Coming Clean: 2009 & The End of Dumb Things

[2_perseph]

General Disclaimers: 1) It needs to be said that this does not apply to all fandoms, nor across the board to the ones it does apply. 2) This is how I experienced fandom on LiveJournal, where as far as I can tell, fandom has made its home.

PREMISE OF ARGUMENTOnce upon a time, there was a movement called “Bohemian.” This movement was made up of

Comments

[2_perseph]

But I think that the internet is something new under the sun.

Maybe fifty years from now that statement will seem funny and shortsighted, with the perspective that our views on the availability and rapid spread of information via the internet turned out to be no less amusing than what we think of people’s reactions to the invention of the telegraph.

But the telegraph was something new, and it did change communication and society. I’m not saying even a little bit that fandom holds so high a position, but what I am trying to put forward is the notion that this new means of exponential dissemination of information is actually, permanently changing the nature of fandom

[jlh]

Because the one thing I have seen is that from the 20s till pretty much today, fen have managed to hand down to us something that we can all still recognize.But that's because you're looking backwards for the commonalities, and not forwards into the uncertain future. I'm sure that if we brought people from the 1920s forward they wouldn't recognize what we're doing, and in fact ficcing itself represents a pretty radical shift. I'm sure that in 20-30 years fandom folks will look back on now and before now and find the roots of what they're doing

[2_perseph]

Thank you for this truly excellent reply.

I am by no means advocating for fandom to remain static, and fandomsecrets incidentally is one of my favorite fandom places. Perhaps you're right about my looking backwards for commonalities, but the commonality I see is that a recognizable space, or thing, called fandom exists. Whatever fen are doing in that space.

I think I've stated as clearly as I could my pov on the issues in the comment you responded to, so I don't have to repeat things here. All that's left to say is that I hope I'm wrong, I hope my concerns are unfounded, and I hope, with the aid of the nature of the internet, fandom is not biting off more than it can chew vis a vis everything else outside of fandom.

[dachelle]

You're in Texas as well? I'm in the Metroplex!

I also find a positive side to Internet fandom. I didn't experience fandom pre-Internet, but because of Internet fandom I've met some of my best friends. One of the objects of my current fandom isn't allowed into the U.S., and without the Internet I'd miss out on a lot of music and performances, not to mention friends with whom I can stay and attend gigs when I go over to the U.K.

[klangley56]

Meeting best friends, making and maintaing relationships with overseas fans and friends, finding access to fandoms outside the U.S--none of this is new. We were doing all this in fandom long before the Internet. Technology has broadened it and speeded it up, that's all.

:-)

[dachelle]

Oh, I don't think it's new, it's just that for me the Internet has been the only way that I've experienced fandom, and without it I probably never would have become fannish about Buffy other than just watching the show each week, nor would the train of events have been set in motion that led me to The Libertines. A lot of what appealed to me about the Libs was also tied to the Internet - the postings Peter and Carl made online to the fans and to each other, the release of demos and his personal journals online by Peter, the abundance of clips and gig videos on YouTube, etc. Honestly, without the Internet I'd have never have even heard their music, as it's not played on the radio here, and I wasn't into music enough before I found the Libs to have sought it out on my own. I think what the Internet has done in part is to bring people like me who have fannish tendencies, let's say, but who would perhaps not have had the motivation or knowledge to find media and groups of fans on their own into the larger fandom community.

[dachelle]

Ah, hello! I have a rough idea of where you are, then. I'm in Fort Worth myself

[kayjayuu]

and was in APA fandom in the 1980s, and fan fiction was NOT in any way utilized in those spaces

Never say 100%. I participated in a long-standing general subject APA for several years in the early '90s, and variety was the rule of the day. Several people were spreading their writing wings, which included short fan fiction as well as a multi-chapter Styx story.

Maybe in the 80s it was different. A new decade -- still pre-internet -- may have brought new ways of interacting with fandoms of all sorts.