Where did "The Great Ghu" come from? (was: Yngvi)
Paul Ciszek
was refered to as Ghu. I had seen this name before, but I always thought
it was a Net thing. This story, however, pre-dates the net, I think.
So, who started it? The usual usages is "The Great Ghu".
Dani Zweig
>In an old H. Beam Piper story, I read a sentence where the Supreme Being
Not exactly. The book in which the expression "Great Ghu" occurs most
often is "The Cosmic Computer", and it is explained in passing that Ghu
is the theologically absurd deity of a minor non-human race. Nobody
but them takes Ghu seriously, but people swear by Ghu in much the same
way that a lensman might swear by Klono.
-----
Dani Zweig
da...@netcom.com
Roses red and violets blew
and all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew -- Edmund Spenser
Ahrvid Engholm
Ghu is a fannish God (or "Ghod" as fans would say, let's say that from now
on). In Harry Warner jr:s excellent book about early fannish history, All
Our Yesterdays (the second part, A Wealth of Fable, is now out in bookform)
you can read about a Ghod called GhuGhu, appearantly invented in the late
30's by Donald Wollheim and the New York Futurians: "...GhuGhu was either
an incarnation of Wollheim or a bettlebodied monster on Vulcan. /John B/
Michel was high priest od GhuGhu and the other Futurians held the other
principal subordinate posts. The purple theme of the creed lost its
significance when hectograph lost favor in fandom" (page 44).
It seems probable that it was GhuGhu that later became Ghu. GhuGhu was
lanunced as an alternative to another Ghod, FooFoo (a name out of a comic
strip - and this was also in the 30's, way before the hacker "Foo bar"),
and for a time many religious wars were fought in fandom between the
followers of FooFoo and GhuGhu.
My own favourite Ghod, though, is Roscoe, invented by Art Rapp in 1949.
Roscoe is incarnated in the form of a beaver, and is the invisible force
behinds many things, big and small, in fandom. "Roscoe is the supernatural
cause of the occassional willingness of mimeograph styluses to remain n
the table instead of rolling off," says Warner (in the same page). "He
has been known to cause an occassional dealer to sell an old prozine for
only half the asking price."
He has two holy days, July 4th and Labor Day. On these days you should
gather to drink Roscoe's toast, and maybe you can see him in his small
rocket flying across the sky. It is also said that on the last day of
the 200th fandom Roscoe will come down from the sky and bring all
trufans to the Perfect Fandom, an place of much beauty and fannishness.
I arrange a 4th of July Party each summer for Swedish fans. Labor Day
is not a holiday here. 4th of July isn't either, but at that time
the general vacation has started, so people are free. (And, by the way,
4th of July isn't originally the US Independence Day. It is said that
when the Americans wanted a great day for "national day" they asked
Roscoe, who gave them permission to borrow 4th of July.)
Paul Ciszek
>Not exactly. The book in which the expression "Great Ghu" occurs most
>often is "The Cosmic Computer", and it is explained in passing that Ghu
>is the theologically absurd deity of a minor non-human race. Nobody
>but them takes Ghu seriously, but people swear by Ghu in much the same
>way that a lensman might swear by Klono.
"Even those who do not believe in God need him to blaspheme by"
So, I take it that H. Beam Piper is the source?
Paul Ciszek "Goose stepping morons like yourself should
try READING books instead of BURNING them!"
pci...@nyx.cs.du.edu -- Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., PhD
Patrick Nielsen-Hayden
Ghu, also GhuGhu, dates back at least to 1930s fandom, if not the beginning
of time. He is the antagonist of FooFoo, the patron of hectography and
spirit duplication, and his color is (of course) analine purple.
You asked.
-----
Patrick Nielsen Hayden, senior editor, Tor Books
p...@panix.com * CIS: 72701,1344 * GEnie: PNH * opinions mine
Laurence R. Brothers
>Ghu, also GhuGhu, dates back at least to 1930s fandom, if not the beginning
>of time. He is the antagonist of FooFoo, the patron of hectography and
>spirit duplication, and his color is (of course) analine purple.
Talk about lost technologies!!! Suppose it becomes strategically important
for the USA to gear back up its old-style duplication technologies,
WHAT WILL WE DO! This definitely calls for a US Army stockpile somewhere....
