mundane
{{Short description|Non-member of science fiction fandom}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{About-distinguish|science fiction subculture|Mundane science fiction}}
{{other uses|Mundane (disambiguation)}}
{{wiktionary|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.{{Cite web |title=brown, rich |url=http://fanac.org/Fannish_Reference_Works/Fan_terms/Fan_terms-05.html |website=Dr. Gafia's Fan Terms}} The term first came into use in science fiction fandom to refer, sometimes deprecatingly, to non-fans; this use of the term antedates 1955.{{Cite book |last=Coppa |first=Francesca |title=Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2640-9 |editor-last=Hellekson |editor-first=Karen |editor-link=Karen Hellekson |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=41–59 |chapter=A Brief History of Media Fandom |author-link=Francesca Coppa |editor-last2=Busse |editor-first2=Kristina |editor-link2=Kristina Busse}}
Etymology
Mundane came originally from the Latin mundus, meaning ordinary and worldly as opposed to spiritual, and has been in use in English since the 15th century.{{Cite web |title=Merriam- Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mundane |access-date=6 December 2016 |website=Merriam- Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus |publisher=Merriam-Webster}}
In popular culture
Some Western cultural examples include:
- In Cassandra Clare's book series The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices, humans who were not Shadowhunters nor Downworlders were referred to as "mundanes".
- 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".{{Cite web |title=Simo |url=http://www.furrydolphin.net/furry-dict.html |website=The New Furry's Dictionary}}
- In historical reenactment groups such as the Society for Creative Anachronism (which originated in science fiction fandom):
- '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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.subreality.com/glossary/terms.htm|title=The Fanfiction Glossary|date=22 August 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822041856/http://www.subreality.com/glossary/terms.htm|archive-date=22 August 2008}}
- Similarly, one's "mundane" name is the legal name one goes by in the outside world.
- Some participants classify all non-participants as "mundanes".
- In science fiction fandom, some fans classify all non-fans as "mundanes."{{Cite web |last=Cherryh |first=C. J. |author-link=C. J. Cherryh |title=FIAWOL and All That |url=http://www.cherryh.com/www/fiawol.htm}}
- 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".
- 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.{{Cite web |title=Message by J. Michael Straczynski on Byron's attitude towards "mundanes" in Babylon 5 |url=http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/find/CompuServe/cs98-02/17.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311023905/http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/find/CompuServe/cs98-02/17.html |archive-date=11 March 2007}}
- In the scope of the software communities of free and open-source software some proponents {{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} of the respective movements classify those that do not know enough about their views as "mundanes".
- In the vampire lifestyle circles the word "mundane" means "non-sanguinarian", although some consider it derogatory.
- Mundane science fiction is science fiction that does not make use of interstellar travel or other common tropes of the genre.{{Cite web |date=January 2006 |title=Geoff Ryman: The Mundane Fantastic: Interview excerpts |url=http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/01Ryman.html |access-date=23 September 2007 |website=Locus}}