First, congratulations to last week’s winner, Clint Harris, for his contributions to the Science vs. Fantasy discussion. Sorry for the delay in picking–along with this new Blog for a Beer comes some new stuff behind the scenes. The kinks, as they say, need working out. But we think we’ve got it now 
Welcome to the newest installment of Blog for a Beer on this lovely Fantasy Friday. Every week we offer up a bloggy prompt and invite you to discuss and debate the topic. The comments will close at 11:59PM Pacific time Saturday and we’ll award $10 in beer (or sundae, if you’re a minor) money to the most interesting or entertaining contributor after that. Close out the weekend in style!
This week’s blogger is Jeremiah Tolbert, the creator of Dr. Roundbottom and frequent commenter around these parts.
How Has The Internet Changed Fandom?
I believe that the Internet has changed the way science fiction and fantasy fans meet and interact. But I can’t prove this, because I have never known a fandom outside of the Internet. I have read that in the olden days, fans traveled to things called conventions to meet and share interests (yes, I know some still do this today). They argued and debated not in online forums but in the pages of fanzines and the letters columns of various magazines. The glacial pace of such conversations! I shudder to think of it.
Today, we see almost weekly flare-ups and controversies in this thing called the blogosphere. New movements among writers appear almost as regularly, sometimes lingering (such as the Mundane SF manifesto). They burn bright, fast, and die down, it seems, just in time for the next major brouhaha. I think that’s the downside to this ease of communication. The Internet makes everything personal. Enemies are made quickly–but friends too. Perhaps not a unique trait of the medium, but a trait nonetheless.
I’d like to invite you to talk about the ways in which the internet has helped you connect with others and what communities you have formed or joined because of it. How does your corner of SF/F fandom use the tool? If you’re an elder statesperson, tell us what it was like before we could all jump in on a comment thread and hash out an issue in the course of a couple of days, instead of months. Tell us about the friends you have made but never seen in person. Or, if you prefer, tell us how the Internet has ruined everything.
What do you think is the future of genre fandom online? What else has changed? What could change? What are the problems that face us as a community? Are we even a community at all, or an amalgam of loosely connected groups, held together by the common readership of a handful of magazines and blogs? Where do we go from here?
Discussion is open until 11:59PM Pacific May 17th.
The most positive aspect of the internet for me has been the ability to connect with other writers and fans of the genre. Prior to joining my writing group, and prior to moving to NY, I had a hard time connecting with people who shared my interests, particularly in writing genre fiction. I would meet people at events or conventions, make connections, only to leave a few days later to the far flung corners of the country or even the world.
The internet has provided a way to keep in touch with those people, to share elements of the writerly life, to commiserate about rejections or to share good news or support.
I think that the controversies and flare-ups happen because in a way, it’s a small, intimate community that is interested in discussing things it’s passionate about. And we tend to be very opinionated. I know I get tired of the seemingly endless waves of controversy sometimes, but in the end I think the positive aspects of the internet, and this community in particular, outweigh the bad.
Just one anecdote to throw out there, too – on a message board that I spend a lot of time on, there are always various arguments and blow-ups and sometimes it can get a bit nasty. But recently one of the members of the group had some problems with a charity auction he had started and was in a financial bind and we call came together to help him out and it ended well. And that’s the kind of thing, I think, that eclipses all the petty stuff that inevitably occurs from time to time.
It’s a very cool thing. It has allowed me to converse with other fans, writers, authors and readers of SF in a very casual, friendly nature. Back in the dark ages, if you went to a con, chances are the writers featured were at a book signing table, either swarmed by fans or looking completely bored and uninterested in fandom. More agressive fans and writers would often write these authors and occasionally develop a rapport with them.
In participating in forums, I have had the chance to pick the brains of authors, editors, and even a legend or two in the field.
Once, at the Asimovs forum, an off-handed wise-ass comment drew the attention of none other than Harlan Ellison himself. He answered my question in all seriousness and stuck around until the doubting Thomases of the forum ambushed him, demanding just about everything including a DNA sample to prove his Harlaness. I knew it was really him after the second “kiddo.”
I have had the honor of being virtually bitch-slapped by Gordon van Gelder and Gardner Dozois, when I let my typing and lack of research get ahead of me. That taught me to choose my words better, and to know what you are up against before commenting.
After college, the great diaspora of my real life friends led to scant conversations with those remaining through occasional emails. Moving from place to place like some elegiacal Wanderer meant I didn’t have a good run at making new friends either.
