How much should fans care?
June 19th 2009 04:28
Is it possible to be a fan without reacting personally sometimes to things our favourite singers or actors or writers do?
Joanna Trollope has been entrenched in my top five list of favourite writers for many years. Probably more years years than either of us care to remember. It just so happened this morning, however, that my usual sense of contentment that the English language was in such fine hands was jarred by a picture of Trollope on the inside cover of one of her novels.
It is a portrait, carefully staged and offering a professional rather than a personal look at the subject. The picture is used in several of her books, so Trollope obviously likes this particular image of her. I don't.
That is what jarred me from my usually unrestrained state of admiration for Joanna Trollope. The thought had been swimming in my subconscious for years, but this morning it finally surfaced in full-blown realisation: I don't like that picture.
Of course, I thought immediately, this is a ridiculous reaction, and an utterly subjective one. I know almost nothing about Trollope personally, so on what basis can I possibly justify having any opinion about a picture of her, especially one she apparently approves of?
And then I thought how odious it must be for well-known people to be confronted with irrational, unreasonable reactions such as this. Surely somebody who doesn't know you has no right to have a personal opinion of you.
Having delivered this lecture to myself, one half of me felt primly stern and smug and the other half felt suitably chastised.
And then a new thought arrived.
I am too reserved (or arrogant) by nature to be an unreserved fan of living beings, but I make a few exceptions and this is one. I feel strongly that the world would be a darker, poorer place without the contemporary novels of Joanna Trollope. There, I have finally admitted it in a public forum. I'm a fan.
Being a fan, it seems to me, is about engaging. Does not a fan, by definition, have a right to care? Does it not come with the territory? I may have no personal knowledge of the subject, and I may have no need or even inclination to gather any such first-hand knowledge, but that does not stop me as a fan from personally engaging. If I didn't, in fact, I wouldn't be a fan at all. I would be a critic or a mere observer.
So, Joanna, with all respect, I reverse my verdict that my reaction, no matter how subjective, is invalid. I do not like that picture.
If we ever meet, can I still have your autograph?
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The interesting thing here is that a Google Images search on Joanna Trollope throws up any number of pleasant photographs of a pleasant-looking woman.
So it's obvious she uses this picture just to spite me