A follower, devotee, or admirer of any sport or diversion. In our case the diversion is fantasy in book and magazine form, on film, and on the airwaves. The fan buys, sell, trades, collects, and discusses this stuff. Some of them even read it. Professional editors, like Palmer of old, call all people who read their magazines pretty regularly fans; and indeed the term is so used by the stfnists who merely write letters to the editor and collect prozines.
The fen of fandom have a more restricted meaning in mind. What this meaning is is difficult to say. (If the Greeks had a word for it, they never used that word in public.) Generally one whom we designate as a fan in fandom maintains a correspondence with other fans, and visits them when located in the same area. He may publish or write for a fanzine — or several of them. He often attends local club meetings, and, finances permitting, conferences or national conventions. This is a matter of degree, and depending on the extent to which a given fan indulges in anything more than local club activity he may be distinguished as an actifan. The comparative emphasis a fan puts on the different kinds of activities determines whether he/she becomes known as a fanzine fan, a club fan, or a convention fan; most fans do some of each, but only a few do enough to avoid being labeled as one subspecies or another.
Introspectives like fans naturally do much speculating on what and why fans are. Earl Kemp's fanzine symposium Why is a Fan? (1962) collected several dozen prominent opinions on the matter. There have been various theories: Gernsback's idea of developing potential scientific genius in his readers; the idea that fans are a separate species, slans or whatever you want to call them, which Degler made ridiculous; that stfanaticism is sublimated sex drive; and that fans are youngsters in blind alleys of life, seeking escape from "the humdrum, workaday world." A theory well received is Norm Stanley's "sense of fantasy," a taste for the imaginative analogous to the sense of humor. Probably a complex of characteristics goes into the fan type. We do, however, show some significant variations from the average in geographical distribution, national extraction, age, sex distribution, intelligence, introversion, and suchlike factors.
Dislike of the common connotations of the word "fan" led to the suggestion of various substitutes for it, such as "stefnist" and "imaginist."
Contributors: Fancyclopedia 2, Joe Siclari
Short for fanatic, the term Hugo Gernsback hung on us when we wrote enthusiastic letters to his all-stf magazine Amazing Stories. Can be applied to any devoted aficionado, but in context (such as in rec.arts.sf.fandom) means someone who enjoys (or once enjoyed) reading or viewing science fiction and/or someone who enjoys the company of sf fans. Quite often a distinction is drawn between sf readers and "fans" who participate, to one extent or another, in the sf microcosm. The fans are not making the distinction to say that readers are not fans of science fiction, but because there are things that can be said of one group that does not apply to the other. It is important to note, as a result, that "fan" is a slippery term which, again depending on context, might mean an sf film/tv enthusiast, any sf reader or might mean only those who are involved in a particular segment of the microcosm, such as the net, clubs, fanzines or conventions. Thus some form of qualification is usually made at the outset–e.g., "other-media fan," "reader fan," "net fan," "convention fan" or "fanzine fan"–so subsequent usages of “fan” mean the same as the subset indicated initially. Then again, there are those who prefer to be called “amateurs” rather than “fans.”
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
Tag Cloud: See also the Fancyclopedia 3 tag cloud for Fan.
| from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959 |
| A follower, devotee, or admirer of any sport or diversion. In our case the diversion is fantasy in book and magazine form, on film, and on the airwaves. The fan buys, sell, trades, collects, and discusses this stuff. Some of them even read it. Professional editors, like Palmer of old, call all people who read their magazines pretty regularly fans; and indeed the term is so used by the stfnists who merely write letters to the editor and collect prozines, but the fen of fandom have a more restricted meaning in mind. What this meaning is is difficult to say. (If the Greeks had a word for it, they never used that word in public.) Generally one whom we designate as a fan in fandom maintains a correspondence with other fans, and visits them when located in the same area. He may publish or write for a fanzine — or several of them. He often attends local club meetings, and, finances permitting, conferences or national conventions. This is a matter of degree, and depending on the extent to which a given fan indulges in anything more than local club activity he may be distinguished as an actifan (as opposed to passifen); stress on crifanac rather than congoing, among actifans, is the chief extensional distinction between trufans and confans. Introspectives like fans naturally do much speculating on what and why fans are. Medhurst surveys the following theories: Gernsback's idea of developing potential scientific genius in his readers; the idea that fans are a separate species, slans or whatever you want to call them, which Degler made ridiculous; that stfanaticism is sublimated sex drive; and that fans are young men in blind alleys of life, seeking escape from "the humdrum, workaday world". A theory well received is Norm Stanley's "sense of fantasy", a taste for the imaginative analogous to the sense of humor. Probably a complex of characteristics goes into the fan type. We do, however, show some significant variations from the average in geographical distribution, national extraction, age, sex distribution, intelligence, introversion, and suchlike factors. Dislike of the common connotations of the word "fan" had led to the suggestion of various substitutes for it, such as stefnist and "imaginist". from Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement ca. 1960: This word could as easily come from fancier as fanatic — in which case the word the Greeks had for it would be philetor. |
| from Fancyclopedia 1 ca. 1944 |
| Short for "fanatic", Wiggins says, but he probably just consulted the mundane dictionary. Professional editors like Palmer call all people who buy their magazines pretty regularly, fans; and indeed the term is so used by the scientifictionists who merely write letters to the editor and collect pro mags, but the fen of fandom have a more restricted meaning in mind. With introspects such as fans are, it's natural that there should be a lot of speculation on what and why fans are. Medhurst surveys the following theories: Gernsback's idea of developing potential scientific genius in his readers; the idea that fans are a separate species, perhaps Star-Begotten (or Slans); that stfanaticism is the result of frustrated sex impulse; and that fans are young men in blind alleys of life, "seeking escape from the humdrum, workaday world". Widner said he thinks the essential thing about fans is that they have an ideal of a better way of life and want to change things; but this hardly sets them apart from millions of non-fans. A theory well received is Norman Stanley's "sense of fantasy", a taste for the imaginative analogous to the "sense of" humor. Probably a complex of characteristics goes into the fan type. We show some significant variations from average in geografical distribution, national extraction, age, sex distribution, intelligence, introversion, and suchlike factors. The IPO made no attempt to isolate an essential characteristic whichby all fans mite be distinguished, but said that "A real fan fulfills practically all the following requirements: He buys and reads most of the professional fantasy magazines / this was when there were less than half a dozen /, collects them, and writes the editors. He subscribers to at least one fan magazine. He corresponds with other fans. S-f fandom is his ruling passion. He has probably tried his hand at writing, either for fan or pro magazines or both". Dislike of the common connotations of the word "fan" has led to the suggestion of various substitutes for it, such as "stefnist" and "imaginist". |
