Catholicism and Fandoms

I am a Catholic.

I am also a ‘geek,’ and by that I mean I have had a preference for fantastic literature and storytelling since my childhood. By being a ‘geek’ I am a member of certain tribal affiliations known as ‘fandoms.’ Fandoms are those subcultures within the greater culture that are devoted to a unique interest. Not really a hobby; fandoms involve interests that are typically creative and are a part of a shared community with its traditions, jargon, shared history: everything that makes a culture. The subculture of a fandom helps sustain the interests; once you discover that there are others in your 'tribe,’ it is wonderful, there are other people who share your weirdness! Hobbies may be like fandoms, but they do not always need community, although fandoms could be enjoyed (to a degree) in isolation. But that's a sadness. 

The most obvious fandoms today are media-inspired: “Star Trek,” “Star Wars,” “Marvel,” and so on. But fandoms go way back before the rise of such things. Readers of science-fiction and fantasy were holding conventions and exchanging newsletters (‘fanzines’) long before Trekkies and Jedis were meeting and greeting each other. 

My late sister MariAnn perhaps unwittingly initiated me into all this when she gifted me “The Runaway Robot,” a juvenile science-fiction novel by Lester DelRey in 1972. I was so taken with it that I read it several times before thinking that there may be other books like it. In school when the teacher would have us fill out things about our interests, such as what we like to read, I would write in tiny print something to the effect of 'science-fiction books like "The Runaway Robot" by Lester DelRey but not too much about science' because I was still unfamiliar with the field and still thought anything with the word 'science' in it would be too hard to understand. (That fear would also delay my watching "Star Trek" until about 1975.)

"Science-fiction” was my means of coping and escaping up through my late twenties. I grew up reading tales by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, and a host of others. Add in “Star Trek”, “Star Wars,” “Battlestar Galactica,” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,” and you ‘got’ me! All of these comprised my ‘fandoms.’ They helped me escape from the humdrum and mundane existence of life. A life with short-sighted politicians, economic dislocation, and frustrated attempts to move us into the wonderful future envisioned by Asimov, et al. They helped me to detach from the ‘here and now’ and raise my thoughts and eyes to things that are not of this particular space and time. And this is common to such fandoms: most are populated by people who are ‘misfits,’ guys who are awkward around girls; girls who don’t think they’re pretty or are too fat; guys and girls who are way too intelligent for the mundanes about them in class and are more advanced than the lessons and get into trouble… the list goes on. In short, people who grew up being disconnected and detached from most of their peers and who found solace in fantastic tales of space adventures or robot friends or fighting dragons and so on.  We ‘fit in’ such realms and are accepted.

These folk are discontented with their temporal and cultural surroundings and seek other places and times. That their destination is imaginary is not their fault. It is kind of like being a Catholic and having an attraction to saints, liturgy, theology, prophecy, and speculations on what Heaven is like and…. and well, being Catholic and struggling to live a solid, orthodox, faithful Catholic life in an increasingly pagan, materialistic and ‘rational’ culture. 

It’s like Catholicism is a fandom. 

No, really! The parallels between being a Catholic today and being involved in some kind of fandom are similar. OK, so you’re not as likely to get rounded up and tossed into some North American gulag for being a Trekkie when the coming persecutions hit as you would be for being a practicing Catholic who opposes killing the unborn and who thinks that marriage is between one man and one woman. Setting that scenario aside, the parallels are clear: most were pointed out already in the paragraphs above about being detached from the ‘here and now’ and ‘discontented with their temporal and cultural surroundings.’ GK Chesterton said about Catholicism: “It is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.” Fandom does much the same thing. But allow me to digress for three paragraphs. People might wonder how I can write an article for a Catholic site on “Catholicism and Fandoms” and not refer to fantasy and JRR Tolkien.

