Re: Anti-intellectualism in fandom

On Jan 31, 1:23 pm, Lee Ratner <LBRat...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Jan 31, 7:37 am, p...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Paul Dormer) wrote:
>
> > In
> > Well, I've been reading academic criticism of SF and fantasy for well
> > over thirty years.  I bought an academic book about Tolkien when I was
> > at university in the early seventies.  (Tolkien and the Critics, 1968.
> > I'm sure many physics students were reading Tolkien then, but I don't
> > know how many were reading academic books about him.)
>
>      I have not read many academic books on Tolkien but I tend to
> follow what academia says about manga and anime.
>
> > Also, I've been involved with the Science Fiction Foundation for many
> > years, which publishes a journal three times a year of academic stuff.
>
> > The attitude I've found in general fandom is not that they don't like
> > what the academics say about the fans but that the academics don't
> > understand the tropes of the genre they are attempting to analyse, and
> > get hold of the wrong end of the stick.
>
>          This was the attitude I was trying to express, many people in
> fandom say that academics do not understand the genre. Kind of like
> how many men complain that female movie critics do not understand
> men's movies. However, I think this is a cover for saying, we do not
> like what you are saying about the things we like and what this
> reveals about ourselves.

What evidence do you have that they are not saying what they _say_
they are saying? While I don't follow either art form very closely I
can imagine someone saying that academics don't understand this or
that and meaning exactly what they are saying. And, of course,
disagreeing with academics is not precisely anti-intellectual. I think
that a certain percentage, and a fairly high one, of written SF is
wrong-headed and stupid. When I say that, I am not saying something
else in disguise.


Will in New Haven

--

"This is my ex-wife, the mother of my child, the devil incarnate"
Paul Kantner, introducing Grace Slick















This attitude seems to exist more in fen with
> a right-wing orienatation than a left-wing orientation.


> > I remember being involved in a fannish discussion of Babylon 5 a few
> > years ago and I mentioned a book The Parliament of Dreams which was
> > published by the Foundation and contained papers presented at an
> > academic conference on Babylon 5.  This was dismissed, without having
> > been read, as the usual mishmash of misunderstandings and the like. 
Of
> > course, I had to disagree. :-)
>
>       I wrote my bachelor's thesis on the use of history in manga.
> Most of the people in my thesis class thought this was an interesting
> topic. Many of my manga/anime friends thought I was engaging in
> intellectual masturbation.

> > I was rather pleased when the Cambridge Companion won the Hugo at
> > Interaction back in 2005.  I know the editors, and Farah Mendlesohn
was
> > convinced they didn't have a chance of winning.  (As Hugo
administrator
> > that year, I had great trouble trying not to give the game away when I
> > met the editors before the ceremony.)  When they accepted the award,
> > Farah said something along the lines "Why did you vote this?  Don't
you
> > realise it's a text book?"