mundane

In subcultural and fictional uses, a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group, according to the members of that group; the implication is that such persons, lacking imagination, are concerned solely with the mundane: the quotidian and ordinary.^[1] In science fiction fandom and related fandoms the term is used to refer, sometimes deprecatingly, to non-fans; this use of the term antedates 1955.^[2]

In culture

Some western cultural examples:

• In science fiction fandom, some fans classify all non-fans as "mundanes."^[3]
• goths also commonly refer to non-goths as "mundanes" or "norms".^[4]
• In historical reenactment groups such as the Society for Creative Anachronism (which originated in science fiction fandom):
  • some participants classify all non-participants as "mundanes".
  • Similarly, one's "mundane" name is the legal name one goes by in the outside world.
  • Further, "Mundanes," sometimes shortened to just "'danes" (not to be confused with people of Danish descent), is also a term for normal everyday clothes, as opposed to those dressed in historical garb.^[5]
• In the science fiction television series Babylon 5, telepathic humans (especially Psi Corps members) classify all non-telepathic humans as "mundanes". The classification is employed mainly, but not solely, by telepathic characters who have telepath-supremacist ideologies (such ideologies being one of the issues dealt with by the series), and was deliberately chosen to mirror the classification in science fiction fandom.^[6]
• In fantasy literature the term is sometimes used to apply to non-magical people or the non-magical society. It is used in Piers Anthony's Xanth novels, and Bill Willingham's comic book series Fables (often shortened to "mundies" in the latter).
• In furry fandom, it is used to describe non-furries, or "humans".^[7]
• In sanguinarian circles the word "mundane" means "non sanguinarian", although some consider it derogatory.
• In text-based online role-playing games, the term is commonly used to refer to the player as opposed to their character, typically shortened to "mun".
• Mundane science fiction is science fiction which does not make use of interstellar travel or other common tropes of the genre.^[8]
• Within the scope of the software communities of free and open-source software some proponents^{[citation needed]} of the respective movements classify those which do not know enough about their views as "mundanes", signifying their normalcy, their lack of being beyond the regular users of computers.

"Mundania" in the works of Piers Anthony

Prolific F&SF author Piers Anthony took the concept one step further in the late seventies and eighties geographically defining a Mundania, within which magic was virtually unknown in his Xanth series (1977) and employed the concept further in exploring and exploiting the contrast between two duality of reality universes in his 1980 Apprentice Adept book series—where much of the plot is dependent upon tension between a magic world and a machine world (The Mundane) which can hardly be more different.

See also

• Mundane astrology
• Muggle

References

1. ^ brown, rich Dr. Gafia's Fan Terms
2. ^ Coppa, Francesca (2006), "A Brief History of Media Fandom", in Hellekson, Karen; Busse, Kristina, Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, pp. 41-59, ISBN 978-0-7864-2640-9 
3. ^ Cherryh, C. J.. "FIAWOL and All That". http://www.cherryh.com/www/fiawol.htm. 
4. ^ Voltaire, "What is Goth?"
5. ^ "The Fanfiction Glossary"
6. ^ Message by J. Michael Straczynski on Byron's attitude towards "mundanes" in Babylon 5
7. ^ Simo, "The New Furry's Dictionary"
8. ^ "Geoff Ryman: The Mundane Fantastic: Interview excerpts". Locus. January 2006. http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/01Ryman.html. Retrieved 2007-09-23.