Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 13:05:52 -0600
From: Laurel Krahn <laurel@pobox.com>
To: The Minicon mailing list
Subject: on finding fandomKaren Cooper posted a really great list of ways to get involved with fandom (or to find out more about fandom). Bravo! :-)
Honestly, if you can't find the stuff, you aren't looking hard enough (I don't mean that as a slam, either, I know how easy it is to get busy and not read Minicon program books or fanzines or search for things online, etc).
I first read about Minn-stf online, ten or so years ago, when things were in some ways harder to find in the online world. But I found a BBS called Terraboard on the recommendation of someone who knew I liked "that science fiction stuff". On Terraboard, I found lots of information about Minn-stf and area writers, and via the SF Echo on FIDOnet, I found out even more. Via other BBSes and the internet I found the SF-LOVERS archive... and the SF-LOVERS mailing list, the first sf groups on Usenet. I talked about Star Trek stuff on Q-link (a precursor to AOL) before I found all this other stuff. You've probably heard this story by now, but there are other details that are relevant to these worries about folks not finding fandom or feeling excluded.
I heard about Star Trek conventions in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and in magazines like Starlog. And I heard about other conventions in all sorts of places that are easy to access even if you think you're all alone in your love for science fiction-- bookstores, libraries, newspapers, magazines.
I first read about Star Trek fandom in a variety of paperback books that are easy to find at bookstores or Star Trek conventions. Most notably, I was in love with Joan Winston's description of the first Star Trek conventions in her nifty book "The Making of the Star Trek Conventions" as well as stuff in "Star Trek Lives". Among others (last I checked, some time ago, the latter book is much easier to find than the former).
I've tracked down fanzines and magazines and conventions and all sorts of information since then. Online, offline, with the help of friends or on my own.
I found fandom. Which is pretty amazing considering the fact that I attended a private Lutheran school in a rural Minnesota town and didn't know anyone else who liked science fiction. Okay, later on I found out that some of them also liked media science fiction, but that was after I found the magazines and the books and so on. People in South Dakota find fandom. Anyone in the U.S. can find it, IMHO, if they want to. Heck, even if they don't know it exists. I sure didn't. Star Trek fandom has gotten much more high profile than it used to be, it's hard to miss Star Trek cons these days. Or episodes of the many shows. And fans who don't care for media SF can find out about conventions online or by reading SF publications, which are available at most bookstores and newsstands.
You know, I found my first Star Trek novel at a drugstore in the wire racks, it was the first I heard of Star Trek books. I bought most of my books via book clubs or the library book sale to that point, hadn't really ventured into the SF section of bookstores. Maybe didn't realize there was one (that changed fast and was a revelation, I hadn't really thought of SF as a genre to that point, that it might have space designated to it in a bookstore).
Interesting that I'm now on some of the same mailing lists as Ben Yalow, someone whose name I knew before I really found fandom, when it was simply a cool thing I read about in Joan Winston's book, it seemed all so far away and glorious and too cool to be true. Gosh Ben, you aren't a fictional character after all! ;-p
These days, Minn-stf has a webpage ( http://www.mnstf.org/ ) as do many other fan organizations, fan run conventions, and other such things.
Fans from all over the world talk in rec.arts.sf.fandom, as well as in other groups in the rec.arts.sf and alt.fandom hierarchies. Plus on mailing lists like this one, smofs, timebinders, and others. And I think sf-lovers is still out there somewhere. :-)
There's the Sci-Fi channel, which... well, while I hate the name and some of their programming, it does provide information about some segments of fandom. And their website provides even more pointers, and they covered the most recent World Science Fiction con, giving it tremendous exposure.
You can't go a few feet without stumbling on merchandise related to shows like Star Trek, Babylon 5, The X-files, etc. Or related to movies. Any media science fiction. And media tie-in books are being written in mass quantities, some by really good SF writers (it's how I found John M. Ford's books, for instance).
Yeah, yeah, I know, but what about the true fannish fandom stuff. The nitty gritty. All those BNFs who are smoffing and pubbing their ish and lord knows what else. It's there to find, just look around. Fanzines of all kinds are reviewed all over the place. You can find fannish information at just about any convention (yes, even the media ones) if you look hard enough. You certainly can find fans, who can then give you a fanzine or tell you about a really cool book or suggest you attend a smaller con like Reinconation. And if you don't know what you're looking for, haven't heard of fandom, you'll stumble on it pretty easily, if it's for you.
