Fandom is

[timepiececlock]

Um...yeah. All that and cookie.

Seriously. Almost all of that I can identify with, to a greater or lesser degree. Particularly appropriate for my own case:

• Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime.


• Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer.

Comments

[beckingham.livejournal.com]

XDDD A positive spin on the fandom scene? I likes you. *snuggles provided link*

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

You don't get the positive spin much?

Damn, that's sad. I mean, I *LOVE* fandom. (I also want to kick it, but nobody's perfect.) That's why I spend way too much of my time here. Why play in the sandbox otherwise?

I mean, seriously. This is the best sandbox ever.

And you know what's weird-- playing in internet fandom has changed my views on writing, film, television, books, video games, internet etiquette, sexually explicit material, sexual orientation in others, how to discuss controversial issues (like race, sexim, and sexuality) in a public forum, copywrite law, the internet, politics, news reporting, and even jokes.

Not all of those are completely positive changes, but they're changes, and I'm happy for most of them.

If you want a positive spin though, you can probably already imagine for yourself the best thing about fandom: knowing how many other people in the world are as geeky and fannish as you. And then, knowing they really, really, would love to talk to you about it.

[beckingham.livejournal.com]

You don't get the positive spin much?
I almost never hear positive spin. I know why I like it, and why I stay, but it seems that there's always someone being driven crazy by fandom and it's 'stupidity' - which they have every right to be. I just sometimes wonder why they stay if it irritates them so much and this caused the realization that, well, probably the same reasons as me. XD We like to rag on the things we love - can't live with it, can't live without it, ya know?

Anything that changes you - makes you come in contact with other ideas and people and makes you move beyond your own little world? Is good in my book. You can be anyone in fandom, but sometimes it's best to be yourself. I mean, bring yourself to the table and watch how people change. It's purely nifty.

Being stuck in neutral is the worse place to be, really. Fandom gives me a chance to explore myself as well as explore other character's potential.

[mswyrr]

Everything here is true, but this bit got the strongest inner YES: Fandom is insatiable consumption

It is. Sometimes, when I fall upon a complete anime series and watch it in every free moment I have until it's all been gobbled up, or take in a six ep Brit TV series all in one sitting, I feel like a hungry cartoon caterpillar, decimating a garden. A wee devourer, fattening up in glee as she sets about clear-cutting with tiny razor-sharp teeth everything green and vital and OH SO DELICIOUS.

The creative (fic, meta) impulse comes after. And they sort of circle around. Devour/create. Create/Devour.