wailing and gnashing of teeth

[deborah]

There's a minor kerfuffle going on in both F&SF fandom and media fandom this week about some accusations that academia is the enemy of genre fiction and of fandom, and that SF should never be taught, and that "fans don't teach" (emphasis original). Now, this amused me no end for any number of reasons (not least the assumption that the bloggers' own experiences that literary analysis lessens reading enjoyment is universal; not to mention the assertion that scholarship is "a way to secure tenure" -- excuse me while I look at my own adjunct paycheck and then ROTFLMAO), so I read without comment, and then toddled off to teach my course in F&SF for Children.

And there I realised why, perhaps, fans shouldn't teach. Because the students almost universally disliked a book I think is one of the best books of its year, a book to which I'd have given the Printz. As instructor, I had to tamp down the part of me that was screaming "Fs all around! Why didn't you like this book! Aiyee!" and replace it with the calm, collected discussion leader trying to explore the text's use of language and character development. I think I succeeded, but oh, it hurt.

And the fan in me wants to chant: "Stupid stupidheads."

(They are great students, and smart, and we have great discussions. But I question their taste.)

Comments

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

scholarship is "a way to secure tenure"

I'd like them to come over here and say that to the woman who will never, ever have the health to be in any tenture-relevant position yet keeps publishing critically.

And there I realised why, perhaps, fans shouldn't teach

That's equally true for "fans" in the older sense, not just the sense of "people in fandom." I'm not in fandom (am I? I get confused sometimes about what that means), but when I love a book or other media, I love it hard. I don't think I love it any less hard than fans in fandom. The situation you were in today would have been be equally painful to me (or to any passionate consumer and teacher of that media, whether or not she were in fandom). Or is there a difference I'm not seeing because I'm not (maybe) in fandom?

To me, crit and theory are joy. I see why some people don't agree, but I don't see why it threatens them. Why does it threaten them?

[deborah]

Yeah, I think in a sense I (and possibly the original Grumpy McGrumperson I'm quoting) meant "fan" in the sense of "fan of this book". Or more, somewhere in between the two. Not so much about participating in fan culture, but about considering oneself a fan of fantasy and science fiction.

I would send you to the original post but seriously, you do not have enough Sanity Watchers points -- from saying that fantasy and science fiction shouldn't be studied but that Tolkien and Le Guin should be; to saying that analysis takes all joy out of a book; to saying that you should never analyze escapist literature; to saying that you have to consider the author's feelings before you do critical analysis -- seriously? You just have to laugh in order not to scream.