Alice Oseman’s recent novel, I Was Born for This centers around the phenomenon of fandom. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, Allister Bird (Lister), and Rowan Omondi are part of the boy band, The Ark. They are a musically talented group whose fame has sky-rocketed. From the outside looking in, the group has it all: fame, wealth, notoriety, and adoring fans.
Fereshteh (Angel) Rahimi and Juliet Schwartz are two of those fans who met online. Initially attracted to one another because of their love for The Ark, they agree to meet up IRL and attend a concert together in London.
All does not go as planned, and the pair learn that nothing is as it appears. A loud, incessant talker, Angel considers her real life inferior. Being part of The Ark’s fandom gives her life a sense of purpose since her obsession with the band distracts her from all that is missing in her own life. In fact, she considers herself: to be “so extremely average,” that band worship becomes her life.
Likewise, sharp-witted romantic Juliet is usually cool, calm, and collected, but she is looking for a deeper life connection. So, when she discovers that the dreamlike center of The Ark, Jimmy, isn’t just “lovely sunshine” performing his music and his passion for the world, her own world view begins to crumble.
In reality, the band’s lead singer, Jimmy is paranoid and anxious, unsure if he wants to continue in a life that leaves him feeling like he’s trapped in a bird cage of fame. He tells his granddad: “Everywhere I go, everything I do. . . I’m lying. I’m pretending. And everyone’s watching me . . . waiting for me to get it wrong” (97).
With the pressure to sign a new contract that will make them famous in America, the boy band members wonder whether being internationally famous will be pointless if fame means giving up privacy, personal space, and free time.
Juliet’s nan, Dorothy recalls her own participation in Beatlemania. The Beatles gave young women in the sixties “something very safe to love” (218). Like a religion, the Beatles provided something to believe in. In fact, John Lennon said: “We’re more popular than Jesus now” (218). Similarly, The Ark fandom escape what’s terrible in the world by choosing music. “We choose hope, light, joy, friendship, faith, even when our lives aren’t perfect, or exciting, or fun, or special, like the boys from The Ark’s are. I might be a disappointing student, without many close friends, with a life of mediocrity waiting for me back home . . . but I will always have this,” Angel thinks of her dedication to the band.
Oseman’s choice of the name Dorothy is likely an intentional allusion to The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and to the notion of pulling back the curtain. Several of the characters must uncover their inner strength, realizing that they possess the capabilities they seek externally. Just as Angel comes to the realization that Jimmy, Rowen, and Lister are simply ordinary men with shortcomings and insecurities, the band members gain a deeper understanding of their own power.
Ultimately, readers learn that we’re all both normal and weird. As Bliss says, “I mean, everyone’s normal, everyone’s weird, everyone’s just trying to deal with their own life and keep calm and carry on. And hold on to something that’ll keep them going. . . That’s why people get into fandom and bands and stuff. They just want to hold on to something that makes them feel good. Even if it’s all a big lie” (344).
- Donna