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

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, intriguing! About to post on my journal. Not only do I have a long opinion, lots of old-school fans of various fandoms are readers and will have their own stories of migrations to tell.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good! And I find it an interesting question: what makes a fan a fan? and, do all fans see their role/nature/identity in the same way? I suspect not, but I suspect there's significant overlap, and variations, and it's all interesting.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

"Fan" as a concept covers a wide range of things. Are you a fan if you like a show, or only until you tape it? Or not until you join a mail list/comm, or start involving it in your craft, or can cite huge chunks of the history?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Are you a fan if you like a show, or only until you tape it?

Hee - by that argument, I couldn't have been a fan till the VCR was invented!

Of course, digital copying made things easier to share...!

I think I make a slight distinction between 'being a fan' (i.e., loving a show or book), being in fandom (i.e., participating with other people in activities that have to do with that show or book, including creative things like role playing games, fanfic, etc.) and being fannish (loving to discuss it). But those are fairly subjective, arbitrary distinctions, more a rule of thumb than hard definitions.

Love your icon.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

by that argument, I couldn't have been a fan till the VCR was invented!

Cassette recorders in front of the TV speakers, m'dear! Stood a whole generation of geeks in good stead.

I agree that there is a distinction between fan, fandom, and fannish, but it's such a slippery one, and it's so likely that you can be all three at once for different shows.

I created the icon for Time Crash, but I've dusted it off now because most of the arguments I've been hearing about Matt Smith (too young, doesn't look right) were also leveled at Peter and David.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Cassette recorders in front of the TV speakers, m'dear!

Oh so true. At some point before the invention of cassettes - yes, I was pretty darn young - my father came home with a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I immediately started taping my favourite stuff (U.N.C.L.E., perhaps?) off the television. He was bemused.

I created the icon for Time Crash, but I've dusted it off now because most of the arguments I've been hearing about Matt Smith (too young, doesn't look right) were also leveled at Peter and David.

Good call! "Time Crash" was so cute - I was just watching it again, showing it to some friends who hadn't seen it. Loved that. It made me respect Steven Moffatt more than ever (his flaws notwithstanding).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I remember reel-to-reels too, but I wasn't allowed to mess with Dad's.

I think I'm ready for a new set of flaws in Who; I've gotten bored with the current set. And Moffat rarely disappoints me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I remember reel-to-reels too, but I wasn't allowed to mess with Dad's.

I'm not sure why he let me. Maybe he got tired of playing with it himself?

I think I'm ready for a new set of flaws in Who; I've gotten bored with the current set.

Good point - my attitude exactly. I don't think Moffat will reverse the things I already love about the show - the wit, the gay-friendliness, the sense of energy. What he will add - well, I don't know, but it should be good.

Moffat rarely disappoints me.

Sometimes he disappoints me but when he is good he is so good that I forgive all the rest. And he never disappoints me much, while Russell T Davies has given me some incredible let-downs. And some incredible highs. You take the bad with the good.