For the fans

[andrewducker]

Knowing that a fair number of you are in 'fandom', I thought you might be interested in this snippet from a recent Pratchett interview:

Pratchett said that he enjoys meeting fans of the venerable series. "I went to my first SF convention in 1963, and here I am, still going and enjoying them, 40 years later," he said. "SF fandom seems to have an aging core group, but Discworld fandom seems to be all ages. Discworld is nearly 21 years old, and people who were young when they started reading it can be grandparents now. So you get families of Discworld fans in the queues at signings. That is very nice. I've got maybe a million readers in the U.K., but probably fewer than 5,000 are the 'buy-the-T-shirt, go-to-the-convention, hunt-first-editions' sort. Lots of people out there read and enjoy lots of SF, lots of fantasy, and never think of themselves as fans in the participatory sense. At the first U.K. Discworld convention, in 1996, there were almost a thousand people, and fewer than 10 percent had ever been to a science fiction or fantasy convention of any sort before. Not many of them knew about fandom at all. It's quite strange to think of a purely Discworld fandom."

Comments

[diffrentcolours]

Hmm, I used to be quite heavily involved in Pratchett fandom. The only conventions I've been to have been Discworld-related ones. It was fun for a while, but I found the level of cliquiness to be stifling (the straw there was being told that "Pratchett fans don't think like that" because I didn't oppose GM foods). The other thing that got to me was people unwilling or unable to see any form of social divisions within the fandom - everybody had to be friends, because we were all Pratchett fans. Even in the early days I witnessed arguments, some quite shocking levels of two-facedness and backstabbing which rivalled the goth scene, and even threats of violence if not the actual acts themselves (which I am led to believe happened, but I wasn't witness to). But generally these incidents were brushed over and never spoken of because everybody was supposed to be fluffy.

After a while of this, I kind of withdrew from the fandom since it wasn't something I particularly wanted to be associated with. Ironically, I ended up splitting up with a girl who was heavily involved in the fandom, mostly over the fact that she refused to accept my belief that the fandom was not the idyllic cloud of fluffiness she claimed it was. And then backstabbing happened, I got accused of all kinds of things and am now persona non grata in Pratchett-land.

All of the above aside, Pterry is a top bloke, has a healthy disrespect for the people who seek to idolize him, and actually cares about his fans and his fandom. There are a few subtle references in his books to the fandom and people involved in it, which are quite cool, though I have a feeling that some of the more recent sub-plots have been a bit too heavily influenced by the tiny minority of his readers who he's met in person, which is annoying but possibly paranoia on my part.

Bank Holiday Weekend

[cx650.livejournal.com]

For those of you who don't know; Wincanton in Somerset is officially 'twinned' with Ankh-Morpork. Consequently there is a celebration of sorts on the 29th-30th of May. There will be various events including a Thud contest and diverse stalls of trade and exhibit.