Forget about the possibility of us forgetting how to make tank cannons
and atomic bombs, what happens if we forget how to make spirit duplicating
machines, and our enemies buy the basic patents on photocopiers, laser
copiers, faxes, and silly putty?
--
Laurence R. Brothers (qua...@bellcore.com)
Bellcore -- Computer Technology Integration
"There is no memory with less satisfaction in it than the memory
of some temptation we resisted." -- James Branch Cabell
Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey
> Talk about lost technologies!!! Suppose it becomes strategically important
> for the USA to gear back up its old-style duplication technologies,
> WHAT WILL WE DO! This definitely calls for a US Army stockpile somewhere....
> Forget about the possibility of us forgetting how to make tank cannons
> and atomic bombs, what happens if we forget how to make spirit duplicating
> machines, and our enemies buy the basic patents on photocopiers, laser
> copiers, faxes, and silly putty?
We can go to Dick and Leah Smith's basement, where they've stockpiled
mimeograph machines and supplies against such an emergency. They're
currently cranking out *Stet* on mimeo-- note that it gleaned a Hugo
nomination this year.
A mimeo fanzine can be a beautiful thing. But mimeograph ink and
paper are becoming somewhat difficult to obtain these days. Jamie
Hanrahan took the General Technics zine, *PyroTechnics*, to mimeo for
a few issues in the Eighties and it was really nice. We're publishing
it offset right now (I'm one of the editors), since one of our group
has his own press.
I also have a bunch of ditto masters I'm saving for posterity.
Bill Higgins, Beam Jockey | "We'll see you
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory | at White Sands in June.
Bitnet: HIG...@FNAL.BITNET | You bring your view-graphs,
Internet: HIG...@FNAL.FNAL.GOV | and I'll bring my rocketship."
SPAN/Hepnet: 43011::HIGGINS | --Col. Pete Worden on the DC-X
Ahrvid Engholm
>Talk about lost technologies!!! Suppose it becomes strategically important
>for the USA to gear back up its old-style duplication technologies,
>WHAT WILL WE DO! This definitely calls for a US Army stockpile somewhere....
>Forget about the possibility of us forgetting how to make tank cannons
>and atomic bombs, what happens if we forget how to make spirit duplicating
>machines, and our enemies buy the basic patents on photocopiers, laser
>copiers, faxes, and silly putty?
be run without electricity. A mimeograph machine can work even if some
parts are missing. And if it needs repair a chewing gum and a paperclip
can do wonders. I'd certainly make plans for having such machines around
for low-tech information production after the great WWIII.
A curious fact is that in Sweden the army surplus store in Stockholm is
one of the most reliable sources for mimeograph equipment, both the machines
themselves (which can be bought for 50-100 dollars) and material (stencils,
corflu and such).
As far as I know sf fandom is the only group that today still on a wide
basis use mimeograph technology. If the war comes all fans should be put
in the best shelters and afterward be brought up to the surface to use
their skills...
Out mimeos should of course be put there in the shelter too.
SSB GLOVER
and that his latest fanthology (including some really good artwork) that he
produced on it is available real soon now...
Steve Glover (and Jenny)
editor, Matrix (newsletter of the british science fiction association)
fan programme, Intersection (Scottish worldcon, 1995)
fannish masochist for hire (will work for egoboo).
MERLE CHRISTOPHER
Mimeo's??? Even here in backwards Oklahoma,USA we use photocopy machines.The
last time I saw a mimeo or even used one was back in the lost decade known as
the seventies.
I guess that means that Harlan Ellison will be the only writer around because,
as far as I know, he still uses a manual typewriter.
In this postwar world. The antitechnology crowd will be able to find those who
can still read and write by the tell tale blue fingers.
For the humo(u)r impaired:-):-):-):-):-):-).
Cheers
Chris
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Merle | Proof of immortality: Can you ever remember
me...@a.cs.okstate.edu | a time when you did not exist?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Zink
>Not exactly. The book in which the expression "Great Ghu" occurs most
>often is "The Cosmic Computer", and it is explained in passing that Ghu
>is the theologically absurd deity of a minor non-human race.
As opposed to those theologically non-absurd deities those humans
worship.
I begin to wonder who is pullling whose leg/chain.
Dick Smith
>We can go to Dick and Leah Smith's basement, where they've stockpiled
>mimeograph machines and supplies against such an emergency. They're
>currently cranking out *Stet* on mimeo-- note that it gleaned a Hugo
>nomination this year.
