 {{  Thanks once again to everyone who sent us a letter of
comment or a fanzine in trade. We continue to be gratified by the sizable amount of
mail we get in return for Mimosa. We're starting to detect a subtle shift
in the content of many of the LoCs we're getting -- our lettercol is beginning to be as
much a topic for comments as the essays and articles we publish, as you will see in the
next dozen or so pages. We'll have to see where this leads in future issues.
Meanwhile, leading off are comments on Kip Williams' Mimosa 10 front and
back covers. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Brian Earl Brown, Detroit, Michigan I confess I'm not sure what that machine
is in the foreground of your front cover. It sort of looks like a heavy duty stapler
but like none I've ever seen. Of course, the mimeo in the background -- if that
is a mimeo in the background -- doesn't look quite like any I've seen before,
either.- - - - - - - - - -
Gary Brown, Bradenton, Florida A nice, solid issue of Mimosa,
this tenth effort. I especially liked the cover, which gave me the feeling I was facing
massive mimeograph repairs even though there wasn't a mimeo in sight.Anyway, I truly enjoyed Dave Kyle's
"Sex in Fandom" article. Maybe the best thing to do with this theme is have someone
write a different article each mailing detailing 'sex in fandom' by decade. I'm sure
it would paint an interesting picture of how fandom and our society has changed.{{ We'd have to make sure first that our mimeo wouldn't
melt down. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Curt Phillips, Abingdon, Virginia The Kip Williams covers are neat. You
don't often get to see an old Tucker-Tremaine heavy duty pneumatic gum stapler (Is
that what you use to staple Mimosa? The staples don't seem to be at all
chewy...) or that fine old Bloch & Decker rotary poctsarcd mimeo in the background.
I'm not sure what sort of printing press is on the back cover, but I'm virtually certain
that Lynn Hickman has one just like it in his garage in Wauseon, Ohio.Best item in the issue is Vin¢
Clarke's "Farewell, No.6... Perhaps". I hope you can coax more articles out of him.
Dave Kyle's article on "Sex in Fandom" runs a close second, although I suspect he knows
a lot more about the topic than he's related here. The twinkle in his eye fairly leaps
off the page at you.In your lettercol, Martin Morse Wooster
mentions that Don Miller's fanzine collection was sold to a dealer in Pennsylvania. I
can tell you that several years ago, I bought large lots of fanzines from a Pennsylvania
dealer, many of which had Don Miller's name on them, so at least some of his stuff ended
up in fannish hands. Ever since I bought those zines, I'd wondered who Don Miller was,
but I never found out anything about him until I read these letters about him in
Mimosa. You people serve fandom in ways you never expected.- - - - - - - - - -
Norm Metcalf, Boulder, Colorado David A. Kyle's off-the-cuff
recollections about the exclusion of a fan at the 1964 Worldcon are erroneous. We
didn't exclude him on the sole basis of molesting a two-year-old girl. There were
several other incidents. And it was not done from dislike. The fan's reputation in
such matters was begun by the fan himself, in a fan magazine postmailed to the January
1960 mailing of the Spectator Amateur Press Society. The fact that no legal charges
were brought was not because he was innocent, but rather due to the reluctance of the
various authorities to bring charges without the cooperation of the parents. One key
set of parents changed their minds due to thinking that they'd harm their son due to
the subsequent publicity. Another parent simply told the culprit that he'd kill him if
he came around again. Several involved parents were 'Fanarchists' who were upset with
us for informing the law. But we felt that we'd had an obligation to the children whose
parents either weren't aware of him or couldn't watch their children at all times. Well, Dave Kyle has tried, but I think
he will have failed with many of today's younger fans who won't believe in the essential
innocence of people in the days of which he writes. When I came into fandom in the
mid 1960s (I had a wasted youth; I had been reading science fiction for at least twenty
years before I discovered fandom) there was still that essential innocence in spite of
free love and hippies. The number of unattached female fans was still very small even
then; you certainly didn't need to take your socks off to count them all up. We didn't
make a great impact on fandom as a whole simply because we were so few in number.- - - - - - - - - -
Shelby Vick, Brooklyn, New York I greatly enjoyed Dave Kyle's "Sex in
Fandom" article, in spite of the fact that (as he warned) it was so much like the old
Planet Stories -- title (or cover, in Planet's case) to titillate you,
but simon-pure from there on.Vince Clarke's "Farewell..." touched delicate
memories of my original AB Dick mimeo that served so faithfully for so many years --
both in my business and in fandom. When I bought a Gestetner to replace it, I didn't
throw Dick away or sell him off; I kept (and occasionally used) him for years
thereafter. Nice bit of nostalgia.Roger Waddington's letter sparked a
response, concerning about what makes a fanzine a legend. I disagree... kind of. That
is, in the days of Slant, Hyphen, and Quandry, many of us knew that
those fanzines were legends of their time. I also thought that Rhodomagnetic
Digest, Opus, Oopsla!, and confusion (my own zine, for those
thousands who don't remember) were legends, just not of quite as high caliber. What
I'm trying to say is that it takes more than memory to make a legend; the zine has to
be highly regarded by many in its own time. True, time adds gloss to the legend, but
there has to have been something outstanding there to start with. (In the case of
confusion, of course, the something was personal prejudice...)There's just one basic ingredient for
any successful fanzine and it's the same one that applies to successful magazines: the
editor -- or editorial staff. Walt Willis has much more than just humor; he has great
drive and high standards.I've tried editing several types of
fanzines over the years. My first was a one-shot postcard that went to a dozen or so
people. There were some other abortive efforts, including Wirez -- which was
really a round-robin letter more than a fanzine {{ed.
