Notes from a panel at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here. I have added a few comments from my own experiences in fandom to this post.

Jeana Jorgensen (moderator), Megen Leigh, Victor Raymond, Wendy Robb

Our panel of fans and academics discuss all the ways in which sci-fi fandom has its own folklore: slang, customs, rituals, stories, material culture (costumes/attire, badge ribbons, etc.), and how these forms of folklore connect back to group identity.

• Folklore: Informally transmitted culture. Opt-in. No institutional support.
• Fan run conventions(good) vs. for profit(no so good). You buy memberships, not tickets. Capricon is such a fan run convention. Someone noted that nowhere in the Capricon website was an explanation of what Capricon was.
• In the current American political climate such “safe” spaces are so much more important. We are a safe space for LGBT… people, among others
• Wide ranging interests. We understand Ea-nāṣir jokes, even though they are not SF. We love going down rabbit holes.
• “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12.”
• We wear visible marks of our identity more than we used to.
• Frequent reactions when discovering SF Fandom: “I found my people.” True for me.
• “An in group formed of outsiders.”
• Some one mentioned that currently the plural of “fan” is “fans.” It used to be, well within my memory “fen.” I seemed to have made the transition without really noticing. There may be a linguistic term for the replacement of irregular plurals by regular plurals.
• Trekkies vs. trekkers. Star Trek fandom overlaps what we used to think of as “real” SF fandom. The relationship used to be somewhat tense. I remember Robert Bloch starting a speech at St. Louiscon in 1969: “Ladies! Gentlemen! Trekkies!”
• Costuming vs. Cosplay. One of the panelists said there is some tension between the two. I am not really familiar with the two communities, although I do sometimes dress up at cons and was actually part of a prize-winning group costume effort at St. Louiscon. We were characters from Randall Garrett’s Too Many Magicians. I was Lord Bontriomphe.
• FIAWOL. FIJAGH. GAFIATE.
• Fanzines. APAs. Endangered forms as more and more of fandom is on-line.
• There are distinct regional variations in Fandom. Most of my experience has been with Chicago area fandom. However, I was perfectly comfortable at Worldcons in St. Louis, Toronto, and Dublin.