Received: by bdragon.shore.net (0.99.970109)
  id AA09814; 07 Mar 97 04:28:01 -0500
From: gfarber@panix.com (Gary Farber)
Reply-To: filk-l@bdragon.shore.net (Multiple recipients of Filk discussion)
Nntp-Posting-Host: panix2.panix.com



In rec.arts.sf.fandom Azathoth  wrote:
[. . .]
: An SF Fan I Thought I Was
:   (ttto: Amazing Grace)

I was just going to let this pass with amusement and no comment, but given
the paranoia people can cough up, on second thought, I'll point out that
it *is* paranoia if anyone saw anything in this thread that indicates any
sort of 

: Yes every group has pedastals.
: Its princes sit upon.
: But still they need some other folks,
: To shun and look down on.   

shunning and looking down upon.  There *is* a distinction between someone
who is active in fandom and someone who is not, just as there is a
distinction between someone who plays guitar and someone who doesn't, or
someone who filks and someone who doesn't: the distinctions speak not to
any inferiority or superiority of any category.

The song is amusing, but it bespeaks a very weird and paranoid point of
view.  Anyone who identifies as a fan is, for general purposes, a fan; 
most certainly someone who goes to cons and engages in filking is a fan.

Reading sf makes you a "fan" in the generic, common English usage sense,
but not in the sense of distinguishing someone active in fandom.  These
usages are necessary in finer-grained discourse and are not hierarchical.  

Okay?  
-- 
--     Gary Farber                         gfarber@panix.com
Copyright     1997                         Brooklyn, NY, USA

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