. In the first place, the author didn't write Frankenstein AS SCIENCE FICTION. Again, the public read the story and probably didn't classify it as s-f. The majority of the people didn't know what the term "science-fiction" meant until quite recently. Tell an "unenlightened" person that Frankenstein is stf, then ask him what a story about rocket-ships is classified as -- 10 to 1 he won't know. The cover: ugh! Stein did a lousy job if I ever saw one. Stfist is the number 3 zine -- there's a reputation to uphold. It would have been better for you to go back to your "too conservative" cover -- the "no-drawing" type. Although I can't quite agree with him, Hodgkins' letter on Technocracy was the best in the ish. Give him the original to Stein's drawing. (Ha!) All in all, the issue was about as good as number 6, the only reason for such a high rating being Kennedy's fine article. His article is the finest I've yet read in STFIST -- more from him, please. Ben Singer, 3242 Monterey, Detroit 6, Mich. "Hodgkins Has Put Himself on the Spot" Kennedy's article seemed generally sound, and I agree that misguided idealism is better than none, but it should be pointed out that in some circumstances it may have an adverse effect. The "rantings of a would-be prophet" which don't pan out provide an occasion for cynics and people like the America First Press (Hearst, McCormick, &c) to stigmatize idealism generally with the brand of impracticality. And to the individual also precocious idealism can result in a hardheartedness in later years which would not occur had the idealism come only after the individual learned discretion and built his hopes on a sounder foundation. "Probably unintentional, but Joe's miscalling the Animists "Animalists" is amusing. He gives a detail or two about them that I don't have in the current Mopsy: The elimination of "bureaus" to give way to technical councils is a beautiful piece of attempted word magic. The proposal to collect $5 a week from every worker to establish one of the most important funds violates the principle of taxation according to ability to pay; and $250 or $500 annually out of a poor family's income would be a drastic bite. page 11
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