The Glory and the Dream

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Title:	The Glory and the Dream
Creator:	M.J. Fisher
Date(s):	May 1978
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Topic:
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The Glory and the Dream is a 1978 essay by M.J. Fisher.

It was printed in Spectrum #37.

One response to this essay was another essay: Fandom: A Neofan's View.

The author (who had a reputation for down-beat, somewhat scolding essays) comments in the editorial for the zine: "...the article in this issue on gafiation has what is probably the most upbeat ending that I've written in a long time. How disgusting..."

Some Topics Discussed

• why some fans leave fandom aka gafiate
• hints of scandals with the Star Trek Welcommittee
• when the author mentions "experimental" fanworks and recent conflicts, he is referring to fandom controversies regarding the then-new Kirk/Spock zines and stories
• the difference between a mundane and a "non-fan"
• the role of BNFs
• fandom as an imperfect place

The Essay

How is it that fans ever come to grow tired of fandom? Fandom is constantly being in fused with new fans, with fans who enter into the spirit of things with an overflowing idealism and a boundless sense of enthusiasm. Where then does this spirit evaporate to? How can anyone who enters fandom with such hope, ever lose so much of it that they are forced to abandon fandom after participating in it for only a few years?

I began to wonder about this recently because fandom is undergoing a cycle of change right now. There is an entire new wave of fans coming into ST fandom. Amidst their noisy and exuberant debut, there is also a group of fans who are quietly—and perhaps sadly- slipping out the back door. Of course, at any one time in the "history" of fandom, there will be new people coming in and old fans going out, but at times we can see concentrations of fans fluxing in and out of fandom in waves or cycles.

I don't want to examine the newer fans coming in. Mot in this article at least. I want to take a look at the wave of fans going out on the tide of events. Many people who have gafiated recently have been friends, and many others are well-known to almost everyone in fandom. Why are they leaving? What have we done that might be driving them out, or do fans naturally have a certain life span that determines how many years they will participate in fandom before they leave? It's a complex problem.

I suspect that one of the major flaws that ST fandom has as a congenital trait is its limitation. Science fiction fandom has a constant influx of new material. Several hundred new SF books appear each year, with countless other SF stories that also appear inside "straight" books and magazines. Star Trek fandom is limited because it is based on a show that no longer provides new material. As a result of this limitation there is an element of boredom that will always be evident in ST literature, and within fandom. This "Boredom Factor" has a very powerful influence on fans, and it effects everyone in fandom either directly or in roundabout ways.

The Boredom Factor first effects fannish enthusiasm with the show itself. How many times can you memorize 79 episodes? The show has been reviewed, examined, questioned, dissected, parodied and argued with uncountable times since fandom first started. After awhile. Star Trek becomes blase and uninteresting to some fans. After several years in fandom, how much more can you nitpick out? The major stories and story conflicts from ST have been gone over so many times that much of any discussion about ST between fans is reduced to a swapping of cliches. Of course some fans never lose much of their enthusiasm for the original series, but they fall into the minority. After two or three years in fandom, it's difficult to remain animated by rehashed discussions.

Some of the newer fans (and a few of the older fans who still hold on to their original feelings toward ST) have complained that there are people in fandom now who are writing that almost amounts to anti-Star Trek. Whereas the show expressed a feeling of hope and optimism, there are stories being written now which are pessimistic, hopeless, even nihilistic. Critics of this trend in writing are appalled that anyone who was originally drawn into STrekdom by ST's idealism, could ever sink to the level of writing about those things that Star Trek tried to counter.

This trend in writing however, can also be attributed to just another phase of the Boredom Factor. After Star Trek has become old hat, what's to say that the ideals that Star Trek stood for can't become tainted with age? Any topic that you become intensely involved with can become tiresome and cliched with age. Very few things in life are sacred, and in literary circles, almost nothing is immune to change or attack. One of the characteristics of the Boredom Factor is that it institutes change. When something becomes boring and uninteresting we have a tendency to stir things up, just to keep the interest up. take a look at the trends in fanfic from the late 60's to the present and you'll see an increasing move away from all of the basic premises that the original show was ever based on. The Boredom Factor incites experimental fiction, which I discussed in part in Spectrum 35 . But it doesn't end there.

Some fans cannot be satisfied with any diversion for very long. These restless individuals move on from interest to interest, always in search of something diverting enough to hold them for a bit. These fans are not destined to remain long in fandom, especially Star Trek fandom since there is far less diversity within Trekfic than you'll find in even a small sampling of mainstream SF fiction. As for the fans who become involved in STrekdom as editors, artists, and authors, the Boredom Factor affects them too. As an active fan, all you have to do is wait around a few years in order to become well-known. Even a letterhack who has never done a zine, never written fiction or articles nor drawn artwork, can still become well-known just by virtue of hanging around long enough. Yet there are a lot of people who have worked their way up in fandom, only to gafiate once they become well-known. Just as ST can become tiresome, so can fandom. Where do you go from BNF status?

