beamjockey richly deserves an award for what may well be the Fanhistorical Find of the Decade:

Through the Interstellar Looking Glass, a long, very fannish article by Winthrop Sargeant. It appeared in the May 21, 1951 issue of Life magazine.

I've only skimmed over it myself, going OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG all the way. Screen images captured; Joe Siclari called. He hadn't heard of it before either. Sargeant's article starts on page 127 and goes on, a column at a time, through pages 130, 132-134, 137-138, and finally finishing on page 140.

There's a 2-page image spread sidebar titled "The Fad is Made for Hollywood" with the subtitle "Movies seize on it to pack outer space with some weird tourists."

It may well be the very best coverage of science fiction and fandom that I've ever seen in the media. A few of the terms, such as "fanference" are unfamiliar, but a quick check of Jack Speer's Fancyclopedia shows they'd been in use for most of a decade if not longer. The information I already knew appears rock solid and well-explained. Yes, I expect we'll find the sort of minor glitches present in any published report as other fans and fanhistorians join me in reading it in depth, but at least some of those glitches will be in our own knowledge understanding rather than in Sargeant's article itself.

I'm especially fond of these two timeless quotes:

"Science fiction is now avidly devoured over most of the civilized world."

And

"The science-fiction reader--whether he is an "insurgent," a fan or a simple space opera enthusiast--is apt to maintain that science fiction is not fantasy at all. He will point out that we are living in a very strange world where the most bizarre hypotheses are being proved right practically every day."

Go forth. Read. Enjoy.

I'm certainly going to!

Seen in a post forwarded to the mnstf LJ.

Jon Olsen is proposing the creation of a "new, neutral non-profit organization with the goal of serving as a coordinating space between any and all willing fan-run organizations in the region."

The region in question is the Greater Twin Cities Area and the online conversation is starting at League of Wonders.

League of Wonders is meant to be a neutral territory, an effective community builder. And I'd put this statement of Jon's at the core of it all: "oh how I yearn to see us happy together."

Interesting. I wish them luck, and all good things.

Back before I became involved in fandom, there was Vootie, the funny animal apa started by retooned and Reed Waller. About a year after I started getting active, Vootie ended and Marc Schirmeister started Rowrbrazzle. The WikiFur reference for Vootie says the transition between the two apas is "traditionally considered to be when funny animal fandom became furry fandom." Back then, the difference wasn't nearly as apparent as it is today, as it is this weekend at Further Confusion.

This isn't to be confused with Cryptic ConFusion, which was also this weekend. ConFusion, the sf convention in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area, predates Further Confusion, the furry convention, by a solid 25 years.

But only at Further Confusion were you likely to find a parade of well over 400 furry fans, each in full fur-suit regalia. The link is to kevin_standlee's post about the parade video he shot on the spur of the moment. The parade certainly was a sight to behold.

I certainly didn't fathom anything like it back when I was first getting to know Ken, Reed, and other funny animal cartoonists. Not even when I heard about the split between those who thought sex in funny animal cartoons was fine and those who didn't want it in their apa.

I'm not sure I can fathom it now, even after watching both parts of Kevin's video. 'Cause, y'know? That's a lot of fur....

Fandom certainly is a strange and wonderfully weird place.