The Next Trend
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| Title: | The Next Trend |
| Creator: | Milton A. Rothman |
| Date(s): | January 1940 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | Numbered Fandoms, the dawn of fan conventions, correspondence vs. in-person visits |
| External Links: | Hosted online by fanac.org; Fantascience Digest #12 pp. 10-11 (Jan. 1940) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Next Trend was a humorous essay by Milton A. Rothman. It was printed in the January 1940 issue of Fantascience Digest. Rothman began with some factual talk about the changes in science fiction fandom and the dawn of the convention age, then made some joking predictions about the future of fan travel, including armored cars for feuding fans.
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The history loving type of science fiction fan has reveled in the joy of analyzing science fiction history, and dividing it up into periods and trends. There was the period when fans did nothing but read the science fiction magazines. Then there came a period of the prehistoric fan magazines, led by the SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST. Then the period when fans forgot that the professional magazines existed, and concentrated on the fan magazines. This overlapped with the start of the fan feuds, which, curiously, was coincident with the beginning of the convention period.
And that last leads up to the new trend. Up to now, all of fan work has been done by correspondence. It was a marvelous thing when a fan from one city got to see the face of a fan in another city. Never will I forget that momentous day, long ago, when Mort Weisinger and Charlie Hornig popped in on me, one sweltering July afternoon, on their way to the Chicago World's Fair. That was the very first time an outside fan had ever shown himself in Philadelphia. And it was likewise a historic event when Donald A. Wollheim came to see me, some months afterwards, for that was the first time there had ever been a prearranged visit between New York and Philadelphia.
Gradually travel has increased. The ISA used to make a practice of going in mobs to visit fans of nearby villages. Then annual conventions started the influx to New York every year. While I lived in Philadelphia, I only had to make the trip to New York. Now that I am in Washington, I have two trips to make every year, solely because of fan activities.
In the meantime, fans have been touring the country, mostly by automobile. Charlie Hornig's record will probably never be exceeded in this respect, but Dick Wilson's crowd made a pretty nice trip, getting out to Chicago from New York. And the Chicago boys, Reinsberg, Korshak, etc., has come east twice in four months. Once to New York and once to Philadelphia.
Texas came to New York in July, stopping in Oklahoma for Walter Sullivan. California was there. And next summer, from every corner of the compass, fandom will congregate for the convention there.
Everywhere, as fans are growing up and, either coming into more monetary means, or finding what a wonderful mode of transportation the thumb is, they are learning the ways of travel, and are beginning to get around to see each other, instead of being content with correspondence.
It is obvious that this should happen, for science fiction's fans must by their very nature, be more severely afflicted with the wanderlust that any other people.
So the thought came to me as I sat at the dinner table in Harry Warner's house, located among the lovely hills of Western Maryland.... Harry Warner seems to be rather fortunately situated. He hasn't stirred out of the twon once, but everybody who makes a trip anywhere seems to pass through Hagerstown, and thus through Harry's house. California, Chicago, Texas, anybody that goes further west than Ohio.
Anyhow, as I was saying, the thought came to me that the rising trend in fandom is travel, instead of correspondence. I see a time when science fiction fans will be swarming all over the countryside visiting one another. They will come in carloads, in trainloads, over hill and dale, making the Grand Canyon ring with the reverberation of their Strange cries.
I forsee science fiction fans making a living by operating special busses for the purpose of carrying delegates from one convention to another. The trailer business will boom, for fans will discover that it's more fun to live in a trailerand go around visiting their erstwhile correspondents than to sit prosaicly at home and be content with writing letters. It will be easy to do this when the time comes that all fans have hit the market and make their money by writing stories. All authors live in trailers.
Airplanes will zoom through space carrying commuters from the Queens SFL to the Los Angeles SFL. I can even forsee the time when fan feuds have become so intense that their leaders will travel around in armored cars. One sees the other approaching, insignia raised on high. Armor tight, gas masks adjusted, cannon pointed, and when the smoke cleats away there will be a few less fan magazines on the market.
Oh, I can forsee lots of things to come in the future, but it gets rather nauseating, so I shan't go any farther. Anyway---- I'll be seeing you!