Trufan

(Did you mean Victor Gonzalez's email list and website?)

A portmanteau of "true fan," trufan is a term of admiration for a particularly active fan who contributes positively to fandom, the fannish equivalent of mensch. A trufan works hard at fanac and willingly goes to all sorts of trouble to maintain his fannish status and connections with other fen.

By tradition, a trufan is implicitly a resident of Trufandom — the destination Jophan is seeking so that he can find the magic mimeograph at the Tower of Trufandom with which to publish the perfect fanzine in The Enchanted Duplicator. Because of this association, the term takes on mythic potentials: In fannish legend, trufan can tell other trufen by their "auras," usually at distances upwards of 150 feet, and can also tell whether or not a fanzine contains a mention of their name simply by laying their hands upon the cover, not to mention many other trufannish "powers" which the Ancients once possessed.

It may be used as a synonym for actifan, especially one who participates in traditional fanac, such as fanzines, Worldcons and smoffing, as opposed to consumers. As with fan, the plural is either trufans or trufen, and trufannish is used like fannish.

Trufan has become a little controversial because some members of fringe fandoms believe it is used to exclude them, especially in the latter sense. However, most fen use it tongue-in-cheek. If you sincerely believe you're a trufan, you are a trufan, providing you make the declaration with a sense of fun.

Lee Hoffman wrote "Trufen are cadets to become Secret Masters of the Universe. The problem is, they can't move into the Inner Circle til they grow up, and no one has ever known a Trufan to grow up."

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

One to whom stf and crifanac afford such pleasure that he would rather enjoy them than anything else except femme-fans, and who willingly goes to all sorts of trouble to maintain his fannish status and connections. He is almost always an actifan. In connection with TAFF a furor arose over the definition of a Trufan, the active faction insisting that a trufan exhibit his quality by some sort of fanac -- crifanac for choice -- while others maintained that nomination to or interest in so stefnistic an enterprise as TAFF was sufficient to prove fannishness. In the opinion of your editor the requirements noted in the second paragraph under TAFF could hardly be fulfilled without engaging in crifanac to some extent except by a few people like Don Ford who engage vast numbers of fans as participants in regular gatherings like the Midwestcon.

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Fanspeak

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