fandom lifespans

[childeproof]

Further to various recent conversations with orlisbunny and lobelia321, and the faint but unmistakable sound of People Moving On - also of made_up quoting Oscar Wilde on the ridiculousness of the emotions of those we have ceased to love - it occurred to me that LOTR may not last forever as a fandom. The films are out, the premieres are premiered, the Oscars are bagged,

Comments

[cruisedirector]

I have been slithering in and out of original Trek fandom since I discovered it in its organized form more than 20 years ago. Some people move on and it takes me years to find them again (in one case, ten years, until she popped up in Voyager fandom). Some people hide out for awhile and then come back in force. Some people and I have nothing fannishly in common anymore but we became such good friends in the fandom that when the fandom was gone, it hardly mattered. And yeah, some people disappear altogether, but in the end those don't end up being the people I miss in life. The fandom is always there, meanwhile, waxing and waning and waxing again...

[childeproof]

That is soothing, I must say.
(You do realise I look to you as a kind of Lascaux Cave Painting of Fandom, don't you? And that's that's intended as a compliment....?)

*thinks happily about waxing and waning of fandom, like moon, and seasons and happy things*

[cruisedirector]

But...but...I'm not even forty yet! *sobs* Actually I am glad I was around fandom pre-internet, it gives me perspective on some of the things that happen here in fast motion that used to happen in slow motion. But yeah, like seasons, just more intense.

[lobelia321]

What kind of perspective? How did things use to happen?????

[childeproof]

But fandom is no respecter of actual biological age! (says the 31-year-old snippet who just got here.) It's like that bit in The Nun's Story when the Mother of Postulants tells the new postulants that henceforth their 'age' within the convent will be the order in which they were admitted on the first day, because being a nun is a life against nature. In fannish terms, you get to be an Elder, and, you know, get worshipped and stuff.

[lobelia321]

I like that: Lascaux cave painting! pecos has also been around for decades.

This used to frighten me. Now I find it strangely soothing. But bizarre, nonetheless.