We're not the only ones... Dick & Nicki Lynch's _MIMOSA_ (the winner of
the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine last year and nominated again this year)
is also mimeoed.
Leah & I have also been stockpiling ditto (brand name of spirit
duplicator equipment) machines. We may well find additional strange
equipment in time.
It's only fair to point out that the main reason we do STET on mimeo is
that it is MUCH cheaper than any other technology that we have access
to. Others might use the cheapest repro of all -- steal it at the
office -- but we don't.
--
Dick Smith smi...@ast.dsd.northrop.com
Software Unit Manager home: <<<system offline due to flood!>>>
Northrop ESD
Chris Croughton
>Ghu, also GhuGhu, dates back at least to 1930s fandom, if not the beginning
>of time. He is the antagonist of FooFoo, the patron of hectography and
>spirit duplication, and his color is (of course) analine purple.
I'm sure that duplicating spirits raises all sorts of moral and
philosophical problems, the same as cloning bodies does (only more so).
Not to mention Occam's Razor - "Entities must not be multiplied
unnecessarily" (perhaps someone should have told Ghod that, when he said
"go Forth and multiply" - recursively, of course)...
***********************************************************************
* ch...@keris.demon.co.uk * *
* chr...@cix.compulink.co.uk * FIAWOL (Filking Is A Way Of Life) *
* 10001...@compuserve.com * *
***********************************************************************
johnmc@pp711
thought that Ghu was first mentioned in H. Beam Pipers _Little_Fuzzy_. Ghu
was the god of the most primitive sapiant species yet discovered. Their name
escapes me, and my copy is at home. Ghus full apellation was Great Ghu the
Grandfather God.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John McCash joh...@comm.mot.com
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine....to boldly stay where no one has stayed before"
Patrick Nielsen-Hayden
> As far as I know sf fandom is the only group that today still on a wide
>basis use mimeograph technology.
Plenty of churches in rural America still rely on their mimeograph. And in
the Third World you find them in use all over the place.
-----
Patrick Nielsen Hayden * p...@panix.com * CIS: 72701,1344 * GEnie: PNH
Bernie Peek
-> As far as I know sf fandom is the only group that today still on a wide
->basis use mimeograph technology. If the war comes all fans should be put
->in the best shelters and afterward be brought up to the surface to use
->their skills...
-> Out mimeos should of course be put there in the shelter too.
->
Mimeo technology still has advantages. It's cheap and *fast*. If you want to
run a newsletter on-site at a con and can't afford *big* photocopiers or
offset then mimeo is the technology of choice. It's easy to cut a really
clean stencil with a cheap 9-pin dot-matrix printer.
When I looked at hardware for the newsletter for the 1989 Eastercon (about
800 attendees) I chose DTP and mimeo. For a larger con offset would be the
next step up.
A few years ago I passed by a store that only sold mimeo equipment. I looked
in and got talking to the owner. He was a *fan*, not one of us, but
definitely a fan. He worked selling mimeos because he loved those machines
and collected them the way most fans accumulate books.
I wonder whether the place is still there?
--
Bernie Peek
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Intersection: The 1995 World SF Convention. Glasgow.
Peter D. Asplin
Danny Low
: Mimeo technology still has advantages. It's cheap and *fast*. If you want to
: run a newsletter on-site at a con and can't afford *big* photocopiers or
: offset then mimeo is the technology of choice. It's easy to cut a really
: clean stencil with a cheap 9-pin dot-matrix printer.
Gestetner makes a mimeo that works like a photocopier. You put the
originals in a feeder and press start. The original is scanned,
a stencil is automatically cut and loaded on the mimeo, the copies
are made, the stencil is unloaded and machine is ready for the next
page. The machine is VERY expensive but for large runs, the cost is
less than a photocopier for the same quality copies. That is the
reason Gestetner still invests in new mimeo products. The stuff that
fans use is quite archaic compared to the current mimeos.
Danny Low
"Question Authority and the Authorities will question You"
Valley of Hearts Delight, Silicon Valley
HP CPCD dl...@pollux.svale.hp.com
Ahrvid Engholm
>Mimeo technology still has advantages. It's cheap and *fast*. If you want to
>run a newsletter on-site at a con and can't afford *big* photocopiers or
>offset then mimeo is the technology of choice. It's easy to cut a really
>clean stencil with a cheap 9-pin dot-matrix printer.
printer. The printing quality wasn't tiptop but it worked. (A matrix
printer is probably better to use. The types on the printwheel becomes
smeared with vax, and even if you brush it off for each page the printing
towards the bottom of the page tends to be weak.)
