The Postal Service

In the time before the internet, before cheap long-distance phone calls, there was only the Postal Service as fandom's first method of delivery and communication:
==Bringer of Pain and Delight==
Complaining about postal delivery services was, for fans and their zines, almost an national/international pastime. These complaints have a rich history; in fact, Arthur Conan Doyle's first novel was lost in the post. "The manuscript of 'The Narrative of John Smith' was lost in the post on the way to the publishers and then rewritten by Conan Doyle from memory. Although he continued to revise the text and drew on various passages from it in subsequent writings, Conan Doyle never re-submitted the novel for publication, later claiming in jest: 'my shock at its disappearance would be as nothing to my horror if it were suddenly to appear again – in print.' British Library Press Release, September 2011, accessed November 2011 (Be shocked, Mr. Doyle, as this novel was reprinted in 2011, after your notes were bought at an auction.) 
From a 1983 review of a zine: "The opening editorial is a song we've heard before. Oh, that nasty post office. So what? Most zine eds just lick their wounds and go on with it!." Datazine #24 in 1983 
A fan in 1990 wrote: "There are five immutable forces of nature — earth, wind, fire, water, and the postal service." from a flyer for Hailing Frequencies #1 
Some more fan comments regarding the pain and some comments regarding the delight.
==Stamps as a Method of Currency== 
Sending cash through the mail was risky, and for folks who didn't have checking accounts, postage stamps were sometimes accepted as a method of payment. They were easily procured, flat and inconspicuous, and every fan needed scads of them for communication via letters, SASEs, and postcards.
==IRCs and the Challenge of Overseas Commerce==
* "The horrors of the post awful... I recently asked one of the workers at my local PO about international reply coupons... and they had no idea what I was talking about. I had to explain to them that when you want someone in another country to return something to you, you can't just plunk a US stamp on the envelope because it will be worthless. Yeesh!" from Herne's Stepchildren #8 
For more, see International Reply Coupon.
==Postal Rates, a Constant Demon at the Gate==
Fans constantly complained about the price of stamps, of bulk mailing rules and of postal hikes. 
In one zine, the editors wrote: 
There were tangles with scales and rates: 
There were lot of rules and decisions:
==Fannish Derision of The Postal Service==
Fans had a love/hate relationship to the postal service. On one hand, it brought all sort of goodies to the mailbox. On the other hand, despite the fact it provided a valuable service and often very well, fans frequently derided the very organization that provided their main method of communication.
They also had all sorts of nicknames for the department: "U.S. Maul," "Postal Disservice," "Post Awful," "Post Offal", "Post Orifice", "Post Gargle" (coined by Kay Shapero) and "U.S. Snail Circus", are just a few.
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==Some Praise for the Postal Service==
Thank heavens for the reliability of the Post Office, say some fans. 
===1980===
A zine ed in 1980 wrote: 
===1987===
A fan who was a postal carrier wrote in 1987: 
===1996===
Tales of Feldman was written at a time before there was a Kinkos [copy store, today's FedEx] on every corner. 
==The Postal Service as a Scapegoat==
Fans constantly complained of letters, zines, art work being lost in the mail. Zine editors apologized for lack of art in zines, citing lost mail. Fans complained of communication being diverted or halted, citing lost mail. Fannish conflicts were often blamed on lost mail. 
While postal mishaps were a certain reality, the amount of them is most likely overly described. Blaming the post office for fannish mistakes, communication decisions, and personal failure is much like blaming one's spam filters and the internet for losing an expected email today.
One zined pokes a gentle stick at fans and what she perceived as a fandom-wide slow-down of LoCs received and the excuses she'd heard: "There are several possible reasons for the slowdown: the post office ate your letter; you went pro and don't have time to write; the post office ate your letter; you have your own zine and don't have time to write; the post office ate your letter; you don't know what to say; the post office ate your letter." -- From Stylus #1
==The Postal Service as The Law==
In the personal statements section of Datazine, and in many other fannish gathering places, people talked of zines paid for and not received, and wrote of officially filing claims with the Post Master and turning fans in for mail fraud. While there are many examples of this practice, it is unclear if this tactic ever resulted in any action. 
==The Post Office, Customs and Slash==
Until the gay rights movement brought changes in anti-discrimination laws, many state laws regarded material addressing or depicting homosexual activity as pornographic. It was therefore illegal to send same sex works through the mail. It is still illegal to use the U.S. mail to send pornography, which is why most is transported via UPS. 
In 1985, a fan of The Professionals stated her unhappiness with the idea that Pros fiction was going to move from circuit stories to zines -- one reason why: 
In 1994, Alexis Fegan Black wrote: 
In 1994, Sandy Herrold wrote:
A UK fan wrote about they're experiences in 1995: 
One UK fan had a near miss in 1999: 
==References==
Category:Fan Activities