The Greater Plan Season
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| Title: | The Great Plan Season |
| Creator: | Robert Sherman |
| Date(s): | Printed May 1941 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | The glut of proposed zines and organizations during the First Transition |
| External Links: | Hosted online by the Iowa Digital Library; The Science Fiction Fan #56, pp. 16-23. April 1941. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Greater Plan Season was an essay published 1941 by Robert Sherman. Sherman discussed the First Transition during 1936-1937, which spawned a huge number of proposed zines and other fan projects during a period where fans were turning away from the pro magazines and seeking out fandom itself. Sherman said that the Transition had prompted some fans to leave in despair because they felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of quality material that was supposedly about to drown out their own contributions. He added that a similar phenomenon had happened every autumn since then.
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Autumn has always been, and probably always will be, "The Greater Plan Season" in science-fiction fandom.
Sherman explains that every fall in science fiction fandom, fans began to publish their plans for huge new projects.
Elaborate announcements of printed fan mags have always been predominant; your worst enemy who you thought you had gotten rid of once and for all suddenly reappears just long enough to announce some astounding new project that it seems will singe the hair off your head; leventy seven new fan mags are announced from every corner of the land and often globe, and each and every one seems to have set up an array of features that will put those appearing in your fan mag to shame. Even the pros prefer to send lightning bolts of thought consternation into our midst just about early Autumn. In fact things often seem to be changing with such astonishing rapidity that I have known many fans to quit at this time merely because they believed that they and their project had been completely showered under by new projects.... Though you may think otherwise fans are actually slow workers. They don't like to be rushed and they may, often or not, lose their head and their interest in fantasy if it seems to them that they are being unduly harrassed by conditions beyond their control.When one considers this point, it is not too hard to comprehend how "The Greater Plan Season" in science-fiction fandom can at times prove a disturbing, if not actually damaging phenomenon.
Usually, the larger part of this bombardment of suggestions and intentions takes the form of proposed fan magazines. In late 1936 the most gigantic wave of announcements ever perpetrated upon a gasping science-fiction fandom occurred. "Fantasy Magazine" resulted, which subscribers in turn became active fans. Shepherd with the TFG Bulletin and Dollens with the Science Fiction Collector had shown fandom that you need not be a financial giant to issue a fan magazine, and particularly the Collector, The Planeteer, in its early format, the two Science Fiction Reviews, one published by Claire P Beck and the other by R. M. Holland, and also others had displayed to the fans that a fan editor might not only get far from a genius, but an inspired dope, and gradually, over the period of nine months instilled the idea into fans that anybody and everybody could issue a fan magazine if they wished. There was hell to pay. It seemed that deep down inside every "real" fan there was the gnawing urge to issue a fan magazine. It seems that the elaboracy of such publications as "Fantasy Magazine", "Fantasy Fan", "Marvel Tales", had instilled in them the idea that it was a rich man's pleasure. But, once it dawned upon them that they too, as well as some of their eminent contemporaries could also be a "big" fan and publish a fan magazine, that far from being impossible, all it called for was a little work, a touch of egotism, and a fanatic attachment to fantasy---there was no stopping them. Then, not only ideas but actual fan mags, of every description and variety poured out of a hitherto clear sky in black, dense clouds of suffocating volume. It wasn't bad enough that there materialized some twenty-five projects, but fans had to also make their fellows dizzier than they already were, by broaching an endless stream of "maybe" projects. The fan mags actually published, combined with another hundred which never reach a stage of prominence much greater than wishful thinking, wrought veritable chaos in the fan world.
Pawing through the pages of the fan magazines of late Summer and Fall of 1936 we find something like this: A new English fan magazine called "Scientifiction" is to be issued by Gillings and Ted Carnell in England. This will be a really auspicious effort, featuring a thoroughly professional printing job; the ISA plans a special printed Rocket Bulletin; Willis Conover broaches plans for the "Science-Fantasy Correspondent" to feature material by Jack Williamson, David H. Keller, M.D.,, H. P. Lovecraft, Henry Kuttner, John Russel Fearn, Seabury Quinn, Robert Bloch, Greye La Spina and innumerable others--this magazine to be first class printed job and mailed out to thousands; Frederick Pohl is to bring out a new fan magazine called "Fantastory" and among other things to feature a poem by Lovecraft ("Clouds" later printed in "Spaceways"): Hayward S. Kirby Jr., will bring out "Fantasy Fiction Digest" in connection with "Fantasy Fiction League" is organizing; Milton A. Rothman will edit a new fan magazine now being printed in Philadelphia (turns out to be the hektographed "Fantasy Fiction Telegram" with Rothman nothing any more important than an associate); "Supraemundane Stories" will be multigraphed this Fall by Nils H. Frome; Corwin F. Stinckney to form a science fantasy correspondence club; Pohl will also issue "Mind of Man", and "The Mutant"; Kyle's "Fantasy World" will be mimeographed this Fall for general distribution; McPhail's "Science Fiction News" will be printed in October; he will also issue a small magazine called "Strange"; "Fantascience Digest" is a printed magazine planned in Philly; Morris S. Dollens will bring out "Science Adventure Stories" this Fall: R. H. Barlow is privately printing Lovecraft's "Fungi From Yuggoth"...
