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Arnie Katz, Tru Faaan
Nov. 21st, 2007 08:51 amI don't know Arnie Katz from Adam. He's managed attract my attention by being one of those idiotic fans who like to shout from the rooftops that, 'Anyone who isn't a faaan like I like faaans isn't one, nyaaa!!!' Specifically anyone who isn't a letter hack or fanzine writer isn't a real fan and all of us who run conventions are, "money-oriented pseudo-capitalists without fannish sensibilities."
Needless to say it continues to amaze me that someone so much older than me can be so grossly ignorant of fandom. Theoretically he should have been around the block a few times and know that convention running is not profitable and also one of the core definitions of fandom, for any reasonable definition of that word. For at least 40 years this has been a main activity of clubs alongside creating our fanzines and newsletters. With five words he dismisses the major achievement of fan clubs from ancient storied organizations such as NESFA and LASFS to the almost entirety of my own beloved Denver Area SF Association. For that matter it makes light of thirty years that my best friend Rose Beetem has been running Karval Kon in Limon, Colorado. And my own short eight years in fandom to boot.
This is why I take this as a rather personal insult, though it was not intended for me personally. And it is why I am inspired to fire back with my own essay pointing out a few of his many mistakes.
He calls Corflu the "core fandom worldcon". First off Worldcon has been the name of a particular convention since 1941, if not right back to 1939. I know this because I have a facsimile of the 1941 Denver Worldcon program book. Not to mention all the googleable references to Worldcon meaning the World Science Fiction Convention. On the other hand his particular phrase appears only in articles written by Arnie Katz. Indeed I can find no useage of lowercase generic worldcon to mean the central convention of some subset of fandom aside from him. So where the hell does he get off saying "the use of “worldcon” in lower-case in a context unrelated to the World Science Fiction Convention or to any similar convention is part of every fans cultural heritage"? More like the cultural heritage of a few bitter faaans who stomped off in a huff to start their own con because con runners did not want to cater to the few people who wanted to exclude everything but 'zine writing.
He also says that he was threatened by unspecified Worldcon personages with legal action. More likely some sensible fan called him on his incorrect usage of Worldcon and decided to play the victim as is typical of his ilk. Nice bit of double think on his part. Conventions are run by "money-oriented pseudo-capitalists without fannish sensibilities", except for Corflu and he wants to steal those 'unfannish' Worldcon fans name to refer to it. What he hell is he thinking? All evidence points to, "Not much."
I wish it was worth their time to sue this idiot. He deserves it.
Needless to say it continues to amaze me that someone so much older than me can be so grossly ignorant of fandom. Theoretically he should have been around the block a few times and know that convention running is not profitable and also one of the core definitions of fandom, for any reasonable definition of that word. For at least 40 years this has been a main activity of clubs alongside creating our fanzines and newsletters. With five words he dismisses the major achievement of fan clubs from ancient storied organizations such as NESFA and LASFS to the almost entirety of my own beloved Denver Area SF Association. For that matter it makes light of thirty years that my best friend Rose Beetem has been running Karval Kon in Limon, Colorado. And my own short eight years in fandom to boot.
This is why I take this as a rather personal insult, though it was not intended for me personally. And it is why I am inspired to fire back with my own essay pointing out a few of his many mistakes.
He calls Corflu the "core fandom worldcon". First off Worldcon has been the name of a particular convention since 1941, if not right back to 1939. I know this because I have a facsimile of the 1941 Denver Worldcon program book. Not to mention all the googleable references to Worldcon meaning the World Science Fiction Convention. On the other hand his particular phrase appears only in articles written by Arnie Katz. Indeed I can find no useage of lowercase generic worldcon to mean the central convention of some subset of fandom aside from him. So where the hell does he get off saying "the use of “worldcon” in lower-case in a context unrelated to the World Science Fiction Convention or to any similar convention is part of every fans cultural heritage"? More like the cultural heritage of a few bitter faaans who stomped off in a huff to start their own con because con runners did not want to cater to the few people who wanted to exclude everything but 'zine writing.
He also says that he was threatened by unspecified Worldcon personages with legal action. More likely some sensible fan called him on his incorrect usage of Worldcon and decided to play the victim as is typical of his ilk. Nice bit of double think on his part. Conventions are run by "money-oriented pseudo-capitalists without fannish sensibilities", except for Corflu and he wants to steal those 'unfannish' Worldcon fans name to refer to it. What he hell is he thinking? All evidence points to, "Not much."
I wish it was worth their time to sue this idiot. He deserves it.