This first post is meant to inform the reader of the origins of fandoms and how the internet and various social networking sites spawn and perpetuate the spread of fandom culture.
The Science Fiction genre has long been a hearth of science-fiction and fantasy loving communities. Readers and writers have perpetuated cult-followings that have become its own distinct subculture known commonly as a fandom. Fandoms began with the publication of Hugo Gernsback’s science fiction pulp magazine Amazing Stories. Gernsback, for whom the prestigious Hugo Award is named after, snuck scientifiction stories (as they were then called) into his science magazine prior to the appearance of Amazing Stories. His stories predate the creation of the modern superheros, Spider-man, Superman, Batman etc. and spawned the first cult fandom movement. Fans were encouraged to comment on the stories and send letters to Gernsback who would publish them. Soon, fans were corresponding with each other and began initiating in-person meetups. [1]
With Gernsback’s followers came the Scienceers, a local club, and other groups sprang up in metropolitan areas in the United States. This progression continued and naturally exploded with the introduction of the internet. The demographic of the first ‘users’ of the internet being primarily male ‘nerds’ (for lack of a better term), supplanted and even expanded the reach of fanzines (fan magazines) and other publications. Communication became instantaneous and conventions were soon organized that reached a broader audience than the small metropolitan club meetings.
One case study of online fandoms is the star trek phenomena. [2] An ethnography of star trek fans shows that the idea of computerization has acted as a catalyst for the creation of and integration of these fangroups in modern society. Social networking sites such as twitter, facebook, tumblr, etc. have aided the spread of these fandoms. I will discuss particularly the use of reddit and tumblr in subsequent posts. But, essentially the interent and online interaction has made fandoms moer prevalent in modern society. The social implications of these fandoms will also be discussed later. This post was mainly concerning the history of fandoms. It is important to note, that fandoms are now no longer limited to science fiction (by any means of the word). They have widespread influence from music, to art, to ideas.
[1] History of the Scienceers: The First New York City Science Fiction Club, 1929; Allen Glasser. http://www.fanac.org/timebinders/scienceers.html
[2] Star Trek fandom as a religious phenomena http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/indv10258/readings/JindraTrek.pdf
Yes, part of what I’m going to talk about is related to how these social media inspired fandoms differ from the real world and actually how they actually transform from an entirely virtual entity to having a physical presence with real life social consequences.
I was interested to learn about some of these early origins, which I didn’t know. My curiosity here is how this world of “fandoms” is related to the huge public relations industry of creating and promoting communities of fans for profit. Are there two different groups of “fans of Spiderman”, one coming from some kind of grassroots tradition, and the other nurtured by the movie studio? Are they differentiable in terms of their members or activities (I’m sure the PR people from studios and the like make heavy use of social media)? The “pure” forms of fandom as promoted by people like Henry Jenkins are seen as almost anti-commercial (and certainly embroiled in fights with the commercial sources over things like fair use). On the other hand, the fandom for Lady Gaga is carefully promoted and cultured by the enterprise. I’d be interested in seeing how these relate, and along the way, how the online world contributes to the samenesses and differences.
I love your post, but you should rename your title to “SF Fandom Origins”. Fandoms in general actually came about aaaalll the way back in 1891 when Arthur Conan Doyle released his Sherlock short stories. It is a super interesting read if you’re interested!
[…] fans to comment on his science fiction pulp magazine. Tara Balakrishnan talks more about it here. Fiction fandoms, however, date way back to the 19th Century. Here’s […]