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dhole (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dhole) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} fandom_wank,@ 2008-05-21 15:56:00 |
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The Cosmic Circle of Wank.
Here's another retro-wank. It involves a fannish breeding camp in the Ozarks.
Intrigued? Read on.
Before I start, a lot of the dates and names and places come from fancyclopedia's entry on Degler. Not all, but a lot.
In the early 1940s, a fellow by the name of Claude Degler got into fandom, in a big way. Despite being flat broke, he attended a fair number of cons – Chicon I in 1940, the 1943 Boskone, etc, etc. He got to cons by hitch-hiking, and sleeping on the floors of various other fans who agreed to put him up. They often regretted that decision; Larry Shaw, a prominent fan of the day, after initially liking some of Degler's idea, discovered that some of his fanzines were missing after Degler's prolonged stay, and declared feud. That wasn't the first, nor the last feud that Degler was involved in.
One of the things that Degler did, while hitch-hiking across the country, was get addresses of subscribers to various SF&F magazines, and visit them; whenever he could get them to agree, and often when they wouldn't, he'd organize them into local groups, which he'd then arrange in a national hierarchy. When he couldn't find fans, unknown or known, he'd make them up. Degler loved organizations, and he created them like Sandow from Isle of the Dead spinning worlds out of nothing: The Circle of Atzor, Alabama all-fans, Empire State Fans, Fans of the Island, and many, many, many more all were founded by Degler. And they were all part of the Cosmic Circle.
You see, in 1940, A. E. Van Vogt, who was writing crack-riddled novels decades before they invented crack, had his novel, Slan, serialized in Astounding Science Fiction. As wikipedia describes it:
The book describes the horrible oppression of the wonderful Slans, and how they use their wonderfulness to fight back against the mean people who oppress them. "Fans are slans" became a sort of jokey self-identification thing. Except for Degler, who really, deeply believed it.
From Degler's The Cosmic Circle Commentator #1 (as quoted in The Philosophical Theory of Fan History):
The plan was to get every fan (or, if you prefer "Cosman") in the world into one of these organizations, and then. . . well, and then the solar system. From the end of that issue (as quoted in All Our Yesterdays, 27)
Oh, and about those children, who will carry on the organization until all eternity. Degler's mom had some land in the Ozarks (or so Degler claimed; lord knows Degler said a lot of things.) Or, as Degler saw it, "A Cosmic Camp, owned by the Cosmic Circle". Where fans can meet fans, and well, ensure the continuation of that actual mutation in the species that lets certain people read Perry Rhodan. It's for the good of the fannation, comrade!
As might be expected, this approach did not win universal approval for people who just wanted to get together and talk about whether the Grey Lensman could beat Cthulhu in a fight, or whatever it was that fans talked about back then. This talk of the nucleus of a master race didn't sit very well, in the early 40s, for some reason, and the Cosmic Circle publications were giving fandom a bad name.
The anti-Deglerians also found him hilarious, putting out things like the Comic Circle Commentator, the Trivial Triangle Troubadour, and so on. And, as the questions started being asked, a number of unwitting fans discovered they were members in Cosmic Circle Groups, or had positions within the Cosmic Circle itself. Also, a lot of the people who were actually involved in the Cosmic Circle didn't seem to exist outside of Degler's head. It's not entirely clear if there was ever anyone enthusiastic about the Cosmic Circle beside Degler, and his girlfriend. His girlfriend, who he been in trouble for dating before she turned legal.
Which was just one of the entertaining things that Jack Speer, one of the leading lights of fandom at the time, discovered when he wrote "An Investigation at Newcastle", a short fanzine about Degler and the Cosmic Circle. In addition to learning that Degler had been forced to leave Newcastle for having an illicit relationship with a minor in 1942, he also discovered that Degler had been a resident of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane from 1936 to 1937, and released against the advice of the doctors.
Degler, of course, did not take this reaction lying down. For an example, let's turn again to All Our Yesterdays 27. This'll make more sense if you know that "Don Rogers" was one of Degler's pen-names, and the "Ashley Atrocity" was when a fan by the name of Al Ashley declined to invite Degler into his house.
If only they had invented stutter typing back then, perhaps Ashley would have realized the harm he had caused.
