Official Critics

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Appointive officials of FAPA up to the Little Interregnum of early 1945. The offices were created before it became customary for members with fanzines of their own to comment on the previous mailing; but instead of attempting to work out special functions of judgment and suggestion the OC fell into the habit of merely producing ordinary mailing comments; thus they were not missed when the reorganization of late '45 dropped them out. The chief permanent value of their reports was provision of a list of the fanzines in the preceding mailing, it not having been the practice during the first six years or so to list these in the OO which accompanied the mailing bundle.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Appointive officials of FAPA, the Chief Critic and associate critic or critics. The offices were created before it became customary for members with fanzines of their own to comment on the previous mailing. Instead of attempting to work out special functions of judgment and suggestion the official critics fell into the habit of making forced wisecracks or advancing original ideas suggested by something in the publications (in the manner of many of the individ fanzines), and an outcry arose for the abolition of the office, and perhaps expansion of the Laureate Committee's function in its stead. The chief permanent value of the official critics' reports in the Official Organ is in their service as a list of everything in the preceding mailing, it not having been the practice during the first six years or so to list these in the Official Organ in the same mailing as the pieces listed, and post-mailings always being an unpredictable factor. (Frankly, folks, the typist is just babbling along here on the stencil to fill out this page so the D's can start on a new page.)