Through forums and such, I got to talk to people, share ideas, and eventually share stories and work on writing with some of them. They rock. And what’s pretty cool about that is they actually read things I send to them. You can’t even count on Mom or your significant other/spouse for that.
The things I’ve learned just from participating in forums has been more valuable to my writing than the classes I took in college. It’s nice to know that we few, we happy, suffering, writing few, can have a meeting of the minds to discus something pretty much the rest of the population could hardly care less about. And it’s all there in the electrons. Just hanging out.
Has anyone else here read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao? I was kind of astounded by it, because I hadn’t seen that much fanspeak concentrated in one place in YEARS. (but don’t let that scare you away — it’s a good read)
I actually don’t have that much experience with fandom before the Internet, but in that time I do recall being swept up into a few socially-arduous near incidents involving fans of one ilk or another who seemed to think:
“OH MY GOD! AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING IS TALKING TO ME ABOUT MOVIES/COMICS/ANIME/SF/FANTASY/ETC! I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO SHARE EVERY LAST SHRED OF MY VAST WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE ON THE SUBJECT!” (Fortunately, nobody had to be killed.)
I know, it’s a little brutal.:-) But some people could be very enthusiastic about vomiting out everything they knew, and in those situations I had to wonder, “Is this guy ever going to stop talking?”
But I haven’t seen that recently, even at the local conventions I’ve started attending in the last three years. As some of the people above have pointed out, the Internet has given people more social outlets and cultivated a more casual atmosphere, which possibly (although I’m no expert) has eliminated the perceived need to cultivate social connections by unloading the full weight of one’s expertise on people.
And that’s not to say there isn’t enthusiasm in the various facets of fandom — the enthusiasm is definitely there. But it seems that enthusiasm is channeled toward more meaningful conversation, creative ventures, and even — yes, as the other commenters have pointed out — the opportunity to have a few knock-down drag-out fights. Maybe, with the Internet’s various arenas for communication and social contact, people can afford to make a few enemies, serious or otherwise.
Wow! That is a very open-ended topic.
I definitely believe that, despite flamewars and other such nonsense, the Internet has helped fandom become even closer as a community. It has also helped creatives find new income streams, has changed the face of mentorship for writers and other craftpeople, and has opened new horizons for all of us who choose to use it.
First, what little writing career I have I owe to the Internet, Back in the days of the GEnie Round Table, I met my first writers, three of whom eventually became my editors.
Second, the Net makes it easy to expand your world view, which makes you grow in many ways, both writing-related and non-writing-related.
Third, the Net makes researching so much easier it’s not funny. Not only does it place a world of facts at my fingertips, it makes it easier for me to use the library, or talk to an expert (which has also been helpful in learning to use Linux instead of Microsoft.
Fourth, I have made a raft of new friends through chat rooms (such as #filkhaven), and kept in touch with others (both local and long distance) through chats and emails. Recently, for example, a friend of long-standing became seriously ill in another state. Rather than the news taking weeks to filter through his social circles, it took hours. People were able to respond in a timely manner to requests for help, and with general good wishes for him. Another friend was killed in a house fire. Thanks to the Internet, everyone who needed to be notified was (again, within hours rather than days), and support systems were able to be set up within hours. His widow was able to receive both ongoing emotional support, and some real short-term financial support as well.
Fifth, contact with long-distance friends need no longer be restricted to maybe once a year at Worldcon. Not only can we email each other, but applications such as Skype make it possible for us to have real-time conversations.
Again, I think that the Internet has brought us closer as a community, and has created ways to keep us in touch to sustain that sense of community, in real time, that were unheard of only a few short decades ago.
I traveled to far away lands this weekend and left electronics behind. On the one hand, this means I missed the opportunity to blog within the actual blogging window. On the other hand, it means I relied entirely on non-electronic means of entertainment. Namely, a paperback novel. It is amazing how hard it is for me to find time to enjoy a good fantasy novel these days.
So while all the online discussions and debates are great, they can also suck away time from enjoying, or producing, the materials upon which all that fandom is based.
The internet has destroyed fandom, and I would never write for a fantasy blog … oh, wait.
Okay, well, obviously, 99 percent of the people reading (or writing) this blog seek out digital fantasia to feed the ravenous troll that sits behind the bridge of their nose. The other 1 percent is that fan who keeps stalking me, googling my name and reading everything I write. You know who you are. And yes, the restraining order is still in place.
In short, the very existence of this blog is an argument for the value of the digital world in supplementing the material upon which fandom is based.
