(no subject)
rozk wrote an article comparing religion and fandom, which made me finally get my ass in gear and finish the meta post I started in May, concerning the similarities in how religious groups and fannish groups are structured.
For those of you who don't remember May, that's when I came home from Istanbul, where Dad had been holding lectures on Islam (as a secular subject, not preaching) in addition to all the other fun things that happened in Istanbul. (And not so fun things, like my knee.)
Anyway. One of the first lectures was largely about sociology of religion, and it had me sit up straight and go, "This so works for fandom too!"
The post was supposed to be made the week after I came home, but somehow, I didn't get around to finishing it until rozk's post reminded me. Better late than ever. I use only a few examples in every category - I'm sure you can think of many more.
Anyway. Dad talked about the different ways a religious community build a common heritage - and he pointed out the way this can be applied to othe groups too, such as the ”religion” of engineers (he comes from an engineering family). He speaks of the final heritage as a fruit basket, where everyone picks what they like, things seep out in the cracks, and other things are added over time.
The five basic compartments in this fruit basket are: myth, ritual, categorization, terminology, and norm.
Myth
In everyday talk, a myth is a widely believed lie, but in terms of community-building, the myths might very well be true. The point is that it's a story that influences behaviour and thought. Dad used the Battle of Kosovo Polje as an example - a genuine battle, that did happen, and was used 600 years later to justify Serbian nationalism. ”Remember Kosovo Polje” - a battle no one could remember, since everyone who had been there were long dead. (N.B. that while this is a negative example, the effects of myths aren't always negative.)
Through myths, we compare situations in the presence with situations in the stories we tell, we liken people to people of the past, and we use parts of the myths as arguments for how we should act. If people get really really upset because your interpretation of a story differs from theirs, chances are the story has a mythical function.
For fans, canon is obviously part of the mythology, from the well-known pieces of popular culture even non-fans can quote (”Luke, I am your father”) to the fringe canons only ten people on a solitary LJ community care about. We argue about these canons, friendships are made and broken over questions such as ”Did Catherine die?” or ”Which Ray is better?” and we assign different motives and personalities to strangers depending on whether they say Spike tried to rape Buffy or seduce her.
Fandom's own history is also mythology, both the real and imagined parts of it. ”Mary Sue” is part myth, part terminology (many people use the term without having read the Mary Sue story) and whenever fans get dollar-signs in their eyes, ”the fan who sued Marion Zimmer Bradley” is inevitably brought up as a cautionary tale.
We have our saints and sinners - a blogging writer being compared to Neil Gaiman is (usually) a compliment, while being compared to Lee Goldberg is an insult, not to mention the horrifying eventuality of being ”an Anne Rice”!
Naturally, fandom being what it is, the mythology is sprawling, and what is a dealbreaking event for one person may not register at all for another.
Rituals
Rituals are actions performed to confirm and strengthen the bond to the community. This post originally came to mind because, listening to the lecture, it occurred to me that cons are our hajj (pilgrimage) - some people do it every year; every fan should try to do it at least once in a lifetime. :-) Most of the time, rituals are connected to a story, doing things in memory of a story - joint viewings of canon can be a ritual, as well as joint filking, vid watching, and reading out loud. Things done in private can also be rituals, such as turning off the telephone and curling up in the sofa with a cup of tea every time your favourite show is on. And of course there are online rituals such as ficathons and campaigns.
Also, as my family pointed out to me when I described the Diana Wynne Jones conference to them, the difference between that experience and the aKF church assembly weekends is minimal. :-)
Categorization
Categorization is how we structure the world. The Christian year, for example, is longer than the Jewish or Muslim year, and divided differently. Meanwhile, the fandom year has season and off-season, summer (bad for TV, good for blockbusters), Yuletide, and various special holidays.
Fiction is only secondarily divided by genre, and primarily by type of sexual action: gen, het, boyslash, and femslash. Meaning a story in which Jack and Ianto kiss and hide from aliens is a different creature from a story in which Rhys and Gwen kiss and hide from aliens. Well. Unless you subscribe to the school which says everything canon is gen. Which brings us to terminology.
