Fans aren't Slans!

[bnewman]

Okay, we knew that already. But why?

For those who are confused, Slans are superintelligent, telepathic mutants from the science fiction novel Slan by A. E. van Vogt. Once upon a time, there was a "Fans are Slans" meme in fandom. This meme was subsequently rounded up and defanged on account of being chauvinistic.

But really, it's just wrong. Fans are superintelligent, alright — we're just not telepathic. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that mundanes are telepathic. Who exactly has trouble parsing social signals?

So now I want a science fiction novel about a culture with two races, of which one is superintelligent and the other is telepathic.

Comments

[sammka.livejournal.com]

The thing is, it's sort of like inverse autism, but only if you just look at certain axes. Sort of like how, I dunno, calcifying connective tissue disorders are the opposite of osteoporosis.

[q10.livejournal.com]

i tried to frame the original question in a way that singled out those axes.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

I'm not whining about your question. I'm just trying to make it clear to other readers.