In the Company of Wolves
You may be looking for the due South story The Company of Wolves.
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| Title: | In the Company of Wolves |
| Creator: | Joe Media |
| Date(s): | June 1990 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | many, but a focus on fans of horror |
| Topic: | fannish behavior |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In the Company of Wolves is a 1990 essay by Joe Medina.
It was published in Times v. 7 n.6.
Some Topics Discussed
- the behavior of new and "immature" fans at fan club meetings and at cons
- not respecting human life
- blurring the lines between fantasy and reality
- treating guests of honor at cons rudely
- not being quiet while watching shows in public
- serious fans and idiots
- violence and desensitization
- general mayhem
Introduction
The editor of the newsletter this essay was published in prefaced it by this introduction:
The following letter from Joe Medina touches on something that not only has effected the LEGION OF RASSILON but has also become noticeable in the "real world" out there. This past weekend in San Jose, Creation held their Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, and it was! The attendees, while largely well behaved and interested in the panels, dealers' room and film previews, occasionally evinced a "scarier" side. The appreciation of horror films can be on many levels. One can be completely detached and marvel at the special effects and makeup or see the film as a spoof or metaphor or even a way of rebelling and "shocking" the mundanes. Those of us interested in Science Fiction and fantasy may also be intrigued by the horror genre because of its tandem popularity with the former. There seems to be a "darker" side though, which psychiatrists and sociologists have debated endlessly. Although this occurs whenever any new teenage fad develops, this fascination with the macabre seems to have more disturbing ramifications. This letter has some insights into this disturbing trend.
Possible Connections to "Rule Six"
This essay was printed in June 1990. In July 1990, Timecon (sponsored by this newsletter's fan club) took place.
There was apparently enough poor behavior by some fans at Timecon that the hotel management sent out an "expected behavior contract" to fans regarding the next con. See Rule Six.
Some Excerpts
The Legion of Rassilon can be considered a cross-section, a representation of fandom at the moment, and we're sure as hell an interesting group. But when the character, the personality of the LOR manifests a dark side or a mean streak, it can be applied to the rest of fandom. People who aren't fans certainly will.
Okay, what's the point, asks someone. I'm afraid I found this mean streak and since lots of things have kept me from reaching a few meetings, I don't know if it's still there.
The LOR meeting of March 16, was a mixed blessing of epic proportions. I was glad to see that it was capable of bringing in such a large crowd with such enthusiasm and diversity, arguably the largest gathering we had in the last twelve months. But the dark side of this substantial, enthusiastic crowd is the chaos and immaturity exemplified by a couple of schumcks burbling loudly throughout "The Curse of Fenric", which only happens to be the best DOCTOR WHO serial that has been seen on the West Coast, but enough of that. If the three people who read my comments in the December '89 issue of the Times remember, I made a passing reference to immature behavior. Allow me to expand the term to include the various manifestations of stupidity and rudeness.
This was the example the LOR gave to its fellow fans: yelling while people are watching a video, talking while other people are talking and not leaving one's rowdiness outside if one isn't interested in the meeting's activities that night.
Is it a wonder we had this? When not enough people clamped down on the juvenile vandals that deliberately poke fake weapons into people's faces for the sensation of having one's attention, and otherwise violating the person's privacy in the name of self-gratification — and when they did, they didn't do it soon enough to stop the damage done to private property and the good name of the club. Fandom makes them by the metric ton and complains about the existence of such morons. Ask yourself whose fault it is. A lot of basic matters of social interaction have been dropkicked by the bulk of the LOR, as I delineated above, and it bears thinking on, especially this: the nature and purpose of horror in fiction. What happened during the showing of "The Curse of Fenric" is a perfect example.
Here we were, watching someone about to get creamed by the Haemovores and two thick-headed ghouls are cheering them on. My fiancee even called them ghouls to their unshaven faces, which surprised me. It isn't easy to tick her off, but the matter at hand (I'm glad I remembered) is this: relishing a person's pointless and unnecessary death is evil, sadistic. Ted Bundy got the chair for such atrocities, and justifiably so.
So why is it okay to relish the image of such a thing? "It's not real. Nobody's getting hurt," is the most typical excuse. But it's not the point. Life is a sacred thing, violent death is a horror and death of any kind is a loss. Even in this day and age when paperwork seems more important than helping those who need help, those values will never change. Ten thousand years from now, no matter what people know about the universe, they will still cry when loved ones are put into the ground. That is why murder is such a terrifying thing. It is perhaps the ultimate theft. A life is being taken.
Now I hope my point is taken. Stories give us visions of horror to horrify us, not to make us giggle. Why would anybody cheer a villain? The fact that the Haemovores were committing an evil act was beside the point for the ghouls who cheered their evil act as if it were their daily fix of bread and circuses . (Incidentally, the original purpose of the Roman circuses was to desensitize people to the sight of violent death. Consider the films people watch today and consider how poorly life is treated in real life.) Yeah, sure, the woman who got wasted was a real pain while she was in the story, and yeah, I can appreciate that the laughing and cheering of the murder could've been a defense mechanism to diffuse the terror and psychological trauma. So what? Again, the whole thing doesn't exist beyond the confines of videotape, so there wasn't anything really to defend against. None of this changes the fact that laughing at the enactment of a murder shows how much the value of the life has been diminished. That thought will make a sane
person nervous. Aren't you getting nervous?
This is a concept we have taken for granted, like so many others. Politeness, consideration for others, the sanctity of life, all forgotten. Considering there are many young people in the LOR — and that the people who do the really dippy stuff are probably no older than maybe eighteen — I think we should reevaluate the kind of example the Legion of Rassilon want to be to them. Not just the LOR either; fandom in general has become a den for inhumanity. We may not be making death camps or selling sushi, but some of us are vandals. Some of us invade the privacy of others. Some of us go up to people they barely know and say deadpan, "My last boyfriend used to beat me up," as if we're able to do something about it. Some of us demand the goodwill of others and don't care if the other person is already in dire circumstances. Some of us have terrorized the writers and artists - big names like Isaac Asimov and Barbara Hambly and Spider Robinson and David Gerrold — with our self-indulgent cruelty and emotional vampirism. One of us threw a cup full of vomit into Alan Dean Foster's face.
Fandom has gone way out of control. Read Harlan Ellison's essay "Xenogenesis" in the Spring 1990 issue of Midnight Graffiti. It's a good, important article, but it shouldn't be news to you. The evidence has been everywhere. We can make it good clean fun again. It was our idea, remember? I'm not saying we should become a monastery. I'm saying that we should be responsible. It's ironic that this was brought up after watching "The Curse of Fenric", which used symbolism to show what a capacity human beings have for good and evil, and how easy it is to be both.