I fell in love with the idea of fans communicating and working together, almost instantly. When I first read essays by fans about Star Trek in the Best of Trek books, when I read Joan Winston's descriptions of working on the first trek conventions, when I attended my first convention and felt welcome (even tho I was too shy to talk to anyone else) and part of the group. When I wandered into a music party at Minicon... well I just knew I was home. I experienced joy, often quietly, in those moments, and yearning for more of *that*. And the yearning kept me searching for more information. And that made it all the more sweet when I found a pile of old fanzines at Wiscon a few years ago or realized at the 1993 World Fantasy Convention that some very cool people actually knew me and liked me after all these years and I didn't really know when it all happened. When I had to face the fact that I wasn't a complete outsider anymore, that maybe I was <gasp> a part of fandom.
The moments have been many, and they've been cool. If I'd been recruited to be a fan, if all the knowledge had somehow been handed to me on a silver platter... it might have overwhelmed me. And it wouldn't have been as fun, as sweet, as finding things the way I have.
Yeah, I think fans could be better about pointing other fans in the right direction. I'm resolute that information about Minn-stf must be in the Minicon 33 program book. It's usually the case, but when it's not there, it's a major league blunder, IMHO. And I'd like to see some people write essays about Minn-stf for the program book, something beyond ye olde history, which has been there before, but a bit about what it all means to them or what Minn-stf is like currently or what they'd like to see it become. Perhaps yet another fannish dictionary is in order or a step by step guide on how to get involved in fanac. I dunno. I'm open to ideas (and to essays).
But you can only do so much. Fans have to find their own way. And fandom isn't for everyone. If the current animal doesn't invoke wonder and joy when you first encounter it, perhaps it's not true love, perhaps it's not for you. You'll find some other group that gives you that feeling, with any luck. Or you'll create your own group. And sometimes it takes a while to get to know fandom before it's love. Other times the more you know, the more disillusioned you get. As always, YMMV (your mileage may vary). Just don't try to wedge yourself into fandom if it's not for you. It'll bend a bit to accomodate you, we each help make it part of what it is, but in some cases, you're better off finding that other group where you belong.
Sometimes it's a matter of timing, too. Fandom may be right for you at a certain time or all times. You may be right for fandom at all times or some times. Hopefully, they line up. :-)
I've been a part of various areas of fandom, over the years, in various ways. Star Trek fandom fit me well when I was high school, when I hadn't yet discovered other fannish stuff. Now, while I like Star Trek alright and have fond memories of it, I can't see myself being particularly active in most segments of Star Trek fandom, it's not for me just now or has become something that doesn't fit me.
There are people on this list that I've known for many years, and it's been interesting to see them grow and change and fit (or not fit) into fandom as I've gone through the process myself. Some of us share paths, others take them at different speeds or take entirely different routes.
I'm thinking it's really spiff that Leslie Powell is here on this list, impressing a lot of folks I know in the way that she has. Not just 'cuz I know and like Leslie from way back, but because it's cool to see a bit of that process. 'Twas cool to watch Ishmael Williams find fandom at that Reinconation a few years back, since I knew him before I found fandom, when he was one of the first folks I knew who also really liked Star Trek. And it's neat 'cuz they've done it in their own way and in their own time. No one led them here, there weren't large street signs telling them "walk this way." Fans find fandom in their own way, they can ask some questions and do some research and wander around a bit, maybe someone helps them out a long the way. But it's all part of a story they can tell months or years later, perhaps to help the next batch of folks on the path.
It's not easy to know if someone will be a fan or not. I can think of folks I know who found fandom and didn't like it or didn't get along with it. Makes it difficult to know where to hang the recruitment posters. And, frankly, when folks who don't fit at all with fandom bang up against it or make fun of it, hurt it in some way, it's painful and frustrating. Sometimes it leads to good change, learning, good questions. But...well, I'm not sure I want signs up for the world at large. If so, they have to be written a certain way, so that they only appeal to those who might get it.
Is this elitist? Nah. Just going for a target audience. But fans aren't easily defined so... it's tricky. Better to put up some signposts in what seem logical places and be helpful to those fans who stumble along the path, than to put up billboards *everywhere*.
Running out of steam, time to grab some lunch. :-)
Oh yeah, thank you all you fabulous folks who were (and are) kind to me as I go along my occasionally merry way. I'm very blessed.
best,
Laurel Krahn (laurel@pobox.com)