fannish imprinting and the art of the wallow

[flambeau]

I've been a fan for a long time - I exhibited fannish behavior long before I found anything that could be called fandom. (A feral 12yo fan! Raised by wolves mundanes, unfamiliar with the language of her people!) And then I found fandom, and found myself a couple of fandoms, and things moved on from there. So maybe imprinting is the wrong word,

Comments

[copracat]

*g*

*cuddles Crystallize*

[flambeau]

there are buttons and then there are buttons. :)

[cathexys]

it just hit me like a ton of bricks why i'm a fanfic fan more than a source text fan...it's not even that i don't write (though thast might have sth to do with it)...it's that "three seconds of closed eyes and lashes throwing long shadows across cheekbones, lips pressed together for a momentary acknowledgment of pain and then everything starts up again and it's time to wrestle with duty, or demons, or both, to do what must be done" does a hundred times more to me than seeing the actual scene. it's like i need my media filtered through y'all's eyes before i can totally enjoy it.

as for the rest: i'm fascinated by imporinting, personal and collectively, by the central role of the text and the context. (and your XF was my Buffy...and it seems to be certain fandoms like these two that draw in *huge* crowds...what is special about them...OK, totally stupid question, right? :D)

[flambeau]

So were you originally pimped into fandom by a person, or by finding fanfic, or something? I think I would probably regard that... voluptuous squiggle of delight at whatever type of moment gets to you as something central to being fannish, but I expect fannishness doesn't necessarily have to start there.

I've been thinking about narrow vs wide audience appeal, too, and the advantages of things remaining unspoken, or just unspoken enough. Freedom to choose a wide variety of interpretations seems to go over well, but of course emotional situations that are presented too obliquely don't provide anything for a fan to hook into. hmm.

[cathexys]

actually i did start with a source text with buffy and stumbled upon ff while i was reading episode transcripts. but every fandom since then, i've come in through the fic (well, maybe for Smallville...there it was both pretty simultaneously). but yes, my squees usually are for the writing...which is why i have no compulsion to call myself a fan even if i can't *se* it on screen...

i think your second question is *really* crucial. there are some stories i adore but would rarely rec, b/c they're too unspoken, too insider in their references. i think it might go along with the good fic vs good fanfic question. if you write to only an audience of one, your imagery may be suberbly subtle...if noone gets it, you have pleased yourself but noone else...

(is that what you meant???)

[flambeau]

I was actually thinking about source material, but it goes for fanfic, too, and I've often thought about it in that context - that some stories are loose enough in their depiction of emotions that people with relatively different views of the characters can still feel they ring true, but another few steps along that route and the subtlety is practically impenetrable, as you say. :)

[eliade]

XF hit just about all my buttons

You know, when you're skimming quickly in your cubicle at work, "buttons" can look a lot like "buttocks". Just fyi.

*g*

[flambeau]

Well, I have more buttons than buttocks. Just so you know. :)

[laurashapiro]

Dang, grrl. Based on your ep list, I think you and I have absolutely *identical* taste.

Paper Hearts was the ep of TXF that made me a fan. Victoria's Secret was the ep of DS that made me realize there was more to this show than I thought...probably a whole lot more. Passion is the first and only ep of Buffy that makes me cry, still, and it's still my absolute favorite.

[flambeau]

Oh, now I really wish we could get together and watch stuff. In your lovely house, preferrably. :) I think VS is one of the best-constructed double eps ever, and the thing is, unlike so many other things *g*, it's better when you rewatch it and get smacked in the face over and over with the signs pointing the way to disaster and heartbreak. w00t! I mean, if you like that kind of thing. :)

[laurashapiro]

You are definitely invited, at absolutely any time. I think you'd find the weather pretty congenial, and you'd have your own bed and everything.

Interestingly about VS, I recently showed Part I to P., and he's already guessed almost everything. Since it took me about three viewings to even understand what was going on, I am mightily impressed with him, but also sad, that he's effectively spoiled himself (though I neither confirmed nor denied).

[flambeau]

That is a shame, I think. "I think" because I was a latecomer fan back then as well, so I've never seen VS without having at least a vague idea of the underlying dynamics and the Impending Doom tm. have you made it to part II yet?

[musesfool]

they're probably not going to give me what I get from three seconds of closed eyes and lashes throwing long shadows across cheekbones, lips pressed together for a momentary acknowledgment of pain

Oh, there are certain visuals that will always have more impact for me than words ever will, and I'm not at all a visual person. Especially the almost but not quite touch the precedes a kiss (espeically a first kiss, with the hesitant stop and start, and then the lean, and two mouths so close but not touching, and the eyes flutter closed with a soft gasp... Yeah, that kind of visual gets me every time. I don't even have to like the couple particularly.

[flambeau]

Mmmmmm. That is a great moment, and very difficult to write when you're inside someone's head, and sometimes don't you just wish you could download the images in your brain onto paper?

[musesfool]

sometimes don't you just wish you could download the images in your brain onto paper?

All the time, actually. I'm terrible at writing imagery. Dialogue I'm good with, but imagery? not so much.