note: Wirez was an audio fanzine, reproduced using wire recorders }}.
Since I wanted each wirespondent to have 15 minutes on an hour spool, I limited it to
only five members. Then there was confusion (or cf. as it was sometimes
known) that managed to attract more talent than I deserved, as a side effect of the
Willis Fund. After cf. faded away, I tried a weekly fanzine, Tired Feet,
that was both sides of one legal-size sheet, folded into four pages. Dunno how it
succeeded, but I had some fun with it. In fact, 'fun' is my only measurement for
success in fandom. I skip along the line between FIAWOL and FIJAGDH.- - - - - - - - - -
Mike Glicksohn, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dave Kyle's piece on women in fandom
past was interesting, both for its indications of how sexual attitudes have changed
over the years and how the way women are thought of have changed (for the better), but
also for the indication that when women did discover fandom they became truly involved
in it. I was awestruck at the number of females Dave mentioned who went on to marry
one or two famous writers/pros/fans. It's understandable, though: a great many years
ago in my foolish youth, I remarked that I couldn't imagine marrying a non-fan and I
imagine this has been a common attitude for longer than I've held it. And with so few
women in fandom, I suppose it was only natural that many would marry several people
active in the sf field in one way or the other.Lester Boutillier's contribution {{"Secret Sam" }} was fascinating in the same repellent sort of
way that turning over rocks and watching disgustingly bloated white wriggly things is
fascinating. One can't help but wonder what kept this psycho out of jail. Surely there
are laws against carrying guns on buses or shooting rifles inside houses even in New
Orleans. (Local fandom here has had only one such bizarre character, and he was a far
greater danger to himself than to those around him. At his worst, he started his own
science fictional political party and ran for mayor, rather than playing around with
weapons, which I guess is some sort of capsule summary of the difference between
Canadians and Americans.){{ D** W**** is now reportedly living in Bangkok,
Thailand, where he may or may not be involved in intelligence gathering activities. Go
figure. }}Similarly, two thoughts crossed my mind
reading Joe Celko's article {{"The Sanguine Swimming
Pool" }}. One was that I didn't know any of the people mentioned. The second
was that I'm glad I didn't know any of the people mentioned. I find petty
vandalism and random destruction largely inexcusable, so I failed to see this particular
piece of fanhistory amusing in any way. That the perpetrators even lacked the guts to
accept the responsibilities of their own actions made it even worse. I see no real
difference between what this article was about and the actions of the thugs who've
forced Rivercon to change venues by trashing the hotel. Vandalism ill becomes fannish
attitudes, even when excused as youthful excess.Concerning Walt Willis's letter -- well,
if you won't ask, I guess I'll have to: Walt, what were you doing with a deserted piano
in a forest in Utah? I'm sure there hangs a tale.Also, it was fascinating to read a letter
of comment from the publisher of Aporrheta. One trusts that a fanhistorical
article has already been requested from this worthy gentleman and will be appearing in a
future issue of Mimosa?{{ We're working on it. As for the notorious crimson
swimming pool incident, far be it for us to condone that type of behavior. We do point
out, however, that episodes of that sort crop up all the time throughout fan history; a
well-known example is the 'Midwestcon Door' incident (more on that next issue, for
those who aren't familiar with it). It's only in recent years that fandom has changed
its way of thinking of this type of behavior from 'colorful' to
'antisocial'. }} I started in fandom (as a very fringe fan) in
1964 and somehow date my interest in fan history from that point. That might be why
Joe Celko's tale of the burgundy swimming pool appealed to me more than most of the
other contributions. The pool story reminds me of a convention where the poor pool was
subject to manifest abuse. It was drained on the last day of the convention simply
because of the amount of alcohol in the water. (I'm now more careful not to spill
any.)- - - - - - - - - -
Guy Lillian III, New Orleans, Louisiana I like and salute Mimosa's
continuing emphasis on fan lore. Anecdotes such as Celko's dye-bombing the Ramada's
swimming pool convey far more of the joy of our silly genre than do the endless
political intrigues catalogued in File 770. Fans should always remember -- and
take defiant pride in the fact -- that we have always been and will always be a klatsch
of weird goofs to the world at large, and value our unique, sometimes absurd stories as
the most fundamental expression of our subculture. Fandom is personality.{{ We think so, too, even if there are better examples
to point to as demonstration. Moving on to other topics, we also received a lot of
comments about the fan history theme of Mimosa 10, particularly on Dick's
opening comments about the upcoming new hardcover edition of Harry Warner, Jr.'s A
Wealth of Fable. Here are some of them: }}- - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland Congratulations on reprinting A Wealth
of Fable. I'll certainly buy a copy when it's published. But don't overestimate
your print run. Most of the books Lichtman cites are hard to find because they didn't
sell very well when they were first printed. Damon Knight's The Futurians had
only one hardcover edition and never made paperback. The Way the Future Was was
published in paperback, but I believe it is now out of print (unlike Frederik Pohl's
fictions). The Immortal Storm is in print, but from an obscure publisher that
charges over $25 for a trade paperback. Only All Our Yesterdays is in print at
a reasonable price. Moreover, many fannish books don't sell very well. John-Henri
Holmberg had to put most of his copies of the Laissez-Faire Books editions of Fandom
Harvest on remainder because he could not sell them. The Mirage Press edition of
