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Becoming Real, or The Invisible Fan
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| Title: | Becoming Real, or The Invisible Fan |
| Creator: | Kass |
| Date(s): | July 8, 2000 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fandom |
| External Links: | Becoming Real, or The Invisible Fan/Archived Version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Becoming Real, or The Invisible Fan is an essay by Kass.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
What makes us real?I'm not talking about Velveteen-Rabbit-style real, a status which most schoolchildren know is conferred when someone loves one enough. I'm talking about becoming real within fandom, especially fandom on the 'net.
In Rachael Sabotini's "The Fannish Potlatch: Creation of Status Within the Fan Community," she talks about how fen acquire fannish status.
According to her theory, as I understand it, we accrue status through giving "gifts" to our fandoms. In the year that I've been in fandom, I've written a dozen or so stories, joined some mailing lists, hung out on IRC; presumably my fannish status, such as it is, grows or shrinks depending on what I post and how I comport myself. Online, in my case, since my fannish interactions are strictly virtual.
But how do I prove to other fen that I'm real, if I only interact with fandom virtually? How does anyone?
I'm lucky; I have a fannish mentor, a friend who brought me into fandom, who has taken me under her wing. She can vouch for me as a real, live person; other fen know her, so when she says I'm real, her word carries weight.