Ah Fandom! How I love thee….
Posted By Kathleen David on August 17, 2007
I have been a fan for most of my life and involved in fandom since about the time I was 12. That’s a lot of time spent with other fen. I have been involved in a number of fandoms over the years. I am even still involved in some. Others have become either less interesting or more frustrating over time.
Now the Internet has given the fan access to a lot that we did not have when I was a young fan. One can communicate with people who share your interest all over the world. You can talk about the latest episode/book/movie almost instantly. In some cases discussions are being run while the TV episode is being aired. The Rumor mill is much more prolific than it was when I was starting out. You can get stills and little videos instantly. You can feed your need for fandom in more ways than there are hours in a day.
I have seen fan folk do some pretty amazing things over the years. I have seen massive amounts of money raised for charities. I have seen a group of like mind folks come together and support one of their own even if the only reason they knew the person was through fandom. I have even seen fans band together and work to get legislation enacted which helps the community. I have also watch fans bring their shows back from the mostly dead/all dead. Fan energy is an amazing thing to see.
Fan energy can be rather destructive too. I have seen people leave the internet except for business purposes because of some fans. I have seen professionals decided that dealing with their fans at conventions is OK and kinda fun but every day is a little much to handle. I have also seen professionals having to deal with fans who set up their fan clubs for them and then use those fan clubs for their own gain not the professionals. I have seen fans just savage other fans because they don’t agree with their version of fandom. I have seen people who did something stupid just torn a new one by fans to the point of absurdity crossing into their personal lives and even professional lives.
There are also those who become well known in fandom for being a fan or Big Name Fans (BNFs). Some of these BNF became professionals and therefore are no longer BNFs. Others revel in their status and title and hang onto the reason that they are a BNF with every ounce of strength that they have. Some aspire to be a BNF. (I was probably heading that direction when, through a rather nice twist of fate, I went professional.) Others claim the title only to find that it is one that is given not taken. In some circles of fandom BNF doesn’t carry such a nice connotation. It is almost a swear word. Some fandoms hold their BNFs in holy reverence. That’s almost as scary as the swearing group. When a BNF does something stupid, the reverberations through their form of fandom can be amazing to watch. I have watching entire groups dissolve over this sort of thing. Flame wars and trolling seem to run rampant when this sort of thing happens. Once the smoke clears, it seems a little absurd that this much energy was spent on this.
But then to many the amount of energy that fans spend on their fandom(s) is rather absurd. They don’t “get” fandom in the science fiction/fantasy forms but ask them about their favorite sports team or their special breed of dog/cat/ferret and they are off into the races with their favorite things to talk about. I think everyone is a fan of something. And for the most part that is a good thing.
I am grateful for various forms of fandom.
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