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 2

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

>>>This makes me think of the fans who are into so many fandoms you can't keep count

That makes me think they count themselves in fandom just because they've actually seen all the shows in question - it might be the desire to be part of every crowd.

>>>or who write crossovers filled with characters from dozens of fandoms or more - it's like being fans of fandom, rather than fans of a show or a set of characters.

I sure wish I remember the name of the zine. One of the best multifandom crossovers was a novella by Rayelle Roe, published some time in the 80s. It was a humorous piece, and featured several different fandoms. I thought she did a great job with the fandoms I was familiar with, and people familiar with the other fandoms said she did a fine job with those too.

I guess it's somewhat similar to an author who can be brilliant in one fandom after another; it's just that a good crossover author can do it all at once.

For crossovers, I think it all depends on how well they write the characters. I've read some crossovers where the author clearly favored one fandom over another, and (as a fan of the unfavored fandom) it showed. OTOH, I've read some crossovers which are so seamless and so beautifully done and so true to both universes it's clear that the author is truly a fan of both fandoms.

>>>And of course, you've experienced as much as I have the divides within fandoms

God, yes. People can find an amazing number of ways to disagree on things. I was reminded a lot of fannish bickering when a cousin of mine was getting married and I attended the "evening before the wedding dinner". I wound up seated with some people with the groom's party, and they were going on about how they were the One True Lutherans and those other Lutherans were heretics. So I asked them to explain the theological differences, and it all boiled down to "they're bad and they're wrong". So I later on asked one of my cousins, who was one of the other Lutherans, to explain the theological differences, and it all boiled down to "they're bad and they're wrong".

Sometimes all this hairsplitting seems like angels dancing on the heads of pins... Not that I can't get passionate about my own viewpoints, but I truly try to see the big picture and understand that all of us are getting different things from the same source material.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That makes me think they count themselves in fandom just because they've actually seen all the shows in question - it might be the desire to be part of every crowd.

Or they like a lot of variety? They like to read in many fandoms, and write in scattered ones?

I guess it's somewhat similar to an author who can be brilliant in one fandom after another; it's just that a good crossover author can do it all at once.

Good point! Not a talent I generally have; I tend to focus too much. Unless things gel in my head in a certain way, which can happen. I didn't write Firefly, really, until long after the show ended - and then wrote a Firefly story as a crossover with Captain Jack Harkness. That was when and how it came together for me. For no reason I can analyze.

I wound up seated with some people with the groom's party, and they were going on about how they were the One True Lutherans and those other Lutherans were heretics.

LOL! Of course. Are you familiar with the long ideological civil war in Byzantium that centred on whether the i in a certain word was dotted or not - done one way, it meant Jesus was God, done another way he was a man, and thus are long wars begun. It makes as much sense as the other fights - about which sports team is better than the other.

it all boiled down to "they're bad and they're wrong".

It usually does. Krycek/Mulder vs Skinner/Mulder vs Scully/Mulder? Sometimes there's more angst outside the fanfic than in it!

Not that I can't get passionate about my own viewpoints, but I truly try to see the big picture and understand that all of us are getting different things from the same source material.

Yeah. Me too. Sometimes I like the differences.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

I've never tried writing a crossover story - I've never had the slightest inspiration to do one. But I love reading a good one.

>>>Are you familiar with the long ideological civil war in Byzantium that centred on whether the i in a certain word was dotted or not - done one way, it meant Jesus was God, done another way he was a man, and thus are long wars begun.

I believe I have heard of that; I can see why it caused wars - it cuts to the very heart of the definition of Christianity. Have you seen the "heretic" paintings? The ones which show young Jesus looking very much like Joseph? The point, of course, being that Joseph, not God, was his father. I understand the Inquisition paid a visit on one of those artists. Or, just as interesting and probably not even heresy since they were so early, the 2nd century images portraying Jesus and Judas in the icongraphy of the fallen king and his fallen (loyal) follower.

>>>Krycek/Mulder vs Skinner/Mulder vs Scully/Mulder?

I rather liked Skinner/Scully/Mulder; I had a whole bunch of those stories on diskette at one time. And I could and did go for Skinner/Mulder and Mulder/Scully. Not so much the ratboy, though he made for interesting spice once in awhile...

>>>Sometimes there's more angst outside the fanfic than in it!

LOL, isn't that the truth!

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, I only like a crossover when I love both fandoms - and that doesn't usually happen, since I watch so little TV. So I usually don't read crossovers, and only write them occasionally. But sometimes the desire to write one strikes, and who am I to fight a writing impulse?

Have you seen the "heretic" paintings? The ones which show young Jesus looking very much like Joseph?

LOL. I think I've heard of them - never saw them.

rather liked Skinner/Scully/Mulder;

Me too. More than Scully/Mulder stories, actually.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

>>>who am I to fight a writing impulse?

Smile! It's best to let yourself be swept along by writing impulses. :-)

>>>

rather liked Skinner/Scully/Mulder;
>>>Me too. More than Scully/Mulder stories, actually

Same here. In that fandom, I liked that threesome the best. I also once read a couple of *excellent* Skinner/Scully stories that were absolutely gorgeous. I would never have paired them, but that author convinced me.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Smile! It's best to let yourself be swept along by writing impulses. :-)

I got into writing a story yesterday for the first time in longer than I want to think. For the first time in eons, I could write freely. Something longer than a drabble. It was wonderful.

I also once read a couple of *excellent* Skinner/Scully stories that were absolutely gorgeous. I would never have paired them, but that author convinced me.

I love it when that happens. They were great characters; in the hands of a good writer, anything is possible.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

>>>I got into writing a story yesterday for the first time in longer than I want to think. For the first time in eons, I could write freely.

That's wonderful! Yay for creativity! Good luck with your writing! I'm writing again, as well, for the first time in over a year.

>>>I love it when that happens. They were great characters; in the hands of a good writer, anything is possible.

Exactly! I remember when DVS wrote that Mouse/Elliot story (Beauty and the Beast). I would have said that pairing was impossible and utterly ludicrous, yet she pulled it off brilliantly.

Re: Fannish psychology, part 2

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Still haven't had time to post any fic...

Remember when Jane Mailander did a crossover - Pros and Waltership Down? Or the slash story that paired Fox Mulder with Chewbacca?

In fanfic, anything is possible, and some of the weirdest ideas can come out well.