Abstract
Research suggests more and more strongly that fan culture is crucial in the spread of certain genres and forms of entertainment, early speculative fiction being the prototypical ‘patient zero’ here. This chapter offers a look at the fan culture as a community united around certain values. Using the findings of a variety of disciplines (especially translation studies, media, and fan studies), Drewniak shows how the worship of knowledge, fondness of intense communal activities, and embracement of grassroots activism helped spread the genres across the world. The existence of avid fans facilitates translation both in the sense of actual translations and in the emergence of cultural hybrid texts through which they reshape and re-imagine their cultural surroundings.
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Notes
- 1.
Costume play—dressing up as one’s favourite fictional character.
- 2.
Live Action Roleplay.
- 3.
- 4.
The term was originally used in the 1940s by the science fiction writer Robert E. Heinlein, with reference to science fiction only.
- 5.
A Polish blogger uses exactly the metaphor of the Catholic Church structure to explain different degrees of ‘belonging’ to the fandom: http://rzutkrytyczny.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/fandom-rpg-czy-scena-rpg-moze-brac-rpg.html.
- 6.
Farah Mendlesohn, Paweł Ziemkiewicz, and the like.
- 7.
- 8.
For example blogs: Geekozaur (Geekosaurus) run by two Polish game publishers/fandom gurus http://www.geekozaur.pl/, or NerdKobieta (NerdWoman) on postapocalyptic fiction http://nerdkobieta.blog.pl/. Interestingly, the latter suggests that the default ‘nerd’ is a man. Another blogger explains the difference between the Polish and the English usage of ‘geek’ http://zpopk.pl/geek-czyli-kto-czyli-o-krotkiej-karierze-pewnego-pojecia.html#axzz3fw3mswQB
- 9.
http://grrm.livejournal.com/420090.html/ [accessed on 14 April 2015]
- 10.
- 11.
Reid (2010) states that this was the makeup of the subculture for quite a long time. Guttfeld’s (2012) surveys show that the demographic in the Polish fandom is still pretty similar. This may explain why the largest gender-related controversy in the Polish fandom (an outrage over an arguably sexist commercial for the largest convention in the country) happened as late as 2014.
- 12.
- 13.
Nowa Fantastyka (1991–present) is a continuation of Fantastyka (1982–90), the first dedicated F&SF magazine in Poland, whose impact on the production and reception of speculative genres in Poland was immense.
- 14.
Piotr W. Cholewa, a highly revered Polish translator of Terry Pratchett, and an active fan, has a fandom nickname ‘Wierny’ [Piotr ‘The Faithful’ Cholewa].
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Drewniak, P. (2016). Smart Dreamers: Translation and the Culture of Speculative Fiction. In: Blumczynski, P., Gillespie, J. (eds) Translating Values. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54971-6_15
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