Of course, ultimately the Boredom Factor affects only those prone to it. We are all susceptible to losing our interest in things through time, but it won't drive us all out of fandom. Those fans who have a short attention span,who grow tired easily will go in and out of fandom as in a revolving door. They will move onto sub-cults of ST fandom or other connected fandoms, or just gafiate. For the rest of us, there has to be a point at which we can find a comfortable niche, a level that we find comfortable.

If many of the well-known fans have established themselves in comfortable spots, then there must be other forces in fandom besides boredom which leads fans to gafiate. One of the classic ways in which fans have been driven out of fandom is through over work. This creeps up in any fandom, and is especially true of fan editors who find themselves printing a fanzine that for some reason "clicks." Suddenly the subscription rate mounts, book stores begin to buy the zine up, and the little fanzine becomes a small business. From that point on things get out of hand easily. Authors and artists too can easily over-commit themselves. The problem involved is a universal one; how to handle success? It affects the mundane world just as easily as it does fandom. The way up the ladder in fandom may be difficult, but at least you know which way you're going. Once you become well-known in fandom you can burn yourself out fast if you aren't cautious. This is yet another reason why some fans finally achieve wide-spread popularity, and then suddenly gafiate.

It has also been suggested that ST's primary appeal to viewers predestines many fans to gafiate after a few years involvement in fandom. Because of the show's action/adventure format, it predominantly draws in younger fans at the start; fans of high school age. Fandom, at least mainstream fandom, is comprised of an older set of people with a median age in the mid-20's, arid fan fiction, rather than being action/adventure is predominantly character-oriented; and lately in fanfic the trend has been to concentrate only on one or two characters and to deal with them intensively. Mew fans who were originally attracted to Star Trek because of its fast action and the daring exploits may drop out of fandom as they find less and less action/adventure within fandom. What is left of the new fans, consists mostly of those people who were interested in the characters of the show from the start, or those who have switched interests.

Egoboo also plays a part in fandom. Some people have been driven out of fandom on the basis of a single bad review. Other fans have been bad-mouthed up one side & down the other, yet easily ignore the bad comments. Certainly we all want some sort of recognition for what we do. Some don't care if it's praise or hatred, just as long as some one takes notice. Since fandom began in the late 60's, it has become harder to place fiction in fanzines because of a number of changes in fanzines and fanzine readers. As a result, we have more dejected would-be authors in fandom than we used to have. And egoboo is just generally harder to come by in a larger group. Certainly it is difficult to get a fanzine established now, and make it popular, considering that we have adopted zines like Interphase and The Other Side of Paradise as our standard for the ultimate fanzine. The skills to do that kind of publishing require several years of working at it, and many fans don't have the drive or don't get the support along the way, in order to reach that goal. Publishing that classic fanzine, or inviting that immortal story takes a lot of work, and you'll go through a lot of crud before you get there. For the people who can't take the criticism of their earlier works or for those who don't have the patience to make the entire climb, the dejection and disappointment can be shattering. It has forced many fans to quietly depart, never to be heard from again.

Of course, mundane problems can also force people to leave fandom. Tragically, mundane problems often drive people to fafiate (forced away from it all] suddenly and permanently. Since fandom can become expensive quickly, it's not surprising that many mundane problems affecting fans are economic. Jobs and moving can also be unsettling. Marriages in particular are the cause of many fans leaving fandom. It is a well-known axiom that you should never marry outside of fandom. In reality most people do marry out side of fandom; but in some cases the fans manage to convert their spouses to fanacism.

A goodly number of fans however, are married to non-fans. The term "non-fan" isn't widely used, but I use it here to differentiate from a mundane. A mundane is a person who does not know about fandom and may or may not have the potential to become a fan. A non-fan has contacted fandom or someone in fandom, and, for some reason, rejected it as silly, trivial, time-wasting, frivolous, or what have you. Non-fans may be hostile toward fandoms they may tolerate it, or be completely nonplussed by It: but in most cases, non-fans just don't see why fandom should have any appeal. Needless to say, marriages between fans and non-fans are often turbulent, and sometimes short-lived.

Lately there have been fans dropping out of fandom because they have become disillusioned with the way that fandom really is. If you know anything about fandom, you know that we promote mostly those aspects of fandom that are 1audible. (This isn't always the case. SF fandom, for example, likes to promote the fact that SFans have an uncommon fondness for alcohol, which isn't shared as equally by the country-at-large, or by other fandoms.) We like to promote our literary interests, the "family" image of fandom, the idea that fandom is a training ground for professional authors, editors and artists, and that fandom is generally comprised of well-educated, above-average intelligent and more liberal people than you'll find in the mundane world. What we don't like to advertise is that fans are human, and thus prone to human vices. Aside from our fannish virtues there are scandals in fandom, feuds, rip-offs, and just a few characters who don't mind stepping on anyone who gets in their way. There isn't a lot of this going around, but the problems do exist. I know people who shake their head and wonder what has happened to fandom, claiming that things like that never used to happen in fandom. It isn't really so however. In earlier days of fandom, the scandals and the problems still existed, but we didn't have the communications network that we have today to publicize it all, and time can also guild a great deal. The golden days of early fandom were not all that golden in reality. They were, in fact, much rougher since fandom was not as far-flung then as it is now, nor was it as organized.

