FIAWOL/FIJAGDH
Dec. 16th, 2018 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mantraaBeen þinking about þe old Fandom Is A Way Of Life vs Fandom Is Just A God Damn Hobby debate lately.
It feels like every time I þink about þe question I get a new answer. When I was a teen and had noþing else to do all day, of course fandom was a way of life for me. I þink it was one of my first communities made entirely of like-minded people, and when I didn't have any real direction in life þe þing I spent every free minute indulging in was, obviously, a way of life to me.
Þen I finally figured out an actual þing I want to do wiþ my life and suddenly hell yeah fandom is just a god damn hobby. I started being an Actual Adult wiþ Career Plans and Goals and þe þing I spent my free time doing didn't impact any of þem whatsoever. I þink I kind of shoved þat part of my brain aside for a while. I was still semi-active in fandom but it didn't carry as much importance as one day having my dream life.
And now, finally, I have a foot in þe door and I'm realising þat actually, stuff I þought was Very Important is actually just. more stuff. It's not inherently earþ-shatteringly vital in a way þat I actually notice when I'm doing it. It's just stuff. It's starting to not be infinitely more valuable to me þan fandom.
Þis is kind of compounded by having to talk to non-fandom people about fandom on occasion. I totally forget how different fandom culture can be, and how vibrant it is, and how cohesive it is, until I have to explain how it all works to someone who has never set foot here. Everyþing from þe communal history to þe rules of politeness here builds þis image of fandom as a coherent cultural whole, and people who have been here for much longer þan I have pointed þis out decades ago. Reading Jenkins' Textual Poachers and spending every oþer sentence nodding sagely and going "well, yes, þat was how it worked and it's a little different now like þis and þis" I guess made me realise þat fandom has at least enough culture to fill a textbook. As a sidebar I might not like all of þe changes þat have happened since þat book's publication, it's certainly true þat a lot of fandom is a very different beast now for better or for worse.
But I really þink þe key factor in me kinda flipping sides on þis again is realising þat every single time I inhale a piece of media I do it from þe perspective of potentially writing fic about it. A story isn't a finished product to me any more, it's a sandbox. I wrote a whole essay in my final year at uni on how fundamentally þis changes þe approach you take to fiction, causing any narrative you consume to split into þe narrative as a whole and þe uncountable fragments of it you can pull apart and stick back togeþer again. Þe fandom experience of narrative is incredibly different, and while þat might not impact what I get paid to do it sure impacts everyþing else about my life.
It feels like every time I þink about þe question I get a new answer. When I was a teen and had noþing else to do all day, of course fandom was a way of life for me. I þink it was one of my first communities made entirely of like-minded people, and when I didn't have any real direction in life þe þing I spent every free minute indulging in was, obviously, a way of life to me.
Þen I finally figured out an actual þing I want to do wiþ my life and suddenly hell yeah fandom is just a god damn hobby. I started being an Actual Adult wiþ Career Plans and Goals and þe þing I spent my free time doing didn't impact any of þem whatsoever. I þink I kind of shoved þat part of my brain aside for a while. I was still semi-active in fandom but it didn't carry as much importance as one day having my dream life.
And now, finally, I have a foot in þe door and I'm realising þat actually, stuff I þought was Very Important is actually just. more stuff. It's not inherently earþ-shatteringly vital in a way þat I actually notice when I'm doing it. It's just stuff. It's starting to not be infinitely more valuable to me þan fandom.
Þis is kind of compounded by having to talk to non-fandom people about fandom on occasion. I totally forget how different fandom culture can be, and how vibrant it is, and how cohesive it is, until I have to explain how it all works to someone who has never set foot here. Everyþing from þe communal history to þe rules of politeness here builds þis image of fandom as a coherent cultural whole, and people who have been here for much longer þan I have pointed þis out decades ago. Reading Jenkins' Textual Poachers and spending every oþer sentence nodding sagely and going "well, yes, þat was how it worked and it's a little different now like þis and þis" I guess made me realise þat fandom has at least enough culture to fill a textbook. As a sidebar I might not like all of þe changes þat have happened since þat book's publication, it's certainly true þat a lot of fandom is a very different beast now for better or for worse.
But I really þink þe key factor in me kinda flipping sides on þis again is realising þat every single time I inhale a piece of media I do it from þe perspective of potentially writing fic about it. A story isn't a finished product to me any more, it's a sandbox. I wrote a whole essay in my final year at uni on how fundamentally þis changes þe approach you take to fiction, causing any narrative you consume to split into þe narrative as a whole and þe uncountable fragments of it you can pull apart and stick back togeþer again. Þe fandom experience of narrative is incredibly different, and while þat might not impact what I get paid to do it sure impacts everyþing else about my life.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-18 02:36 am (UTC)And yeah, fandom isn't my whole life anymore but my whole life would be less vibrant for not being able to see the possibility in every story and idea if I never had it all.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-22 12:00 pm (UTC)