The Purpose of Science-Fiction
The Purpose of Science-Fiction was the title of the brief closing speech given by Douglas W. F. Mayer at the Second British Convention in London in April 1938. It promised "to say a few words about the new sociological movement which is beginning to develop in science-fiction circles", arguing
that the reading or propagating of science fiction merely for the pleasure the stories give, or are supposed to give is rather pointless, as other literature is just as good in this respect.
In contrast, it basically took up Michelism although without its explicit politics:
one or two American fans have advocated that science-fiction fans, reading as they do of Utopias, world reform etc, should definitely play an active part in social end economic reconstruction. […] with the American views in mind, we in Leeds started, three months ago, a sociological group. Our chief activity, apart from discussions and talks, has been to send out a questionaire to many fans whom we know are interested, with the object of finding out their detailed opinions on various subjects, and of finally obtaining an answer to the question : exactly what good can fans do? A lengthy report of the answers to this questionaire - which has already provided us with much thought-provoking material - will be published in July.
If it was, it remains to be found where. The final oration used a pun that was to become the masthead slogan of the second series of Mayer's Tomorrow, launched with the Spring 1938 issue soon after the con (on which it reported).
But if science fiction [… makes readers] realize that the future is governed by our actions of today, and that what is good enough for today is much too bad for tomorrow, […] our work and the role of such organizations as the Science Fiction Association is not in vain.
The speech was duplicated as one-off fanzine by the Michelist CPASF in New York, June 1939, in time for the Nycon, ending with somewhat disingenuous
(Publisher’s Note:- The opinions expressed in this pamphlet are those of the author and not necessarily those of the CPASF.)
The publication has eight half-quarto pages: The graphic cover in violet ink on bright red paper, misspelling author as "D.W.F. Meyer"; verso empty. Follows a title page giving Mayer's full name and the speech's provenance; the text itself is on pp. 2 to 6 (numbered at top center only from -3-), each with some 40 lines by 40 characters. It consistently hyphenates "science-fiction", as Mayer did, although the cover makes it look like "Sciencefiction"; so should the title perhaps be lowercase "Science-fiction"? (Alas, the Pavlat-Evans Fanzine Index omitted the hyphen, as did Peter Roberts in British Fanzine Bibliography.)
The title page says "2nd Ed." However no first edition has been found in bibliographies, US or UK. Still, the NYC fans must have got hold of the text somehow; it may have appeared within some fanzine, though aparently not in Tomorrow.
The text was republished without any comment or explanation by Olon F. Wiggins in The Science Fiction Fan #37, August 1939 (but the editorial seems to refer to the World War II breaking out in September). Interestingly, the stencils seem basically to copy the CPASF layout, including the title page / colophon but diverge from it in some linebreaks, not to mention typos, as well as formatting conventions: Wiggins did not hyphenate "science fiction", and story and magazine titles are in ALL CAPS where CPASF used double quotes. He also spelled out "2nd Edition".
- The Purpose of Science Fiction at fanac.org (PDF)
- The Science Fiction Fan #37 at fanac.org (PDF)
| Publication | 1939 |
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