Why he had thought Ashley would welcome him, remains something of a mystery, as does much Deglerism; Ashley had written "The Stefan". Dal Coger's The Degler Legend, in Mimosa 28 describes it as "a four page mimeo fanzine, published for FAPA, March 1943. It is a parody of "The Raven" in 18 verses of 11 lines each.", and he gives this excerpt:
Anyhow, a last quote from All Our Yesterdays 27, part of a speech that Degler never gave upon being forced out of LASFS:
After just a couple of years of Cosmic Circle evangelism, Degler dropped out of fandom, and most of the fuss died down. Degler tried to return to fandom under different names: John Chrisman in 1947, John York in 1949, Don Rogers again in the 50s, and, rather astonishingly, under his own name 1981, at InConJunction, an Indianapolis convention. But he never made as much of a splash as he had the first time around, and faded into legend.
And then came the curious story of Henry Argasinski. I've gotten this from Teresa Nielsen Hayden's "Hell, 12 Feet", where Degler appears as a sort of Ghost of Fannish Ambition, and I let her tell it in her own words:
There are any number of fannish remembrances of Degler. In addition to the obvious crazy, there was the hilariously awful quality of his fanzines; a fan at the time described them as "bowel movements postmarked 'Newcastle'". But most fans who didn't have him eat all their food and steal their fanzines generally remember him with a certain fondness. I think I'll end with Coger's conclusion:
Here's another retro-wank. It involves a fannish breeding camp in the Ozarks.
Intrigued? Read on.
Before I start, a lot of the dates and names and places come from fancyclopedia's entry on Degler. Not all, but a lot.
In the early 1940s, a fellow by the name of Claude Degler got into fandom, in a big way. Despite being flat broke, he attended a fair number of cons – Chicon I in 1940, the 1943 Boskone, etc, etc. He got to cons by hitch-hiking, and sleeping on the floors of various other fans who agreed to put him up. They often regretted that decision; Larry Shaw, a prominent fan of the day, after initially liking some of Degler's idea, discovered that some of his fanzines were missing after Degler's prolonged stay, and declared feud. That wasn't the first, nor the last feud that Degler was involved in.
One of the things that Degler did, while hitch-hiking across the country, was get addresses of subscribers to various SF&F magazines, and visit them; whenever he could get them to agree, and often when they wouldn't, he'd organize them into local groups, which he'd then arrange in a national hierarchy. When he couldn't find fans, unknown or known, he'd make them up. Degler loved organizations, and he created them like Sandow from Isle of the Dead spinning worlds out of nothing: The Circle of Atzor, Alabama all-fans, Empire State Fans, Fans of the Island, and many, many, many more all were founded by Degler. And they were all part of the Cosmic Circle.
You see, in 1940, A. E. Van Vogt, who was writing crack-riddled novels decades before they invented crack, had his novel, Slan, serialized in Astounding Science Fiction. As wikipedia describes it:
Slans are the product of human evolution and have the psychic abilities to read minds and are super-intelligent. They possess near limitless stamina, "nerves of steel", and superior strength and speed. When Slans are ill or seriously injured, they go into a healing trance automatically.
There are two kinds of Slans. One has tendrils and can read the minds of ordinary humans and telepathically communicate with other Slans. The tendrils are golden in colour thus making it easy to spot a slan. These Slans are hunted to near extinction. The other type of Slan is tendrilless. They are still super intelligent but do not have psychic capabilities, only the ability to hide their thoughts from the first type of Slan.
The book describes the horrible oppression of the wonderful Slans, and how they use their wonderfulness to fight back against the mean people who oppress them. "Fans are slans" became a sort of jokey self-identification thing. Except for Degler, who really, deeply believed it.
From Degler's The Cosmic Circle Commentator #1 (as quoted in The Philosophical Theory of Fan History):
Declaration of existence: of a new race or group of cosmic-thinking people, a new way of life, a cosmology of all things. Cosmen, the cosmic men, will appear. We believe we are actual mutations of the species.
The plan was to get every fan (or, if you prefer "Cosman") in the world into one of these organizations, and then. . . well, and then the solar system. From the end of that issue (as quoted in All Our Yesterdays, 27)
We have created a fannationalism, a United World Fandom. Someday soon we will have our own apartment building, then our own land, our own city of Cosmen, schools, teachers, radio programme — later; our own laws, country perhaps! Our children shall inherit not only this earth — but this universe! Today we carry 22 states, tomorrow, nine planets! We can and will help to make a better world of the future — have influence and be an active force in the furtherance of scientific democracy in the post-war world! — attempt to conquer space travel and see another world — in our own lifetimes — while we of the council are alive! Our children will carry on this organization after we are gone — The Cosmic Circle now exists for all eternity.