Of course, you may well feel that anything we write, or you read, here is almost certainly biased on this topic. So feel free to look elsewhere for proof that the electronic world has harmed fandom. I still think you’ll find my opinion is the true opinion.
And not just because I’ve sent my robot armies to destroy all those who believe otherwise.
Online exchanges definitely do much for mental stimulation and social simulation. But when it comes to conversation, ain’t nothing like a little convention-ation.
There is a definite difference between sharing and debating ideas online, and actually walking into a room full of people dressed as pirates, elves, klingons, and knights and debating those same ideas. The first is calling home. The second feels more like coming home.
Even for the casual conventioneer like myself, there’s something unique and even a little comforting about being completely surrounded by people who believe in magic and time travel. And it is with reluctance that attendees return to the mundane world of labor and malls, judgment and worry, with thoughts like, “how can muggles not think wearing fangs or a tail to work is cool?”
But fantasy and sci-fi conventions are few and far between.
Likewise, there is something about playing paper and dice role playing games that cannot be matched even by MMORPGs.
And then there are live discussion groups, whether it is a writing group, or a book club, or just a group of friends who get together on a regular basis to see the latest genre films.
In all of these cases, the act of human interaction itself is a kind of magic.
Certainly, reading fiction is often an escapist, personal journey. But just as with real vacations or personal experiences, the events and thoughts we have in those other worlds are sometimes best when shared with others upon our return.
We want to show our photos of Rivendell, to discuss our bargain shopping in the markets of Ankh-Morpock, to complain about the horrible customs lines at Mos Eisely spaceport.
Yet fantasy and sci-fi fans, in my experience, are frequently shy, or seen as unconventional and on the fringe of the social scene in most crowds or situations. And the average Joe or Jane from Mundania will give the strangest looks when you start debating aloud whether it really makes sense that “glamour” is an attribute that a Runelord could take from another person the same as strength or grace or metabolism.
So it is increasingly easy and tempting to interact digitally rather than personally.
In fact, the ease of electronic communication can make personal interaction seem a secondary option in general. For example, I often work virtually via computer, and even when I am in the office I more often email the person two rows away than walk over and talk to them.
I even found myself texting a question to a family member within the same house the other day rather than walk upstairs.
But humans are, by nature, social creatures. So even electronic interaction can become addictive and distracting, especially when it comes with the comparative ease that online posting does, where you can be anonymous, not have to make eye contact, and have more time to compose that clever retort that, in person, would not have come to you until you were walking out the door.
Still, realistically, opportunities to gather a bunch of fans in a real room rather than a chat room are generally rare. So anything that brings fans together to interact with each other, where they can share these experiences, and validate that they are not insane for doing so, is good.
It is just gooderest when it also results in live human interaction, in my humble opinion.
Now without doubt, the printed word is the steak and potatoes supper of fantasy and sci-fi. And film, comics and anime are the hearty breakfast.
But what about second breakfastses, lunch, second lunch, tea, dessert, and snack times? Thank goodness for online publishing and forums.
On the down side, the generally unrestricted access of online publishing and chatting also includes the freedom to be uninformed, misinformed, redundant, idiotic, boring, and one heck of a badd speler.
So while electronic conversing frees fandom from the time and space constraints of printed publication, it also frees all that digital dialogue from quality constraints.
In a way, you can waste a lot more time slogging through garbage seeking a few digital gems than if you just wait for the next quality publication to come out. Especially if you get multiple subscriptions with differing publication spans.
But on the plus side (especially with the ever-narrowing field of large publishers), the online world opens up the field to new voices, and helps to turn disconnected fans into a community of believers.
And of course, the online world is dynamically interactive and generally uncensored in a way that print interaction is not.
And doubtless, the availability of online writing groups and writing forums has helped to improve the writing quality of many aspiring authors who would otherwise turn in work that is much less polished and much less original. Not that there aren’t plenty of truly horrible stories and poems floating out in the webernet. But hopefully there’s more decent stuff too.
In short (too late), if you want quality fiction, reviews and opinions, then it’s hard to beat the old school methods of publication, communication, and celebration. But the fantasyweb is an electron field created by all spec-fic fans. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the fantasy galaxy together. And in the right hands, it is a wonderful thing.
A quick clarification – when I said that online publication and communication “includes the freedom to be uninformed, misinformed, redundant, idiotic, boring, and one heck of a badd speler,” I did not mean publications such as Fantasy Magazine, of course. I was speaking of fan-generated content that does not go through a decent review/ filter/ edit process.
The internet brought me naked hobbits.
After that, fandom was never the same. And I learned to be a lot more careful about opening email from certain people.