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

Re: Fannish psychology, part 1

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

>>>And it's a way of comparing mental notes with other fans - studying the characterization, playing with possibilities. I remember being obscurely flattered in Pros fandom when Anne Higgins once said I wrote "the most out of character Bodie ever". I, of course, thought the same of some of her stories! There can be a broad interpretation of the spectrum within the same canon. With fanfic, there's an interesting interaction of fan interpretation and canon that creates something new and different - not just fic, but art, analysis, whatever. I love that.

I *love* playing "the canon game" - using canon incidents to prove concepts of characterization, pro and con. There does seem to be an almost infinite range of what individual fans consider "in character". As long as someone can make a good case, I am open to quite a broad range of interpretation.

I love everything you described. We are all participants in shared created worlds. I love how fanon develops and solidifies and expands my understanding of the characters, and I love it when fans can "reboot", get rid of fanon, go back to the source and go off in a new direction. (In K/S, for example, there is no canon evidence for "the bond"; it's sometimes interesting to write K/S without having "the bond" as being a given.)

>>>>I don’t like being catalogued or shoehorned into someone else’s definition of what fandom is all about.
>>>>Life in general is not a 'one size fits all' proposition

No, definitely not.

>>>and it's been an increasing revelation to me as the years pass how very much that is true. Sometimes people differ in big ways, sometimes in ways so little they hardly show, but there are always similarities and there are always differences.

Always. I'm a one-percenter, according to one of those popular personality tests, and I've always been aware of how differently I perceive the world from most other people. Even in fandom, much of the time I write fic by going in different directions than other people usually take.

>>>>Sometimes people make assumptions that don't get borne out at all. Of course, major wars get fought over this sort of thing, not to mention fannish explosions.

Yes, sigh, very true.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 1

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

As long as someone can make a good case, I am open to quite a broad range of interpretation.

As am I, but sometimes it is perplexing. I love Torchwood because I love Captain Jack Harkness, one of my favourite heroes ever. And I have a very strong, very distinct notion of his personality, and I am always amazed how many fans don't. Or whose interpretation is very different from mine - still with canonical basis. (However spurious. No, pretend I didn't say that.) Ianto, on the other hand, who is a huge fan favourite, is indistinct to me and not very interesting. Which puts me in a small percentage of Torchwood fans, I think, though there's a community for "fic that doesn't feature Ianto" so I can't be the only one.

That being said, the canon is so wide and so elastic, it hardly matters. A fandom where we are canonically given more than one slash fandom, and a choice of het possibilities. Amazing. I"ve never seen the like.

In K/S, for example, there is no canon evidence for "the bond"; it's sometimes interesting to write K/S without having "the bond" as being a given.

It's too long since I've read K/S... what is "the bond"?

I'm a one-percenter, according to one of those popular personality tests, and I've always been aware of how differently I perceive the world from most other people.

I think I'm a four-percenter, according to Meyers-Briggs, and I've never been aware of how differently I see the world. I constantly have to remind myself.

Even in fandom, much of the time I write fic by going in different directions than other people usually take.

I love that. I hate it when all fanfic sounds alike, or takes the same themes.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 1

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

>>>It's too long since I've read K/S... what is "the bond"?

That's the fannish concept of the telepathic link between Kirk and Spock, which ranges in K/S fic from a subtle knowing of the other's location and mental state all the way up to a mental two-way radio system. It absolutely pervades K/S fiction; it's ingrained fanon. And yet, from canon, for all we know the telepathic link between T'Pring and Spock may only serve as a homing beacon. There's no evidence whatsoever of any link between Sarek and Amanda.

>>>I'm a one-percenter, according to one of those popular personality tests, and I've always been aware of how differently I perceive the world from most other people.
>>>>I think I'm a four-percenter, according to Meyers-Briggs, and I've never been aware of how differently I see the world. I constantly have to remind myself.

I'm a Meyers-Briggs INFP, and I've always been aware that in any given group of people, even in fannish circles, I'll be the one with the heretic thought. If people are arguing "up!" "down!", I'll be thinking "Northeast! And maybe we can veer a bit over there just for a change." Etcetera. :-)

Smile, back when I was a kid and when I was in my 20s, I took offense when people told me I was weird. I tend to view it as a compliment now.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 1

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

a mental two-way radio system

Heh - kind of cool. I don't know what I'd think of it in the fic. I suppose it would depend on the story.

I'm a Meyers-Briggs INFP

Me too. I've heard that INFPs are over-represented online, compared to the normal population. Might be true.

And yes, I tend to take the not-usually-trodden road, too, in perspective on things.

I think I always liked being thought 'weird' rather than 'normal'. I took it with pride.