#faniam Tweets
Yesterday, I drove down to Dekalb, Illinois, to attend a lecture at Northern Illinois University by Dr. Paul Booth, a professor of new media and technology at DePaul University, entitled "Fan I Am: Hyperreal Fandom and Parody." He was speaking on a subject peculiarly near and dear to my heart: Inspector Spacetime fandom.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Inspector Spacetime, it is a TV show within the universe of the NBC sitcom Community. It was introduced in the first episode of the third season as a British science fiction show that premiered in 1962. The main characters are a mysterious man called the Inspector, who wears a bowler hat and a trench coat, and a man named Constable Reggie, who dresses as a police officer. They travel through space and time in something that resembles a red telephone booth, and fight mechanical creatures called Blorgons, which shoot laser beams out of guns attached to their bodies and shout, "eradicate!" (In other words, it's a Doctor Who knock-off.) And until the tenth episode of the season, that was literally everything that was known about Inspector Spacetime.
Despite that, a TV Tropes entry about Inspector Spacetime was created two days after the episode aired, and fans started inventing a history for the show: which actors had played previous incarnations of the Inspector-not to mention that there had been previous incarnations-names of previous Constables, other enemies, and so on. A message board followed quickly. Then an "Inspector Spacetime Confessions" site was created on Tumblr, and people started writing fan fiction and making fan art, and doing all the other sorts of things fans do. But they were doing it in support of a property that, in large part, they themselves had invented. Because of this unusual overlap of producers and fans. Dr. Booth believes Inspector Spacetime fandom to be "a key text in fan studies and social media."
As a big fan of Community, I was naturally interested in the topic. But I was also a little worried about what Dr. Booth might say, because the promotional materials issued by NIU didn't mention Community, just Doctor Who. Now, I'm a fan of Doctor Who, and have been for 31 years, but it distressed me to think that Community might go unmentioned, so it seemed important that an actual Community fan be present just in case someone was needed to speak up on behalf of the show. (Being a fan makes you do weird things. Which is sort of the point of the lecture, come to think of it.) And since my grandmother happens to live in Dekalb, I had another (arguably better) reason to make the two-hour drive.
I plan to do a more thorough write-up of the presentation and post it over at
Community 101 later today or tomorrow, but for the time being (and so I can find them quickly, Twitter being fairly miserable when it comes to making old Tweets easily available), here are the Tweets I made during the lecture:
At NIU for Inspector Spacetime lecture by Dr. Paul Booth. bit.ly/HcrVoT He has a Davros lapel pin. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
The person sitting behind me is six years old. Wonder if he hides behind the sofa when he watches Doctor Who? #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
About 35 people here. Some students, some profs, Dr. Booth's dad. Can't tell if there are any other Communies here. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
First words: "I'm a big fan of Community." Vindicated! Totally worth the trip. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
@ pbooth81 I'm live-tweeting your lecture! #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
What is a fan? What do you do to be a fan vs. just being part of the audience? Inspector Spacetime is a key text for answering. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Showing clips Inspector Spacetime clips from Community! #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Community largely shows not the show Inspector Spacetime but the Inspector Spacetime fandom (Abed and Troy) #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Booth feels the depiction of IS fandom on Cmmunity has helped spur fan activity on the Internet. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Moves beyond "textual poaching" or "textual encroaching" to "textual reappropriation"-imitating/parodying the idea of fandom. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Travis Richey is exemplar of IS fandom: producer of the text and fan of it. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Fans represent the confluence of production and consumption: "produsage" (not his term) #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Showed a TVTropes post from TODAY discussing new IS canon revealed last night. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Travis Richey: trying to take part in fandom but exerting authorial control (correcting spelling of blorgon, criticizing DARSIT). #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Pushback from fans: "Travis Richey is a self important, self inflated con man… using people who made the canon for personal gain." #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
NOTE: not Booth's opinion. Quote from an IS message board. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
80s DW fans: the powerless elite. Knew more than producers but had no control. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Modern IS fans: powerful non-elites. Have all the power, but over something that doesn't really exist. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Inspector Spacetime fandom is both parody and pastiche. Imitates the text while commenting/criticizing it. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Inspector Spacetime fandom is composed of fans of being fans, doing fannish activities mostly disconnected from a media property. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
IS represents a unique moment in fandom: fans created the text they're fans of. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
IS fandom harnesses the collaborative power of groups to create something new; could be directed to more serious ends. #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
Booth on Community: "Kind of a bizarre comedy not everyone is going to like" And we've got the 1.3 rating to prove it! #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
That was responding to my question, is there something unique about the junction of Community/DW fans that made IS fandom possible? #faniam
- John Heaton (@JHeaton416) April 20, 2012
And if that wasn't enough for you, here's a recording of the whole lecture by randomthunk!
Click to view