Fancyclopedia II is one of the rarest books I won, since only 178 copies were
sold, making the reprint rarer than the original. Still, it's always nice when small
publishers reprint classics I don't own. (What happened to the LACon-backed edition of
Fancyclopedia III?){{ The print run of the new edition of A Wealth of Fable
will be about a thousand copies -- not too large, but easily enough so that everyone who
wants a copy should be able to acquire one. As things stand now, the book will run to
about 450 pages, including index, and will contain over 230 photographs. It will debut
at the Orlando Worldcon this coming September, and the expected retail price per copy
will be about $20. As for Fancy III, we understand that it is still in the
works, but that's all we know for sure. Incidentally, we've been told that only about
50 copies remain of All Our Yesterdays, before that book goes out of print. It's
still available from Advent. }}One name from the past that I was very
surprised to read about in the Midwestcon nostalgia article {{"The
Further Adventures of Midwest Fandom" }} was that of Fred Chappell. Chappell is
now an English professor at a North Carolina university, and is a nationally-known poet
and novelist. Because he frequently writes fantasies (mostly horror, including one
Lovecraftian novel) he occasionally shows up on the short list of Mainstream Writers Who
Cross the Genre Border and Know What They Are Doing. But until this article, I had no
idea he was a fan. Does anyone know how active Chappell was in fandom?{{ Lynn Hickman tells us that as a teenager, Chappell was
pretty active as a fan. He joined Lynn's 'Little Monsters of America' club at the 1951
Nolacon (more on that maybe next issue, too), and also wrote and did artwork for
fanzines. Chappell's fan activities wound down when he went to college at Duke
University. }}Concerning the letters column: I don't
think there are that many teenage fans for many reasons, including many you cite. But
one reason is that many larger cons are actively discouraging fans under the age of 18
from attending the con without a parent in attendance. While this is a necessary
defense by concoms, as many teenagers apparently show up at cons to drink beer and play
radios loudly, what this means is that it's hard to discover fandom serendipitously. I
found out about fandom when I heard about Discon II {{ed.
note: the 1974 Worldcon }} by accident. After paying $10 at the door, I wandered
around for several days, highly confused by the goings on, but having a fine time
nonetheless. If I had tried the same thing today, I doubt I could afford to get in to
a Worldcon at the door, and may well have been blocked because of age. My guess is that
most new fans don't discover fandom until they are in their twenties because of
financial and social changes.- - - - - - - - - -
Buck Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana I have a copy of A Wealth of Fable
in a 3-ring binder, so a professionally printed version isn't all that necessary, but
the additional information might well be interesting. The voting for the 1953 Worldcon
site was very interesting for Indiana fans, though I hadn't met any of them at the time;
Chicon II was the first science fiction convention I ever attended, and I didn't
know anybody there. I was told about it afterwards. San Francisco and Philadelphia
were the main contenders, but there were several others, and Ray Beam put in a bid for
Indianapolis without telling any of the other Hoosier fans what he was doing. Since the
other attending fans were all minors, they were mostly horrified, especially since
Indianapolis kept getting enough votes to stay on the ballot as other cities dropped
off. Finally it was down to Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and the
Hoosier fans were wondering if they could get away with lynching Ray, when they finally
came in third and the name was removed. Ray tried to swing the Indiana vote to San
Francisco and failed, partly because his fellow club members weren't speaking to him by
then, and partly because the other voters, like me, voted for the city they might
possibly get to.- - - - - - - - - -
Rob Hansen, London, United Kingdom Just finished reading
Mimosa 10, which arrived today, and found it very much to my taste. But
then given my own hardly-secret interest in fanhistory that's not surprising.I would certainly agree with Dick's
statement that fanhistory research can be fascinating, but would point out that it can
also be deeply frustrating and very hard work. You'll have doubtless have received
Then #3 (the story of 1960s UK Fandom) by now, which at times looked like it
would never get finished since I couldn't get hold of the 1960s fanzines that were vital
to my research. Most of then came my way eventually, but that was down to providence
rather than my efforts. Still, soon I'll start in on the story of 1970s UK Fandom, just
about my favorite period. (Yes, I think highly of 1950s UK Fandom -- but for my
money it was even more fascinating in the 1970s. Peter Weston -- active since 1963 --
called the mid-1970 "the Golden Age of British Fandom." Unlike the 1950s it had
virtually no transatlantic aspect to it and so remained almost unknown over there until
years after it had passed.)Some time back I toyed with the idea of
a 'Fanhistoricon', one that was sercon about fandom. Y'know, people would prepare
papers beforehand with radical re-interpretations of earlier events for presentation,
or just very funny re-interpretations, (all of which would be printed in the post-con
fanzine that would be sent to all members a few weeks after the con, of course). There
would be exhibitions of classic convention memorabilia (T-shirts, mugs, badges, etc.),
maybe even of classic duplicators, video documentaries by groups of fans about the
fanhistory of their cities and the like. Then I woke up. It had all been a dream. The
idea has possibilities, though.{{ That idea has been independently conceived on this side of
the Atlantic also, but is no further along. At any rate, your letter provides us the
opportunity to applaud your work in preserving the history of British and Irish fandom.
