Fannish migration and pimping...

[fajrdrako]

catalenamara's interesting post on fandoms today made me want to answer her questions in a post of my own. I'd love to hear and see other people's answers, too.

On writing this, and thinking about it, it clarified a little of what fandom is for me. It's falling in love with a book, show, or movie, and then finding other people to share my enthusiasm with. The enthusiasm was there from the beginning; the fandom was a bonus. In some cases, before the Net, I was a fandom of one. It's more fun when you've hundreds of people to share you passion - especially when it comes to slash fandoms - but that isn't the impetus.

Have you ever followed friends/favorite authors into a fandom without ever having seen/read the source material?

No, of course not. I can't even imagine wanting to. I have watched shows on the recommendations of my friends. Sometimes it takes - Professionals, Horatio Hornblower, Doctor Who. Usually it doesn't - all the other shows out there.

But I'm not sure what the question means: I'm not sure how to divorce a fandom from its show. I've never 'been a fan' of something I didn't watch or read. I suppose there are gradations of this - I call myself an X-Men fan, though I don't think the movies live up to the quality of the comics. But this doesn't mean I don't watch the movies, it just means they aren't what made me a fan.

Have you ever really enjoyed the source material, read the work of specific authors into a fandom, and yet have no interest in the fandom as a whole?

Uh... no. Not really. I have trouble even getting my head around the question. Have I ever... read only one author in a fandom? No. I suppose I only read Harry Potter when I'm betaing for friends, or when something has been brought to my attention, but that has nothing much to do with the fandom. It isn't my fandom and I don't consider myself in it even if I dabble - and there are are all sorts of reasong for dabbling, from curiosity to affection for a certain character or pairing, or even, in some cases, I suppose, horrified and incredulous fascination. Don't usually spent time on that last, though.
For instance, calatenamara mentions: Digression: if you want a truly kickass WONDERFUL crossover, here’s an awesome Supernatural/Harry Potter crossover: Old Country by Astolat. I'm sure it's wonderful and I might like it if I read it, but the idea of it gives me the shudders: you'd have to bribe me or torture me to get me to read it. (It might be possible to pique my curiosity, but I can't think how.)

Q. Have you ever been strenuously pimped by your friends into another fandom and immediately fell in love with the source material.

Yes, several times. The Professionals and Doctor Who being cases in point. Though I suppose it depends on your definition of "immediately". I've never become hooked on a fandom on only one viewing of something. It took three or four episodes of two series of Doctor Who to do it. Probably about the same for Pros.

Books, I fall for harder and faster and longer: Halfway through The Fellowship of the Ring I was doomed - it happened in Bree, of course, with the introduction of Strider. Three pages into The Game of Kings, when the pig got drunk. But these, I found on my own, though my father had vaguely recommended The Lord of the Rings to me as something he thought I'd like, though he hadn't read it himself, and a less fannish man I' can't imagine.

Have you ever gotten into a TV show/movie before your friends and busily pimped the source material to them in the hopes that a fandom would ensue?

I like to think I don't pimp. Ever. Some say I do. But, yes. Dunnett novels, for example. Stingray.

Q. Have you ever gotten into a TV show/movie and tried to pimp it to your friends only to find out that they’d just gotten into it as well and were about to pimp right back?

No. Can't think of any case where that's happened.

No, wait a minute. On my first meeting Guy Gavriel Kay, in the course of our conversation, he asked me if I'd ever heard of Dorothy Dunnett. I was speechless for a second. He proceeded to recommend the books to me. I recovered and explained and a delightful conversation ensued. And then, of course, we re-encountered each other in various ways in the course of burgeoning Dunnett fandom.

Q: Have you ever been part of a mass migration into another fandom?

No. On the whole, I am late to find fandoms, and slow to evolve from one to the next. When I do switch, it tends to be self-directed and in a totally unpredictable direction. (Doctor Who? I'd have bet good money I'd never be into that one. Not in a million years. Hah!)

What I have found generally is that, rather than follow friends to another fandom, when I move from one fandom to another I get a whole new set of friends that is almost entirely different. And though I remain friends with those in previous fandoms, and these people mean a lot fo me (tip of the hat here to msmoat and acampbell), we tend to be in touch much less. There is overlap - especially if I factor in slash friends from the early K/S days - but not as much as you might expect. In some ways, fandom is a small world. In other ways, it's a big one.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I read SPN fics before I saw one episode, because there were so many crossovers to Angel/Buffy and some of them by authors I liked, but I don't consider myself an SPN fan, so no real following here.

Yes. Crossovers are an interesting case. One writes crossovers when one loves both sources. The reader may not even know one of the sources, but still is tempted into reading because of the fandom they know. Sometimes it works really well. It at least expands fannish horizons.

And yet, desperate as I am for Torchwood fic, I'm likely to skip the crossovers with fandoms I'm not into. Unless I have nothing at all left to read, which, the way TW fans are writing (what a prolific lot!), won't be for a long time.

Harry Potter seems the common thing here *g*

Yes. It is just so very famous. A sort of special case of fandom, just as it's a special case of literature. The only analogous fandom I can think of would be Lord of the Rings, which has had a following since the 1960s and has been expanding ever since.

The guy who brought me into Buffy/Angel didn't know Doctor Who!

Hee! People tried so long and hard to get me into Buffy - and it just didn't take, though I didn't hate the show. It just didn't have a lot of appeal. It wasn't until Buster sent me a set of the DVDs that I started watching with care. I still don't feel fannish about it. In fact, I feel fairly critical - but I'm also enjoying it immensely, and enjoying commenting on it.

