Avoidism

A tongue-in-cheek philosophy, promulgated by Roger Price, picked up by many fans during the early 1950s. It is important to note that Avoidists, as the practitioners were known, did not (as one might suppose) simply avoid other fans, but rather got other fans to avoid them. Price cited an uncle of his as being the Ultimate Avoidist, since he had a speech impediment which caused anything he said to come out sounding like, “I had one grunch, but the eggplant over there.” You need only imagine attempting to initiate a conversation wish someone whose replies seemed to be limited to that phrase to understand why he would subsequently be avoided at all costs.

Contributors: Dr. Gafia

from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959

(Price:Hoffwoman) Not originally fannish at all, but a philosophy devised in a rather stomach-turning book, In One Head and Out The Other, this doctrine became confused/associated with the Gandhi-following folk of Eric Frank Russell's "And Then There Were None". It inspired an APA, MYOB, and an Avoidist Movement which avoided amounting to anything. Tenets are those implied by the root word. Lee Hoffman explains that three types of avoidism are distinguished: (1) pure, (2) applied, and 3) active, or Activist. In pure avoiding one avoids everything except eating, breathing, and metabolizing. In applied avoiding one avoids as many things as possible. (Bus drivers are good at this sort of thing, like avoiding people waiting at bus stops.) Active avoidism isn't true avoidism and is practiced to Publicize the Cause, or as an exercise in Avoiding. Under active avoidism there is the subgroup Counteravoiding; to counteravoid vegetarianism, for instance, one eats meat. Leeh concluded: "A last word on Avoidism: I had one grunch but the eggplant over there".