‘Fangirl’, interrupted

MANILA, Philippines - Recently, Rainbow Rowell’s third novel, Fangirl, came out to resounding praise. The noise mostly came from the hordes of actual fangirls, steeped in the magical world of Harry Potter (or some other derivative) once upon a time. I was one of those fangirls, though I don’t really like referring to myself as such, especially now that I am 25.

“Fangirl,” the word, has such a weird stigma attached to it, perhaps due to the fact that fangirls are crazy. They are emotional, most especially when it concerns characters from a fictional realm. When the world hears “fangirl,” it conjures the YouTube video of a hysterical girl sobbing in the wake of the RPattz/KStew breakup. People hear “fangirl” and they picture a group of sexually frustrated nerds, furiously typing out fantasy fanfic, because, let’s face it; to millions out there, fanfic is just a repository for gratuitous erotica.

One of my favorite quotes about Harry Potter, from a now-defunct LiveJournal: “Harry Potter is the reason 10 million virgins know the mechanics of obscure sexual positions and fetishes and not know how to factor polynomials, Joss Whedon strike me down if I lie.”

Of course, there are different levels of fangirl cray. We’ve seen generations of fangirls—from the Beatles to One Direction—but I think that this level of fan devotion for a book series is unprecedented. There are crazy obsessives mixed into the pot, but in Fangirl, Rowell aims to tell the story of a girl who is deeply attached to and emotionally rooted in a particular fandom.

The life of Magicath

Fangirl, the book, peeks into the life of Cath Avery, or “Magicath,” as she is known as a prominent fanfic writer in the fandom of Simon Snow. She is on the cusp of adulthood, trying to maneuver her life as an individual college freshman, cut off from twindom as her sister, Wren, desperately seeks out her own path, away from Cath and Simon. Still, she cannot let go of the world of Simon Snow; especially not now that the last book is about to come out, and thousands of other fangirls and fanboys around the world are hooked onto her every word.

Obviously, other things happen that is away from Cath’s computer screen. The world of Simon Snow doesn’t appear as often as you’d think, depicting the reality that majority of fangirls live out. Contrary to popular belief, the fangirl’s world does not revolve around the fandom. It is a safe haven, a place to go to when the rest of the world goes to shit.

While an excellent coming-of-age story on its own, Fangirl is set against a wonderful backdrop of fan culture—the side of it that I know and love. Fandom, or the thing in which fans participate, is hardly as creepy as people might think. On paper, it’s a little hard to explain. It’s definitely a case of “you had to be there,” which is precisely why I feel like reactions to Fangirl will be divisive.

On one hand, there are people who never really reached this level of devotion to something that’s special only to them. In the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous, Sapphire says one of the best lines: “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.”

Annoying vs. Relatable

My sister was never a Harry Potter fan, so she never felt the specialness of Fangirl, and actually found Cath annoying, whereas I found her to be relatable and an accurate depiction of at least one kind of a fangirl.

On one hand, there are fans that have either moved on from involvement in this community or are still marginally active. I, for one, am not as involved in fandom as I used to be, but I am drawn to the feelings of nostalgia that this novel elicits because I’m reminded of how special that community felt and, at turns, still feels.

I think that, for the most part, Fangirl is a book for those people who have tucked away that part of them that was so immersed in fandom, but still like to pull it out and unfold these pieces from time to time, just because it used to be such a big part of them. It’s for people who don’t whisper “fanfic” like it’s a dirty word, because they understand what it means to some people.

In many ways, Fangirl is a tribute to that time when, for a few brief moments in a day, everything becomes yours and untouchable.

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