Faan

For the 1983 faan fiction video, see Faans.

Faan describes a fan with a keen or analytical interest in the doings of fans and fandom, in fannish culture, fanhistory and fanzines, fans of fandom, if you will. Thus faan fiction is fan-written fiction about real or imaginary fans, and the FAAn Awards, given out at Corflu, reward fine fanzines and their creators and contributors.

Faan or faanish is also used as an adjective, an antonym to sercon, for anything having to do with the interpersonal/social aspect of sf fandom, e.g., fanzines, conventions, clubs, feuds, etc. In early usage, it sometimes had three "a"s but consensus fairly early on determined that two were by far enough and three was really Going Too Far. (We would not want anyone to consider us ridiculous, after all.)

Faan sometimes refers to those whose interest in fandom far exceeds their interest in sf, or who have no interest in science fiction at all, but many great faans have been avid stfnists or pros.

Obsolete uses

While the meaning of faan in any specific case may depend on context, pejorative uses are largely obsolete. The term once condemned someone who had a "more fannish than thou" attitude, with additional 'A's added to indicate an even worse case: "Faaan" or "Faaaan". The more 'A's in the word, the more likely that this meaning is intended. That use has faded, possibly because most of the people who might use it today don't have enough interest in historic fanspeak to know about it. Fancyclopedia 2 defined faaaaan as an LMJ, a variety of fugghead, or their sheeplike followers but that sense has been gone for decades.

An even less-common use describes a Clod wannabe who's convinced that FIAWOL is a viable philosophy of life.

See also: fannish.

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Fanspeak

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.