The other way of looking at [fandom] is that it’s devotion, right? And devotion is painful, it’s difficult. It requires discipline and moments of boredom, frustration. But I think it’s one of the great human virtues, because it shows that you stick around. You’re there no matter what.
I forget how I found Alex Shephard, or how we found each other. Probably in the days before Twitter started stinking so much, when there was genuine cross-cultural-niche dialogue going on there, and we overlapped on the Knicks/basketball and books/Annie Ernaux. However it happened, I’m glad it did, because Alex is funny, insightful, and kind. I’m also selfishly glad it did because Alex wrote this about the Knicks, as their 2023 playoff run came to an end:
We talked about fandom as a mix of devotion and delusion, and how to get the balance right. We also talked about the pleasure of boredom in watching basketball, Lakers fandom as a sprawling monster versus Knicks fandom as a vehicle that shrinks a giant ci…
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