FAN LANGUAGE

   Sf enthusiasts, in common with other groups, have evolved their own terminology and usage. This language comprises words and phrases used in the writing of sf itself and also the more arcane and whimsical jargon of FANDOM and FANZINES.Most sf readers are familiar with the shorthand of their literature, and words like "spaceship", "robot", "time-machine" and even "ftl drive", "spacewarp" and "ray-gun" need little or no glossing. These words, however, originated in sf and required explanation when first coined (TERMINOLOGY). Only the growth in popularity of sf has led to the acceptance of such terms as part of everyday English. The language of fandom, however, has a more restricted use and thus is less familiar. Much of it was initially associated with fanzines, including the specialized art of duplicating them, and much of it resulted from simple contraction: "corflu", for example, was nothing stranger than correcting fluid (for stencils). It is a sign of the march of time - and of the very widespread use of COMPUTER networks in fandom-that terms like "corflu" have gained an air of ancient quaintness; another sign of the times is that contemporary fans tend to accept neologisms from the world of computing rather than to generate their own. Of more general interest are words which describe fan attitudes and behaviour. Examples are: "egoboo" (from "ego-boost"), the satisfaction gained from praise or recognition, such as seeing one's name in print; "mundane", a non-fan; "slash fiction", fan-generated stories about sexual intimacy between famed fictional characters, almost always male, the best known examples being the Kirk/Spock slash tales; and acronym- based terms like "to gafiate"(from Get Away From It All - to leave fandom; the phrase originally meant to get away from mundane reality and to enter fandom). Some of these contractions, acronyms and neologisms fill a linguistic need ("slash fiction" describes a phenomenon not otherwhere comprehended); others simply enrich the sense of affinity that fandom - like any other grouping of this sort - was partly created to foster. In general, fan argot is anything but freemasonical, and never amounts to anything like a secret code to baffle outsiders. For fans, outsiders are identifiable not so much by their failure to use certain terms as by their tendency to misuse others. The best example of this is perhaps "sf", the usual contraction used by sf fans; journalists and other nonsympathetic outsiders can readily be identified by their use of the repugnant "SCI-FI"; older fans sometimes use the contracted adjective stfnal, short for "scientifictional" (SCIENTIFICTION).Various guides to fan language have been published (by fans) in the USA and UK. Wilson TUCKER's Neofan's Guide (1955; rev 1973; rev 1984) is a useful introduction, and Roberta Rogow's Futurespeak: A Fan's Guide to the Language of Science Fiction (1991), though erratic, covers much new ground.

   PR/JC