The Fan: putting that special breed under the microscope
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Fan: putting that special breed under the microscope |
| Creator: | Geoff Tilley |
| Date(s): | December 1996 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Multiple |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Fan was an article written by Geoff Tilley for Frontier: The Australian Science Fiction Media Magazine published in Issue 5, December 1996.[1]
"Putting that special breed under the microscope" was the subtitle on the magazine's contents page. The full subtitle of the article is "We are a special breed. There are things that some of us do, which are neither good or bad, just the signs of a modern fan. This is who we are..."
Topic
The article draws humourous comparisons between certain "classes" of fan: Class A fans, the most ardent and motivated. Class B, more "average" fans, and Class C, those who like something but aren't motivated to pursue it.
Excerpts
Have you seen or got the latest episodes? The Class A fan gets them in from overseas, and not by surface mail either. This fan either owns a converter (or has access to one) or bought a NTSC-compatible video player specially, and invites people over ot watch. Class B fan knows a Clas A fan as they only have a PAL VCR. Class C fan has to wait for a club meeting or for the episodes to come out on teleivison or at the video store. These days the pressure is on to see the "new stuff" otherwise you are not really a modern fan.
Love that TV/movie related t-shirt? Class A fan is wearing the latest Star Trek movie t-shirt even before it's on the screens. This fan will prefer to wear something nobody else has... Class B has locally produced t-shirts and will wear them to a reasonable number of fannish events. Class C his happily secure enough to wear plain clothes and not feel uncomfortable about it at fan outings.
You know that scene when...? Class A fans have good memories, knowing the correct order of the episodes, scenes in relation to the episode name, etc... Class B fans do not have perfect recall, but do not consider themselves less of a person because of it. Class C fans remember enjoying the episode.
Being a fan is fun no matter how much time and money you put into it... In the immortal worlds of The Eurythmics, "Be Yourself Tonight".
References
- ^ Tilley, Geoff. "The Fan" Frontier No. 5. p. 9.