For those of you who aren't aware, Rob has already published three issues of Then,
detailing 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s UK fandom, respectively. Then #2 gave
Dick the motivation to get involved in the ongoing A Wealth of Fable
project. }} Mimosa 10 is at hand.
Fabulous stuff. After all these years one would have thought that the entire history of
pre-1970s fandom had been told, but every page has something new -- fascinating. And
yes, it is a hard fanzine to LoC... the obvious thing to do is to cap one of the
anecdotes with another. I can't do that, not having been in Room 770, and I've
always wondered why U.S. fans were against the WSFS running Cons when we Brit fanzine
fans were always hoping that someone would do the job instead of us.So I'll just comment on a passing remark
that the `50s "seems just about everybody's favorite fannish era." It certainly is
mine, and I think that in Britain at least, it was partly due to there being very few
SF readers and even fewer fans, breeding a sort of comradeship and trust that you don't
have now.In 1958 the British SF Association was
formed, a prime mover being one Dave Newman. He was elected Chairmen, but gafiated
within months. However, at the initial meeting setting up the organisation (still
running), he was moved to tell how he first encountered fandom in the early `50s.
This was caught on tape, and I transcribed it into an APAzine.It was all due to Ron and Daphne
Buckmaster; Ron at that time was a regular Army soldier stationed in barracks ('Married
Quarters') in the London suburb of Woolwich with wife Daphne. Dave was also in the
Army, as a conscript."There's a lot of things been blamed on
the Buckmasters," said Dave on tape, "but blame this one on them as well. I was sitting
on a train one night traveling from Charing Cross to Woolwich, coming back to Barracks
late at night, about eleven o'clock. I'd just bought off a bookstall in Villiers Street
all the current science fiction magazines they had -- three. There was an
Astounding, an S-F Quarterly, and a New Worlds. I was leafing
through one of these and I saw this couple sitting opposite me, looking at me rather
oddly, and I was sort of wondering whether I was properly dressed or not, `cos they were
thoroughly staring me out of countenance."When I got off the train at Woolwich,
this fellow sort of marched up to me and said in a thoroughly aggressive tone of voice:
'Do you read much of that stuff?'"So I, equally aggressive in turn, said,
'Yes I do, what of it?' you see? And he said, 'Well, so do we, we read a hell of a lot
-- er -- you doing anything in particular just now?' Y'see bearing in mind that this
was now a quarter past eleven at night, and I was thinking of my bed more than anything
else."And I said, 'No, not really, I want to
go to bed,' so they said, 'Well come up and have a cup of tea.' So I went up to Ron's
Married Quarters, and we introduced ourselves on the way up... and I staggered out of
Ron's flat carrying a suitcase full of hard-cover science fiction which I never knew
existed -- things like Venus Equilateral, Slan, Last & First
Men -- quite a few books like that plus the whole of the first two years of
Galaxy, and this lot kept me going for approximately ten days. And then Ron
& Daphne suggested that I should take a trip up to the White Horse one night to meet
the gang, and I did, and from then on when duty permitted I never missed a weekly
meeting for some two-and-a-half years..."I reckon the above illustrated most of
the virtues -- and perhaps the vices -- of `50s fanning. Instant comradeship, instant
trust... those were different days.- - - - - - - - - -
Dale Speirs, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Mimosa was good reading as always,
and, as always, is hard to LoC. The trouble with fanhistory articles is that there are
only two ways to respond. One is the "I was there and the following corrections should
be noted." The other is "Nice reading, wish I could add something." I found this
pattern amongst loccers when I devoted Opuntia #2 to Calgary fanhistory. It
won't stop me from doing future fanhistories (that sounds like an oxymoron) and, I
presume, won't stop Mimosa either.I hope to publish more Canadian
fanhistories in Opuntia, just to get something on the record. Some people
criticize fanhistories as being biased personal account that don't tell the whole story,
but all history is like that. Better to get something down on paper, and give future
scholars a starting point from which top revise history. All history is personal
opinion, which is why Americans are taught that Vietnam was the first war they lost,
while Canadians are taught how we kicked Yankee Butt in the War of 1812 (the scorch
marks of the burning of Washington can still be seen on some parts of the While House),
and successfully repelled the invaders and prevented Manifest Destiny from exerting
itself.- - - - - - - - - -
Andy Hooper, Madison, Wisconsin I can empathize with Dick's sense of
immersion in the history of fandom in the fifties. First, I bought a copy of All
Our Yesterdays, and found it hard to put down after starting it. And secondly, I
have been laboring on a similar project of my own on the history of Madison, and running
it through the local APA. I spent three hours last night immersed in the particulars of
the election of 1852 as contested in Madison, and then spent much of this morning at
work mulling over whether or not the Civil War would have started in that year if
Winfield Scott had been elected... another reason to hold Corflu in Madison in `93; time
for the convention to return to a staunchly Whig locale once more!I have enjoyed all of Dave Kyle's
memoirs to date, though I am sad to say I thought this was one of his weakest he has
done for you; it rather wandered around, and I think that if one is going to report on
