From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Is the WSFA journal eligable for fanzine Hugo?
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 14:48:34 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ernest Lilley" <elilley at mindspring.com>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 06, 2005 6:02 AM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Is the WSFA journal eligable for fanzine Hugo?

> Surely I'm not joking. Clearly Keith puts a tremendous amount of work
into
> the journal and all I'm suggesting is that as members of the same club we
> extend each other the courtesy of consideration. Not to lower the bar on
> quality.
>
> Moreover, if the journal is not of sufficient quality for members to
> consider it for an award, and since we have enough Hugos in the club to
> launch an attack on a small city, not to mention the wisdom and
experience
> of venerable (if cranky) fans...why aren't we helping the editor make it
of
> that quality?

I think Keith understands the situation better than you do.  You *really*
need to educate yourself about fandom and fanzines before pushing this
point further.

Sure, striving for higher quality in one's work/fanzines is always
desireable.  But clubzines *as a category* have not been highly valued in
fandom since the late '40s and the Burbee-edited SHAGGY from LASFS.
That's more than half a century, and Burbee is regarded as one of the
all-time greats among fanwriters.  No one in WSFA -- myself included --
approaches him in ability as a fanwriter.

The fan Hugoes have been seriously devalued over the years (some say they
started out that way, since the earliest were awarded to rather poor
fanzines, based on the ignorance of the voters), but they are *supposed* to
honor excellence -- not just "hard work" nor a locality's fans.   It's hard
to think of anything published in the WSFA JOURNAL in the last decade (my
reviews included) which anyone would ever want to republish in a Best Of
anthology ("fanthology"), and I think that's one criterion to be taken into
consideration.   The WJ serves a useful local purpose, but let's not
confuse it with Hugo-quality fanzines.   Again, I suggest you compare and
contrast with an actual local Hugo winner, MIMOSA.

--Ted White