I'd like to use my little personal Cat Who... soapbox this week to address an issue that, in the whole cosmic scheme of things, might seem fairly trivial but is symptomatic of a larger trend that, if allowed to continue unchecked, could prove detrimental to Cat Who... fandom as a whole. To wit: my mini-dissertation concerns the proposed Cat Who... cookbook. For those not subscribed to the Cat Who... mailing list, let me explain: there's been an ongoing list project to compile recipes for foods mentioned in the series, which hadn't seen much activity until lately, when one of the members started asking around for a pasty recipe (the list had a contest to see who could pull in the most new members, the prize was a box of pasties, the eventual winner was Canadian, and the food couldn't be shipped over national lines, so some substitute had to be found). A lot of folks responded, enthusiasm for the recipe project grew, and, now, many subscribers seem to be willing to help compose an entire cookbook of Cat Who...-related recipes; the project even wrote Lilian Jackson Braun about the idea, who replied that permission would have to be sought from her publishers - who in turn have also been contacted but have not yet replied.
Of course, the idea of whether or not it's a good idea to venture setting a trend and create another Cat Who... spin-off can be debated - though The Cat Who... Companion was a mostly well-researched and valuable information resource/compendium, further products risk the danger of spawning a Cat Who... marketing franchise and bringing about a cheapening (not to mention market saturation and overexposure) of the series - but there seems to be considerable interest in the cookbook project, and in view of how certain memorable foods (pasties, Mrs. Cobb's cookies and macaroni and cheese, etc.) have come to be considered series trademarks, a cookbook would seem to be a side dish well-suited to the series.
What disturbs me, however, is the proposal that the cookbook be devoted to the favorite foods of the books' characters, Lilian Jackson Braun...and the Cat Who... list members. Publishing recipes preferred by the characters is the raison d'être of the book. Including recipes LJB enjoys - an excellent idea; nigh every Cat Who... fan wishes to know more about our favorite author. Wedging in recipes well-liked by mailing list subscribers - well, that's a problem.
To put it bluntly: there is no reason for list members to include our (yes, "our"; I am a list member also) own favorite recipes in the cookbook other than narcissism. Such frivolity maybe would be all right if the cookbook were restricted to a just-for-fun group project or if we were aiming to toss off a little homemade church-bake-sale cookbook, but since we are, apparently, intending to try to make it an "officially sanctioned" part of the Cat Who... oeuvre, we have a responsibility to be less self-indulgent. Having our one group of fans, by shoehorning ourselves into a book supposedly devoted to the Cat Who... series, place our own opinions and thoughts on a pedestal of equal importance and authority in the Cat Who... mythos as the author's and characters' and supposing that the rest of Cat Who... fandom would and should be just as interested in our individual clique as in the books they have bought the cookbook to get to know better - that, if they admire LJB and her body of work, they should admire us and our conceits as well - is incredibly egotistical.
I don't mean to be petty or paranoid here, nor do I mean to pick on the folks who are working on the cookbook - I wish them well. But this one aspect of the project is a just plain bad idea. This cookbook is meant (I hope) is meant to enrich the Cat Who... universe and allow the fan public to get a taste of Down Below and Moose County, not to feed egos. Laying claim to some of the Cat Who... series's celebrity for ourselves by riding its coattails is unscrupulous.
We can't allow our mailing list group to get puffed up with the misplaced self-importance that apparently conceived this idea - such arrogance is toxic. The formation of a "fan elite" that thinks itself more important and more entitled to recognition than other fans and seeks to make itself, and not the works its members have purportedly come together to discuss, the center of attention has ruined many other fan clubs, mailing lists, and discussion groups on the Internet and elsewhere - and I wouldn't like to see it happen here. I realize that it seems I'm a little premature in my concerns and that the list hasn't come down with an all-out epidemic of egomania - yet - but it's ugly when such a thing happens, and the lack of objection to the hey-let's-write-ourselves-in-too cookbook proposal is worrying, and I'd like to pitch in my two cents to, if possible, help nip the problem in the bud before it develops further.
So, in summary, full steam ahead with the cookbook, but...caution, people, caution. Jockeying for fame, authority, or social position ruin the free, fun spirit of discussion mailing lists are supposed to foster, and we should have more respect for our favorite mysteries than to view them as but a convenient tool or stepping-stone towards our own aggrandizement. Stuffing a cookbook meant to honor Moose County and Braun full of personal recipes unrelated to either would turn the volume into a vanity project. Always remember, folks - we're celebrating the books, not ourselves.
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