What's New About New Fandom?
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| Title: | What's New About New Fandom? |
| Creator: | Robert A. W. Lowndes |
| Date(s): | March 1939 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Science Fiction |
| Topic: | New Fandom, the planning committee for Worldcon 1939 |
| External Links: | Hosted online by the Iowa Digital Library. The Science Fiction Fan Vol 2. #8 pp. 5-6, 19. March 1939. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What's New About New Fandom? was a 1938 article by Robert A. W. Lowndes that addressed the ongoing feud between New Fandom and his own leftist fanclub, the Futurians. At the time it was written, New Fandom had recently been formed. Former friends Donald A. Wollheim and William S. Sykora were at war, and Sykora was using New Fandom to plan the first Worldcon, kicking Wollheim and his allies off a committee that had been formed in 1937.
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Excellent as Olon F. Wiggins' article in a recent issue of FAN in debunking the hypocritical claims of NEW FANDOM is, there are still a few items which the article did not cover, and which are particularly pertinent today.NEW FANDOM does represent at least one new phase in the field of fandom---an open, reactionary axis, designed to represent stf and stf fandom to the world (through the medium of the World's Fair convention) as a meaningless mass of juvenile escapism, blissfully unaware of what is happening outside of the covers of current stf magazines.
While the failures of relatively honest editors such as Campbell to take definite sides with the progressive Michelist element in stf and fandom is not reprehensible (no editor can justly be blamed for not sticking his neck out, particularly in support of a group that is definitely in the minority, no matter how praiseworthy) their actions in supporting and abetting dishonest and anti-progressive cliques such as NEW FANDOM cannot in any way be explained or condoned. The open hypocrisy and dishonesty of the Standard Group and the Ziff-Davis group is plainly evident in their actions and publications of the last year. Anent the World's Fair, it should be remembered that a committee was appointed at the 2nd Eastern States Convention of '37 for this purpose, and that Campbell, Weisinger and Margulies agreed at a meeting with Wollheim and Sykora that the faction of which Wollheim is a member---ie: Michelist---would be represented in the convention committee. This statement, made verbally, has been totally disregarded by Sykora. And Campbell, Weisinger and Margulies have made no effort to follow their pledges. In the face of open doublecrossing by Sykora, they have remained silent, and continue to support one they know to be dishonest.
It is also known that Sykora has made a muddle of every convention or organized fan-activity that he has handled so far. Still, the editors of the stf magazines, whose success will be affected to a considerable degree by the [failure or success] of the convention, sit by supinely and make no effort to collaborate with fans whose competency and honesty has been proveen by years of activity. I do not here, necessarily, refer to Wollheim: while he is rightfully throned as the leading personality to the stf fan field, there are others who are capable, and in whose hands the convention could be placed with some measure of confidence. While it is true that Sykora is not the only member of the NEW FANDOM group or the convention committee, it is also true that his collaborators, who we will not dignify with the title of "stooges", are equally incompetent.
In the face of what has happened and the outright refusal of the editors to accept cooperation from the Michelist faction, there is little we can do but set back and watch the farce play itself out. Our personal opinion is that the convention is likely to go over through the sheer weight of the numbers and enthusiasm of the fans who attend it; if this is so, it will succeed despite the inane workings of NEW FANDOM, but NEW FANDOM will, of course claim all honors, this too, however, is unimportant.
If the convention fails, as it might, we will be regaled, no doubt, by the most absurd and palpably false stories from Sykora about the terrible machinations of the Michelists, the Reds, the stooges of Moscow, who disrupted the proceedings because they could not run it themselves. The editors, in this event, will be glad to keep quiet and let the blame be shiftd to someone other than themselves.
However, there is one thing we Michelists can do. We can expose the crooked workings of NEW FANDOM and the welching attitudes of the editors and let those who are interested in the facts take heed. And if our prophecies are fulfilled (which, to tell the truth, we rather fear they will---though we'd be glad to wrong for once) it will be only because our past experience and our knowledge of how reaction works, makes such prophecies very easy.
Were NEW FANDOM really new, were it an honest association of stf hobbyists, we would be glad to drive our support to it. There is a very definite place for sincere fan-hobbying, futile as it may be, because only full experience with the best that fan-hobbying has to offer can finally convince the intelligent fan that, as a form of escape from the realities without, is entirely inadequate.