Book #96

Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? True Adventures in Cult Fandom
by Allyson Beatrice

I read this book, after Toni's tepid recommendation, as a light-hearted switch from the heaviness of Robin Hobb, and in that respect, it worked fine. Sadly, Toni's lukewarm reaction was entirely accurate: this is, at best, a mediocre book by a mediocre writer. But at least she has a five-star ego.

The book is supposedly about being a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I am, and being overinvolved in online forums, which I am as well. But it isn't. It is about how cool it is to be part of the in crowd, and how self-righteous it can make you after a lifetime of being ostracized by the cool folks. The title was chosen because it was a comment made by an exasperated hotel clerk who was annoyed by the internet Buffy fans who were hanging out in the hotel lobby and talking and laughing and making a loud nuisance of themselves; they loved being referred to as the vampire people, especially being seen as troublemakers, because it gives them some validation as well as some cool kid street cred, so to speak. The author herself tries very hard to give herself more street cred; she goes on at length about her persona in online forums: she is the bitchy one who has to get into arguments with every troll and every dismissive or angry or irritated person who ruins the sweet loving conversations between all these wonderful friends. She says that everyone who knows her online knows her to be reliable and trustworthy and brutally honest; this is the persona she has tried very hard to create for herself, and it is one she tries hard to re-create in these "essays," as she refers to the rambling, often pointless chapters in this rambling, often pointless book.

The truth is, the author's persona, like most online personas (including my own) is contrived. She dismisses the claims that the Internet creates shallow, superficial human connections which are then used as a lesser surrogate for actual human contact by introverted and socially inept people; she uses herself as an example, describing the wonderful relationships she has with the people she has met online. And while I have no doubt that the friendships she has made which are depicted in the book are true and lasting, there is another side to this: her connections to the celebrities of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- mostly the writers, as these are the people who interact most with the internet fans -- are tenuous at best, and yet she namedrops constantly, describing in detail all of the ways she has "worked" together with them to accomplish great things. Yet Joss Whedon doesn't know her name, a circumstance that understandably annoys her to no end (I was reminded of Homer Simpson's problem with C.M. Burns), but one that is never explored as the indicator it is. There is a chapter dedicated to a member of a forum who made up complex and poignant stories about her life, a sort of e-Munchausen's Syndrome, and how the fans (led by the intrepid and tenacious Allyson Beatrice, of course) investigated and confronted her with the truth, and yet this is dismissed as a fluke, an unusual event, when it is not: the Internet is filled with exaggerated and invented claims, and the most suspect people are those who are proudest of their reputations as honest and upfront people. Like the author.

However: the book was worth reading, despite its lack of a clear premise beyond the author's aggrandizement, for one simple reason: it named for me Imposter's Syndrome. This is the name for the fear that any day now, people will recognize you for the fraud that you are, and strip away all of your accomplishments and rewards, none of which you earned with anything but trickery and blind, dumb luck. I share this fear, and the chapter describing it was the high point of the book -- though I also enjoyed the story of Thanksgiving with a group of forum friends renting a house together on Catalina Island and sitting around on wireless laptops all day; as another introvert who uses the internet as a way to connect to people without actually having to meet them face to face (A character flaw that I, at least, am honest about), I thought that sounded great. The rest of the book, I could have done without.