scandal and shameful incidents in the past, it's best to tell the whole story, the
fullest truth as the writer knows it. I am not a dedicated student of the Futurian era,
so it is left to my imagination to fill in what Dave has left unsaid, and my imagination,
at least, is more lurid than reality could match.{{ Dave did had more detail in his original draft of that
article, but removed specific mention of certain names at our request. We felt that
since this was a historical article rather than investigative journalism, adding names
of alleged perpetrators didn't add anything to the events described. The events, rather
than specific individuals, was really what the article was all about. }}Sharon Farber's series {{"Tales of Adventure and Medical Life" }} has been
marvelous from the beginning. They remind me of some of the stories my friend Dr. Bill
Hoffman tells me about his days in the emergency room as psychiatric resident on call.
I must get Bill to write one of those stories up someday... especially the one which
ends with, "Well, did you know your batteries are dead?" Sharon's stories have the same
sardonic tone, that delight and amuse and make one resolve to embrace self-immolation
before hospitalization. I think she's right about her anecdotes falling short of the
Journal's requirements, although I could see them appearing in some sort of bent, evil
twin of Reader's Digest.To me, though, the gem of the issue was
Vince Clarke's piece. I just devoured my way through Warhoon 28 a few
months ago, and to hear that the flatbed press that graced The Epicentre is still extant
was quite exciting. I hope that if Vince really does decide to part with it that he
will allow TAFF or some other fannish good work to auction it off.I want to echo Irwin Hirsh's sentiments
in the lettercol about your use of art in Mimosa. I am continually impressed by
the way you choose artists whose style compliments the subject matter so perfectly.
I'm starting to really like Joe Mayhew's style; on the other hand, Fred Karno will spend
several years in purgatory for resurrecting that 'F.M. Busby' joke.- - - - - - - - - -
Harry Warner, Jr., Hagerstown, Maryland Vin¢ is vastly amusing and
informative in his memories of that mimeograph. I hadn't realized that a Gestetner was
in use in British fandom as early as that 1917 model which he and Ken Bulmer acquired
while in The Epicentre. There really should be a museum for fannish artifacts like good
old No.6 and Red Boggs' Box 1111. If someone will establish such an institution,
I'd be glad to bequeath my manual typewriter to it.Joe Celko is right about Janie Lamb's
good qualities as a fan and as a human being. I don't believe the National Fantasy Fan
Federation which she served for so long has any sort of award or service named for her,
which is a pity. I met her only once, but she made the con where our encounter occurred
memorable for the way we felt like old friends after only a short time together.In the letter section, your reply to Els
Somers about the absence of teen-age fanzine fans started me to thinking. Maybe I've
overlooked someone, but I can't think of any teenager who has published a regular,
generally circulated fanzine since Dave D'Ammassa was doing it three or four years ago,
and he seems to have gafiated completely in favor of a career in the theatre. The large
local fan clubs that publish clubzines always seem to choose one of their older members
to be editor. I suppose the high cost of publishing fanzines today is one reason why
the old tradition of teenage editors has vanished; most fans can't afford to publish
until they're old enough to have a regular job with a decent salary. But Mike Glicksohn
refers to another probable strong factor, the unwillingness of young fans to communicate
through the written word today. We don't find many teenagers writing for the fanzines
others publish or drawing for them, activities that aren't influenced by financial
factors.You must be the first fanzine editors to
publish a loc from Sandy Sanderson in two or three decades. His musing on whether fan
humor written decades ago would be funny to today's fans reminds me of my old idea that
reprints of such things should always be accompanied by footnotes or explanations on
separate pages to allusions that would otherwise be incomprehensible to those who
weren't around at the time of original publication. It sounds pedantic, but it might
help retain the humor. After all, when we hear how Gilbert's major general had sat a
gee, we don't smile unless someone has informed us that it refers to his ability to make
a good figure seated on a horse.Finally, Nicki's analysis of the stages
of con fandom {{"Undetectable in the
`90s" }} is undoubtedly accurate. But she doesn't explain why I never got
past Stage One. It seems rather late in the game to make an effort to advance to Stage
Two after so many years have elapsed.- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Jeffery, Kidlington, Oxon, United Kingdom Vin¢ was fascinating, as usual, in
his exploration of pre-Caxton technology pressed into fannish service. I was once
frequently confused by references to A.B. Dick in fanzines, who I thought was some one
suffering fan who used to duplicate everybody's zine, 'til somebody eventually sent me
a copy of Vin¢'s Duplicating Without Tears.In response to Els Somers' letter, she's
probably right about being one of the younger fanzine fans. I feel distinctly underage
in my mid thirties at times. Teenage fans seem to have gravitated to gaming or
music-related zines, outside of mainstream fanzine fandom. Most of the contributors to
my Inception 'clubzine' seem to be in their teens or early twenties, but very few
fans cross over to more traditional fanzine culture. As for them being a barbarian
horde at the gates of trufandom, they're not really -- it's just the way they dress.
