Hey Guys!
Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good (less stressful than mine) week.
Today, I want to talk about Fangirl. The term. The origins. The society. The book.
FANGIRL
Meaning: A rabid breed of human female who is obesessed with either a fictional character or an actor. Similar to the breed of fanboy. Fangirls congregate at anime conventions and livejournal. Have been known to glomp, grope, and tackle when encountering said obesessions.
(courtesy of Urban Dictionary)
Origins: The Dickson Baseball Dictionary cites William Henry Nugent's work asserting that it was derived from the fancy, a term from England referring to the fans of a specific hobby or sport from the early 18th Century to the 19th, especially to the followers of boxing.[1] According to that theory, it was originally shortened to fance then just to the homonym fans. Merriam-Webster, the Oxford dictionary and other sources define it as a shortened version of the word fanatic. The word first become popular in reference to baseball enthusiasts. (Fanatic itself, introduced into English around 1550, means "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion". It comes from the Modern Latin fanaticus, meaning "insanely but divinely inspired". The word originally pertained to a temple or sacred place [Latin fanum, poetic English fane]. The modern sense of "extremely zealous" dates from around 1647; the use of fanatic as a noun dates from 1650.) However, the term "fancy" for an intense liking of something, while being of a different etymology, coincidentally carries a less intense but somewhat similar connotation to "fanatic". The word emerged as an Americanism around 1889. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Society: Nowadays, there are many ways to become a fangirl. Cry over a book character. Stare at pictures of Tom Hiddleston for hours. Anything goes. But as we look at the growing number of fangirls/fanboys we ask ourselves, are we united? Under one common force?
I think so. Most of us, although spread through anime, books, TV, movies, we all support the same thing. Love.
We support the idea that loving something is beautiful and unique in it's own way. And you can love anything. "Look at that chair OMGS IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL I'M GONNA CRY." Loving things isn't bad. Chairs are kind of taking into a stretch, but yeah. If you love something and let itself infest your life, you give yourself something to live for. Something to love. Something to cry or get mad at. And that's what being human is. Humanity is love, anger, and emotion in general.
So don't let anyone get you down about loving Teen Wolf, or baseball, or Twilight, or Harry Potter. JUst know that you have become your own person in a sea of unique and interesting people who have that love in common.
Links and Websites:
Here are some great sites to further explore fandom, geekdom, and fangirlness:
Tumblr
Goodreads
Instagram
Nerdfighteria
Have fun!
The Book:
Title: Fangirl
Cover: Beautiful artwork, perfect to go right next to my other Rainbow Rowell books!
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young-Adult
Goodreads Blurb: Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .
But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Published/ing: September 10, 2013 St.Martin's Press
Rating: 5/5
Review:
Wow. Like, WOW. This is very different from anything I've ever read.
And I've read adult fiction, contemporary, and all sorts of genres. But this just bust's through the walls of categorization.
We have such a relate able character as the main. She's quirky, insecure, enthusiastic.
And then the side characters are so full of foils and characterization and development-- it's so great it makes me want to cry.
This book was exceptional in so many ways and I'm so glad I read it. I am extremely excited for anything else Rowell writes.
Notes:
Sorry I couldn't make my review longer, it's just been a busy week full of busy things. Hopefully next week will be better. That's all for now. Have a good week, night, afternoon, day, or morning!
~Monty
P.S. Enjoy these fangirling gifs gown below.
