For those interested in psychology and fandom
During the whole Moonlight debacle, someone on Fandom Wank asked what it is about vampire fandoms that make people act so crazy.
Someone else responded:
I think there have been a couple of attempts to examine the psychology of it, floating around the Twilight wank...
As I recall, the gist is "attractive, intense, passionate, potentially dangerous person who is strongly devoted to you, will protect you from anything and everything (including others of their kind), and who would never harm you (though the faint possibility they might is an exciting but ultimately safe tease, like a roller coaster)... because you have tamed the beast, made them act against their own nature. That's how awesome and speshul you are."
Animal passion personified and poured into a hot human form, then leashed and harnessed to do your bidding, is a hell of an antidote to feelings of being unloved and/or bored.
I thought this was really fascinating, and probably hits the nail on the head. I'd like to believe that the majority of vampire or sparklepire fans are rational people, who enjoy reading or watching their chosen fandom, who find it entertaining and engaging and the sort of thing that sets them on the edge of their seat. However, there are also srs bsns fans who take it a step too far. The ones who shriek at the mention that their fandom is not the fandom to end all fandoms, who cannot take jokes about them.
Those people, the ones who are really, almost violently, obsessed should be evaluated, as I think it would be really interesting to see how a professional might identify similar personality traits.
That said, I'm happy to be involved to some extent in these vampire fandom shenanigans. It's thoroughly entertaining, especially now that I've reached the point where I believe it's okay for me to want to chuck New Moon across the room. I've read enough Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Hawthorne, Dickens, Salinger, Kesey, etc., that I feel I am qualified to say, "I do not like this. I find it to be poorly-written and shallow."
If going to see SMeyer's big movie so I can giggle like an idiot and quote Mystery Science Theater 3000 makes me a snob, so be it. I will happily remain a snob, here on my couch, laughing at Tarantino films and South of Nowhere re-runs.
Someone else responded:
I think there have been a couple of attempts to examine the psychology of it, floating around the Twilight wank...
As I recall, the gist is "attractive, intense, passionate, potentially dangerous person who is strongly devoted to you, will protect you from anything and everything (including others of their kind), and who would never harm you (though the faint possibility they might is an exciting but ultimately safe tease, like a roller coaster)... because you have tamed the beast, made them act against their own nature. That's how awesome and speshul you are."
Animal passion personified and poured into a hot human form, then leashed and harnessed to do your bidding, is a hell of an antidote to feelings of being unloved and/or bored.
I thought this was really fascinating, and probably hits the nail on the head. I'd like to believe that the majority of vampire or sparklepire fans are rational people, who enjoy reading or watching their chosen fandom, who find it entertaining and engaging and the sort of thing that sets them on the edge of their seat. However, there are also srs bsns fans who take it a step too far. The ones who shriek at the mention that their fandom is not the fandom to end all fandoms, who cannot take jokes about them.
Those people, the ones who are really, almost violently, obsessed should be evaluated, as I think it would be really interesting to see how a professional might identify similar personality traits.
That said, I'm happy to be involved to some extent in these vampire fandom shenanigans. It's thoroughly entertaining, especially now that I've reached the point where I believe it's okay for me to want to chuck New Moon across the room. I've read enough Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Hawthorne, Dickens, Salinger, Kesey, etc., that I feel I am qualified to say, "I do not like this. I find it to be poorly-written and shallow."
If going to see SMeyer's big movie so I can giggle like an idiot and quote Mystery Science Theater 3000 makes me a snob, so be it. I will happily remain a snob, here on my couch, laughing at Tarantino films and South of Nowhere re-runs.