In Space, No One Can Read Your Thesis

Meta
Title:	In Space, No One Can Read Your Thesis
Creator:	Merlin Missy
Date(s):	August 22, 2008
Medium:
Fandom:	multifandom
Topic:
External Links:	In Space, No One Can Read Your Thesis
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In Space, No One Can Read Your Thesis is a 2008 essay by Merlin Missy.

It is a primer for very new fans.

Series

This essay is part of a series called Dr. Merlin's Soapbox.

Some Topics Discussed

• the internet makes it much easier to find fans such as yourself
• you're going to meet many, many different kinds of people, some you like and some you don't
• not everyone agrees, and that's okay
• meeting people in fandom expands your world
• "Here, you are not going to be judged by what you brought from outside.... In fandom, you're going to be judged on what you bring to the group."
• what you say on the internet is forever, so be cautious
• fans are highly educated, but don't be a snob because no one cares

From the Essay

No one you meet is going to care about your Master's degree in English. Most of the folks here have one, or are working on one. The others are working on Graphic Design, Comp Sci or science degrees. You can try to pull out your degree and/or your GPA to try and bolster your argument of why your interpretation of canon is superior to another's, and you can sit and watch as everyone laughs at you. You might get a little more traction by trying to pull superior geek cred on someone, but you have to be careful on that, even here; it is indeed a sad thing when your fellow fans are tempted to tell you to get a life.

Fan artists draw and paint and Photoshop and tweak until they have brought forth something new. Banner-makers and collagers take photos and images and create the perfect title or background for a page. Iconmakers make funny or poignant or sweet statements on a 100 x 100 canvas.

Vidders find the perfect blend of song and source, cutting clips and timing beats to make something new from two things that never belonged together before. Meta writers peer into the new canon and try to pry out its hidden (and not so hidden) mysteries, even if that attempt is wrapped in a pile of flail. Fanfic writers tell the stories trapped inside their heads as best they can. Readers take in the fanfic, absorb the meta, watch the vids, look at the art, and they comment to let the creator know that what they saw rocked their socks. Reccers do that and then tell the world.

When you do decide to argue anyway, keep in mind that things you say on the Internet will be preserved somewhere by someone until the end of time, and the drunken rant about a character you hate, the one you felt so self-righteous about last night, will be the same post people still come across by Googling you five years from now when you have changed fandoms twice and also sobered up.

The most important thing you can give yourself, young fanling, is time. Spend time thinking about what you want to do in fandom, be that reading or writing or making friends or squeeing like a squeeing thing or all of the above. Spend time before you hit "Send" on posts, and consider who will be reading it now, and who will be reading it three years from now. Spend time before you respond to trolls or Big Name Fans or your best fannish friend or even that brand new commenter in your journal, and make sure what you're about to say is what you mean, be that, "Thank you, and here is a compliment in return," or, "I hate you. Die die die." Time is the difference between making a sobbing three a.m. phone call to your ex and having pancakes the next morning with your best friend where the two of you discuss how dumb it would have been to make that call.