Instances of obsessive fandom are often marked by a physical act: bleaching and shaving one's hair, getting a matching tattoo, moving to a celebrity's hometown. In "Stan" by Eminem, Stanley's serial killer-esque obsession with Eminem serves not only as a case study of 2000's era extreme fandom, but also as a chance to explore the medium of letter-writing. In this old-fashioned but timeless form, stream of consciousness lays bare the emotional depth of both characters. The form further illuminates the role that mental health and patience play in our modern lives.
In his three-lettered address to Eminem, Stan overshares the intimate details of his life. It is through the physical form of the letter— the intimate opening address, the act of putting pen to paper, the signing off— that this divulging of personal details becomes almost expected. Unlike sending an email or text, there's an untraceable quality to letter writing that compels the writer and reader alike to shed the shame they carry. In this case, Stan guides us to a extremely visceral personal detail:
Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds
It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me
Though on a modern platform like Instagram or Facebook this statement would likely trigger content removal or other platform intervention, the form of letter writing keeps Stan's words a secret. We see this again in Eminem's response to Stan in which his writing builds in a crescendo that ends with Eminem's final recognition that Stan was the man who died in a drunk driving accident that he recently witnessed. Because Eminem is physically writing, he can't erase his words. Transposing his letter to the verse, his words become the song.
Simply put (though without brevity), media theorist Marshall McLuhan qualifies this analysis by arguing that "the medium is the message." In the case of Eminem's "Stan," all four letters rapped together almost create a new medium— the blending of the personal letter with the explicit song.