Fans and the People Who Love Them
Feb. 3rd, 2007 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangirljenI was confronted by something kind of random today. My co-worker, Matt, drew me into a conversation about Fandom. It was he who brought it up, which simply astounded me. He started the conversation by saying, "Hey, Jen. I think you should write a book about fandom." This is an idea that I've tossled about with for a while, but at the moment I'm still not sure what I have to say about fandom. I guess I'm still formalizing my thoughts some more. I know my thesis: fandom is love. But where I go beside that, I'm not certain. In additon to this book idea, Matt started telling me about his mathmatically brilliant cousin. His cousin lives in fandom, as well. Her fandom is Backstreet Boys. Her obsession has brought her to the point of making a cake and sending it to her favorite member. My co-worker also mentioned how his cousin's mentality is younger than she actually is (about 21). He didn't go into detail how, so I'm wondering if it's just the obsessive/fandom nature he's seeing.
While looking through my flist today, I came across another example of extreme fandom. I love this woman, I gotta say. I love that she's happy with who she is despite what others might say about her. You'll see that some of the responders to the vid left some rather unkind comments, responding to the fact that this woman spent about five grand on two Ninja Turtle heads. They suggested that she could use this money on helping people. Now really, the way she spends her money is her own darn business. Last year, I spent at least fifteen hundred on fandom, but likely into three-thousand. This including the costs of my admission to the conventions I attended, the hotel costs, airfare to Atlanta, spending money at said conventions, and general articles of merchandise that I've purchased throughout the rest of the year. I'd estimate that, in three months, I've already spent about 400 dollars on my Doctor Who fandom. But it isn't on big market items. My most expensive item so far has been Billie's auto-biography, at roughly fifty dollars. In addition to that, I've purchased all of the 9 and 10 novels, the two guides to aliens, the unofficial guide, a retrospective book that tracks through Doctors 1-9, one audio book, an issue of Radio Times, Jack, the Doctor, and Rose figures, a David Tennant calendar, a Doctor Who calendar, and a sonic screwdriver. This doesn't include the movies of Tennant's and Eccleston's that I have purchased or rented, or the CDs with songs that remind me of Doctor Who that I've purchased. My expenses are more spread out, but they probably are of the same amount, or close. But my involvement in fandom with these purchases would be taken better than this woman. But as long as enjoyment is had by the person who purchases the merchandise, and the person isn't harming herself or himself, why should it matter where the money goes?
So, I'm curious. :) What are your thoughts on fan people who go to any level of obsession to interact with their fandom? Do you think fans should be able to go to the extreme in their fandom if they want to? Do you look down upon fans who take their fandom more seriously than you do? And the real thing I want to get to the bottom of: what do you think makes people become fans in the first place? Why is it we do what we do?
While looking through my flist today, I came across another example of extreme fandom. I love this woman, I gotta say. I love that she's happy with who she is despite what others might say about her. You'll see that some of the responders to the vid left some rather unkind comments, responding to the fact that this woman spent about five grand on two Ninja Turtle heads. They suggested that she could use this money on helping people. Now really, the way she spends her money is her own darn business. Last year, I spent at least fifteen hundred on fandom, but likely into three-thousand. This including the costs of my admission to the conventions I attended, the hotel costs, airfare to Atlanta, spending money at said conventions, and general articles of merchandise that I've purchased throughout the rest of the year. I'd estimate that, in three months, I've already spent about 400 dollars on my Doctor Who fandom. But it isn't on big market items. My most expensive item so far has been Billie's auto-biography, at roughly fifty dollars. In addition to that, I've purchased all of the 9 and 10 novels, the two guides to aliens, the unofficial guide, a retrospective book that tracks through Doctors 1-9, one audio book, an issue of Radio Times, Jack, the Doctor, and Rose figures, a David Tennant calendar, a Doctor Who calendar, and a sonic screwdriver. This doesn't include the movies of Tennant's and Eccleston's that I have purchased or rented, or the CDs with songs that remind me of Doctor Who that I've purchased. My expenses are more spread out, but they probably are of the same amount, or close. But my involvement in fandom with these purchases would be taken better than this woman. But as long as enjoyment is had by the person who purchases the merchandise, and the person isn't harming herself or himself, why should it matter where the money goes?
So, I'm curious. :) What are your thoughts on fan people who go to any level of obsession to interact with their fandom? Do you think fans should be able to go to the extreme in their fandom if they want to? Do you look down upon fans who take their fandom more seriously than you do? And the real thing I want to get to the bottom of: what do you think makes people become fans in the first place? Why is it we do what we do?
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Date: 2007-02-04 11:22 am (UTC)I don't look down on people who go further than I do- but I think it does go to dangerous levels when people start to lose their grip on reality for their fandom. When people start to genuinely believe the fandom is 'real' it can start to get scary!
As for the 'why do we become fans' I think it's because we have the imagination to look beyond the canon. The original stuff inspires us enough to fall in love with it.
Did any of that make any sense?! I'm still waiting for the morning coffee to kick in! I think you should write the book- I know I'd buy it.
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Date: 2007-02-05 10:42 am (UTC)I think you just hit the nail on the head (one of them anyway). A couple of years ago I read some books and went online looking for a fandom, only to discover that the author was violently against fanfiction. I remember thinking, "Lady, if you ban fanfic, you've got no fandom." Because that's exactly what fanfic is: imagination to look beyond the canon. If you take away the readers' freedom to imagine, what else do they have to do?
no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 03:50 pm (UTC)What about meta? That's not to say I don't think banning fanfic is a stupid thing to do, since a lot of people really love the stuff, but meta is another very big part of fandom. I was in the Tolkien fandom for years before I realized that anyone wrote fanfic for it.
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Date: 2007-02-06 05:33 am (UTC)