Fandom is like religion.
I think I talked about this with jaina once, and when I was skimming the Bleach fandom today, it kicked me in the head again.
Let's take Christianity as an example (because that's the only one I know ATM)
You've got the Bible (Bleach).
It is the cornerstone of the Christianity (Bleach). It is the word of God (Kubo llD). If a religion strays from the source material, it ceases to be its declared religion (Bleachdom) and becomes a cult (Bleach OCs?).
The number of people who believe (fans) form a church (LJ comm, forums), and they work to contribute to the community (fanart, fanfics) in line with their doctrine ("Bleach is awesome").
When it reaches a certain level of popularity and population, like-minded people come together to create denominations (pairing FCs). In some cases, the denomination can become larger than its parent church depending on the members (kurosaki_clinic < ichi_ruki).
Then comes the phenomenon of "Christians" (rabid!fan) of a who viciously attack other Christians (fans) for having different opinions, whether they be right or wrong (fandom_wank, shipwars). These people are mostly a small population of a large denomination (ships).
Then you get the weird denominations that either rewrite/selectively choose passages from the source material and/or create their own. Like Mormons. And Jehovah's Witness (I will not name any comms here).
But they are still categorized as "Christians" (Bleach fans) because Jesus (Ichigo. Or any other Bleach character) is still reoccurring characters in their beliefs. Even through his characterization and facts based on the Bible (canon) are completely wrong.
Sadly, because of the small portion of vicious Christians (fans) who are always in the limelight, there are people who are repelled from anything that has to do with the Bible/church(Bleach/fandom).
That's right. The closest I'll ever get to a essay on fandom is when it's a metaphor with religion =w=a
Let's take Christianity as an example (because that's the only one I know ATM)
You've got the Bible (Bleach).
It is the cornerstone of the Christianity (Bleach). It is the word of God (Kubo llD). If a religion strays from the source material, it ceases to be its declared religion (Bleachdom) and becomes a cult (Bleach OCs?).
The number of people who believe (fans) form a church (LJ comm, forums), and they work to contribute to the community (fanart, fanfics) in line with their doctrine ("Bleach is awesome").
When it reaches a certain level of popularity and population, like-minded people come together to create denominations (pairing FCs). In some cases, the denomination can become larger than its parent church depending on the members (kurosaki_clinic < ichi_ruki).
Then comes the phenomenon of "Christians" (rabid!fan) of a who viciously attack other Christians (fans) for having different opinions, whether they be right or wrong (fandom_wank, shipwars). These people are mostly a small population of a large denomination (ships).
Then you get the weird denominations that either rewrite/selectively choose passages from the source material and/or create their own. Like Mormons. And Jehovah's Witness (I will not name any comms here).
But they are still categorized as "Christians" (Bleach fans) because Jesus (Ichigo. Or any other Bleach character) is still reoccurring characters in their beliefs. Even through his characterization and facts based on the Bible (canon) are completely wrong.
Sadly, because of the small portion of vicious Christians (fans) who are always in the limelight, there are people who are repelled from anything that has to do with the Bible/church(Bleach/fandom).
That's right. The closest I'll ever get to a essay on fandom is when it's a metaphor with religion =w=a