[Worldwalker]

4E Ackerman was a wonderful man (though he was a little afraid of me because at one Worldcon, we physically collided at a particular blind corner in the convention center several times in the same day ... I think he considered me some sort of unguided fannish missile, and I wasn't so well padded then). Most of his other clever wordplay did not get picked up anywhere else, for which Robert Agberg, er Silverberg, was no doubt grateful. If "scifi" had stayed within the SF community, it would be merely corny. But it was picked up by those outside the community and used to deride its members, our literature, and our enthusiasm. Ackerman's corny term was turned against us as an insult.

True, just about anything was better than "scientifiction" (wasn't that Hugo Gernsbeck's fault?) but when there are perfectly good alternatives without the negative connotations, namely "SF" or "science fiction", why use something that offends people? Do we have to let those who sneer at us win, and accept the contempuous label of their choice for our literature and ourselves?

We've lost so much of First Fandom ... so many of the legends ... I can't go to cons anymore because I see too many ghosts. Too many ghosts, and too many people who think science fiction is what's on "SyFy" and don't know, or care, about anything or anyone else. Maybe it's foolish of me, not to be willing to accept an insult as the proper term, not to be willing to let go of the past and accept that the future is all about Twilight and Transformers. Maybe I'm a fossil. So be it. There are worse things I could be.

Gods, I get maudlin on nights like this.