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

[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.