Today, I've been thinking about friendship and fans.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Today, I've been thinking about friendship and fans. (The title used here on Fanlore.) |
| Creator: | Pam Willbanks |
| Date(s): | March 1983 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | has a focus of Harrison Ford fans |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Today, I've been thinking about friendship and fans. is a short essay by Pam Willbanks.
It was published in the Harrison Ford zine Rogue's Gallery #10.
The essay is part of Willbanks' contributions to this zine, all using the title "Almost Casual Observations from Down South," and the title used here on Fanlore is a line from that contribution.
Some Topics Discussed
- being a fan and the friendships one makes
- fan clubs
- the nature of fandom and loyalty, the inevitability of fandom
- Harrison Ford and his dislike of fan clubs, his conflicted feelings about fans and fandom
- mature fans and immature fans
From the Essay
Today, I've been thinking about friendship and fans.
All this came about because of a beautiful Christmas card I received during this past season. It wasn't so much that the card itself was beautiful but because of what the sender had written inside in her own hand. I quote a part of it, "I think I'll write Harrison thanking him for all the wonderful friends like you and Joann I have met through him." I kept that card because it so well expressed my own feelings on the subject. We all know that the object of our mutual respect has some strong feelings about 'fan clubs.' I can't comment or speculate what is behind those feelings but I can comment on all the marvelous people I've met because of him. Some of these, I've never met or laid eyes on, some I have but still, it isn't so much the physical presence of these people as it is the moral support and understanding which is offered and accepted by all of us. We have at least one thing in common and because of that one thing that brings us together in the first place, we expand, we grow, and we attempt things, through encouragement, that we didn't know we were capable of doing. Merely liking an actor and his work is not enough to build a firm friendship on, but even dyed-in-the-wool skeptics have to admit that it's a great way to break the ice.
Knowing that there are others who understand you makes the little everyday things easier. Like the bets on how many times Willbanks can watch STAR WARS before its run on cable-TV is over or the crazy looks I got because I taped a full page newspaper ad of Indiana Jones on the wall facing my typewriter at work, and then there's the amused and glazed stares I get from co-workers who don't know a Jawa from an asteroid! I can put up with all that cause I know that just by picking up a pen or turning on my typewriter, I can put myself in touch with another person or persons who know exactly what I'm talking about; I don't have to answer that question "Harrison who?" Of course, after all these years, everybody that knows me, knows who Harrison is, 'cause you can bloody well bet that I've told them!
I'm no starry-eyed kid. I'm a responsible adult with what most people consider an important job. I don't scream or giggle when faced with people of fame or prominence, and I do run across them from time to time in my work. I can talk with intelligence on almost any topic and those that I can't discuss, I'm certainly willing to listen and learn. I think the whole point, is that fans come in two categories.
The first is the squealing kind that sooner or later fall by the wayside and the other is the mature individual who knows what talent is and admires a person who possesses it. Indeed, some of us first see the light by way of pure animal magnetism, but we hang on because of something deeper. I'm a loyal fan and freely admit it. I don't mind being lumped into the category because I know myself. Perhaps, someday, Harrison will learn that fans are going to get together whether they are sanctioned, organized, or otherwise. He might just as well realize that as long as he makes films, there will be fans. There will probably be fans long after he retires to build furniture!
[snipped]
Being an unrecognized fan is no easier than being the object of that fan's attention. We all want recognition....maybe someday.