QUOTE-CARDS

from Fancyclopedia 2

Cards, usually of index-card size or a bit less, with some motto instinct with Hidden Meaning ("Basingstoke"). First used by the London Circle at the SuperManCon in 1954, where a batch that Viną Clarke had run off were passed from hand to hand among fans or, more fabulously, passed out to pedestrians on the street by an intrepid and respectable-looking fan while his confederates lingered in the middle distance to watch the civilian react. This fine fannish recreation was continued at the SFCon with a flock of Hurkle-blue quote-cards manufactured for the occasion by Redd Boggs and DAG. In autumn 1954 damon knight, "The Bergenholm of the Quote-Card", made them into short snorter quote-cards and began circulating them in letters. (The modifier derives from a fad among service personnel, during World War II, of collecting money from exotic lands and having it autographed as souvenir.) By the end of the year home-made -- i.e. typed rather'n mimeoed -- quote-cards became popular. The field branched out into miscaptioned photos, and odd items like sweepstakes tickets, religious-crackpot tracts, pieces of wall paper, reproductions of artwork and an infinite lot more. Jean Linard's epiphenomena are a relative of the quote-card.

A number of fans have objected to the short-snorter q-c on such grounds as trouble keeping up with the things, poor taste of some items, questionable value as faaaanish stuff, ktp. The fad had sunk to a low level by the end of 1958.