Understanding fan culture

UNDERSTANDING FAN CULTURE: Jessa Crispin talks to Claudio Benzecry about his book The Opera Fanatic, which attempts to dissect the strange obsessive qualities of fan culture, whilst also giving a deeper explanation of the insular world of fanaticism; what drives people to devote themselves to a particular faction of culture with such unparalleled zeal? Money quote: "There is one thing I learned from the fans—how to enjoy. How to allow yourself to let loose and get lost in what you like. How to prepare to best savor an experience you are anticipating, how to let go as strongly as to block the world around you, even if it is for just a second. In a world with so few experiences, where our daily routine is heavily regulated, finding that back door to transcendence has been a blessing."

Although I'd be hard pushed to say that I am not in any way partial to a certain book, film or band, I'd find it a much greater struggle to include myself under the umbrella of fandom. It certainly strikes me as an odd sort of devotion. I thought this to be an interesting observation on the part of the author, speaking on the all-too-common rush to identify with something – in this case, opera – using the term 'love': "Most sociological scholarship thinks of this expression of love as a delayed exchange for something else—you get to mingle with fancy people, show yourself off as a cultivated person." I'm not a sociologist, but this I can understand. I'm aware of numerous people who, in spite of their intense enjoyment of literature, read certain books, admittedly, simply so they can say they have read them. It would be a lie on my part to say that I haven't indulged with such justification myself. Perhaps they too at times, like the opera fans, enjoy not the books themselves, but the satisfaction they receive from reading them in the first place. Not for the content, but out of yearning to be recognised as the literature-loving intellectuals they aspire to become.