Science fiction fandom

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Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although clubs such as the Futurians [1937-1945], the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society [1934-present], and the National Fantasy Fan Federation [1941-present] are recognized features of fandom).

Most often called simply "fandom" within the community, it can be viewed as a distinct subculture, with its own rituals and jargon; marriages and other relationships among fans are common, as are multi-generation fannish families.

Contents

[edit] Origins and history

Science fiction fandom started through the letter column of Hugo Gernsback's fiction magazines. Not only did fans write comments about the stories — they sent their addresses, and Gernsback published them. Soon, fans were writing letters directly to each other, and meeting in person when they lived close together, or when one of them could manage a trip. (Travel was slower and costlier in the 1930s than it would become by the 21st century.)

In 1934, Gernsback established a correspondence club for fans called the Science Fiction League, the first fannish organization. Local groups across the nation could join by filling out an application.

Soon after the fans started to communicate directly with each other came the creation of fanzines (see also science fiction fanzines). These amateur publications might or might not discuss science fiction and were generally traded rather than sold. They ranged from the utilitarian or inept to professional-quality printing and editing. In recent years, Usenet newsgroups such as rec.arts.sf.fandom, websites and blogs have somewhat supplanted printed fanzines as an outlet for expression in fandom, though many popular fanzines continue to be published. Science-fiction fans have been among the first users of computers, email, personal computers, and the Internet.

Many professional science fiction authors started their interest in science fiction as fans, and some still publish their own fanzines or contribute to those published by others.

A widely regarded (though by no means flawless or error-free) history of fandom in the 1930s can be found in Sam Moskowitz's The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom Hyperion Press 1988 ISBN 0-88355-131-4 (original edition The Atlanta Science Fiction Organization Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1954). Moskowitz was himself involved in some of the incidents chronicled, and has his own point of view which has often been criticized.

[edit] Conventions

See main article Science fiction conventions

Since the late 1930s, SF fans have organized conventions, non-profit gatherings where the fans (some of whom are also professionals in the field) meet to discuss SF and generally enjoy themselves. (A few fannish couples have held their weddings at conventions.) The 1st World Science Fiction Convention or Worldcon was held in conjunction with the 1939 New York World's Fair, and has been held annually since the end of World War II. Worldcon has been the premier convention in fandom for over half a century; it is at this convention that the Hugo Awards are bestowed, and attendance can approach 8,000 or more.

SF conventions can vary from minimalist "relaxacons" with a hundred or so attendees to heavily programmed events with four to six or more simultaneous tracks of programming, such as WisCon and Worldcons.

Commercial shows dealing with SF-related fields are sometimes billed as 'science fiction conventions,' but are operated as for-profit ventures, with an orientation towards passive spectators, rather than actively involved fans, and a tendency to neglect or ignore written SF in favor of television, film, comics, video games, etc. One of the largest of these is the annual Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia with an attendance of more than 20,000 since 2000.

[edit] Science fiction societies

See Category:science fiction organizations

Science Fiction Societies were launched as chapters of the Science Fiction League and when it faded into history, several of the original League chapters remained viable and were subsequently incorporated as independent organizations. Most notably among former League chapters spun off was the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society which served as model for subsequent SF Societies formed independent of the League history.

Science Fiction Societies, more commonly referred to as "clubs" except on the most formal of occasions, form a year-round base of activities for science fiction fans. They are often associated with an SF convention or group of conventions, but maintain a separate existence as a cultural institution within a geographic region. Several have purchased property and maintain ongoing collections of SF literature available for research as in the case of Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, New England Science Fiction Association, and the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Other SF Societies maintain a more informal existence meeting at general public facilities or the homes of individual members.

[edit] Offshoots and subcommunities

As a community devoted to discussion and exploration of new ideas, fandom has become an incubator for many groups that started out as special interests within fandom, some of which have partially separated into independent intentional communities not directly associated with science fiction. Among these groups are media fandom, the Society for Creative Anachronism, gaming, and furry fandom[1]. Fandom also welcomes and shares interest with other groups involved in new ideas and lifestyles, including GLBT communities, Libertarians, Neo-Pagans, and space activist groups like the L-5 Society, among many others. Some groups exist almost entirely within fandom but are distinct and cohesive subcultures in their own rights, such as filkers, costumers, and convention runners (sometimes called "SMOFs").

