Arnie Katz, Tru Faaan

[mishalak]

I 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.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Looks like he very nearly was threatened with legal action; at least, Kevin is on the WSFS Mark Protection committee, the group charged with doing so when necessary. (The post doesn't say a formal protest or objection of any sort was delivered, which is why I say "very nearly".)

http://kevin-standlee.livejournal.com/436396.html

(Mind you, Arnie is being an idiot about this, and displaying a tremendous ignorance of trademark law as well as the other areas of ignorance that you point out.)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

No, it looks more like from that that someone wrote to him to correct his bad usage of Worldcon and he is trying to play up the big bad empire of the not real fans coming after us tru faaans angle.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

"Older than you" is part of the problem. He presumably imprinted on his first contact with fandom.

It's like me believing that a real convention has hall costumes.

On the other hand, his lack of mental flexibility is probably his own fault.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Most fans I know are older than me, but they are not mostly against fandom ever changing. I only know of two who regularly complain about our local convention having become "too large" and the like. (And they still go.)

And I cannot imagine, say, Jack Speer making arguments like this. Katz has managed to get old without becoming either smart or wise.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Real conventions do have hall costumes and masquerades. 4E and Myrtle wore hall costumes to the first Worldcon, and the second Worldcon featured a costume contest.

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Okay, first off, yes, Arnie is acting like an idiot. He thinks that fanzine fandom is "real fandom", and although I am a fanzine fan, I am also a conrunner, costumer, media fan, et cetera, and that bothers me.

But I think his remark springs from fannish history, which says that the first sf conventions, in the 1930s, were gatherings of fans who were letterhacks to the sf fanzines, in other words, the early fanzine fans. (The Fancyclopedia says, "The Second Eastern States Science-Fiction Convention was held in New York early in 1937, under the auspices of the ISA. The chief event, aside from the first mention of a World Science Fiction Convention, was a handshake between Wollheim and Julius Schwartz which ended the warfare of their factions.") So his idea that Corflu, a fanzine fan convention, is a worldcon of "core" fandom, is sort of a historical view.

While I understand WorldCon's wish to protect their name and trademark, I have to say that I have OFTEN heard Corflu referred to as "fanzine fandom's worldcon" -- by attendees of Corflu, while AT Corflu. Just the same way that somebody says, I'm going to xerox this document, or hand me the kleenex. Arnie has just happened to write it down and piss people off.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

His view is not historic, it is wrong. Fanzines and letter hacking were the way that fans kept in contact in the 1930s, do not mistake the medium for the message or the content. It would be like some convention about computers programmers saying that only people who keep in contact via usenet are real computer programmers, because that's how they first decided to come together for conventions.

Worldcon is the Worldcon of fans and always has been. Calling some little specialty convention that started because sometime in the 1980s a 'worldcon' of X subset of the big subset is like me declaring that my birthday is the 'worldcon' of Mishalak fans. Meaningless fluffing.

And I'm not angry about that. I'm slagging him because he calls all convention runners, except those anointed by the holy waters of fanzine writing and letter hacking (funny how running Corflu is fannish and running an actual Worldcon isn't), money-oriented pseudo-capitalists.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Bayer didn't fight the battle against the generic use of "Aspirin" and lost their trademark. Kimberly-Clark fought the battle against the generic use of "Kleenex" and lost but not so badly that they lost their trademark. Xerox won the battle against the generic use of "Xerox" and that generic usage has almost died out.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

It has always been like this. There's a contingent in fanzine fandom who think they invented all of it. The best revenge is seeing fanzine fans come to terms with the Internet.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'd put it that Fanzine Fans (including prozine letterhacks) _did_ invent the Worldcon [(TM)/(UM)/(whatever)]. They were certainly still producing them in the early 1960s, when I attended my first few. Since then, the much-better-organized and more specialist convention fans have taken them over, and trade-marked (or whatever) the very word "Worldcon" (TM), much as a group of Big Business people have trademarked "Olympics"(TM) and "Olympic Games".(TM).

Arnie Katz knows all this, he just Doesn't Like It (which is okay by me), and seems to be emphasizing a dichotomy between two styles of conventions and two aspects of fannishnes (which seems to me more questionable).

I might point out, however, that our fandom has traditionally been a Do It Yourself thing, and the concept of appealing to Mundane Authority via Law suite is repulsively Unfannish. (Mind you, publishing Highly-Impassioned -- and not always entirely coherent -- arguments & responses is well within The Fannish Tradition, right up there with Quibbling as a FanWriting ArtForm.)



.

[gomeza.livejournal.com]

There are loons in the world. Think of them as windmills, and consider whether your time is best spent playing Don Quixote.

[eiricmacbean.livejournal.com]

My first thought was, "Sic 'em, boy!". But I gotta admit that this putz isn't worth your time or energy. Unfortunately, I have heard of this eejit, and none of it very positive.
One advantage of his being older than you...he'll probably fade away much sooner!

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

matt, i really, really, REALLY want to see your facsimile of the 1941 Denver Worldcon program book. may i?