For more than three weeks fans in New York and Los Angeles waited in line for the highly anticipated final installment of the "Star Wars" mega-franchise, "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith." Most of us probably think those fans are from a galaxy far, far away, but some understand completely.

Adam Guay, a Communication sophomore, was one of the many fans to attend an early Thursday morning screening. The midnight showing was sold out, he said, but that didn’t stop him from buying his 12:10 a.m. tickets more than three weeks in advance or from getting there several hours before the show’s start to stand in line.

"I’m not even carrying my ticket around in my wallet, in case I lose my wallet," Guay says. "It’s in my drawer, and I just open up my drawer and see it and get so happy."

Guay became a "Star Wars" fan at the age of 5 when his father showed him the movies for the first time. Beaming with pride, he tells me his father saw Episodes IV through VI on opening day. "Most of my fanaticism is in my mind and memory," Guay says.

Merriam-Webster Online defines a fanatic as someone "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion." In the Information Age, fans have more access to their obsessions than ever. But what drives a person from fan to fanatic? Where does the line get drawn between loving a band, and knowing every single song lyric or following them around the country? Or between enjoying the books of a particular author and memorizing entire passages of prose? While fans vary as much as their idols, there are some aspects of fandom they all share.

"They want to master everything in relation to that world, to know about the history," says RTVF Prof. Jeffrey Sconce. "Part of fandom is knowing what is behind the scenes, not just consuming the artwork all over again. The connoisseur, esoteric knowledge of the background puts you in the position of the privileged elite."

Guay is far from alone in loving "Star Wars." Communication senior Adam Goldstein also has been obsessed with "Star Wars" since he was 5 years old. When the original "Star Wars" movies were re-released in theaters, he woke up at 4 a.m. to stand in line to see them — even getting into a light saber "duel" with a man dressed as Darth Vader. But the mark of a true fan, it seems, is the willingness to get dirty. The special effects house for "Episode I" was located near Goldstein’s home in California. While he was in high school he used to relentlessly loiter in the hopes of at least getting an internship. Goldstein would sneak into the lot at night and go through the dumpsters hoping to find discarded model bits and other "Star Wars" treasures. "I found a Naboo miniature once," he says of a small model of one of the franchise’s fictional planets.

While "Star Wars" has a cult following to rival any others, fanatics seem to exist in every aspect of popular culture.

"Shakespeare is the same thing as ’Star Wars’ — it’s epic, and it alienates people who don’t take the time to understand the language," says Communication sophomore Abra Chusid. Chusid became obsessed with the playwright while attending a Shakespeare theater day camp in California when she was 12. There she became acquainted with the plays, their history and even learned fencing and masque work. Her goal is to read every one of the Bard’s plays. The works of Shakespeare and books written about them line her shelves, and she gleefully quotes Shakespeare every chance she gets, sometimes even subconsciously, she claims.

"I see Shakespeare as often as time and money allows," Chusid says. "It’s exciting because you can see the same play over and over, and it’s different every time. Because they have timeless themes, the plays can be put in new locations, new times, new political meanings. You can do absolutely amazing things."

Sometimes people can be drawn into a fantasy world because they find it better than reality. Sconce says it’s common for people to be drawn to such a subculture because of its morals.

"It has to do with the whole sort of way people use pop culture; they happen to find something that really speaks to them on their own sense of identity," he says. "It ranges from ’Star Trek’ to ’Star Wars’ to the moral and ethical universes created in these shows and the fantasy worlds created around them. For every person there’s a different reason, but it says a lot about that person in terms of character and personality and history."

Weinberg junior Katherine Don became a fan of the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and started taping every episode during her freshman year of high school, stopping only when the DVDs were released. She says she was drawn to the show because of its ethics.

"The morals of the show are ones that I live by, but only in theory, not in practice," Don says. "It has this kind of concept — there’s no such thing as good and evil, it’s all relative, it’s all gray. So that’s how I see the world."

In music, the bands’ messages can inspire fanatacism as much as their songs. Weinberg senior Colin Ochs has been to four U2 concerts, and he can’t wait for the fifth. He became obsessed with Bono when he saw the band four years ago. "I could feel him, just all the energy coming off the stage," he says.

Bono has influenced Och’s morals and views of the world because he has learned from Bono’s political work and the messages in his music. It has influenced him to help in small ways, such as joining Bono’s ONE campaign, which works to end poverty and stop the spread of AIDS in undeveloped countries.

"With all their political stuff they open your eyes to a lot of stuff you otherwise may not know about," Ochs says. "Some of their most creative songs are based on things going on in the world, but he’s such a poet he really covers that up. He opened my eyes to a lot of injustices in the world. He has always been adamant about political issues, so he definitely changes your take on the world."

Ochs isn’t the only one who has been influenced by music. Roommates Katelyn Koepke, a Medill freshman, and Kathleen Wark, a Weinberg freshman, claim the musical "Wicked" has taken over their lives. They started listening to the music incessantly in February and haven’t stopped since. They saw the production together on its opening night in Chicago and are making plans to see it again. Koepke says she always has enjoyed performing in musical theater and that "Wicked" has inspired her to be on Broadway. They made a CD of their favorite songs and even sing along with it in the dorm shower.

"We make our away messages the lyrics," Koepke says. "A lot of people think it’s a phase and we’d get over it, but we haven’t."

They also listen to the soundtrack while getting ready to go out or during pre-partying instead of the usual hip-hop.

It is these new changes in technology — buying DVDs, burning CDs, taping shows, streaming from the Internet — that has changed the face of fandom, Sconce says.

"In some respects there are more opportunities to get more involved in pop culture," Sconce says. "Media delivery systems have changed — you can own it on DVD or at least tape it, and go to chat groups online. Now it is more possible to spend time obsessing about this; there is an endless opportunity to constantly be involved."

For instance, thanks to reality television and the Internet, people can know what their favorite celebrities are doing on a daily basis. DVDs also give them additional access by providing bonus features such as unused footage and bloopers.

Communication junior Lizzie Levin says the Internet has allowed her greater access to her obsession, the television show "American Dreams." She has been watching the show since it premiered two years ago.

"It was love at first episode," she says. Levin has only missed one episode ever; she then got the software program LimeWire just to be able to download and watch the episode. Her greatest fear is if the show gets canceled.

"It got switched from Sunday to Wednesday, and it screwed up my entire schedule — my meetings, my homework, my social life, my shower schedule — my personal hygiene has suffered a lot," she says, laughing. "If it goes off the air I don’t know what’s going to happen, it’s like my religion."

Levin says she uses the Web site to get background information on the show, to read about the cast and to get updates and news.

(Editor’s Note: NBC has since announced it would not renew "American Dreams" in its fall 2005 line-up.)

Fandom can be all-consuming, sending people across the country to participate in conventions or concerts. While Preston, Idaho, might not be a popular summer vacation destination, I will be making a pilgramage there this summer, along with the rest of the folk who have adapted "luuucky" and "friggin’ idiot" to their vernacular. Yes, I will travel to the mecca of independent film to Napoleonfest — a gathering of fans of the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" in the town where it was filmed.

Along with fans donning "Vote for Pedro" T-shirts, the cast and director also will be in attendence. And I can only hope Tina will be there so I can feed her ham. I know what you’re thinking: This girl is crazy. But I think true fanatics always push the limits. Just ask your friends who are bleary-eyed and content the night after they watch Darth Vader’s birth.