Come to think of it, there are a few older fans who could give Genghis Khan pause for
thought!- - - - - - - - - -
Lloyd Penney, Brampton, Ontario, Canada Concerning Els Somers' loc, and the lack
of teenage fans... back when, you could float your last few bucks into printing, or
hitching a ride to a con, with a fairly clean conscience because there were fewer
worries, and more people to help you get by. Today, there's more peer pressure, more
demand for the increased number of bucks today's teenager gets, and more demand and peer
pressure to get those things that a teenager can't live without. Also, it's easier to
communicate with others with computers, easier to just hang around, fewer Gestetners,
and almost no one in fandom with enough interest to show them how it's done. Add to
that the fact that today's teenager seems to have a lot less between the ears than
yesterday's.A familiar chord continues on in Janice
Murray's letter. My fannish origins were in media sf, especially Trek, and it is
extremely easy to discover fandom through that method. The fans I met when I moved to
Toronto were media fans, con running fans, and apa-fans. There was no one out there who
was vocal about fanzines, and so I never knew much about them. My other interests were
in short story sf, in the form of anthologies, but when I attended conventions, I found
a ton of gaming and comics, which have never interested me. I found in order to find
a convention that suited my interests in the more concentrated form I wanted, I went to
Trekcons. I tried to expand my interests, and that worked to some degree. Being on
the convention management side of things now (this year was my tenth on the Ad Astra
committee), I know why there's the need to appeal to other interests at a convention.
The widening of the appeal base means a widening of the income base, which is often
necessary to afford the fancy hotel people demand and which con activities need.- - - - - - - - - -
George Flynn, Cambridge, Massachusetts In Irwin Hirsh's letter, his remarks on
languages in Europe are interesting. I have a smattering of several European languages,
but didn't get much chance to use them in my trip last year; usually, people responded
in English as soon as I tried. (The weird part was when they addressed me in English
before I said anything.) There was one challenging encounter, though. I was
looking at a monument in The Hague when this couple asked me what the inscription said.
Now, since I don't really read Dutch, and they spoke only French, the resulting
conversation was interesting... I think they followed what I said, but God knows whether
that corresponded to what the plaque said.In response to Janice Murray, the coming
trend seems to be small, tightly-focused, program-intensive cons. This is a Good Thing.
