Disillusion
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Disillusion |
| Creator: | Sam Moskowitz |
| Date(s): | July 1938 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Fannish disillusionment |
| External Links: | Hosted online. Imagination! #10 pp 6-7. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Disillusion was a 1938 article written by Sam Moskowitz. It presented itself mostly as a general commentary on fandom, but its description of the generic fan lined up exactly to Moskowitz' own life: someone who had read science fiction for years and finally joined fandom, seeing himself as an expert, and recently become disillusioned as a result of personal feuds. In 1938, Moskowitz was involved in a building feud (see Timeline of the New Fandom-Futurians Feud), and some other fans were beginning to get fed up with Moskowitz himself (see responses to The World Changes, published six months after Disillusion).
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IN the title of this article, we have a word that one does not immediately associate with science-fiction. Perhaps most would associate it with what they have read concerning love and its workings. Nevertheless, it takes but a moment's thought to obtain more than a slight suspiction that "disillusion" may also have its niche in science-fiction and its devoted fan world.OBVIOUSLY, the first to feel such pangs of emotion are the comparatively new "fans." Fans who probably have read science-fiction for a number of years and suddenly break in upon the fascinating field adjoining their favorite tales. Always their hopes range high. Fanciful visions of what should be present themselves with an intense clarity that renders them most illogical.
IT sometimes is easy for the fan who has "arrived" to conveniently forget his past disappointments, to render the field artificially entrancing by the terrific whirl of his activitites, that leave little time to consider the why and where of things, and the inside story concerning various incidents. To him they are just another in his concentration of events, simply words in an unwritten history book.
BUT to the new fan who sits wondering in his study, deciphering every possible meaning in every word of the scanty rations doled out to him, disillusion has a more acute meaning.
AT first few fans have little idea of what makes for a good story. The vivid, imaginative quality of the fiction they read is all that concerns them. That one author should turn out a very enjoyable work, and then with the readers department echoing his praises peculiarly disappear from the pages of their favorite magazines, possibly to reappear years later with an extremely disappointing, mediocre story is quite puzzling. It can't be the author they erroneously decide, it must be the editor. Why, that worthless hound won't give this author a break, and the fellow's a good writer too if his story two years ago is any indication of ability. And so in the next fortnight, the befuddled editor is showered with strong worded abuse and thereafter consigned to the role of a Simon Legree par excellence.
PERHAPS a year or so later the science-fiction reader joins the ranks of active fans, and in his meanderings comes across a few lines in a fan magazine, something like this: "Jack McCovey, well-known for his popular story WORLD OF NOTHINGNESS in the July 1932 issue of DIFFERENT STORIES now reveals reason for his fruitless attempt to get further works accepted. It seems that WORLD OF NOTHINGNESS was entirely rewritten as a personal favor by a late master of science-fiction explaining the reason for its popularity. It seems that Jack McCovey has had over thirty stories rejected in the past two years in an almost futile attempt to break into print again."
THERE before him the uninitiated fan sees one of his greatest idol's glory crumbling to nothingness. He finds the man whom he believed a peer among writers just another worthless hack, turning them out a half dozen a week and getting a dozen rejected. Why should this mean anything to the individual fan, it is asked. Yes, why should it? Perhaps the only real explanation that can be given is that the fan's love of his literary choice is so deeply ingrained that the loss of the productions of any worthwile author of fantasy fiction leaves a gaping void that is hard to fill.
HOWEVER, that is but one example of what great disillusionment is presented when the fan finds for the first time that the ownders of his favorite science-fiction magazines, far from being the acme of human perfection are often no better than outright chiselers, keeping their public on false promises and their authors on little more. Can you imagine his feelings for the first time when he reads some quoted phrases from some prominent editor's remarks giving forth that personage's ACTUAL opinion of the character of the fans and just how he stands in relation to them all?
THE blow is hard when one finds himself as just an eccentric sucker who must be humored to insure further profit, instead of an unusual intelligence whose suggestions rank upon sheer genius.
THEN there are objects of disillusion among the fans themselves. Imagine a new fan in the field who sees for the first time an ad in FANTASY MAGAZINE concerning a new fan magazine on the market titled THE SCIENCE-FICTION COLLECTOR. Sixteen pages of information for the collector and at the dirt cheap rate of rate of five cents a copy, six issues for a quarter. On the surface the COLLECTOR is without a question of a doubt the type of a publication that no real fan should miss. The very thought of some of the information the magazine may disclose all but makes the fan slaver at the mouth. Into an envelope goes a quarter; there is no need for a trial copy of a magazine with a title like THE SCIENCE-FICTION COLLECTOR. What happens when he receives the magazine? Well, that's just a matter of just to what degree he is a true fan.
HOW about these subscriptions sent out that never bear results? One soon becomes disgusted after he has experienced a half-dozen or so of these, especially when the magazines bear such intriguing titles as [George R. Hahn's] FANTASIA, [Hayward Kirby's] THE SCIENCE FICTION WORLD, etc., etc.
UNDOUBTEDLY the final, greatest and in many cases culminating shock is experienced when the earnest fan for the first time views in full detail and understanding the true character of a well-known fan he has believed for many years to be "great stuff." In reference to this I can almost quote my own feelings on the matter. Reading for years about certain fans, scanning their writings with quite a bit of respect and believing most of what they stated. Ironically enough, though I always suspected that some of the fans were not quite "top notch." I had not occasion to view factual proofs of this until comparatively recently. Then it came as a most disconcerting blow; on such occasions your entire attitude on the brotherhood of fans becomes warped, perhaps in the truthful channels.
AT such a time, the entire field stands as a disgusting, worthless process consuming time that might have been much more profitably employed. It is at the moment of such revelation that one stands at the crossroads. I know of some of the fans with the staunchest foundations who regretfully choose the most convenient way out. Some there are, however, who survive the flip of the coin and emerge with just another chalk mark under experience. Those fans will last. Perhaps not in the way that the average fan looks upon activity, but nevertheless the individual will always hold somewhere in his being a warm spot for that group of individuals known as the fantasy fans and that unusual mode of entertainment conveniently titled science-fiction.
Responses
Whatever induced YGE to accept ’Disillusion'?! It reads like it was written 2 or 3 yrs ago & is entirely too melodramatic.J. C. Lark [?] : Letter printed in Imagination! #11, pg. 16. Aug. 1938.
If I panned 'Disillusion' Sam Moskowitz'd only make more unkind remarks about my being prejudiced against his stuff: so let it pass.Futurian Dick Wilson: Letter printed in Imagination! #11, pg. 18. Aug. 1938.
Moskowitz's outgushing was in usual place for Samuel -- bottom of the list. I ofttimes wonder why his stuff is published -- after all, few science fiction fans are actually three years old and after that age one is supposed to be able to comprehend the English language sufficiently that mere use of words isn't enough; they ought to mean something.Futurian Fred Pohl: Letter printed in Imagination! #11, pg. 19. Aug. 1938.
Latest issue of Madge just fair.... Moskowitz’s ravings usual meaningless tripe...Futurian Donald A. Wollheim: Letter printed in Imagination! #11, pg. 20. Aug. 1938.
The following were all good: ...'Disillusion'...Marisue Clanton: Letter printed in Imagination! #11, pg. 20. Aug. 1938.