Are you a better fan than me?

Not long ago I was weaing my TARDIS t-shirt, and some dude made a comment to me. I don't recall what it was. I didn't get it, and he said I must not be a "real Doctor Who fan."

It's possible it was a refrence to classic episodes I never saw, or to the newer Matt Smith episodes I don't watch. I just don't know. My first instinct was to rattle off my love for Sylvester McCoy, that I own an bootleg of the TV-movie, or that I have a framed poster of the Peter Cushing movie in my house. But after a moment of reflection I chose to respond with a smile and say "Well I guess you can go fuck yourself."

There are cases where how devoted you are to something makes a difference: doctors with medical journals, or high-wire riggers and the latest high-wire-rigging safety manuals are two examples. But with something like sci-fi shows, Dungeons and Dragons editions, or prog-rock, the level of slavish devotion one shows does not carry any moral weight.

• You don't know anything about jazz if you listen to it on CD.
• You're not a real comics geek. Your entire collection is in color.
• You never saw WrestleMania 5!? How can you call yourself a wrestling fan!
• You probably only like Insane Clown Posse's later albums. The commercial ones.
• There's no way you understand The Ramones like I do.
• You've never written an essay about why you hate the prequals??? You're just a Star Wars poseur!
• Red wine with pork? You should kill yourself.

I feel I've been encountering a lot of this nonsense lately. (Not necessarily on these boards). There's this "geek girl" meme thing, and the levels of VENOM people have in the "Phantom of the Opera" fandom for other fans is mind-blowing. It's just so damn annoying and more than a little ridiculous.

I understand the feeling. I remember in the late 90s when pro wrestling was super hot, and suddenly everyone had an "Austin 3:16" t-shirt, and I still remembered the years in middle school of being made fun of as a wrestling fan. Part of me still resents people who like the LOTR films because I had to slog through that endless prose as a lad to enjoy those same stories. But if I ever think this tenure makes me somehow better at liking something than someone else, please slap me.

Here's my simple rule. Anytime one feels like expressing that their enjoyment of something is somehow better or more authentic than someone else's, try replacing the object of interest with "Twilight fan-fic" and see if it still sounds worth saying.

Only if you say any of the following:

life saver

Dark Vader

Hans Solo

Bubba Fett

or start a thread about lightsabers and spell it wrong :p

*Terms and conditions may be subject to change without prior notification.

I guess I feel something akin to that "true fan" BS quite often. But it isn't that I think I am better or a truer fan than someone else, in my cases, it is that I often find I am a fan of something entirely different from other people who are fans of things bearing the same name as things I am a fan of.

I started watching The Walking Dead last year, and really liked it. It prompted me to read the comics, which I really enjoyed despite not being a comic book kind of guy. But I only made it about ten issues in before getting distracted. I was really disappointed with season 2 of the TV show, and after the season finale I decided to pick up the comics again to get some of the bad taste out of my mouth. I started from the beginning again and now just a couple of weeks later I am on issue #70. I love it and I'm hooked! Now when someone mentions how mind bogglingly awesome the TV show is, it is hard not to want to say, "The TV show is crap! You should really read the comics..." This isn't because I am insecure, or because I want to prove I have better taste. I was genuinely very disappointed with the second season of the show, and have found the comics to be a pleasant addiction.

Another example is The Legend of Zelda. My first Zelda game was the original on the NES, my last Zelda game was Majora's Mask on the N64. While I loved it back in the day, I just have zero interest in anything with the Zelda name on it that came out after Ocarina of Time, its the same thing over and over again, but with more baggage and dumber things that don't seem to fit the games universe (steam boats, trains, robots). I recently encountered a young Zelda fanatic, and mentioned how much I like Zelda myself. Turns out the only game we've both played is Ocarina of Time. His favorite is some new one that I don't know anything about. My favorite (A Link to the Past, SNES) he tried to play but said it was so boring to him that he couldn't stand it. We are clearly fans of two different things and there is no common ground between us.

We could argue who is the "truer fan", which would essentially be arguing what is the real Legend of Zelda or the real Walking Dead. But it would be pointless. They're all the real or the better one to someone.

I think the reason there is so much of this lately, is that so much is recycled, adapted, rebooted, re-imagined, sequelled to death, etc. these days. Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, [insert just about any mainstream comic books title here], Planet of the Apes, BSG, and a million others that I am sure anyone reading this could add to the list off the top of their head. It is inevitable that any given fan of anything is sooner or later going to encounter something bearing the name of the series he loves that he finds to be far removed and completely untrue to the things that made him love it in the first place; and it is also inevitable that sooner or later he is going to encounter someone who loves those very things, and finds the stuff he likes to be archaic boring forerunners or prototypes to the things they fell in love with.

twister111 said:

The "true fan" statement is so pompous, bombastic, and nonsensical. It's completely unnecessary and only serves to break fandoms apart.

That is the thing though, more often than not these days that "fandom" isn't even connected in the first place.

To make a shorter version of my previous point: I went to visit a cousin of mine many years ago. I was perusing his DVD collection and excitedly came across the Planet of the Apes box set. I had no idea he was a PoTA fan like myself! Seeing me with his Apes box set in my hand, he rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, that thing was the biggest waste of money. Good lord those movies are terrible! Trust me, they're nothing like the new one."

Turns out he liked Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake so much he had seen it in theaters numerous times, and at the point of my visit he was anxiously awaiting the DVD release. He'd never seen any of the old PoTA movies before buying the box set and was extremely unimpressed.

I am a Planet of the Apes fan. He is a Planet of the Apes fan. But the reality is, we're not even fans of the same thing. I can't stand the remake, he hates the originals. We're not part of the same fandom at all. Not to say we should be petty and fight about it, but there seems to be this idea that we all just need to hold hands and be happy because we love the same things.

^I'll bet the original book is better than any of the films. If so, then I will be a fan, and a true fan at that, unlike you losers ;-)

I love the original book.

the original story that POTA is based on is pretty different, it even has a completely different twist ending..

Johnny Ringo said:

the original story that POTA is based on is pretty different, it even has a completely different twist ending..

 

Yeah, I know, I've read it many times.

That was more aimed at the others :)

I wonder if things would have been different in the cousin who prefered Tim Burtons POTA had seen the original first..

What's a "TARDIS"?

;-)

It's SIDRAT spelled backwards!

Actually it's the other way around.

It's Latin for "tardy".

TARDIS is the MK 1 Type 40 Gallifreyan TT Capsule which owns the Doctor, an overweight, underpowered museum piece...(the ship not him...there again there was that sixth incarnation) he might as well try to fly a second hand gas stove.

His granddaughter came up with the moniker from the initials Time And Relative Dimension In Space (well she was 15 and weak ankled but that's no excuse for such a rotten acronym).

Back home The Doctor has become a bit of a cause celebre/scandalous embarrassment to the effect that the made up word has now become a slang term for all TT capsules.

Hardly anyone back on Gally has even seen the outside of one let alone the inside or travelled in one.

I've had a few and naturally they all worked perfectly well though I've had a number of unfortunate mishaps and set backs so I'm currently stuck in this Chateaux in Falkirk.

SIDRATs are to TT capsules what biros are to laser point nibs (a sort of disposable automatic space/time truck).

I sold a few to some Warlords it was a messy business but I managed to keep my name out of the papers by using one of my amusing sock accounts and regenerating when nobody was looking.

Was this a wise thread to start at originaltrilogy.com? ;)

^It was in at least a handful of alternate realities. This reality, however, isn't one of them.

I would spell sabre that way but lightsaber this way.