I went to three of these in a row in the last two months (Fourth Street Fantasy
Convention, Readercon, NECon), there are others springing up (including the one Janice
is helping to found in Seattle), and of course Corflu and Ditto are specialized examples
of the same sort of thing. Now if we can do better at attracting the right sort of
people to them...As for Nicki's closing comments, I've
certainly never gone through Stage 4 (Burnout) except fleetingly, and I'm not sure
I've really made it out of Stage 3 (Organizing). This is probably why I get so few
locs written. But Nicki, if you're Stage 6, then what are you doing on the Chicon
committee?{{ It's a long story... }}- - - - - - - - - -
Dave Gorecki, Orland Hills, Illinois Issue 10 has to be the most interesting
confluence of articles yet. In your closing comments, I wonder whether con-oriented
fans have a higher burnout rate than fanzine-oriented fans. The activities of the
former seem to be more immediately time-intensive and possibly less rewarding; a good
fanzine being forever, a good con but a memory.Also, in answer to Harry Warner, Jr.'s
letter {{ed. note: about Dave's visit to 1940s fan Jack
Darrow }}, I did do a formal interview with Cliff Kornoelje/alias Jack
Darrow, published in 1990 in the premiere (and, alas, only) issue of a Chicago area
prozine entitled 14th Alternative. Although it's rather hard to find, the good
news is that Ray Beam is reprinting it in the upcoming issue of the First Fandom
magazine. I don't know of any feedback the article received, something I was looking
forward to; I remember seeing Fred Pohl reading the article intently at a con last year,
just after the magazine came out. Anyway, I fully agree that it would be a coup to have
Jack Darrow at a con.- - - - - - - - - -
Elaine Normandy, Plano, Texas This is the first LoC I have written in
living memory, mine. I have written innumerable mailing comments for the APA to which
I belong, but somehow loccing Mimosa seems different. With the APA, I know my
audience, but with your fanzine, who knows? Perhaps you should include an aspiring
letter writer's guide for inexperienced people like me.I was somewhat bemused at Corflu when
Dick explained he would rather receive LoCs than money. I had thought that
contributions offsetting your production costs would be welcome, and I know that I
certainly have more money than time these days. Recent experience has taught me why
LoCs are so highly valued. I write letters, and no one writes back! Either I am a
worse correspondent than I thought, or my friends are stewing in guilt over my
unanswered letters. Now I am beginning to feel guilty for inflicting correspondence on
my poor, overwhelmed friends.I enjoyed Sharon Farber's tales about
medical life, no matter how much they deepen my already deep qualms about setting foot
inside a hospital. I thought your method of linking the article to others in the issue
was ingenious, and I do agree that Sharon Farber will be remembered as a fan humorist
in years to come.Also, I read with interest
Mimosa's contribution to the ongoing debate why there are few new (especially
fanzine) fans around these days. I don't remember having read anywhere about the
effects of the decline in leisure time on fanzine activity. Both the number of women
with employment outside the home and the proportion of people working as professionals
with long hours has increased greatly in the past twenty years. More people working
longer hours leads to less time and energy that can be devoted to leisure activities.
A lot less time and energy remains for fanac, especially time-consuming fanac such as
publishing.{{ There seems to be a lot of possible explanations. This next
letter echoes many of them, and seems to be a microcosm of the State of Fandom
Today. }} I've been getting Mimosa from you
and not given much in return, I'm afraid. You got two issues of my perzine in trade
earlier on, but I have no longer time for making any zines. Gone are the days when I
would live to make fanzines, to photocopy them in secret at some office or school after
closing time, to go to the post office with a lump in my throat, with a heavy bag full
of envelopes. (Ah, excuse me for growing lyric...)I'm starting to feel old. At the tender
age of 26. I say that not because I feel it, but because I realize that
international fandom is made up of people usually twice this age. And yet there are
still very few fans in Norway/Sweden who have passed 35. It's not that fandom here is
such a young phenomenon, because we had active fans here at least in the 60s.
But I think people drop out of it. They 'grow up' and get straight.I came into fandom myself when I was 17,
via Tolkien fandom in Norway just when it was started (1981-82). (Just to avoid
confusion, I am Norwegian, but I'm now living in Sweden.) I was very
enthusiastic then, became a member of 'the council', helped to illustrate the club zine,
arranged meetings. I left home to go to University at 18 and moved in with another fan.
I got involved in SF fandom, made zines (I've edited three different zines, co-edited a
few, and have been in an apa), arranged cons, etc... There were very few active female
fans then -- I think we were only 2 or 3 altogether. Now there are quite a few.I don't know when the 'great
disallusionment' (or perhaps: 'the great sleep'?) came in Scandinavian fandom. It came
slowly, anyway, and on us all. Norwegian & Swedish fandom were finally tied
together once and for all at the memorable Kringcon in 1988, the first purely
fannish con on Norwegian soil. The circumstances were favourable, certainly --
a group of fans happened to live at the same student village in Oslo. We organised the
con approximately as a large party. We invented fannish games, and did other fun
things. A lot of Swedish fans came. (Swedish fandom's traditions are largely imported
from the U.S., by the way.) An outburst of fannish activity followed in the wake of
that con. We had had contact before and had traded zines, but now everything sort of
knit together more closely.The peak of fannish activity was around
that year and the previous one (`87-`88). Agreat lot of fanzines were, for example,
published in connection with Conspiracy (Brighton in `87), and the years after, but by
Confiction (Den Haag in `90) things had cooled down considerably.And now Norwegian/Swedish fandom is
stagnating. Nothing much happens, very few zines are published, and those that do
appear are met with drowsy and cynical eyes. People hardly meet any longer; there's
been feuds and unfriendliness. People don't care for anything anymore.At cons, we all go around hoping for some
miracle to happen (where did that 'old feeling' go?) -- those of us who still bother to
go to cons. The neos are stepping in -- a new generation of teenagers who sit in the
video room and consume films. The fan room is empty, the fanzine workshop isn't there,
the art show is worse and worse organized. And nobody bothers to see it anyway.I haven't received a Norwegian fanzine
for more than a year, I think. There aren't any published. A few faithful Swedish
serconists still try. An apa or two holds on with talons and beaks.I look to international fandom for
inspiration these days. The fanzines keep coming in from you people, seemingly
unchanged. It's good to know that you're out there somewhere. I go to Worldcons (here
in Europe is all I can afford) and hope to make new acquaintances, but hardly even seem
to meet any of the people I trade with. Conspiracy saw the rise of many a fanzine, and
a lot of Norwegian fans 'discovered' international fandom there for the first time.{{ Actually, this sounds pretty similar to the Chattanooga area
fandom we were involved in in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There was also a three or
four year 'golden age' period where many things were going on and everybody was having
fun. Then feuds and unpleasantness broke out, and things were never the same
afterwards. We expect that the same thing has happened in many other fan communities.