Firefly, on the other hand, I adored passionately from the first episode I saw.

[elebridith]

I like to read crossovers that make sense somehow. SPN and Buffy/Angel totally makes sense, whereas Potter and LOTR does not. For me at least. Even if they both have wizards. Ok, small step back - I hold the view that *anything* can be done by a good writer, so I'm not saying it's impossible. I just don't look for it. But crossovers can definitely expand your horizons! But agreed - I'd have to think very hard if I should find a universe to cross TW with...

I think it's hard to define if and how deep you are in "fandom" for something. Are you if you love the show, but don't read fanfiction? Where's the line? I consider myself a TW fan, I read fanfic but I don't show up actively in comms, discussing things and such. You enjoy watching and discussing Buffy, but I guess you're not actively searching for fanfic. Is that already fandom? I'd say yes, because I don't restrict it to fanfic. You like something, you share it with others. That's the basic definition and I think that's how you put it at the beginning of your post.
And then you stumble over the scary elite fans. *g* Oh dear... :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like to read crossovers that make sense somehow.

Ideally. Highlander is great for anything historical. Stargates and Rifts make for nice transference. It's hard to resist a Heroes/Doctor Who connection if you're looking at Claude the Invisible Man (er - please ignore the paradox there), played by Christopher Eccleston. But it always works best with some sort of plausible hook.

I think I define being in a fandom as 'loving any source material enough to want to carry it beyond its original source on an ongoing basis - which might include wanting to analyze it, talk about it with other people, read about it and watch commentaries, write fanfic, read fantic, get the action figures, go to conventions, make costumes.... And I suspect I don't say I'm 'into a fandom' if I've only done one of the above - for example, I once wrote a Babylon 5 story, but I don't consider myself in any way a fan of Babylon 5, and I'm not into the fandom.

Sometimes it's just a measure of how much I love something. I'm really not into Firefly fandom at all, and yet I love the show enough to feel as if I am. Buffy is a step further removed, and yet I love discussing things with other Buffy fans - they're a great bunch. And I'm not into discussing Firefly in the same way - maybe I just haven't met ther right Firefly fans. I only wrote one Firefly story I thought worked the way I wanted it to.

Yes: liking something and sharing it with others is the mark of a fandom for me, however it is done. And sometimes it's entirely subjective what makes one thing "a fandom" and something else just thing I like".

then you stumble over the scary elite fans. *g*

There are all sorts of ways fans can be scary. The elite fans, the fans who are into onepmanship, the crazy fans, the fans who are chronic liars, the fans who are terrible writers who post their stuff everywhere... Luckily, most fans are pretty decent people. And my friends are superb!

[elebridith]

Luckily, most fans are pretty decent people. And my friends are superb!
Hehee, mine too! Lucky us!
A lot depends on meeting the right people. I don't know if I had ever landed in Buffy/Angel fandom if I hadn't met my first friends here at LJ. Sometimes it just fits! I pity new SPN fans sometimes - there's so much wank going on and if you just happen to stumble into it as a newbie - I would grab my things and run and hide. *g*
All in all, fandom is crazy but most of the time it's a good crazyness.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

A lot depends on meeting the right people.

So very true. Mostly I've been pretty well. Though there were a few fan writers I admired in Lord of the Rings fandom who turned out to be utterly insane. And once on a Highlander mailing list... they seemed like a nice bunch, but I stepped into the middle of a crisis and it became quickly obvious that the group-leader was an attention-getting liar who manufactured catastophes for dramatic effect, and to get sympathy from the list. Parasitically. I got off that list fast.

I have since met a few others of the type. Luckily, they're easy to avoid and usually easy to spot.

I pity new SPN fans sometimes - there's so much wank going on

Is there? I've heard a few horror stories about other fandoms, but I seem to have avoided most of the bad stuff.

fandom is crazy but most of the time it's a good crazyness.

So true.

[elebridith]

Is there? I've heard a few horror stories about other fandoms, but I seem to have avoided most of the bad stuff.

Yup. One of the reasons why I won't get really involved with that fandom. Either SPN or the actor version. Luckily I only find them through random browsing, give a hearty laugh and press backbutton. *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

yes - don't you love being able to make a fast retreat?

[elebridith]

Absolutely. First sign of wank or bad!fic - aaaand goodbye! *g*

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

First sign of wank or bad!fic - aaaand goodbye! *g*

Running all the way, wearing Converse, our long coats flapping in the wind.

[gillo]

People tried so long and hard to get me into Buffy - and it just didn't take, though I didn't hate the show. It just didn't have a lot of appeal. It wasn't until Buster sent me a set of the DVDs that I started watching with care. I still don't feel fannish about it. In fact, I feel fairly critical - but I'm also enjoying it immensely, and enjoying commenting on it.

::coughs:: More please?

Is this a fandom friends have dragged you into despite yourself?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

::coughs:: More please?

Yes!

Is this a fandom friends have dragged you into despite yourself?

No, because I'm not very draggable. Friends have tried to drag me into, say, Stargate or Supernatural and I had no glimmer of interest. I quite love Buffy in so many ways - I just don't feel fannish about it. I don't even know what the difference is. And the sad truth... as you might have [blush] guessed... I am sort of fannish about Spike. And Giles.

And why not?

Maybe it's a sort of semi-fandom for me.

Or maybe six months from now I'll be writing Buffy fic and getting excited over fine points of fannish disagreement.