Same here. My older relatives and others I’ve met in their age groups ( school teachers, for example ) really seemed put them on a pedestal and get quite testy when their views are challenged. It’s not like we ( me, and some of my peers ) were bashing the The Beatles either: it was more of a “yeah, they were influential in their day and an important part of the “soundtrack” of the 60s, but a little of their music goes a long way with me” type of view. They get defensive and brag about how popular they were, how many records they sold, blah blah blah…
Any counterpoint to that just made them into generational chauvinists about how we ( younger than them ) just don’t get how much better everything was in their day.
See also Rush fans: mention that they aren’t really your cup of tea, and they’ll huffily quote statistics at you. “Perhaps, sirrah, you weren’t quite aware that their 7th reunion tour sold out the Monglebowl in only 24 minutes, and that Hongle McBongle was awarded Guitar Mongler magazine’s prestigious Most Notes In A Solo award for a record 3 years running”.
Maybe not totally applicable to the question since this is Cafe Society, but the most fanatical fandom, not neccessarily most dedicated, in my experience has to be Football(or Soccer, if you prefer). As with most things, of course the fanatical types make up a small minority of the fandom.
New one. The Dark Tower fandom. I recently drew their ire for questioning King’s handling of the character Susannah. Specifically, that she never uses, nor is it ever explained why she never uses, prosthetic legs though such were common in her era. Their reaction was very much that I had shat all over Holy Writ. It was questioned who I even thought I was criticizing how King wrote a character.
Fools! Did they think that the yieldlessness of absolute neutronium could stop QADGOP THE MERCOTAN? And that human wench Cynthia, cowering in helpless terror just beyond this thin and fragile wall…
