Fandom vs. The Real World

[radio_silent]

This is a little bit different from my normal posts, but I want to talk about social networking. As in, TwitterFacebook  LiveJournalYoutube and now GoogleBuzz. Social networking, and fandom.

Comments

[clockwork_jo]

Only one friend knows about my lj and this is because she stumbled across it. And tbh, I was just left filled with fear and dread and what she could have read about me, what I'd made public, what I hadn't-- and I didn't like it. But I'll admit that a lot of this "OMG OH NO" reaction was about my foray into fandoms, and how embarrassed I was about it. I agree, I think fandom is this wonderful intricate world where everyone can be a part of the same thing, share opinions/ideas, creativity, whatever. Just because you're playing with a world that already exists doesn't make it easier or less important to the people creating these things. But I think the pornography of it can be the thing that makes most people like *raises eyebrows with dubiousness*, you know? Like if I was to say "oh, I was reading some fanfiction the other day" most of my friends first thoughts would be "OH YEAH. NC-17, R, blah blah" and I think that can be a big reason why people are so... well, ashamed.

I remember I was writing some GA-fiction and in the title (which you could see down the bottom of my screen) it had the names of the characters, and my mum looked over and said "oh, mark/callie? as in... greys anatomy?" and I just flashed bright red, and made up some crappy story about how when I don't know the names for my original characters, I just use ones that are similar to them in shows and change them later. BLAH BLAH. Josie chokes on her own tongue with the LIES. haha.

So many people write continuations or lost chapters and get them published and have some acclaim (comic books have been doing it for decades-- someone comes along with a new interpretation (and even a new canon) and plays with the characters) but doing it on the internet, in a relatively-small-when-given-the-size-of-the-global-population community and it's totally shunned. STRANGE.

So yeah, I think I would create a new journal and build it up and then show them that. But this is me, being a scaredy chicken-pants. lol.

[radio_silent]

d I just flashed bright red, and made up some crappy story about how when I don't know the names for my original characters, I just use ones that are similar to them in shows and change them later.

um, that is SO MUCH MORE CLEVER than ANYTHING i could have come up with. seriously.

i think you make a reeeeally good point about porn being the downside to fanfiction's reputation. or you could almost argue the internet is more liberal, except that the really kinky stuff out there could make "liberal" sound like a bad thing. :_(

honestly, i'm pretty open about my internet habits. i mean i just have no shame. : )
...if i wrote porn, which i wouldn't, no one would EVER know about it (though i don't!) but short of that i'm pretty much okay. my closest RL friends all know about my slash fanvid, for example. most of them like it.