Egoboo
(Did you mean the John D. Berry and Ted White fanzine?)
Egoboo is the force that impels fans in their tireless activity. Since so much of what is done is fandom is done on a volunteer basis, egoboo is the fannish medium of exchange, the "coin of the realm," if you will. The term, a portmanteau of ego boost, seems to have become popular around 1945.
Fandom may be defined as an infinitely complex system for the production of pure egoboo. Indeed, the universe itself was created for egoboo (Psalms 145:10) if we are to believe the stories.
The highest egoboo is usually gained by seeing your name in print or electrons adjoining favorable comment about your fanac. Laudatory locs, fanzine reviews and con reports are age-old egoboo sources. Spoken and social-media egoboo, tho transitory, is pleasant, too. And, of course, there are awards.
Indirect egoboo sources can include getting your work or loc published in a fanzine (with the implicit value judgment that at least the faned thought it worthy of publication); being involved in a fan project, such as a con, that concludes successfully; being favorably credited for any fanac; being asked for advice by other fans or having one's advice credited with their successful fanac; being asked to take a position of responsibility in a worthy fan project; and being invited to a closed-door party.
In Walt Willis and Bob Shaw’s fannish allegory The Enchanted Duplicator, Jophan found that the egg of the Bu-Birds -- Egg o' Bu -- contained fluid that
was cool, refreshing, and intoxicatingly delicious to the taste.... When the egg was finished he jumped to his feet and began to run eagerly round the oasis looking for more, so intent on the search that he scarcely noticed how quickly his tiredness had been replaced with boundless energy and enthusiasm.... Overindulgence ... was inclined to produce a species of intoxication and a painless but unsightly swelling of the head.
Some also derive egoboo from volcanic reaction from the targets of their needles. If the egoboo of fame is unobtainable, notoriety is better than no egoboo at all. (Occasionally referred to in the late 1950 and the '60s as The G. M. Carr Theory of Negoboo.)
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959 |
| That which boosts the ego. The force that impels fans in their tireless activity. In fandom, egoboo is usually gained by seeing one's name in print, preferably in someone else's publication. Spoken egoboo, tho transitory, is pleasant. Most common sources are favorable comment on one's fanac, but include indirect things like success of projects, volcanic reaction from the target of one of your needles, and unsatiric parody. If the egoboo of fame is unobtainable, notoriety is better than no egoboo at all. Fandom may be defined as an infinitely complex system for the production of pure egoboo. Indeed, the universe itself was created for egoboo (Psalms 145:10) if we are to believe the stories. |
| Fanspeak | 1940s— |
| This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc. |