Terminology
Terminology follows on categorization. In Islam, it's vital to separate the things that are halal (allowed) from the things that are haram (forbidden). It's not so vital in fandom, and so we don't have words for it. We do, however, have words to separate rape from noncon from dubcon. We have words to separate a short story from a vignette from a drabble. And the meaning of these words become vital to us. How many times have you seen someone growl, ”That's not a fake cut!” :-)
There's a poem by Alf Henrikson where he claims that religious wars are always about terminology. That might be an overstatement, but I don't think it's entirely without foundation. Say, for instance, that a community forbids graphic depictions of underage sex. We now have four words to define: graphic, depiction, underage, and sex. Cue flamewar.
Finally, we have
Norm
Norm - or observance - is what we're supposed to do or not do. Quite simple, except there's a difference between the verbalized norm and the actual norm. The strongest norms are never verbalized within the group; they're taken for granted. My dad likes to use the examples of ”If you want to get married in Sweden, what's the limitation most likely to stop you from marrying the person you want?” The answer is: the other person has to want it too. So obvious it's unspoken - but not a requirement at all, in some countries.
Obviously, for me it's very hard to find any unspoken norms, since I'm speaking from within fandom. Furthermore, fandom is such a large and sprawling community that most norms become verbalized at one point or another, because most norms are broken at one point or another. I imagine that nobody felt the need to verbalize the norm ”don't give sex toys to celebrities” until someone went ahead and did just that. (Which is the reason why laws such as ”it's forbidden to take a lion to the theater” are so mindboggling.) Generally speaking, rules set down in FAQs are often weaker as norms than the norms that make people go: ”Gah, that's OBVIOUS!” (It's not obvious. If the word ”obvious” has to be spoken, it's never obvious, and very few things are obvious in a group as large as fandom. It's just a strong, rarely verbalized norm.) Plagiarism often falls into this category of strong but sometimes verbalized norms, as do the honourings of a penname or friends lock. (A suggestion of an unspoken norm might be how you address a poster in your comment. "To the honourable Ms. H" would be unsuitable, "Hey bitch" even more so - unless you know the person in question very well. Very few people would need for this norm to be pointed out.)
To finish this meta post, when Dad has spoken of the fruit basket, he often says, ”There are as many religions as there are people. Possibly a few more religions than people.”
So, I say: There are as many fandoms as there are people, and we all pick and choose to form our own experience. Now, go pick something. Enjoy. :-)
For those of you who don't remember May, that's when I came home from Istanbul, where Dad had been holding lectures on Islam (as a secular subject, not preaching) in addition to all the other fun things that happened in Istanbul. (And not so fun things, like my knee.)
Anyway. One of the first lectures was largely about sociology of religion, and it had me sit up straight and go, "This so works for fandom too!"
The post was supposed to be made the week after I came home, but somehow, I didn't get around to finishing it until rozk's post reminded me. Better late than ever. I use only a few examples in every category - I'm sure you can think of many more.
Anyway. Dad talked about the different ways a religious community build a common heritage - and he pointed out the way this can be applied to othe groups too, such as the ”religion” of engineers (he comes from an engineering family). He speaks of the final heritage as a fruit basket, where everyone picks what they like, things seep out in the cracks, and other things are added over time.
The five basic compartments in this fruit basket are: myth, ritual, categorization, terminology, and norm.
Myth
In everyday talk, a myth is a widely believed lie, but in terms of community-building, the myths might very well be true. The point is that it's a story that influences behaviour and thought. Dad used the Battle of Kosovo Polje as an example - a genuine battle, that did happen, and was used 600 years later to justify Serbian nationalism. ”Remember Kosovo Polje” - a battle no one could remember, since everyone who had been there were long dead. (N.B. that while this is a negative example, the effects of myths aren't always negative.)
Through myths, we compare situations in the presence with situations in the stories we tell, we liken people to people of the past, and we use parts of the myths as arguments for how we should act. If people get really really upset because your interpretation of a story differs from theirs, chances are the story has a mythical function.
For fans, canon is obviously part of the mythology, from the well-known pieces of popular culture even non-fans can quote (”Luke, I am your father”) to the fringe canons only ten people on a solitary LJ community care about. We argue about these canons, friendships are made and broken over questions such as ”Did Catherine die?” or ”Which Ray is better?” and we assign different motives and personalities to strangers depending on whether they say Spike tried to rape Buffy or seduce her.
