*hugs fandom as a concept*
Feb. 6th, 2007 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethsomeone via metafandom asked what do you think makes people become fans in the first place?
which made me think of another quote from the lit book I'm reading
about Magic Realism
All these writers have lived through great historical convulsions and wrenching personal upheavals, which they feel cannot be adequately represented in a discourse of undisturbed realism.
In the margin I have writting "Mutants! F&SF!"
... because I could write a lot of specific words, but that whole world that hates and fears them, have you ever tried not being a mutant, right there on top level text about discrimination and difference and all that, that was what sprang to mind for me.
I'm not saying that growing up geeky / isolated / queer / whatever necessarily leads to fandom (well geek in some formulations means fan, but not my point here). I'm saying that for some people, ie me, it leads to having all this Stuff going on that comes out more effectively in these sideways metaphorical ways, mostly because the no-metaphor versions depress the *hell* out of me. I mean, fighting drunks is just nasty, but fighting vampires has a certain degree of cool.
Of course not every form of fandom is to do with magic or metaphor or SF or whatever.
But every form has some person finding in this one thing something that resonates for them, that plugs in to stuff that *matters* to them, and then finding a fandom that sees it too.
That's just all kinds of nifty.
which made me think of another quote from the lit book I'm reading
about Magic Realism
All these writers have lived through great historical convulsions and wrenching personal upheavals, which they feel cannot be adequately represented in a discourse of undisturbed realism.
In the margin I have writting "Mutants! F&SF!"
... because I could write a lot of specific words, but that whole world that hates and fears them, have you ever tried not being a mutant, right there on top level text about discrimination and difference and all that, that was what sprang to mind for me.
I'm not saying that growing up geeky / isolated / queer / whatever necessarily leads to fandom (well geek in some formulations means fan, but not my point here). I'm saying that for some people, ie me, it leads to having all this Stuff going on that comes out more effectively in these sideways metaphorical ways, mostly because the no-metaphor versions depress the *hell* out of me. I mean, fighting drunks is just nasty, but fighting vampires has a certain degree of cool.
Of course not every form of fandom is to do with magic or metaphor or SF or whatever.
But every form has some person finding in this one thing something that resonates for them, that plugs in to stuff that *matters* to them, and then finding a fandom that sees it too.
That's just all kinds of nifty.
hello
Date: 2007-02-06 07:07 pm (UTC)Re: hello
Date: 2007-02-07 01:50 am (UTC)