>A few years ago I passed by a store that only sold mimeo equipment. I looked
>in and got talking to the owner. He was a *fan*, not one of us, but
>definitely a fan. He worked selling mimeos because he loved those machines
>and collected them the way most fans accumulate books.
>I wonder whether the place is still there?
A couple of years ago on a computer and office equipment fair I saw the
latest hi-tech Gestetner mimeo. It looked just like a big xerox machine,
and used electro stencils (and not vax stencils). You put the sheet to
be printed on a glass plate (just like on a Xerox), and the machine would
automatically cut an electro stencil (in good resolution) and put it
on the printdrum and start to print. No human interaction at all needed
(except for placing the original and pressing a button).
The printing quality was very good, just as good as from a Xerox. I asked
the Gestetner representative doing the demo why this machine should be
used instead of ordinary photocopiers. He showed me a calculation for
printing costs - this hi-tech Gestetner was *much* cheaper for medium to
high printruns.
David S. Cargo
I own three spirit duplicators (including two A. B. Dick machines and
a Standard Rocket). I use it for producing apazines, weekly church
bulletins, and other publications that require low-cost duplicating.
I use tractor-feed spirit masters (which I order from Highsmith's in
Wisconsin), printing from Word for Windows and other DTP programs on a
24-pin dot-matrix printer. The computer output means that I can print
as many identical masters as I need for my intended print run.
As to costs, the masters are about $0.25 each, and paper and fluid
seems to run about $0.015 per sheet. Very low cost from my point of
view.
I also see other zines on mimeo, such as Idea by Geri Sullivan.
(And we shouldn't forget the Corflu is coming up in about three weeks
in Madison, Wisconsin.)
o o
ca...@escargot.cray.com \_____/
(612) 683-5591 /=O=O=\ _______
DDDD SSSS CCCC / ^ \ /\\\\\\\\
D D S C \ \___/ / /\ ___ \
D D SSS C \_ V _/ /\ /\\\\ \
D D S C \ \__/\ /\ @_/ /
DDDDavid SSSS. CCCCargo \____\____\______/
Bernie Peek
->Gestetner makes a mimeo that works like a photocopier. You put the
->originals in a feeder and press start. The original is scanned,
->a stencil is automatically cut and loaded on the mimeo, the copies
->are made, the stencil is unloaded and machine is ready for the next
->page. The machine is VERY expensive but for large runs, the cost is
->less than a photocopier for the same quality copies. That is the
->reason Gestetner still invests in new mimeo products. The stuff that
->fans use is quite archaic compared to the current mimeos.
->
We used a similar machine made by A.B. Dick in Holland in 1990 for the
Worldcon newsletter. Without it we couldn't have made it. It was provided by
their local agent, to whom many thanks.
Dick Smith
>It seems odd that no one has mentioned this, so maybe I misremember, but I
>thought that Ghu was first mentioned in H. Beam Pipers _Little_Fuzzy_. Ghu
>was the god of the most primitive sapiant species yet discovered. Their name
>escapes me, and my copy is at home. Ghus full apellation was Great Ghu the
>Grandfather God.
Actually, Piper was jokingly using the fannish Ghu in his story. The
fannish use of Ghu predates _Little Fuzzy_. If anyone is interested,
I'll find a reference.
--
Dick Smith sm...@ast.dsd.northrop.com
Software Unit Manager home: di...@smith.chi.il.us
Northrop ESD
Dick Smith
>Gestetner makes a mimeo that works like a photocopier. You put the
>originals in a feeder and press start. The original is scanned,
>a stencil is automatically cut and loaded on the mimeo, the copies
>are made, the stencil is unloaded and machine is ready for the next
>page. The machine is VERY expensive but for large runs, the cost is
>less than a photocopier for the same quality copies. That is the
>reason Gestetner still invests in new mimeo products. The stuff that
>fans use is quite archaic compared to the current mimeos.
This machine was demo'ed at DITTO (the OTHER fanzine convention) the
year Leah & I ran it. Everyone was impressed. None, however, were
willing to pay $5000+ for it, or even more with the optional HP Laserjet
compatable interface.