Grammar

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

"Three subjects", says Warfel, "perennially provoke argument: politics, religion and grammar. Not the least of these is grammar." An outstanding murderer of the King's (or anybody else's) English in fandom has been Sneary, with Max Keasler a strong second. But numerous other targets, especially among the young fen, were found for Speer's "Little Lessons in Grammar" and Konig's "English As She Is Wrote". Most fans protest against the mutilations practiced by the quote fourteen-year-old mentalities unquote. For the typical fan has done and observed enough writing to have a good mastery of the language and its rules, as compared to the average citizen. Whether he will obey the rules in a given case, however, depends on functional tests; for instance, if there seems to be no discernible advantage in setting off the name of a state with commas, he may very well write "Cleveland Ohio", and so on. Fans have done a lot of experimenting with the language under the banner of Ackermanese, and produced some inventions in the case of brackets and quasi-quotemarks. In general, they pay unusual attention to the individual elements of writing and use them in varied ways to get across the exact meaning or impression desired.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

"Three subjects" says Warfel perenially provoke argument: politics, religion, and grammar. Not the least of these is grammar." The outstanding murderer of the King's (or anybody else's) English in fandom has been Fanny, except for a brief period when Conrad Ruppert was printing it, but numerous other targets, especially from among the young fen such as those behind the fanzine Space Tales, were found for Speer's "Little Lessons in Grammar" and "English as She Is Wrote". Most fans protest strenuously against the mutilations practiced by the quote fourteen-year-old mentalities unquote. For the typical fan has done and observed enuf writing that he has a good mastery of the language and its rules, as compared to the average citizen. Whether he will obey the rules in a given case, however, depends on functional tests; for instance, if there seems to be no discernible advantage in setting off the name of the state in commas, he may very well write "Cleveland Ohio", and so on. Fans have done a lot of experimenting with language under the banner of Ackermanese, and produced some inventions in the case of brackets and quasi-quotemarks. In general, they pay unusual attention to the individual elements of writing and use them in varied ways to get across the exact meaning or impression desired.