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From: ran@ho95e.UUCP (RANeinast)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Flying Sorcerers (Eccar the Man)
Message-ID: <434@ho95e.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Jan-86 15:28:41 EST
Article-I.D.: ho95e.434
Posted: Wed Jan 22 15:28:41 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jan-86 03:13:37 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 27

Somebody:
> Can anybody explain why the triangle is the symbol of Eccar the Man, and
> who or what Eccar the Man is? There's something escaping me here.

Somebody else:
> Eccar the Man, "A man who served the gods so long and well that he was elevated
> to godhood himself", is Forrey Ackerman, possibly the world's most famous SF
> fan.  His house in LA, the Ackermansion, is filled with SF and horror
> memorabilia, and I understand that upon his death it will become an SF museum
> under the care of the city.  I have no idea what the triangle means.

Another somebody:
> Forry (not Forrey) Ackerman wears a little green star as a sign that he's
> an Esperantist.  I don't know why he'd been associated with a triangle.

I think that they are also punning with a part of the Bible here.
Pontius Pilate presented Jesus crowned with thorns with the words,
"Behold the Man" (which, by the way, is also the title of a story
by Michael Morecock), which, in Latin, is "Ecce homo".
This goes hand in hand with the "elevated to godhood", and also
explains why his symbol is the triangle (Trinity).

-- 

". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95c!ran)
AT&T-Bell Labs