This is highly recommended reading...
...for anyone who enjoys pondering the hows and whys of fan behavior. (I know I do!)
Since taking up a new fannish obsession with Avatar, my exploration of a new (to me) fandom has caused me to consider once again the mysterious (and often perplexing) ways of fen. This has brought to mind two rather old--but still apt--essays on two trends that I often see in internet fandom (though I think they clearly predate the internet). I thought I would share the links with you. They were written by angua9, so many of you who have her friended will have seen them before. But the last year or so, I've branched out enough from HP fandom that I believe I have quite a few friends who won't have seen them. And if meta about the behavior of fans interests you at all, you really should read them. I think you will find these two essays of interest even if you are not into the fandoms they mention specifically. The phenomena angua9 so eloquently describes are, to one degree or another, virtually universal to all fandoms.
"A Stubborn Romanticizing and Eroticizing Impulse"
"A Persistent Flattening and Polarizing Impulse"
The comments are also worth reading. (And unlike some of her other memorable entries, they do not number in the hundreds, so it would be reasonable to endeavor to read them all.)
Joie
Since taking up a new fannish obsession with Avatar, my exploration of a new (to me) fandom has caused me to consider once again the mysterious (and often perplexing) ways of fen. This has brought to mind two rather old--but still apt--essays on two trends that I often see in internet fandom (though I think they clearly predate the internet). I thought I would share the links with you. They were written by angua9, so many of you who have her friended will have seen them before. But the last year or so, I've branched out enough from HP fandom that I believe I have quite a few friends who won't have seen them. And if meta about the behavior of fans interests you at all, you really should read them. I think you will find these two essays of interest even if you are not into the fandoms they mention specifically. The phenomena angua9 so eloquently describes are, to one degree or another, virtually universal to all fandoms.
"A Stubborn Romanticizing and Eroticizing Impulse"
"A Persistent Flattening and Polarizing Impulse"
The comments are also worth reading. (And unlike some of her other memorable entries, they do not number in the hundreds, so it would be reasonable to endeavor to read them all.)
Joie