1001 True Fans

There's this idea about a thousand true fans, and I liked it the minute I met it. But as the years have worn on, and I’ve carried on this business (or busyness, anyway) of writing in plain sight, I've become skeptical. Why not a million true fans? Or a billion? There reaches a point—and I suspect that number is much closer to ten than a thousand for most of us— where sustaining a meaningful connection just isn’t possible.

Now maybe that's a flaw in my thinking, that having (or being) a ‘true fan’ requires a meaningful connection. I don’t know that that is true for me as a fan, though certainly it brings about some desire for connection, however faint. I don’t know how I feel about that as a creator. It doesn’t sound like a great idea, going around trying to create those sorts of desires in people. I dunno, maybe that’s just me.

The late great Prince—may His Royal Badness RIP—said something like he didn’t have fans because that was short for ‘fanatics,’ and he preferred to think of himself as being friends with the people who like his music. I like that idea, too, even if it seems a bit dubious that Prince actually made any meaningful difference in behavior there.

Several writers claim you can write to them and they’ll respond, but they’re already sort of beyond the threshold of being approachable at that point. I mean, if you are saying something like that, it implies that you might not, right? That folks are already thinking that they wouldn’t receive a reply.

This investigation often leads me back to my true intentions; if we’re serious about the ‘true’ part in ‘true fans,’ then we need to be true in our intent.

For me (and I think many folks on Substack and blogs and things) it's fairly simple: to create art and share that with the world in a way that somehow enriches life, or at least has the chance to. The hunger games/climbing for dollars aspect of it comes in because of larger societal ailments, and the drive for praise or acclaim from early psychological ones. Put another way, for most of us, there’s an easier way to make money or see to our general well-being than doing pure art creative work for financial support; and while art most certainly can be and many times is therapeutic, there's not really a substitute for working on one's childhood fractures with the guidance of a professional.

And what is being true? For me it's coming at something with an open heart and a supple mind along with a relatively transparent process of thinking and behavior. It won’t be exact because we’re all different at different moments, even from ourselves, but it's a vibe thing, you know?

Anyhow, that my musing for the day. Let me know what you think, if you want. Have a great weekend!

Xoxo,

T

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