Because I am not. One of your. FANS.

by Roger Sutton
Apr 20, 2016 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
Kirk:SpockIn this week's Horn Book Podcast, Siân talks with Mackenzi Lee (This Monstrous Thing) about how they found kindred spirithood via The Raven Boys; and about fandom, fan fiction, and 'shipping (there totally should be an apostrophe so shut up). I admire the impulse and envy the enthusiasm but so not my thing. I'm reminded of a book I believe I have recommended here before, Camille-Bacon-Smith's Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth, a 1980s ethnography of Star Trek fandom from before the Internet convinced us it was responsible for all such things. (And as Shoshana Flax reminds us in the upcoming issue of the Horn Book, even Louisa May Alcott had dealings with fans displeased with the way things turned out for Jo.) The fanfic, filksongs, and relationships among fans Bacon-Smith documents was eye-opening back then; now it serves also as a valuable picture about how the like-minded found each other before Twitter.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton has been the editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc, since 1996. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his M.A. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978. Follow him on Twitter: @RogerReads.
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Ron McCutchan

Also see Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, by Anne Jamison and Lev Grossman (Smart Pop 2013), which pegs Sherlock Holmes fever for one of the origins of fanfic and goes forward to Twilight. Thanks for the Camille Bacon-Smith reference, which I'd lost track of but have been trying to recollect since reading the former.

Posted : Apr 22, 2016 09:09

Roger Sutton

and for those too young to get the title reference, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blEznMTsnQ

Posted : Apr 20, 2016 04:34

jules

Two things: 1) Reminds me of this classic sketch: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/trekkies/n9511 2) I am enjoying the podcast. Glad it exists. I hope you all keep on keepin' on.

Posted : Apr 20, 2016 04:13

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