The History of Fandom, 1700-1900 (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner (0:02)

Hello, and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author, and broadcaster. And today, we're coming to you live from the Hay Literary Festival in Wales, which means I get to say hello, audience.

You're lost, aren't you? You're looking for the toilets. They're over there. Fine. Thank you so much for coming. We're hoping that by the end of this, we will have acquired more fans. And that is very much what we're talking about today. Fandom is the crucial word, because today we are jumping back three centuries to learn all about the history of cultural fandom. That's books, theatre, music, but not sport. Because it's the Hay Festival and Frankie, we're not doing sport here. Joining me and our lovely audience in this extremely glamorous tent are two very special guests. In History Corner, she's a writer, broadcaster and academic who teaches at the University of Cambridge. That's one of the best ones. She's an expert in romantic literature and early celebrity culture. She's a BBC New Generation thinker and this is her fifth stint on the show. She's already tackled Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Gothic Vampire Literature and Mary Wollstonecraft. We're officially super fans. It's the marvelous Dr. Corin Throsby. Welcome back, Corin.

Thank you so much.

Corin Throsby (1:29)

The restraining order is in the mail, Greg.

Greg Jenner (1:33)

And in Comedy Corner, he is the sensational stand up and podcast host. I am a full on fan boy of his podcast, The Comedian's Comedian, one of my absolute faves. He's been on Conan O'Brien's TV show.

Stu Goldsmith (1:43)

Yes.

Greg Jenner (1:44)

That was a phenomenal thing. He's gone viral recently on TikTok.

Stu Goldsmith (1:47)

Yes. Horrifyingly so.

Greg Jenner (1:50)

And you'll remember him from our episodes on Blackbeard the Pirate, Jack Shepherd, and Ancient Medicine. It's the marvellous Stu Goldsmith. Welcome back, Stu.

Now, Stu, a word of warning here. Normally, I am just a mild mannered tame host. But not today.

Oh no. Today, you're in my house. This is my subject. You're surrounded not only by a lovely raucous phalanx of highbrow book lovers at the Hay Festival, but you're also surrounded by two historians who work on this. This is also something I've worked on. I've written a book about it. So, are you prepared for the onslaught?

Stu Goldsmith (2:30)

Yes, I am. But only because I know how nervous you are that it's a live show.

Greg Jenner (2:36)

Yes, damn it. All right.

Stu Goldsmith (2:38)

Look, you're doing great. Isn't he doing great?

Greg Jenner (2:44)

So, what do you know?

Well, we begin, as ever, with the so what do you know? This is where I have a go at guessing what you, our lovely listener, plural, knows about our subject, fandom. And I think you know what fandom is. You may know about fan communities. You definitely would have heard of Beatlemania. You may know about the modern ones, the mixers, the monsters, the Whovians and Hooligans. And perhaps you're a fan. Perhaps we're all fans in this room. But the question is, is this intense and all-pervasive phenomenon a modern thing? And we all know it's not because that's how this show works. It's a very rigid format.

No, we are going to find out more about it. And we're going to find out how did you buy a merch before the invention of eBay? Dr. Corin, what do we mean when we say fandom? What is a fan?

Corin Throsby (3:34)

A fan is someone who has an emotional connection to either a person or a cultural product.

And right from the beginning, it's had a bit of a bad rap. We sort of think of that cliche of the screaming teenage girl. And it's since the kind of 17th, 18th century been associated with women and young people, and therefore has been made fun of. You know, as an academic, I can't really say that I'm a fan of something because that implies that I don't have a critical distance from it and that I can't judge it intellectually because of that emotional response. But hopefully a lot of the things that we talk about today will show that fandom is a really creative way of engaging with cultural products.

Greg Jenner (4:24)

And Stu, the word fan, where do you think it comes from, etymologically speaking?

Stu Goldsmith (4:30)

Oh, what?

It's fanatic. It's obviously a fanatic. I'm just looking at the audience going, well, it's obviously fanatic, Stu. This is hay. Raise your game. Yes, surely it's short for fanatic, right? Isn't it like the word lunatic comes from the moon? It's like you're so is there an equivalent but with fans?