Fandom is...
Focus.
Obsession.
Insatiable consumption.
Sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap.
Conversation. Communication. Contact.
Creating. Drawing, painting, vidding. Words, language, authoring.
Not real life.
Closer than real life.
These and more are all things that fandom is, listed in this marvelous post that hesychasm wrote about the wonderful and horrible phenomenon and blaspemy that is the internet fan collective. I found this when madlori linked to it in her journal. She said she actually cried when she read it, and it made me very emotional to read it as well. Maybe it sounds cheesy and certainly even a little insane, but I often feel like I don't know what I would be without fandom. In some ways you guys are the ones who know my true self. And unless you read my other journal or know me personally, you don't even know how old I am, what I look like, or what race I am. I share things with other fans on the internet that I wouldn't share with my best friends, things I've written I would only let strangers read. In fandom people connect to each other in a way that just doesn't happen in everyday, face-to-face communication. It's because we're strangers and have nothing to hide from each other; we will never meet, there is no reason to have reserves about what we say and share. So we are strangers, and yet we are closer than some of the closest, most intimate friends. It's touching, peculiar, and creepy.
All of you must read this post because showing it to you is probably the best way I could ever find for me to express my gratitude to you all. For participating in fandoms, contributing to them, reading fanfic, writing fanfic. Reading my fanfic. Reading this journal. Loving something so much you don't know what to do with all that love of something, having to get on the net to look for other people like you, finding and making a place for us to share our love of that thing.
What I love about art is its ability to bring people together and give them something to talk about and have in common. Fandom is a perfect example of this. So thank you for supporting it.
Obsession.
Insatiable consumption.
Sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap.
Conversation. Communication. Contact.
Creating. Drawing, painting, vidding. Words, language, authoring.
Not real life.
Closer than real life.
These and more are all things that fandom is, listed in this marvelous post that hesychasm wrote about the wonderful and horrible phenomenon and blaspemy that is the internet fan collective. I found this when madlori linked to it in her journal. She said she actually cried when she read it, and it made me very emotional to read it as well. Maybe it sounds cheesy and certainly even a little insane, but I often feel like I don't know what I would be without fandom. In some ways you guys are the ones who know my true self. And unless you read my other journal or know me personally, you don't even know how old I am, what I look like, or what race I am. I share things with other fans on the internet that I wouldn't share with my best friends, things I've written I would only let strangers read. In fandom people connect to each other in a way that just doesn't happen in everyday, face-to-face communication. It's because we're strangers and have nothing to hide from each other; we will never meet, there is no reason to have reserves about what we say and share. So we are strangers, and yet we are closer than some of the closest, most intimate friends. It's touching, peculiar, and creepy.
All of you must read this post because showing it to you is probably the best way I could ever find for me to express my gratitude to you all. For participating in fandoms, contributing to them, reading fanfic, writing fanfic. Reading my fanfic. Reading this journal. Loving something so much you don't know what to do with all that love of something, having to get on the net to look for other people like you, finding and making a place for us to share our love of that thing.
What I love about art is its ability to bring people together and give them something to talk about and have in common. Fandom is a perfect example of this. So thank you for supporting it.