On the Golden Age of fandom - a rant
Oct. 14th, 2002 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
graculusOne subject guaranteed to make my blood pressure peak is when someone (and isn't it always someone who's been in fandom since Gutenberg invented moveable type?) starts in on how much better fandom was before the Internet and how the invention of the computer has lowered the tone, yadda yadda yadda.
Apparently, way back when, everyone was nice to everyone else, there were more zines with better stories than anyone could shake a stick at, and the sun shone the live long day.
To which I say: bullshit.
The people I know who were in fandom pre-Net assure me that there were just as many shysters and morons around then as there are now. The exponential growth of fandom that the Internet has allowed means that though the numbers may appear higher, the proportion is doubtless the same.
Half the time, it seems to me, the driving force behind these kind of comments is sheer snobbery. The fact that the great unwashed can now access the former ivory towers of fandom really does not float these people's boats. Sure, I may (and do) kvetch about the quality of fic and moronic postings to lists I've seen over the past few years I myself have been around in fandom, but this is taking things to extremes.
Get over yourselves, guys. And stop playing the revisionist history game.
This rant brought to you courtesy of my need not to spout off on a certain list where someone is going on about how "younger generation internet fans are generally more resistant to ideas like 'canon', 'accuracy of characterization', and 'good writing' than older fans." etc. etc.
Apparently, way back when, everyone was nice to everyone else, there were more zines with better stories than anyone could shake a stick at, and the sun shone the live long day.
To which I say: bullshit.
The people I know who were in fandom pre-Net assure me that there were just as many shysters and morons around then as there are now. The exponential growth of fandom that the Internet has allowed means that though the numbers may appear higher, the proportion is doubtless the same.
Half the time, it seems to me, the driving force behind these kind of comments is sheer snobbery. The fact that the great unwashed can now access the former ivory towers of fandom really does not float these people's boats. Sure, I may (and do) kvetch about the quality of fic and moronic postings to lists I've seen over the past few years I myself have been around in fandom, but this is taking things to extremes.
Get over yourselves, guys. And stop playing the revisionist history game.
This rant brought to you courtesy of my need not to spout off on a certain list where someone is going on about how "younger generation internet fans are generally more resistant to ideas like 'canon', 'accuracy of characterization', and 'good writing' than older fans." etc. etc.
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Re: Golden Schmolden
Date: 2002-10-14 12:06 pm (UTC)But it's all so fast yanno! Fic is much much better when you have to wait for it forever to turn up in your letterbox, all the meanwhile cowering gratefully at the feet of the author in humble obeisance, etc etc...
On a more serious note, I think that this attitude to netfic is part of a fear of the new. All these new people coming to discover what used to be our little secret and suddenly we/they don't control things any more.
Never mind the great influx of creativity and talent in so many areas that just wouldn't have happened without the intervention of new technology.
It used to be that fandom was something you got into because you were 'in the know', while now it's much more accessible. While that has its drawbacks (and moronification is one of them) the sheer speed of the Net means new ideas cross the globe in seconds, making the 'community' a more representative one and allowing people who'd otherwise have never been involved with it to participate equally. Sure some of that participation is going to be crap, but them's the breaks...
I bet the Babylonians, chipping away in cuneiform, thought just the same thing about this new-fangled ink invention. 'Look at the riff-raff communicating away, scratching on that parchment like they own the place...'