Fandom history, my story in fandoms
11 Aug 2006 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaFascinating post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeeandink Fandom genealogy
There's a few definitions and history here that are mind blowing, and the concept of feral fandom is very interesting.
I'm getting the feeling that I've had a very backward itinary through fandom.
I've started as a lit fan. SF/F books were my first love. When I got myself on the internet (that was 1996-1997) one of the first thing I seeked was discussions about SF/F books in general. In 1999 I fell in love with A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin and for the first time became actively involved in a fandom about a specific set of books. It was however mostly made of discussion about canon, very little creativity involved (though there were some fledgeling attempts at fanfictions)
Then I came to media fandom through Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That was 2001-2002. I was watching BtVS for a long time before I got into the fandom on the internet, and, for the record, it's definitly a shipping impulse that made me do it (It was after watching Out of my Mind that I felt the need to go online talk about it). I became particulary involved in fandom during BtVS's season 6 and started reading and finally writing fanfics. Then I got disapointed with BtVS during S7 and left. While all the other fen I was friend with were getting into other media fandom (AtS of course, and things like SG1, Wonderland, Lost, etc.) I got myself deep into RPGs and spent a year obsessed with Exalted.
Roleplaying Games do not count as "fandom" for most fen. Never mind that they function like fandom.
Then during early 2004 I got myself back into fandom, this time in anime and manga fandom after I'd read Tokyo Babylon and watched X. I started writing fanfics in earnest etc. I think that's when I diversified the most my activity in fandom too, as i started reading fanfics for a lot of series I wouldn't necessarly consider myself a fan of. Or being a fan of series without being a very active/obsessed fan (like with Utena).
In mid 2005 I was starting to be weary with Clamp and weirdly enough (given the mellow respect I have for those books) I got into Harry Potter. Teh Feral Fandom full of people who have no idea about what SF/F truely is (for most people of course, many people do ^^)
I think I've almost systemicaly gone counter to the big migrations of people. And I've gone from "geekier" / more specialized to wider more amateurish fandoms.
Weird.
I think the only thing I have left is comic book and video games fandom ^_^
coffeeandink Fandom genealogyThere's a few definitions and history here that are mind blowing, and the concept of feral fandom is very interesting.
I'm getting the feeling that I've had a very backward itinary through fandom.
I've started as a lit fan. SF/F books were my first love. When I got myself on the internet (that was 1996-1997) one of the first thing I seeked was discussions about SF/F books in general. In 1999 I fell in love with A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin and for the first time became actively involved in a fandom about a specific set of books. It was however mostly made of discussion about canon, very little creativity involved (though there were some fledgeling attempts at fanfictions)
Then I came to media fandom through Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That was 2001-2002. I was watching BtVS for a long time before I got into the fandom on the internet, and, for the record, it's definitly a shipping impulse that made me do it (It was after watching Out of my Mind that I felt the need to go online talk about it). I became particulary involved in fandom during BtVS's season 6 and started reading and finally writing fanfics. Then I got disapointed with BtVS during S7 and left. While all the other fen I was friend with were getting into other media fandom (AtS of course, and things like SG1, Wonderland, Lost, etc.) I got myself deep into RPGs and spent a year obsessed with Exalted.
Roleplaying Games do not count as "fandom" for most fen. Never mind that they function like fandom.
Then during early 2004 I got myself back into fandom, this time in anime and manga fandom after I'd read Tokyo Babylon and watched X. I started writing fanfics in earnest etc. I think that's when I diversified the most my activity in fandom too, as i started reading fanfics for a lot of series I wouldn't necessarly consider myself a fan of. Or being a fan of series without being a very active/obsessed fan (like with Utena).
In mid 2005 I was starting to be weary with Clamp and weirdly enough (given the mellow respect I have for those books) I got into Harry Potter. Teh Feral Fandom full of people who have no idea about what SF/F truely is (for most people of course, many people do ^^)
I think I've almost systemicaly gone counter to the big migrations of people. And I've gone from "geekier" / more specialized to wider more amateurish fandoms.
Weird.
I think the only thing I have left is comic book and video games fandom ^_^
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no subject
Date: 11 August 2006 02:44 pm (UTC)You know, it's interesting that you say that. I don't think it's weird at all, but probably because that's what happens to me: the fandoms I'm most active in are the ones when I don't think canon is the Best Thing Ever. I enjoy Harry Potter and CLAMP, obviously, or else I wouldn't be in the fandom at all. But they're hardly representative of the things I like. They're my guilty pleasures.
I'm not sure *why* these are the fandoms that make me want to write fic for them. Perhaps because I'm not so self-conscious that I can't make them justice? Not that I think I'm Rowling or anything, of course... but butchering HP doesn't seem as bad as butchering LotR.
no subject
Date: 11 August 2006 06:57 pm (UTC)As for the direction you took in fandom, it was the same one I took. The difference was that, when I was your age, there were two SF fandoms--Lit and Star Trek. I kept moving to the "younger" fandoms as they appeared and as younger people (my daughter, my students, and now my roommates) have dragged me along. You managed that progression from old to young fandoms even as they existed simultaneously.
no subject
Date: 13 August 2006 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 August 2006 07:13 am (UTC)I have no clue what I will get into again.