Cierpliwość fana fantastyki. O tym, czy fan to marionetka czy partyzant

The article discusses a specific group of the recipients of the media — fans of science-fiction. The author describes two research approaches to sci-fi fans — a pathological approach and a warlike approach. The pathological one shows fans as infantile puppets. According to the representatives of this approach the science-fiction genre is kitsch. Fans are completely tasteless, dumb and easily yield to manipulation by the producers. The second approach opposes this notion. According to the representatives of the warlike approach, fans are quite impatient when it comes to kitsch. Fans often reject a part of a text producers present. Fans are selective — they choose what they think is good and valuable. One could say that the fans are fighting with producers, that they are a guerillas involved in a war. Fans try to pick something up out of a text and create a new fan culture. The author of the article characterizes both approaches, indicates their main assumptions and recognized representatives. It is possible to accept the thesis that a fan is a warlike guerrilla without any reservations? If a cultural industry is currently changing to accommodate the most engaged and participatory audiences, researchers should come up with a new approach. It could portray sci-fi fans rather as engaged in war with producers (but recapitulate ideas of fannish opposition) or once again manipulated. In the near future it is important to decide which way the new approach should take — researching fans of science fiction genre is crucial to understanding audiences in general.