Copyright © 2005 by Blake Charlton. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, reposting, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission of the author.
30 May 2006
Initiated denizens of Fandom need not read this posting; it presents only a) the author's amazed realization that Fandom exists, b) his attempt to describe Fandom to the "Dearly beloved you-guys", and c) his antics at Baycon '06.
Dearly beloved you-guys,
Fandom exists. Amazing, but true. It's hard to see, but its there. In fact it's everywhere. I've been; I've returned, and nothing will ever be the same.
"Blake," you-guys say, "we love you, man, but now you've finally cracked. Last post you were all moody and maudlin. Now you're boisterously not making sense. What are you talking about? What's Fandom?"
Let's be word geeks. Fandom = Fan + dom. "Fan" as in a fanatic from the Latin fanaticus, pertaining to a temple and the numinous rights that took place there. The suffix "-dom" most often indicates a kick-ass medieval domain: e.g. kingdom, dukedom, queendom. It might also refer to a state of being as in "freedom". The root's probably from old Germanic and has something to do with law or fate, maybe related to the word "doom".
"Remember how we said that you've cracked?"
Yeah?
"Never mind. So this Fandom, it's a place?"
Well not quite. Most of the time Fandom is a web of luminary minds. It's a subculture attached in some way to science fiction and fantasy something or others. And it's been happening in America for a long time. Since the 1930s, in fact; the first World Science Fiction Convention was in 1939.
"So why all the mumbo jumbo about queendoms?"
Okay, so most of the time Fandom is a subculture, but every so often the fans in a certain section of the world take over a hotel and carve out their own little fiefdom called a 'science fiction convention'.
"And in these conventions…you dress up like Spock?
Only if you're into Startrek, and you're old school, and you're into Cosplay (cosplay = costume play, a backformed word from Japanese). Depending on the convention there will be a lot or a little Cosplay. But, really, you don't go to a convention to 'do' anything. You go to a convention to be part of something or to witness something.
"How zen of you. But what do you do if you're not dressed up like Spock?"
You're kinda fixated on Spock huh?
"It's the ears."
And the total lack of emotion?
"We like them tall, dark, and Vulcan."
That's weird. You should go to more cons. You'd fit right in.
"But what are we going to do there?"
Well, you could join the Society for Creative Anachronism (the SCA) and dress up in armor and bash each other with swords and the like. Or you might go to panels and here 'experts' chat about everything from the Chinese space program to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or you might play board games or computer games. Or you might watch movies. Or buy funny T-shirts (Come over to the Darkside; We have cookies) in the dealers room. Or tour the art show. Or become a boffer and make outsized padded weapons and…well…'boff' each other. You might go to the a Regency dance and cut the same jig Jane Austin did. Or…or…or you could hang out in the bar.
"Hang out in the bar?"
Yeah, you know the place where you can buy a drink and/or play pool and/or eat peanuts.
"Dude, I know what a bar is!"
All right, all right, no need to be testy.
"So there's all that other stuff to do and you spent most of Baycon hanging out in the bar?"
Well...I was also a participant. I was on a panel about Asperger's and Neurodiversity, and another one about the Ecology of Magic Systems, and I did a reading about--
"Right, right. But really you were just hanging out with people in the bar and having geeky arguments about who would win if Paul Atreides and Ender Wiggin got in a fight."
First off, how the heck did you know? And second off, Paul would have LAID THE SMACK DOWN!
"Riiiight…Did you see any Vulcans?"
No, this was more of a Klingon dive bar.