Fandom meme
From various people on my flist, most lately ruuger:
First TV show fandom I had self-insertion fantasies about: Probably Karl May's novels, which were the first ones I read as a child. I was totally up for adventuring with Winnetou, chief of the Apaches. Now, by the time I saw Lawrence of Arabia on tv, I was twelve and hormones were kicking in, so my self insertion fantasy there definitely included romance. Undeterred by the lack of female characters and the lack of knowledge about slash, my twelve years old self simply gifted Ali (Omar Sharif's character) with a sister who promptly married Lawrence. (Thankfully I never wrote any of this down.) (I didn't have to have self insertion fantasies about Star Trek which was my biggest fandom from my childhood and teenage years because movie canon gave me Saavik, whom teenage me decided to identify with completely. Spock's protegé! Half Romulan, half Vulcan! Doesn't fall for Kirk! Why, we were practically twins.)
First fandom in which I interacted (online and in person) with other fans: In person, Star Trek. I went to conventions, bought the zines, had the debates, volunteered for quizzes, etc. Online, Highlander.
Pairing in the first slash fanfiction I read: Either Garak/Bashir or Picard/Q, I honestly don't remember which one I read first (in one of those zines I had bought at FedCon), but one of these two.
First fanfiction I read that made me think, 'YES, this is exactly the kind of fanfiction I'd like to write...': Hmmmm. None of those early ST (any ST) tales struck me that way, but I remember by the time I got online and was majorly into HL, McGeorge's post season 5 finale epic impressed the hell out of me. It had plot (a more impressive one than the s6 canon resolution, so that was my first experience with the fanfic-did-it-better phenomenon, too), great characterisation for everyone (and used Joe and Amanda in addition to Duncan and Methos, as opposed to being solely D/M), and a well integrated OC. It was the first time fanfic really impressed me instead of just being a fun addition to fannish life, but I'm not sure it was in the "I wish I could write like that" way. Kat Allison's stories a bit later definitely had that effect, though. Last Set Before Closing was just so mercilessly good and unafraid to go up against beloved fanon assumptions while being entirely plausible characterisation that it had the "YES" effect in addition to the "damn, that's good!" effect.
Pairing in the first fanfiction I wrote: Oddly enough, the first fanfiction I wrote was entirely gen and dealt with a messed up family relationship. (That was sarcasm; I'm mainly a gen writer, though I do the occasional slash or het centric tale now and then, and messed up families are my thing.) Genuinenly oddly, it wasn't in any of my main fandoms at the time. It was a Star Wars story, and I was only ever mildly entertained by SW in my teens and didn't really get into it until much later when the prequels came around. But still, the first fanfiction I ever wrote was about Luke transitioning from "Noooooo...." in Empire Strikes Back re: that revelation by Vader to accepting the truth of it in Return of the Jedi. Years later, when
bimo created her website for German fanfiction, it came in handy and I sent it to her, and that's how we "met".
First OTP: Garak/Bashir. How do I know it was an OTP? Because I felt very disgruntled when canon stopped giving us Garak/Bashir scenes while continuing to give us Bashir/O'Brien ones, to the degree that sometimes I gave poor Miles the stinky eye when he was on screen with the good doctor. I had yet to develop the maturity of being a multishipper.*g*
First RPS/F OTP: Henry II/Eleanor of Aquitaine. Basically I watched The Lion in Winter as a sixteen years old, was spell bound and started to do research. I guess you could blame my fondness for frenemies who start as friends/allies/lovers/insert appropriate name of close relationship/ and become enemies while still having a deeper understanding of each other than they have of anyone else in their lives on James Goldman and the Plantagenents. Also Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. What else happened in my late teenage years and my early twenties? Why, I started to read Beatles biographies, after having grown up with the music but knowing nothing about the people behind it. So you can probably guess the effect discovering the two main songwriters went from best friends-plus-rivals to having a very public divorce (thus termed by both of them) to having a delicate truce that could include support as well as arguments had on me.
First fannish friend I met in person: Discounting everyone whom I met in person first, it was
kathyh. We "met" in Highlander and shared many a fandom ever since. Also she lives in Croydon near London which means I can see her when visiting the British capital.
First character I formally roleplayed: Londo Mollari. Ah, those were the theatrical_muse days....
