View source for Roscoe

[[File:RoscoebyRayNelson.jpeg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|'''“Roscoe drops all nonbelievers into hell”<br>by [[Ray Nelson]]'''. ''Cover of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' 36, March 1950''. ]]
'''Roscoe''' is a [[ghod]] of [[fannish]] myth invented by [[Art Rapp]], [[Rick Sneary]] and [[Ed Cox]] in 1949. Sneary and Cox were mainstays of [[Fourth Fandom]], and Rapp [[published]] the monthly ''[[Spacewarp]]'', which was the [[focal point]] of [[Fifth Fandom]]. Roscoe is a beaver whose birthday is Labor Day Weekend (traditionally when [[Worldcon]] was held) &mdash; thus, all [[fans]] celebrate it, even those who are not followers. 

Possibly the most popular of the [[fannishly]] invented [[ghods]], for reasons that remain open to conjecture. Rapp himself speculated that it might not just be because most [[Worldcons]] in the U.S. used to be held on Roscoe's birthday &mdash; it might have been a numbers game. Which is to say, [[FooFoo]] was invented by one fan ([[Jack Speer]]) and [[GhuGhu]] by two ([[Don Wollheim]] with the help of his High Priest [[John Michel]]), and what Rapp surmised was as follows:

 Then mighty Roscoe's cult arose
 (as every ''[[Spacewarp]]'' reader knows)
 Interpreted by deacons three:
 [[Rick Sneary]], [[Edmund Cox]] and me. 
 The moral of this history, [[fan]]
 Is: cults ain't founded by just one [[slan]];
 Attempts by two make [[fandom]] nod,
 For only t'ree can make a [[ghod]].

See also: [https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Spacewarp/Spacewarp27.pdf “Introduction to Roscoism”], ''[[Spacewarp]]'' 27 (June 1949), and [[Fantheology]].

{{fancy2|text=
The One True [[Ghod]], incarnate in the form of a beaver. (This mystically expresses the fact that all true fen are busy little b's.) Revealed by the Prophet [[Art Rapp]] in '47, His religion -- Roscoism or the Rosconian Faith -- rapidly swept thru [[fandom]], converting the elite group to its [[Insurgent]] credo and arousing the False Faiths of [[Ghu]] and [[FooFoo]] to a brief revival. Barring interference by '''Oscar''' (the Evil Principle, represented as a malignant muskrat) Rosconians enjoy the Reality of [[Fanac]], the Hope of [[Egoboo]], and the Promise of [[Bheer]]. Chronicles of the future Rosconian Empire have been produced by various fans, even depraved [[Ghuists]]. Roscoe's Mighty Two Front Teeth and Slapping Tail are terrible weapons against the evildoer. Holy days are the Fourth day of July ("that's the day when Roscoe flies a fiery spaceship in the sky") and Labor Day, the date of Roscoe's Birth. [[Conventions]] are frequently held to celebrate these Sacred Occasions, and fen meeting there quaff libations of beer and other beverages in Roscoe's honor. 
 
Unlike various false [[ghods]] Roscoe has no official color and leaves ritualistic forms of reverence to the discretion and imagination of his worshippers; for, being the True [[Ghod]], he of course does not need to be confirmed in his position by bombastic pronouncements such as [[Ghuist]] and [[Fooist]] use to trumpet their [[ghods]]' pretensions. Certain references in the Birch Bark Bible [the Rosconian Scriptures] suggest that allegiance to false [[ghods]] delivers misbelievers to Oscar, who created false [[ghods]] as well as [[mimeos]] that [[overink]], cheap [[stencils]], hangovers, and other banes of [[fannish]] life. Liberal Rosconian theologians, however, point out that this is merely a consequence of submitting to Oscar, since after [[200th Fandom]] Roscoe will save all [[fans]] simply because they are [[fans]]. 
}}


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