Mundane 1903853 216822981 2008-06-03T11:36:43Z 86.129.125.73 :''This page is about science fiction insider terminology. See [[Journal of Mundane Behavior]] for the scholarly journal. See Wiktionary for the adjective [[Wiktionary:mundane|mundane]].'' {{wiktionarypar|mundane}} In [[science fiction]] and [[science fiction fandom|related fandoms]], 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.<ref>[http://fanac.org/Fannish_Reference_Works/Fan_terms/Fan_terms-05.html rich brown, ''Dr. Gafia's Fan Terms'']</ref> Some examples: * In [[science fiction fandom]], some fans classify all non-fans as "mundanes" or, for short, "danes".<ref>[http://www.cherryh.com/www/fiawol.htm [[C. J. Cherryh]], "FIAWOL and All That"]</ref> * [[Goth]]s also commonly refer to non-goths as "mundanes" or "norms". * In [[historical reenactment]] fandom, too, such as The [[Society for Creative Anachronism]], some participants classify all non-participants as "mundanes". Similarly, one's "mundane" name is the legal name one goes by in the outside world. "Mundanes," sometimes shortened to just "danes" (not to be confused with people of [[Denmark|Danish]] descent), is also a term for normal everyday clothes, as opposed to historical garb.<ref>[http://www.subreality.com/glossary/terms.htm#D "The Fanfiction Glossary"]</ref> * In the [[science fiction television]] [[television program|series]] ''[[Babylon 5]]'', [[telepathy|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.<ref>[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/find/CompuServe/cs98-02/17.html Message by [[J. Michael Straczynski]] on Byron's attitude towards "mundanes" in ''Babylon 5'']</ref> * In [[fantasy|fantasy literature]] the term or some equivalent is often used to apply to non-[[magic]]al people or the non-magical society. It is used in [[Piers Anthony]]'s [[Xanth]] novels, and [[Bill Willingham]]'s comic book series ''[[Fables (comic)|Fables]]'' (often shortened to "mundies" in the latter). The [[Harry Potter]] series uses the term [[muggle]] in the same way. * In [[furry fandom]], it is used to describe non-furries, or "humans".<ref>[http://www.furrydolphin.net/furry-dict.html Simo, "The New Furry's Dictionary"]</ref> * In Sanguinarian circles or "houses" the word Mundane means "non vampire/vampyre/Sanguinarian" or human. Some consider it derogatory but because it is a very private group(s) and there are many different Houses with different lingos and Terminology. See Sanguinarius.org for Real Vampires * 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". According to a document titled ''The Mundane Manifesto'', [[mundane science fiction]] is science fiction which does not make use of [[interstellar travel]] or other common [[trope]]s of the [[genre]]. Otherwise, within the scope of the [[software]] communities of [[free software|free]] and [[open-source software]] some proponents {{Fact|date=April 2008}} 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. == See also == * [[Mundane astrology]] == References == <references /> [[Category:Science fiction terminology]]