From: Michael Pederson <mike at nthzine.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of mundanes VS fans
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:11:32 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Damn, Ted. I had no idea that Crawdaddy was one of the many zines that
you were involved with. My hat is officially off to you.

Michael D. Pederson
Publisher/Editor
Nth Degree

On Apr 20, 2005, at 6:14 PM, Ted White wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Pederson" <mike at nthzine.com>
> To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:34 PM
> Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of mundanes VS fans
>
>> Mostly because it's a missed opportunity. Fandom had a chance to bring
>> media, comics and anime into our fold but there were too many people
>> that had a very exclusionary attitude about non-literary SF. And now
>> that they have all outgrown our type of fandom it's too hard to bring
>> them back into the fold. Look at some of the biggest cons that they
>> run
>> in comparison with World Con... Media: DragonCon - 30,000 attendees.
>> Comics: San Diego Comic Con - 32,000 attendees. Anime: Katsucon -
>> 20,000 attendees. Us: World Con - 6,000 on a good year. We're the
>> runts
>> on the block now and have to learn to be more accepting of our bastard
>> children. We may still be able to bring some of them back into the
>> fold.
>
> I cannot imagine why we'd want to.  (Do *you* want to attend a Worldcon
> with 30,000 attendees?)
>
> Comics fandom has been separate and distinct from SF fandom since the
> mid-'50s (I have been in both).  There was never a question of it
> escaping
> from "the fold," although *all* the early comics fans we know about
> (going
> back to the late '30s) were also SF fans, and SF fandom's nomenclature
> was
> imported wholesale into comics fandom when EC Comics fandom was
> started by
> Bhob Stewart (and, to a much lesser extent, myself).  But it was
> always a
> separate fandom, with separate interests.
>
> When you say "media," I assume you mean STAR TREK.  ST was part of the
> 1966
> Westercon, the 1966 and '67 Worldcons, and no doubt others which
> followed.
> All the original Trek fans were SF fans who created Trek fandom as a
> subfandom, but it quickly took on its own qualities and moved off at
> right
> angles to fandom.
>
> SF fandom is a fandom of *science fiction* -- not of individual
> authors.
> (This enormously disappointed David Gerrold when he found that out.)
> Trek
> fandom is a fandom devoted to *one* TV show, and it worships that
> show's
> "stars."   In this it is much closer to old-fashioned Hollywood movie
> star
> "fandom" -- which used to be celebrated in what were called "movie fan
> mags" in the '30s, '40s, and '50s.   (Those were newsstand
> publications;
> not fanzines.)
>
> Likewise, anime fandom (which kinda grew out of furry animal fandom) is
> devoted to a cultural phenomenon which is tangential at best to SF,
> much
> less SF fandom.
>
> I'm a fan of automobiles, jazz and rock music.   I actually belong to a
> segment of rock "fandom" -- and I had a hand in launching the first
> rock
> fanzine; CRAWDADDY #1 was mimeod in my basement -- where, as "Dr.
> Progresso," I'm internationally known as a radio deejay and for my
> website.
> But it has never occurred to me to amalgamate my interests into a
> single
> fandom -- nor do I want to.
>
> --Ted White
>