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/756462.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
First TV show fandom I had self-insertion fantasies about: Probably Karl May's novels, which were the first ones I read as a child. I was totally up for adventuring with Winnetou, chief of the Apaches. Now, by the time I saw Lawrence of Arabia on tv, I was twelve and hormones were kicking in, so my self insertion fantasy there definitely included romance. Undeterred by the lack of female characters and the lack of knowledge about slash, my twelve years old self simply gifted Ali (Omar Sharif's character) with a sister who promptly married Lawrence. (Thankfully I never wrote any of this down.) (I didn't have to have self insertion fantasies about Star Trek which was my biggest fandom from my childhood and teenage years because movie canon gave me Saavik, whom teenage me decided to identify with completely. Spock's protegé! Half Romulan, half Vulcan! Doesn't fall for Kirk! Why, we were practically twins.)
First fandom in which I interacted (online and in person) with other fans: In person, Star Trek. I went to conventions, bought the zines, had the debates, volunteered for quizzes, etc. Online, Highlander.
Pairing in the first slash fanfiction I read: Either Garak/Bashir or Picard/Q, I honestly don't remember which one I read first (in one of those zines I had bought at FedCon), but one of these two.
First fanfiction I read that made me think, 'YES, this is exactly the kind of fanfiction I'd like to write...': Hmmmm. None of those early ST (any ST) tales struck me that way, but I remember by the time I got online and was majorly into HL, McGeorge's post season 5 finale epic impressed the hell out of me. It had plot (a more impressive one than the s6 canon resolution, so that was my first experience with the fanfic-did-it-better phenomenon, too), great characterisation for everyone (and used Joe and Amanda in addition to Duncan and Methos, as opposed to being solely D/M), and a well integrated OC. It was the first time fanfic really impressed me instead of just being a fun addition to fannish life, but I'm not sure it was in the "I wish I could write like that" way. Kat Allison's stories a bit later definitely had that effect, though. Last Set Before Closing was just so mercilessly good and unafraid to go up against beloved fanon assumptions while being entirely plausible characterisation that it had the "YES" effect in addition to the "damn, that's good!" effect.
Pairing in the first fanfiction I wrote: Oddly enough, the first fanfiction I wrote was entirely gen and dealt with a messed up family relationship. (That was sarcasm; I'm mainly a gen writer, though I do the occasional slash or het centric tale now and then, and messed up families are my thing.) Genuinenly oddly, it wasn't in any of my main fandoms at the time. It was a Star Wars story, and I was only ever mildly entertained by SW in my teens and didn't really get into it until much later when the prequels came around. But still, the first fanfiction I ever wrote was about Luke transitioning from "Noooooo...." in Empire Strikes Back re: that revelation by Vader to accepting the truth of it in Return of the Jedi. Years later, when
bimo created her website for German fanfiction, it came in handy and I sent it to her, and that's how we "met".
First OTP: Garak/Bashir. How do I know it was an OTP? Because I felt very disgruntled when canon stopped giving us Garak/Bashir scenes while continuing to give us Bashir/O'Brien ones, to the degree that sometimes I gave poor Miles the stinky eye when he was on screen with the good doctor. I had yet to develop the maturity of being a multishipper.*g*
First RPS/F OTP: Henry II/Eleanor of Aquitaine. Basically I watched The Lion in Winter as a sixteen years old, was spell bound and started to do research. I guess you could blame my fondness for frenemies who start as friends/allies/lovers/insert appropriate name of close relationship/ and become enemies while still having a deeper understanding of each other than they have of anyone else in their lives on James Goldman and the Plantagenents. Also Katherine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. What else happened in my late teenage years and my early twenties? Why, I started to read Beatles biographies, after having grown up with the music but knowing nothing about the people behind it. So you can probably guess the effect discovering the two main songwriters went from best friends-plus-rivals to having a very public divorce (thus termed by both of them) to having a delicate truce that could include support as well as arguments had on me.
First fannish friend I met in person: Discounting everyone whom I met in person first, it was
kathyh. We "met" in Highlander and shared many a fandom ever since. Also she lives in Croydon near London which means I can see her when visiting the British capital.
First character I formally roleplayed: Londo Mollari. Ah, those were the theatrical_muse days....
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/756462.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.