Maybe it's time to have another Kringcon! }}- - - - - - - - - -
Dave Kyle, Potsdam, New York Some background information on my article
in Mimosa 7 {{"A Hugo Gernsback
Author" }} has been requested by some readers. Here's my response: Rooting
through some old boxes of fannish materials, I came across the original page proofs with
editorial comment and illustration of my short story "Golden Nemesis", which was to have
been published in Hugo Gernsback's Wonder Stories in 1936. The three faces in
the illustrations published in Mimosa 7 are parts of three illustrations for
"Golden Nemesis". The top one was done by me in 1936 as a pen-and-ink rough, which I
used as a guide for a finished drawing. The finished illustration was better than the
rough (I hope) and was submitted to the editor with a letter expressing the hope it
could be used. Whatever happened to my finished original, I don't know. I never got
it back. Only that rough sketch remains today. When I later received the story page
proofs and the art proof (all on magazine pulp paper), I was pleased to see -- my
illustration! That is, for one brief, unrealistic moment I had thought that it was
mine. However, in another moment I recognized the truth. The work was professional.
Schneeman had done it, typically high in quality. After I had gone through an art
school for training the following year, I appreciated how amateurish mine must have
been. Four years later, I redrew the original concept. Again the props and background
were different, but that poor guy was still there, staring in the mirror, sticking that
needle and the golden fluid into his brain! I have the original Kyle rough, the
Schneeman page proof, and a Stirring Science Stories magazine page. (And almost
no one knew, or even knows today, of my collaboration with Charles Schneeman.)A question has also arisen concerning
"The Great Exclusion Act of 1939", written by me and published in Mimosa 6.
About that pamphlet -- who wrote the darn thing? I thought the answer was clear until
I re-read my article. I claimed to have set it and published it in the family print
shop, and assumed that it would be understood that I wrote it. But I didn't actually
state the simple fact: yes, I wrote that 'purple prose' pamphlet -- I and I alone was
responsible for the whole thing. No one in fandom, not even a Futurian, saw a copy
until the "Warning!" was unexpectedly discovered before distribution. They never did
get handed out to everyone as I had planned. A few copies were passed around with my
personal plea that they be read, but my message was by then too late and smothered by
events. I appealed from the convention floor to have the banned fans admitted (as did
a few others, such as Leslie Perri, wife-to-be of Fred Pohl), but without success.
Whatever happened to the hundreds of copies of that infamous yellow pamphlet? I'd like
a copy to put in my archival papers at Syracuse University. One of the anti-Futurian
leaders of the convention who collects such artifacts tells me that he has three copies
and (chortle-chortle) I don't have a chance of a snowball in hell to get one
from him. From someone else, I do have a copy on loan to me. However, I want one for
myself. Locate one for me, and I'll pay good money for it! (And then any researcher
will be able to examine the real thing at Syracuse University!)- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: Harry Andruschak, John Berry, Lester Boutillier, Bill Bowers, Richard Brandt, Ned Brooks, Roger Caldwell, Tom Campbell, G.M. Carr, Ken Cheslin, Bill Danner, Carolyn Doyle, Tom Feller, Don Fitch, Penny Frierson, Dean Grennell, Teddy Harvia, Eva Hauser, Craig Hilton, Arthur Hlavaty, Matthias Hofmann, Kim Huett, Alan Hutchinson, Ben Indick, Terry Jeeves, Ruth Judkowitz, R'ykandar Korra'ti, Roy Lavender, Fred Lerner, Robert Lichtman, Eric Lindsay, Dave Luckett, Mark Manning, Don Markstein, Todd Mason, Jeanne Mealy, Pat Molloy, Joseph Nicholas, Bruno Ogorelec, Marilyn Pride, David Rowe, Tom Sadler, Sandy Sanderson, Julius Schwartz, Steve Sneyd, Diana Stein, Alan J. Sullivan, Roy Tackett, Bjo Trimble, R Laurraine Tutihasi, Michael Waite, Bryan Webb, Jean Weber, Wally Weber, Roger Weddall, Toni Weisskopf, Art Widner, and last but far from least, Walter A. Willis. Title illustration by Teddy Harvia Other illustrations by Alexis Gilliland, William Rotsler & Steve Stiles, and Diana Harlan Stein |
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