There will be the first British Stf. Convention in Leeds Jan. 2, 1937; Dave Kyle of Monticello N. Y. is organizing a new and promising organization which appears to be on the level, something lacking in most of the new clubs spring up (where have I heard that before?); It is probably that a British Science Fiction Association will result from the convention; "Fanciful Tales" an elaborate printed publication featuring Lovecraft, Howard, Derleth, etc., will appear this Fall; Claire P. Beck plans to recontinue his "Critic" in new and more elaborate printed form; The SFA will continue with a monthly mimeographed club organ; The First National Convention to be held in in N. Y. this February; Jim Blish will issue "Curious Stories", Odd and Nova; The International Observer will mimeograph a jumbo scientifiction number to be 40 large size pages, and feature material by H. P. Lovecraft, E. E. Smith, J. Harvey Haggard, Jack Williamson, Laurence Manning, Raymond A. Palmer, et al; William Crawford reports that "Marvel Tales will be on the newstands shortly, featuring Weinbaum, Lovecraft, E. E. Smith etc. Bill Miller Jr. plans Phantistique; and there were more, many more. And you poor fans think you're being deluged with fan magazines today. To any fan who had been attaining some small degree of noteriety before this date all seemed hopeless. He could never, ever, hope to cope with the magnitude and scope of the above mentioned projects. It was becoming evident that all his labors had been in vain. That he would be smothered under by a deluge of new fans and new projects, everyone better than anything he could hope to offer. 'Twas no use, he might as well give up. Many did fade out of fan activities after that--but the expected splurge of fan publications did not materialize in quite the manner expected. Prominent fans became more prominent-no one who stuck around was snowed under.
"Scientifiction" appeared in England amidst many comparisons with American printed publications--but it appeared the next January. Beck's "Critic" appeared and kept appearing at six weekly and bimonthly and quarterly intervals--similarly did the "Science Fantasy Correspondent". The ISA published its gala issue and collapsed a few months afterwards. The England convention flopped--the N. Y. one [(the Second Eastern States Science Fiction Convention)] was a fairish sort of thing soon forgotten; Fanciful Tales published one issue and was seen no more; McPhail printed three issues of the "News" and had to give up; Bill Miller turned out after inordinate delays one number of Phantastique and gave up; None of Blish's projects appeared; Hayward S. Kirby's great new organization along with the Phantasy Legion blossomed a few months and disappeared; The SFAA continued staidly and was temporarily suspended by the next May; The Correspondent changed editors after two issues and the list of great names was a thing of the past; No Rocket Bulletin appeared; Science Adventure Stories was published more than two years later by Oswald Train; The Fantasy Fiction Telegram petered out in four numbers; Fantasy Magazine combined with the Correspondent; Fantascience Digest appeared a year and a half later hektographed; Fantasia never appeared; Pohl issued only a couple of tiny, worthless "Minds of Man", the rest of his projects bit the dust; Wollheim never got around to publishing "Scarlet Fantasy"; Marvel Tales never again appeared; Barlow did not turn out the "Fungi From Yuggoth"; McPhail never issued "Strange" and six months after all these initial announcements the field was virtually barren with about six fan magazines publishing regularly and few new ones in sight.
The Science Fiction Critic, Amateur Correspondent, The Science Fiction Fan, and Scientifiction appeared at mighty sparse intervals by the next Summer and no fan had the least trouble in naming all the regularly published fan magazines.
And every Fall and late Summer since 1936 I've seen the same thing happen. I've seen an amazing barrage of projected publications and projects of auspicious greatness contemplated. Plans that put the best things of that time to shame----only to see the fan world clean as a slate six months later with very few additions to show for all of its planning--and always a few less "top" fans who feared they could not survive the blitzkrieg.
Don't let big ideas fool you fans. If they do appear they depend upon you for survival. And you can only support a limited number--the best. If a man has a dollar to spend and you offer him two dollars worth of goods you're still going to sell only a dollars worth.
Fans may contemplate ten thousand new fan magazines in one year if they wish. After all the contemplating is over there'll only be a dozen or so left--for that's the number that can readily obtain enough material, subscriptions, and general support to keep them going.
The Greater Plan Season is always interesting. It usually produces a few items that stay with us. Last Fall it gave us "Stardust" and "Golden Atom" and a few others. Next Fall it may give us other worthwhile magazines. Support the most worthwhile--you never lose out that way---or your head.
There's no room for jealousy. If a fan can do something better than you can, there are two things you can do about it. 1. Get jealous and try to hurt him. 2. pitch in and cooperate with him, making the project your own and practically getting part credit for its success. Let's not be bound by our pettiness next time the "Greater Plan Season" comes around. Don't desert old faithfuls that have proven their worth, but hold off for a while and let your pet project dawdle a bit until you see how the wind blows. Don't risk getting snowed under -- it's a purely normal phenomenon.