Why Fanfic Folk Drive Me Buggy

[akirlu]

It's nothing about the fanfic -- I don't read it, I'm not much interested. But the thing that drives me bugfuck is the way fic fans use the word "fandom". Because that word means something. It's meant the same something for a lot longer even than even Kirk/Spock slash has been around: fandom is fans, and their ways. But when fic fans say "fandom," they aren't talking about the group of humans who comprise science fiction fandom. They're not talking about fan culture, conventions, clubs, fanzines, or even the practice and culture of fanfic, they're talking about the object of their fandom. They're talking about some freaking show. This strikes me as a needless muddling of a perfectly useful word. And it hurts my mighty brane every single time it's used that way. I see 'fandom' and I think, oh, okay, we're going to be talking about something fannish and then get talk about "characters" and "cannon" and whatnot instead, and the old brain clashes gears and burns oil something fierce. That's not fandom, that's what you're a fan *of*. Your show is not fandom, it's just a show. Fandom is what you and other fans do about it. Writing about the characters in your show is not writing about fandom, it's practicing fandom.

Jeez Louise, where's my walker? Get off my lawn.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Bugs the heck out of me, too.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, pull up a rocker, then. We can be reactionary old geezers together up here on this virtual porch.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Rockers are good.

You don't have 'skeeters there, do you? On the virtual porch?

I even see why they redefined our word; they need some word for "the activity surrounding show x", and the redefinition they made works well for what they needed. Damned kids.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No skeeters here.

It's a fair point about the need, it just doesn't help my brane cope. If the world were perfect and everyone entered their respective fandoms by the same vetting portal then fic fans would have been handed the word 'X-fanac' to describe the fan activities surrounding X, but, well.... Rockers are good.

[seawasp]

REdefinition? That's the same definition YOU old guys are using. They usually are even pretty specific so as to avoid confusion. You can be purely part of the Gundam Wing fandom, or of the general anime fandom. You could even go meta, and be part of the fanfic fandom.

You old geezers just don't want to EXPAND your horizons, and wanna keep it for your dusty old books and outmoded fanzines.

I'm a member of the Saint Seiya fandom, Samurai Troopers Fandom, DBZ fandom, and a bunch of others, and I've done plenty of fanac in the form of fanfic (even published in an APA) and cosplay, and running conventions.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Not that I can see; the qualification is antithetical to my usage.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

What's all this about femdom?

[seawasp]

That's the same as running into Trekkies at SF cons.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yep; single-show fandoms are fine and all that -- but are not for me.

[seawasp]

Sorry, but I agree with them. I'm a part of the fandom of many series, even if I don't DO any of those fancy-shmancy things. I'm a fan. A fan is someone who likes a given thing. It's ALWAYS meant that, before SF people appropriated the word.

And the fanfic crowd IS part of Fandom even in YOUR definition. They write FANFIC. They publish it, they discuss it, they interact over it.

[seawasp]

Hm. Actually the way *I* heard it used was that you weren't even a FAN if you didn't partake of some set of activities (a definition I mocked loudly whenever I encountered it) and that therefore you couldn't be part of the fandom unless you did in fact participate. There were several pointed arguments-bordering-on-flamewars on the r.a.sf groups about this very thing.

And I certainly heard the word "fandom" used to describe subgroups LONG before the '90s -- Trek Fandom and Star Wars Fandom were the first, and that I was hearing back in the late 70s.

Now, it didn't EXPLODE until the online fanfic and especially anime communities started taking off, but these young punks didn't INVENT the usage. They just popularized it, I would say.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that that's what she said.

[seawasp]

Perhaps, but what she said seemed to imply they're using the word WRONG, whereas it seems they're using it perfectly correctly, with particular subdivisions to denote THEIR fandom. General SF Fandom covers some people, but it doesn't cover those who have no interest in written SF. And those who have no interest in general SF but interest in one particular show or subset thereof are definitely *SOME* kind of fandom, as in a kingdom of fans, and their fandom is defined by their show or shows or books or manga or whatever.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No; the usage defended in your initial comment was the one, it seemed to me, that akirlu was defending, not the one she was attacking.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes. Thank you.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The terminological misuse currently most bugging me is to use "blog" to mean an individual post. In earlier times, people (perhaps sometimes the same people) would use "apa" to mean an individual zine.

fandoms

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is precisely the same point you're making, but in several media conventions I go to, I hear the word "fandoms" (plural), as in "which fandoms are you into?" Trek fandom is different than BSG fandom which is different than anime fandom (of which there are zillions of sub-fandoms) which is different than Magic: The Gathering fandom.

And so on. Clearly, there might be overlap, and that's fine.

Frankly, I like this construction. I can still be Olde Sk001 and talk about Ess Eff Fandom ("I may be the only person you'll ever meet who'e published a fanzine on a hectograph") while eschewing terms like "sci fi" (no hyphen). And that's fine.

Also, it makes it easier to explain why I never read fanfic. I'm not in that fandom (or any of those fandoms), and they understand the terminology.

Also part II: I can use the term "young whippersnapper" and it generates the proper response. Usually.

Re: fandoms

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

The plural "fandoms" does shake me, and I feel the same emotions akirlu describes, in milder form. But I am resigned to the changed usage. The "fandoms" aren't going to change the way they speak because I am complaining about it. (Not that there aren't other topics I can be cranky about.)

[boxofdelights]

I think most of them, most of the time, use the word the same way you do; as witness this sentence from the Lev Grossman article on fanfiction: "I've been in fandom since early 2005, when I was getting ready to turn 12," says Kelli Joyce.

That other usage, where "I'm in due South fandom" turns into "My fandom is due South" is just synecdoche. And the step after that, where it turns into "My fandom wears pumpkin pants" is a form of verbal playfulness that fills me with joy.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Thank you!
I am a fan of the genre Science Ficiton.
Fans of individual brand-named entertainment products have culturally appropriated much of my fandom — and then get all shrill when I or anyone refer to the differences in what we're doing.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Someone once asked me what my top five fandoms were. They won't do it again.

[carbonel]

I understand your frustration, but it's essentially jargon of a related but different subculture. I'm fluent in both, since I'm active in both media and SF/fantasy fandom.

For that matter, old-time media fans used to have their teeth set on edge by newbies (mostly Internet-based fans) using the term "fic" (noun, short for fanfic), or even worse, "ficlet." And now they're pretty much standard usage.

The only real solution to your dilemma would be segregation. And I like that media fandom and SF/fantasy fandom have a certain overlap, even if it does cause confusion.

(On a slightly related note, Ctein forwarded this to me, and I am in fact its target audience. First time an xkcd cartoon has cracked me up so thoroughly in a long time.)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know I'll have to deal, because segregation is neither an option nor desirable. Language is a living thing, and I can't even control the jargon usage in my own cultural backwaters, let alone the nearby ones. Interestingly, I suspect the usage irritates me particularly because the subcultures are close neighbors. I think you get something like an uncanny valley effect when you get two subcultures that are close but not quite the same, a sort of push-me, pull-you of cognitive dissonance. I have a feeling that something similar drives this complaint about the way American English is infecting British usage.

[carbonel]

That makes sense. I like pulling in bits of British usage, but mostly when it's new terminology, not repurposing of words you already have a use for.

Things I've added to my vocabulary in the past several years: going pear-shaped, big girl's blouse, the balloon going up. Compared to that, "out in left field" just doesn't compare.