Oh, and about those children, who will carry on the organization until all eternity. Degler's mom had some land in the Ozarks (or so Degler claimed; lord knows Degler said a lot of things.) Or, as Degler saw it, "A Cosmic Camp, owned by the Cosmic Circle". Where fans can meet fans, and well, ensure the continuation of that actual mutation in the species that lets certain people read Perry Rhodan. It's for the good of the fannation, comrade!
As might be expected, this approach did not win universal approval for people who just wanted to get together and talk about whether the Grey Lensman could beat Cthulhu in a fight, or whatever it was that fans talked about back then. This talk of the nucleus of a master race didn't sit very well, in the early 40s, for some reason, and the Cosmic Circle publications were giving fandom a bad name.
The anti-Deglerians also found him hilarious, putting out things like the Comic Circle Commentator, the Trivial Triangle Troubadour, and so on. And, as the questions started being asked, a number of unwitting fans discovered they were members in Cosmic Circle Groups, or had positions within the Cosmic Circle itself. Also, a lot of the people who were actually involved in the Cosmic Circle didn't seem to exist outside of Degler's head. It's not entirely clear if there was ever anyone enthusiastic about the Cosmic Circle beside Degler, and his girlfriend. His girlfriend, who he been in trouble for dating before she turned legal.
Which was just one of the entertaining things that Jack Speer, one of the leading lights of fandom at the time, discovered when he wrote "An Investigation at Newcastle", a short fanzine about Degler and the Cosmic Circle. In addition to learning that Degler had been forced to leave Newcastle for having an illicit relationship with a minor in 1942, he also discovered that Degler had been a resident of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane from 1936 to 1937, and released against the advice of the doctors.
Degler, of course, did not take this reaction lying down. For an example, let's turn again to All Our Yesterdays 27. This'll make more sense if you know that "Don Rogers" was one of Degler's pen-names, and the "Ashley Atrocity" was when a fan by the name of Al Ashley declined to invite Degler into his house.
Newcastle, Ind. Nov. 2 — Rogers developing cold from exposure, general debility and lowered resistance due to the Ashley Atrocity — and was feeling quite sick today. Nov. 4th -Rogers is suffering from what was described as a ‘bad chest cold with complications developing’. Has been confined to bed for last three days. Bradleigh, Mathews, Raymond Kinney, Rosy Jinkins and others carry on the CC publishing projects and try to catch up on the mounting correspondence and clerical work of the Planet Bureau. Nov. 5 — Rogers condition is critical. This was the only information given out today at HDQ.
If only they had invented stutter typing back then, perhaps Ashley would have realized the harm he had caused.
Why he had thought Ashley would welcome him, remains something of a mystery, as does much Deglerism; Ashley had written "The Stefan". Dal Coger's The Degler Legend, in Mimosa 28 describes it as "a four page mimeo fanzine, published for FAPA, March 1943. It is a parody of "The Raven" in 18 verses of 11 lines each.", and he gives this excerpt:
"Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I slumbered, weak and weary;" etc.
"Deep into that darkness staring,
I stood rigid, glaring, swearing,
Hoping I'd succeed in scaring
That which lurked outside my door..
But my caller gave a token
That his courage was unbroken,
And the words that then were spoken,
Made a shutter-rattling roar;
Waking half the town, he shouted,
'It's just me, Al, Claude Deg-lore!'
Merely this -- no need for more." etc.
"And the Stefan, never flitting,
Still is draped there, un-submitting;" etc.
"Won't some sympathetic being
Come assist me with this chore...
Scrape this damn thing off my floor?"
Anyhow, a last quote from All Our Yesterdays 27, part of a speech that Degler never gave upon being forced out of LASFS:
And so, tho the black clouds have been gathering as Fandom knows — for a long time — yet I feel a singularly deep sadness inside me tonight as I finish this, my closing Oration or Address to the LASFS on the eve when perhaps all fandom will be plunaged into a ‘war’ that will parallel the war in the outside world!!
I hope it is not too late that this may be averted! Certainly if a vote is taken here tonight it would be a black dishonour against all democratic ideals in Fandom to be a signer, and I would hate to have my name connected with a similar proceedure in any way. In the outside world we are fighting a war for freedom and democracy — in fandom the P.F.F. has always stood for Democracy and the rights of newer and younger fans, as well as the old timers. I can only say that if this monsterous farce takes place here tonight, it will be a victory for the forces of totalitarianism and reaction all over fandom –- this concerns every reader of stf and fantasy fiction on this planet!
