Adina here.
Richard Speight, Jr. and me, who is A-Dick-Ted.
I never made a post for DC Con, and I may or I may not, but it's a little out of date now. This photo op is from there. It was a very R2M weekend. But this post is not about that.
This weekend, I attended an event. The event itself isn't important, but something happened that made me think about a topic I wanted to discuss here. That sounds vague and ominous, but it's okay. Bear with me, here, people. The first day, we did an icebreaker where we all had to introduce ourselves and say a little something about ourselves. I said that I was a "big fan of TV." I was told it was a copout, and I felt myself trying to defend it. (Afterward, I realized maybe I could have said "I go to fan conventions," but when put on the spot, I didn't think about that until after.)
So. Let's talk about what it means to be "a big fan." What does it mean to be a fan at all? Being a fan is on a scale, much like most things. There are the types of fans who can simply say "I enjoy this," and then there are the fans like me, who watch and rewatch, analyze the characters and the storyline, and want to discuss it hardcore, know who the actors, writers, and directors are, etc. There's everyone in between.
No one is more or less a fan of something because of their level of "commitment" to the thing they're a fan of. However, I wonder if there should be another term for the level of fan that I am. When I say I'm a "big fan" of something, I mean it. I'm deeply passionate and it becomes a part of me, a part of my personality. It's not simply "I like candles," or whatever. The average fan doesn't understand this level of dedication, of fan-ism. The concept of a fandom is foreign to them.
Basically, I want the average person to understand that when I say I'm a big fan, I mean it, and it can drive certain big decisions- like where to go on vacation, etc.
So what do you think, readers? Shall we try to come up with a new word and make it a "thing" for us hardcore fans? What kind of word? I've used "superfan" before, but it's just a qualifier on the existing word. I propose... passioner. I'm a passioner of TV; I'm passionate about it. Can we make "passioner" a thing?