I never got into fantasy until around 2010 when I chanced upon a new boxed set of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien in a discount bookstore. When I was in my freshman or sophomore year of high school a buddy lent me his copy of “The Hobbit” and I hated it. I think I quit it when Bilbo ran out of Bag End to catch up with Thorin Oakenshield and Company a few dozen pages in. Being too different from the novels and stories I was normally attracted to, the experience put me off fantasy for over thirty years until that chance discovery of the discounted boxed set.

Being older and just different in many respects I took to Tolkien’s tales of Middle-Earth. Although “The Hobbit” is a children's tale, I found it enjoyable in my later forties. (Perhaps if my old high school chum had loaned me the “Lord of the Rings” instead I might have appreciated it better. While still substantially different from the science-fiction I preferred, I think I could have appreciated it better than the children’s fantasy the “Hobbit” is and so my universe would have been duly expanded.)

I've read ”The Hobbit” and ”Lord of the Rings” several times now, including having watched the films by Peter Jackson (also multiple times,) and I am thrilled that in these last few decades of my life on Earth, I can delve more deeply into the new universe of Middle Earth. Considering that Tolkien was Catholic and Catholic elements are subtly woven into the fabric of his stories, it feels as if I am also exploring my Catholicism in a manner that is fantastical and ethereal. Therefore, in reading Tolkien’s Middle Earth Legendarium of “The Hobbit,” “The Lord of the Rings” and his other material, I found a fusion of sorts between fandom and Catholicism. (One paragraph… two… three… yes, that’s three paragraphs. Back to the point.)

And here we get to the crux of this article. I propose that exploring Sacred Scripture and studying the Catechism and lives of the saints can also be “fantastical and ethereal,” and as a result, you can detach yourself from the constraints of the ‘here and now’ and the transitory nature of our existence. Divine Revelation is the approach to God laid out by Himself; taking that path gives you a perspective on living within the culture and society about you. You do not view it with the same eyes as those who fully immerse themselves in all the worries and concerns of the secular world. You are detached from it as your thinking is focused not solely on the ‘here and now,’ but also on the past and how that can contribute to bettering the present. Your future is tinged with hope as you long for eternity.

The literature and stories of the fantastic can lead one to consider an objective viewpoint detached from the surrounding culture. It encourages people to think and consider things beyond the sundry and mundane. It encourages people to not be satisfied with that. Reading and watching science-fiction and fantasy helps expand people's way of conceptualizing things. And this relates to the point of this post:

Catholicism and Fandom do the same thing for me; they help me detach from the temporary and transitory world around me and help me focus on things that are not bound by the constraints of the ’here and now.’ They help me to rise above the sundry and mundane and consider other possibilities.

Although I declared that ‘Fandom does much the same thing’ as Catholicism does when it “…frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age;” there is a difference, though. One leads to salvation: an eternity knowing, loving, and possessing God and hopefully being reunited with our loved ones. That is Catholicism, the One True Faith established by Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity and Son of God the Father. The other leads to a temporary escape. Fandom is fun, it’s a coping mechanism and an enjoyment for many. But it isn’t salvific. It won’t get you to Heaven.

I am a member of many online Groups (Facebook, MeWe, Reddit) that are dedicated to various fandoms. One common thing is a fair amount of skepticism and agnosticism if not outright atheism. "Theophobia" (that irrational 'fear' of a deity or religion) is a popular prejudice. And yet I feel in these kindred tribes a longing for something they cannot (or will not) define. That search for something beyond what the eyes can see and what constrains our physical bodies. I believe that in an odd sort of manner, people are searching for God, but they do not know how. Perhaps God in His Infinite and Eternal Wisdom planted the seeds of eternity in these souls that read and watch this weird stuff because their upbringing wouldn't otherwise allow it. Either they were raised in Belief-less homes or the practice of Belief is unattractive. Knowing their difficult path, God sows seeds of the divine spark that may eventually get watered and grow and someday lead them to consider the possibility of Belief.

And they might discover that exploring that Belief can be just as mind-blowing and consciousness-expanding as any story by Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Tolkien, or whomever. And then they'll find God.