What about the scores of other fans who may want to join this, or any other club, in the future? It is the Futurian-New Fandom fight and Nycon exclusion act all over again! I hear the horrible laughter of Czechoslovakia, Poland, France and all the others that fall before the dictators!! I see the shades of Wolheim, Lowndes, Michel, Pohl, Kornbluth, Gillespie!
Will fandom be free? Will fandom continue to grow and prosper in peace, or have only bitter war and feuding for ages to come!!??
After just a couple of years of Cosmic Circle evangelism, Degler dropped out of fandom, and most of the fuss died down. Degler tried to return to fandom under different names: John Chrisman in 1947, John York in 1949, Don Rogers again in the 50s, and, rather astonishingly, under his own name 1981, at InConJunction, an Indianapolis convention. But he never made as much of a splash as he had the first time around, and faded into legend.
And then came the curious story of Henry Argasinski. I've gotten this from Teresa Nielsen Hayden's "Hell, 12 Feet", where Degler appears as a sort of Ghost of Fannish Ambition, and I let her tell it in her own words:
The first reported sighting of Henry Argasinski was in 1975, when he turned up in one of Mike Glicksohn’s high-school math classes in Toronto. At that time he was sixteen or so, the only child of two extremely weird offspring of exiled pre-WWI Polish aristocrats. Henry asked Mike about fandom, Mike directed him to OSFiC, and Henry draped himself like an albatross around the collective neck of the Toronto Derelicts.
Given to talking loudly to himself, and long spells of hysterical laughter in restaurants, Henry struck the Derelicts as irritating, not to mention mentally unbalanced. In the summer of 1975 Taral hatched a hoax with Tony Cvetko’s help, and shortly thereafter Henry received a letter from "Claude Degler" postmarked from Cleveland, inviting him to found and head up the Canadian branch of the Cosmic Circle. Henry immediately struck up a furious correspondence with "Claude" and started sending out Cosmic Circle publications profoundly similar to Degler’s own 1940s CC zines in their incoherence and their tendency to unilaterally appoint unsuspecting fans to high positions in the Cosmic Circle, and profoundly unlike Degler’s in their tidy execution. A brick shy a load or not, Toronto fans pay attention to good reproduction.
After about a month of this Taral revealed the hoax to Henry, prompted by mercy or, perhaps, by alarmed second thoughts about how enthusiastically the bait had been swallowed. Unfortunately, Henry refused to believe him, citing among other things the fact that the letter from "Claude" had been typed on a Selectric, and Taral didn’t own such a machine. Victoria Vayne did, but Henry was adamant. He kept writing to "Claude" and sending out Cosmic Circle publications, but "Claude" stopped responding and after a few months Henry apparently ended his Deglerian phase. He stopped hanging around the Derelicts but remained in OSFiC, and became very active in his high-school science fiction club as well. It’s suspected that this club was composed half of Henry’s vivid imagination and half of some very confused students at his school.
I’ll skip another couple of Henry Argasinski stories and run this forward to late 1977, when Henry entered himself in the non-partisan Toronto mayoral election on the Cosmic Circle platform. He proposed to make Toronto the Cosmic City; I’m not sure what all that entailed. His opponents in the race were the very popular incumbent (David Crombie, I think it was?) and a candidate fronted by the Western Guard, Canada’s indigenous brownshirts. They’re for racial purity and Canada for the Canadians, and hate blacks, Asians, Jews, Catholics, and people who speak French; their candidates poll a few hundred votes at most.
When the votes were counted the incumbent won with several hundred thousand to his credit, and the guy from the Western Guard collected his couple of hundred. Amazingly enough, though, Henry placed second. Three or four thousand people had voted the Cosmic Circle ticket. No one knew what these voters had been seeking, so far from their normal hunting grounds.
There are any number of fannish remembrances of Degler. In addition to the obvious crazy, there was the hilariously awful quality of his fanzines; a fan at the time described them as "bowel movements postmarked 'Newcastle'". But most fans who didn't have him eat all their food and steal their fanzines generally remember him with a certain fondness. I think I'll end with Coger's conclusion:
The fact is, I sort of liked Claude. He had a dream and sacrificed everything for it. Certainly, he could have bathed more often. And used a change of clothes. His writing was crude, but in that as in much else he might have benefitted by more generous treatment from the fan community. Fans in their adolescence are frequently ugly ducklings, introverted, poorly socialized, and lacking in social graces, even though Claude was not an adolescent, being at least in his twenties.
Fandom would be a poorer place without such characters
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