From time to time, I look beyond the small pond of media fandom history that I am puttering about in, to see what the rest of the history world is doing. Western media fandom is deeply rooted in sci-fi and fantasy (White Collar and Starsky & Hutch aside). But in 1969 when a mint collection of 7,500 first edition science fiction and fantasy books was offered to libraries and universities, they turned it down. Why? Because it was science fiction and everyone knew science fiction was not 'real' literature. In 1969, Star Trek was just some kid's TV show that had gone off the air. Sniff.
Luckily the University of Riverside in California had a curator who was a sci-fi fan, who understood how popular and innovative the genre was, and that it needed to be preserved. This led to the Eaton Collection which forms the core of UC Riverside's 300,000 of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and yes, even a few fan fiction fanzines. They've now begun focusing on the visual aspects of science fiction culture and non-print media.
Fast forward 40+ years and geeks have transformed the world and our culture. Technology, innovation and the imagination that you find in sci-fi fandom go hand in hand. And that is one of the many reasons we why we need places like A03 and Fanlore and the Fanzine Archives - because a culture that has had such a significant impact on the world is worth preserving and the A03, Fanlore and the Fanzine Archives are places where *we* are doing the preserving, we are the ones making the choices, and our voices are the ones that will be heard. No one will be speaking for us. (Said places also allow us to keep participating in our culture and having fun, cause that's a key part of fandom for many of us. I add this to make it clear that to me, while preservation of fandom is important, being a fan is even more important. Fandom should never be just Serious Business. That is reserved for the Internet and the LOLCats).
Earlier in the week, I wrote about the Fandom Culture Preservation Project (FCPP) (the OTW project that is helping fans donate their fanzines, fanart and fanvids to the Fanzine Archives for future generations of fans): "These fanzine collections are like messages in a bottle. We have no idea who will be waiting to hear from us down the road, but we look forward to ‘meeting’ them through the FCPP." At times, I feel like we are in a conversation with the future – there is a huge time lag (much like the time lag between stars and when their light reaches the earth), but someone down the line of time is listening.
Anyhow, there are a series of videos about the UC Riverside collection here and here.
With respect to fanzines: Top 10 Notable Fanzines and an article from last year's OTW's Journal of Transformative Works and Culture: Textual evidence of fandom activities: The fanzine holdings at UC Riverside's Eaton Collection* or (waves hello to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
carbonel - great job copyediting).
At the end of the first video, the UC Riverside curator said: 'At first I didn't know why we would want to collect these fanzines, these amateur writings. Until it dawned on me that never before have we been able to archive the thoughts and lives of ordinary people on such a scale.'
*Alt link: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/271/199
Luckily the University of Riverside in California had a curator who was a sci-fi fan, who understood how popular and innovative the genre was, and that it needed to be preserved. This led to the Eaton Collection which forms the core of UC Riverside's 300,000 of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and yes, even a few fan fiction fanzines. They've now begun focusing on the visual aspects of science fiction culture and non-print media.
Fast forward 40+ years and geeks have transformed the world and our culture. Technology, innovation and the imagination that you find in sci-fi fandom go hand in hand. And that is one of the many reasons we why we need places like A03 and Fanlore and the Fanzine Archives - because a culture that has had such a significant impact on the world is worth preserving and the A03, Fanlore and the Fanzine Archives are places where *we* are doing the preserving, we are the ones making the choices, and our voices are the ones that will be heard. No one will be speaking for us. (Said places also allow us to keep participating in our culture and having fun, cause that's a key part of fandom for many of us. I add this to make it clear that to me, while preservation of fandom is important, being a fan is even more important. Fandom should never be just Serious Business. That is reserved for the Internet and the LOLCats).
Earlier in the week, I wrote about the Fandom Culture Preservation Project (FCPP) (the OTW project that is helping fans donate their fanzines, fanart and fanvids to the Fanzine Archives for future generations of fans): "These fanzine collections are like messages in a bottle. We have no idea who will be waiting to hear from us down the road, but we look forward to ‘meeting’ them through the FCPP." At times, I feel like we are in a conversation with the future – there is a huge time lag (much like the time lag between stars and when their light reaches the earth), but someone down the line of time is listening.
Anyhow, there are a series of videos about the UC Riverside collection here and here.
With respect to fanzines: Top 10 Notable Fanzines and an article from last year's OTW's Journal of Transformative Works and Culture: Textual evidence of fandom activities: The fanzine holdings at UC Riverside's Eaton Collection* or (waves hello to
carbonel - great job copyediting).At the end of the first video, the UC Riverside curator said: 'At first I didn't know why we would want to collect these fanzines, these amateur writings. Until it dawned on me that never before have we been able to archive the thoughts and lives of ordinary people on such a scale.'
*Alt link: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/271/199