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The practical definition of a BNF
This, by the way, applies to the current state of affairs, not the historical one--you know, before mailing lists.
A BNF is someone who can't bring herself to shut up.
An effective BNF performs with every word. She has a constant audience. She is someone who can deal with being seen and watched. Whatever noises she may occasionally make to the contrary, she can, at the least, deal with and, at the most, enjoy being on stage, in the open, pinned by the spotlight. If she couldn't deal with that, or didn't like it, then she wouldn't keep posting publicly, not in these days of LJ where privacy of varying degrees is a mere button-click away.
Ideally, this volubility is an expression of her confidence in herself, of how comfortable she is with throwing her opinion out in public to be kicked around.
The other way it can work, though, is that the performative aspect, and the audience response to it, becomes a source of validation for someone who isn't really confident in herself and her opinions, and is comforted, or possibly intoxicated, by the support and agreement of others. In those cases, the performance becomes everything. It intensifies and becomes drama in all senses of the word, until the performer loses any and all distance between herself and that persona, and there's nothing left to separate the person and the Name.
I phrase that advisedly. Because that kind of performer does tend to attract the kind of audience who get validation of their own out of being part of the positive-feedback loop, out of being the beloved of a powerful persona. So they respond more and more intensely, too, and that's where god-complexes come from.
A healthy BNF has a sense of humor, or at least a certain perspective, about the speed and intensity with which her fandom audience responds to her lightest utterance.
A healthy BNF is someone who, at the end of the day, knows she's just someone who can't shut up to save her soul.
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A BNF is someone who can't bring herself to shut up.
An effective BNF performs with every word. She has a constant audience. She is someone who can deal with being seen and watched. Whatever noises she may occasionally make to the contrary, she can, at the least, deal with and, at the most, enjoy being on stage, in the open, pinned by the spotlight. If she couldn't deal with that, or didn't like it, then she wouldn't keep posting publicly, not in these days of LJ where privacy of varying degrees is a mere button-click away.
Ideally, this volubility is an expression of her confidence in herself, of how comfortable she is with throwing her opinion out in public to be kicked around.
The other way it can work, though, is that the performative aspect, and the audience response to it, becomes a source of validation for someone who isn't really confident in herself and her opinions, and is comforted, or possibly intoxicated, by the support and agreement of others. In those cases, the performance becomes everything. It intensifies and becomes drama in all senses of the word, until the performer loses any and all distance between herself and that persona, and there's nothing left to separate the person and the Name.
I phrase that advisedly. Because that kind of performer does tend to attract the kind of audience who get validation of their own out of being part of the positive-feedback loop, out of being the beloved of a powerful persona. So they respond more and more intensely, too, and that's where god-complexes come from.
A healthy BNF has a sense of humor, or at least a certain perspective, about the speed and intensity with which her fandom audience responds to her lightest utterance.
A healthy BNF is someone who, at the end of the day, knows she's just someone who can't shut up to save her soul.
.