The Gap
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Gap |
| Creator: | Sam Youd |
| Date(s): | March 1939 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Differences between American and British SF fandom; feuding in fandom |
| External Links: | Hosted online by the Iowa Digital Library. The Science Fiction Fan Vol. 2 #8 pp. 16-17. March 1939 (mislabeled 1938 in metatext). |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Gap was a 1939 essay by science fiction fan Sam Youd.
Youd explained what he saw as the fundamental differences between American and British fans, especially in light of some heated feuds that had recently emerged in American fandom. He urged fans to join together in one super organization, based in both countries at once and focused on unity and advancing science fiction, rather than having American fans alienate their British counterparts.
At the time Youd was writing, the American International Scientific Association had been disbanded and the Science Fiction League was struggling, although it technically still existed. Both groups had met with disaster in a long-term power struggle that began with an alliance between Donald A. Wollheim and William S. Sykora. (See also Timeline of the New Fandom-Futurians Feud.)
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It has always been obvious that between American and British fans there is something of a division, a difference of temperament or character that produces a different reaction to stf and its allied interests.Probably the greatest contrast bewteen American and British fan is the fundamental one of their respective attitudes toward fantasy. Americans, it seems to us, take their favorite literature too much to heart, while among trans-atlantic fans we Britishers have gained a reputation for coldness and lack of enthusiasm. There is much truth in both of these views.
The U.S.A. is a very young nation and its inhabitants have much of the creative impulse which has largely spent itself in Europe. With this creatice urge there is a tendency to let all interests become subordinated to one, a kind of super-enthusiasm which stretvhes out to engulf eveey thing.
Britain, on the other hand has a long history behind it, so long that the equipoise of empire has well established itself and there is much justification for the fear that inevitable decadence has begun to set in. In any case, Englishmen have a stolidly of character, and a moral code which forbids any great show of enthusiasm, with a few exceptions. English fans take the common-sense view that fantasy cannot be an integral part of their lives; it is at best a hobby and a diversion.
It would be futile to endeavor to judge bewteen the two points of view, for, as I have said, they depend on national character. As to the truth of my assertion, that can be easily seen in the development of fan magazines and activity in the two countries. The ventual result of this gap is another matter.
It is my opinion that it will widen and eventually force the two groups into their own camps away from one another. Already one or two British fans have expressed themselves as being "fed up with this American squabbling" and Britishers, I know, have many enemies among prominent American fans. If things go on as they are going, with the added stimulus of their own magazines, fan productions and society, five years will see an almost complete drift-away of the British, except for private correspondence. Such a happening would be a great pity, because both sides have much to give towards a potential whole.
AS I see it, this can be prevented in only one way-by a concerted effort on the part of British and American fans to settle all their differences and as Americans put it "get together". This has not been attempted before--of the three main societies both the SFL and ISA were essentially American, while the SFA is supremely British in every way.
The ideal society would have hq's in both countries and regular magazine productions, entirely devoted to a process of unification and reconciliation. "rows" would be barred but such controversial subjects as Michelism and cetera could be thrashed out in their pages without abuse or dramatic expressions of self-pity.
A steady campaign could be fought for the enlargement of the fan field. Every new writer to the letters ssctions of the magazines would be a potential convert, and with a really large, organized force, pressure might be brought to bear upon some magazine editors and a worthwhile effort to elevate stf be made.
It is with fans to decide whether they shall continue on their present war-path or attempt to organize themselves in accordance with the utopia they so eagerly advocate.