Corflu (glossary term)
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Mimeograph, Zine Production, Stencil |
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The Stencil Correction Fluid, or Corflu, used in mimeograph printing, was as crucial a component to fandom in the early zine days as LJ is to fandom now. And just like LJ, fans were indebted to it and hated it: As Djinanna said, "I think we did at least 5 or 6 zines with an old hand-cranked mimeograph machine before we find a photocopy place that was cheaper. Thank the gods, because my brain didn't quite get rotted from the corflu -- that stuff was *lethal*."[1]
On the sf side of fanzine fandom, CORFLU, a yearly fanzine con, keeps alive the august history of this once vital fluid.
From the editorial in the 1979 Starsky and Hutch zine Me and Thee: "No. Really. I knew about good old Corflu. But finding out that there are six million types of stencils and each type costs more than the last was frustrating. And having to run out before the stores closed on a Saturday night to find some kind, ANY KIND of glue that would hold the broken typing element together for a few hours was a lot of laughs."
According to Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, the term was in use as early as 1960.