Fandom encompasses subsets of fans that are principally interested in a single writer or subgenre, such as Tolkien fandom and Star Trek fandom ("Trekkies"). Even short-lived television series may have dedicated followings; for example, fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and movie Serenity are known as Browncoats.

Participation in science fiction fandom often overlaps with other similar interests, such as fantasy role-playing games, comic books and anime, and in the broadest sense fans of these activities are felt to be part of the greater community of SF fandom.

There are active SF fandoms around the world. Fandom in non-Anglophone countries is based partially on local literature and media, with cons and other elements resembling those of English-speaking fandom, but with distinguishing local features. For example, Finland's biannual national gathering Finncon is funded by the government, while all conventions and fan activities in Japan are heavily influenced by anime and manga.

[edit] Fanspeak

Science fiction and fantasy fandom has its own slang or jargon, sometimes called fanspeak.

Fanspeak is made of up acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, and standard terms used in specific ways. Some terms used in fanspeak have spread to members of the Society for Creative Anachronism ("Scadians"), Renaissance Fair participants ("Rennies"), and internet gaming and chat fans, due to the social and contextual intersection between the communities. Examples of fanspeak used in these broader fannish communities include gafiate, a term meaning to drop out of SF related community activities, with the implication to Get A Life. The word is derived via the acronym for "Get away from it all". A related term is fafiate, for "Forced away from it all". The implication is that one would really rather still be involved in fandom, but circumstances make it impossible.

Two other acronyms commonly used in the community are FIAWOL (Fandom Is A Way Of Life) and its opposite FIJAGH (Fandom Is Just A Goddamned Hobby) to describe two ways of looking at the place of fandom in one's life.

Science-fiction fans often refer to themselves using the irregular plural "fen": man/men, fan/fen.

[edit] In fiction

As science fiction fans became professional writers, they started slipping the names of their friends into stories. Wilson "Bob" Tucker slipped so many of his fellow fans and authors into his works that doing so is called tuckerization. A complete list of tuckerizations in science fiction is beyond the purview of this article, and many authors have slipped in a name or two.

In Robert Bloch's 1956 short story "A Way Of Life", science fiction fandom is the only institution to survive a nuclear holocaust. Gather In The Hall of the Planets, by K.M. O'Donnell (aka Barry Malzberg), 1971, takes place at a New York City science fiction convention and featured broad parodies of many sf authors. The novel Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn contains a tribute to SF fandom. The story includes a semi-illegal fictional Minneapolis Worldcon in a post-disaster world where science, and thus fandom, is disparaged. Many of the characters are barely tuckerized fans, mostly from the LA area. Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun is a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention. While containing less than flattering caricatures of fans and fandom, many fans take it with good humor.

A mention must be made here of A.E. van Vogt's 1940 novel Slan, about a mutant variety of humans who are superior to regular humanity and are therefore hunted down and killed by the planetary dictatorship. While the story has nothing to do with fandom, many science fiction fans felt very close to the protagonists, feeling their experience as bright people in a mundane world mirrored that of the mutants; hence, the rallying cry, "Fans Are Slans!"

[edit] Figures in the history of fandom (incomplete)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patten, Fred (2006). Furry! The World's Best Anthropomorphic Fiction. ibooks. 
  • Jenkins, Henry (1992). Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, Studies in culture and communication. New York: Routledge, 343. ISBN 0415905710. 
  • In Memory Yet Green by Isaac Asimov (1979)
  • The Futurians by Damon Knight (1977)
  • The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl (1978)
  • All Our Yesterdays by Harry Warner, Jr. (1969)
  • The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom by Sam Moskowitz. Hyperion Press 1988 ISBN 0-88355-131-4 (original edition The Atlanta Science Fiction Organization Press, Atlanta, Georgia 1954
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