fic·tion·as·fact - (nouns).
Fiction as Fact - (nouns).
1. A phrase which refers to moments in a fan's life when reality is understood through fictional realities from particular fandoms. 2. When something has been learned through the watching, reading, or enjoying of a particular media or object of fan attention. 3. The act of recreating fictional aspects of a fandom in real space and time.
During a game night in the distant past, we were playing trivial pursuit and one of the questions was about the City of Gold in the Americas. My teammate shouted, "Oh like the Road to El Dorado! Wait... That's the answer! El Dorado!"
It was in fact the answer to our question. This wasn't the first time our media consumption has resulted in being more knowledgeable. Actually, I still attribute one of my correct answers on a standardized test in the seventh grade to Ariel. Yes, that's right. The Little Mermaid. You see, she sang a little song I was obsessed with called Part of Your World. And in that song, there was this moment where she discusses reprimanding and that dear folks is why I knew the answer to that little word puzzle so many years ago.
Fiction as Fact is not an uncommon happening for a fan. If anything, fans have a fiction as fact moment at least once a day. Sometimes it's as easy as that moment when you hit someone on the head and go, "life's tough, get a helmet" (see definition #1). While other times it might be sitting in a high school history class and understanding yellow journalism because the Newsies worked for Joesph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst (see definition #2). Or maybe it's those fun moments, when you drive around town looking for an apartment above a bar so you can have your own McClaren's or want to have elevensies just for fun (see definition #3).
The beauty of what is happening when fiction becomes fact is the learning. We, the fans, as socially curious creatures are learning from our fictional counterparts. Maybe we're learning just facts, like a student listening to a lecture. Maybe we're learning skills. Whatever it is we're learning, the point is that we are learning. We are engaging with our stories, with our media, with whatever we admire.
When getting to the nitty gritty of being a fan, a person can be a fan of anything or anyone. As babies, we were once (and maybe still are) fans of our parents. As we grow, we expand how many things we are fans of, including all of these fictional lovelies of our world. Maybe we learn how to strut from Jack Kelly, or how to dance from Troy Bolton. But what I find to be marvelous about those things is that maybe along the way we learned other things, like how to be one voice or how to have hope.
Fiction as fact moments are moments of connecting. They are that moment a teacher is always hoping for. The breaking through point. A fiction as fact is a moment where we prove we have absorbed knowledge! We have learned something. And maybe that something is useless or meaningless (to some) but maybe it's not.
Maybe knowing how to make a tootsie roll (rootbeer and kahula) provides me with no great life skill but when I make a new friend or spark a new connection, it's a worthwhile skill to me. Maybe learning what a Press Secretary does from CJ Craig is unconventional, but at least I know what a Press Secretary is, right?
So here is to our realities mashing, becoming one big streaming memory of fiction as fact and fact as fiction*.
*In the near future, there will be a definition post about the fact as fiction tag. Stay tune.