Still, the realities of fandom are a bit much for some fans. Fandom is not entirely made up of idealistic young souls with an urge to write and an I.Q. over 150. What do we tell the newer fans who discover that if you play your cards wrong you can be wrung through the rumor mill? What would a neofan begin to think of fandom if he/she found him/herself in the middle of a fan feud? How would a beginning fan feel about the Star Trek Welcommittee if he/she learned of the scandals that STM has shoved under the carpet? It's all there, and if you hang around fandom long enough, you'll discover most of the big boo-boos that have gone down in the recent past. For the fans who are too disheartened with the realization of such things, it's really]too bad because they will eventually discover the problems later. Perhaps a forewarning will help newer fans to prepare themselves for some of the slightly-grimy realities of fan life.

Of course, gafiation doesn't necessarily imply that the people who leave fandom never return. "Gafia" means "Get Away From It All," and sometimes it is just helpful to leave things until you can straighten yourself out, especially in the cases of fans who have burned themselves out...

...and not everyone is susceptible to gafiation. Some people are just born with indomitable spirit. Yes, there are people who are born fans from the start. These born trufans will always be with us to carry on our fannish tradition and aspirations. Even if the spark of vitality is extinguished in the rest of us, smothered by a blanket of cynicism and despair, the born fans will still be there to carry on the torch of our hopes and dreams, to preserve them and pass it on to the next fandom—and the world.

Fan Comments

Enjoyed your column on gafiation. When people gafiate because of new interests, I think it's great. When it's out of disappointment, it's a shame. It's hard to think how to prevent such disappointment, but I wish people could understand...

There seems to be an enormous tendency to confuse the actors with the characters. People try hard to get close to actor X because they'd so love to meet character X. The attempt is hard on the actor and the fan, and if the fan actually succeeds in meeting the actor, the results can be a terrific disappointment, which wouldn't have happened if the fans had actually stopped to think.

And what are the power plays that go on? They're so common, but, they seem to be so divorced from the love of a show that presumably brings us together. BNF X spends some time talking to fan A. Fan B feels put down. Now, I've seen two BNFs participate actively In a kind of "you're in; they're out," and anybody who participates knowingly in such stupidity deserves the hurt feelings and rage that will result. But these games also get played entirely without the knowledge of the other' BNF (who may later read a bitter letter from fan B in a letter-col and wonder, "What the dickens..."). But fandom is not membership in a clique—it's the love of the show. Yet people gafiate — in bitterness — because they can't feel close to BNF X or actor Y. Strange.

[We] would do to remember the title of Leonard Nimoy's book on the subject. Again, the actors are not the characters. Part of them (including some aspects of their appearance) went into the creations of the characters. That's what they got paid for. But the characters have a life of their own in our imaginations. Spock is green blooded. Leonard Nimoy is red blooded (I'm told). Chekov's native language is Russian. Walter Koenig's is English (and he speaks a standard American, drama-school taught, with occasional echoes of the Bronx). To put it in another context, I can write a story in which character A is character B's dearest friend, totally untroubled by the fact that I saw actor B throw a tantrum worthy of a two-year-old when asked to share a microphone at a recent con. Let's not try to add apples and oranges.

Your column on gafiation lead one to consider all the reasons why gafiation is not desirable. First, you have the boredom factor in reverse. How is one to be able to take the everyday sameness of mundane life without a good dose of fandom to add spice to its passage?

Then we have the problem of STT's (Star Trek Tremors). If one goes without a dose of new ST material for a whole month, the withdrawal pangs start to set in. You eye that mailbox with yearning looks and think that there just HAS to be a new zine within its confines. Failing to find one, you dash into the house and scan through any flyers there may be In the dwelling trying to find SOMETHING to order that will satiate this desire. Of course, if one gives into this longing, the gafiation is ended and you are back on your addiction.

Of course, those letters from fellow fen you have encountered are also a source of temptation. You hungrily open that delightful envelope to find words describing new zines and news of events in fandom as well as new thoughts on the whys and wherefores of character motivations. You find pen automatically in hand as you find that you MUST answer all those ideas that have wound their way to your address.

Then, just as one thinks all the material that can possibly come out has come into being, something else does manage to find the light of day. The current issue of Starlog says that a dally Star Trek comic strip will soon be syndicated in some 600 newspapers. To try and break a habit that has its lure right in your evening paper. It is all just too much.

While there may be times I think of shaking the yoke of fandom, I find that it simply has too great a hold on me an I shall never be able to do so. Indeed, this elixir of ideas has entangled me far too deep within its web for me to ever find my way out.

(Yes, Paula Smith is right. It does help to giggle a lot.)