Fandom's own history is also mythology, both the real and imagined parts of it. ”Mary Sue” is part myth, part terminology (many people use the term without having read the Mary Sue story) and whenever fans get dollar-signs in their eyes, ”the fan who sued Marion Zimmer Bradley” is inevitably brought up as a cautionary tale.
We have our saints and sinners - a blogging writer being compared to Neil Gaiman is (usually) a compliment, while being compared to Lee Goldberg is an insult, not to mention the horrifying eventuality of being ”an Anne Rice”!
Naturally, fandom being what it is, the mythology is sprawling, and what is a dealbreaking event for one person may not register at all for another.
Rituals
Rituals are actions performed to confirm and strengthen the bond to the community. This post originally came to mind because, listening to the lecture, it occurred to me that cons are our hajj (pilgrimage) - some people do it every year; every fan should try to do it at least once in a lifetime. :-) Most of the time, rituals are connected to a story, doing things in memory of a story - joint viewings of canon can be a ritual, as well as joint filking, vid watching, and reading out loud. Things done in private can also be rituals, such as turning off the telephone and curling up in the sofa with a cup of tea every time your favourite show is on. And of course there are online rituals such as ficathons and campaigns.
Also, as my family pointed out to me when I described the Diana Wynne Jones conference to them, the difference between that experience and the aKF church assembly weekends is minimal. :-)
Categorization
Categorization is how we structure the world. The Christian year, for example, is longer than the Jewish or Muslim year, and divided differently. Meanwhile, the fandom year has season and off-season, summer (bad for TV, good for blockbusters), Yuletide, and various special holidays.
Fiction is only secondarily divided by genre, and primarily by type of sexual action: gen, het, boyslash, and femslash. Meaning a story in which Jack and Ianto kiss and hide from aliens is a different creature from a story in which Rhys and Gwen kiss and hide from aliens. Well. Unless you subscribe to the school which says everything canon is gen. Which brings us to terminology.
Terminology
Terminology follows on categorization. In Islam, it's vital to separate the things that are halal (allowed) from the things that are haram (forbidden). It's not so vital in fandom, and so we don't have words for it. We do, however, have words to separate rape from noncon from dubcon. We have words to separate a short story from a vignette from a drabble. And the meaning of these words become vital to us. How many times have you seen someone growl, ”That's not a fake cut!” :-)
There's a poem by Alf Henrikson where he claims that religious wars are always about terminology. That might be an overstatement, but I don't think it's entirely without foundation. Say, for instance, that a community forbids graphic depictions of underage sex. We now have four words to define: graphic, depiction, underage, and sex. Cue flamewar.
Finally, we have
Norm
Norm - or observance - is what we're supposed to do or not do. Quite simple, except there's a difference between the verbalized norm and the actual norm. The strongest norms are never verbalized within the group; they're taken for granted. My dad likes to use the examples of ”If you want to get married in Sweden, what's the limitation most likely to stop you from marrying the person you want?” The answer is: the other person has to want it too. So obvious it's unspoken - but not a requirement at all, in some countries.
Obviously, for me it's very hard to find any unspoken norms, since I'm speaking from within fandom. Furthermore, fandom is such a large and sprawling community that most norms become verbalized at one point or another, because most norms are broken at one point or another. I imagine that nobody felt the need to verbalize the norm ”don't give sex toys to celebrities” until someone went ahead and did just that. (Which is the reason why laws such as ”it's forbidden to take a lion to the theater” are so mindboggling.) Generally speaking, rules set down in FAQs are often weaker as norms than the norms that make people go: ”Gah, that's OBVIOUS!” (It's not obvious. If the word ”obvious” has to be spoken, it's never obvious, and very few things are obvious in a group as large as fandom. It's just a strong, rarely verbalized norm.) Plagiarism often falls into this category of strong but sometimes verbalized norms, as do the honourings of a penname or friends lock. (A suggestion of an unspoken norm might be how you address a poster in your comment. "To the honourable Ms. H" would be unsuitable, "Hey bitch" even more so - unless you know the person in question very well. Very few people would need for this norm to be pointed out.)
To finish this meta post, when Dad has spoken of the fruit basket, he often says, ”There are as many religions as there are people. Possibly a few more religions than people.”
So, I say: There are as many fandoms as there are people, and we all pick and choose to form our own experience. Now, go pick something. Enjoy. :-)