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

[topgeargirl2.livejournal.com]

At the moment I could never get into Twilight. I don't understand the hype surrounding it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have paid so little attention to Twilight I don't know a lot about it, but my understanding is that it's a book and a movie mostly of interest to young teen girls. Not being a young teen girl, I assume it's just not for my demographic, any more than things written for young teen boys, and there's simply no reason I might be interested.

That being said, a thirteen year old of my acquaintance recently told me "It's boring - nothing happens."

I suspect I might like the romanticism, but I'm not tempted to find out.

[topgeargirl2.livejournal.com]

I'm part of the demographic but have no interest in it. it's just a trashy romantic love story about vampires.

I more into Sci-fi with Aliens, space ships, handsome onmisexual time agents plus a certain Time lord who travels in a blue police box which is bigger on the inside.

I like sci-fi which makes you either feel like a kid again or makes you realise you have a really dirty mind.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There are "love stories about vampires" I have liked very much. Early Anne Rice. Anne Kurtis Klaus's The Silver Kiss. Others. But Twilight has a bit of a twee aura to it that puts me off. I also hate to admit to religious prejudice, but the fact that the author is Mormon puts me off, due to prior bad experiences with Mormon authors.

I more into Sci-fi with Aliens, space ships, handsome onmisexual time agents plus a certain Time lord who travels in a blue police box which is bigger on the inside.

Hee - yes ! Me too! Now, that's romance!