Talk:Josh Lanyon

The section on "Activities as a Fan" looks to me more like "Attitudes to Fandom". What about Josh's (or jgraeme2007's) actual activities as a fan? I think there may be a Pros story or two, definitely a Charioteer ficlet, and considerable discussion on MRF in 2007-8, especially in the second CBC of The Charioteer. --Greer Watson (talk) 02:40, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Yes, the page is still a bit of a work in progress, to be sure. I'll change the header. I'll also add some Pros stories to a new section call "Activities as a Fan." Maybe you could add some Renault ones? --MPH (talk) 02:50, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

I've added a section on Josh's involvement with MRF. Hope that's useful. --Greer Watson (talk) 06:56, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

It is very useful. I'm going to move the Pros fanworks section underneath the MRF ones, as MRF started first. I'll do a bit of tidying up what I added as well. --MPH (talk) 12:24, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

I think most Renault fans (except the most naïve) figured from the start that "Josh Lanyon" was a pen name. After all, we're talking about someone whose favourite character in The Charioteer is named Ralph Lanyon. It was as obviously a pseudonym as the username lanyon (who is another Renault fan, but a different one).--Greer Watson (talk) 21:45, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

I've been having a look at the reaction of Pros fans. It's interesting: several comment negatively based on Josh's self-presentation as a male authority on gay men. That was not the way jgraeme2007 presented at MRF, where the impression one largely got was simply of a fellow fan. During the CBC, in particular, the focus was entirely on the discussion of the book.

Being one of those who had not bothered to check the new member's profile, it was not until nearly the end of the CBC (possibly as a result of a footnoted comment like the one I quoted) that I realized jgraeme2007 was a published author and trailed through links to Josh Lanyon's website. Up till that time, I'd actually assumed that, in our ardent discussion of the implications of the differences between the two editions of The Charioteer, I'd been chatting/arguing with another woman, probably somewhat younger than myself, but middle-aged (say mid-thirties to early forties). When I finally saw the website, I was sure "Josh Lanyon" was a pen name; but I took the gender at face value, and simply kicked myself for making the default assumption that fans are women unless obviously not.

Mind you, I was new to MRF myself (and to LJ for that matter). I came from mailing-list fandom, where a majority of people use their real names. It took a few months for me to realize that a byproduct of the gender-neutrality of most LJ usernames was concealment of the fact the comm attracted an unusually high percentage of male fans. Mostly gay ... if they said anything about themselves personally, which members tended not to. It was not a place where people talked "isms" but where they came to talk books. That was as true of jgraeme2007 as anyone.

Now, with the latest revelation, all I can say is that on the Internet you really don't know anything about people. But this whole business is not so much a tempest in a teapot as a gust in a thimble. --Greer Watson (talk) 22:40, 5 October 2015 (UTC)