Well, a lot of my experience is really closely tied to times and places and the people I was around; I wasn't trying to claim I was in any way typical, any more than anyone else is. And that is the very, very condensed version of the story, with a lot of unexplained in-group references in it.

Part of why I wrote this post, though, is that I think some of why we have problems is that it's easy to imagine everyone in a certain bloc having the exact same experience and idea of fandom. Which is to say, I would love to read an account of what your experience has been (even if I have trouble relating to it, too.)