more fandom thoughts

[smg01]

I started this post in a conversation in cindywrites journal and then decided it was drifting too far and to put in my own lj.

We were discussing Kristen Bell's comments in interviews about VM and her watching/not watching the show and expressing opinions that run counter to a lot of fan opinion.

Over the past few years I've just really started to have some mixed feelings about fandoms, which I think is part of what was driving my defense of KB in my friend's journal. Fans are so invested and sometimes seem to take comments from those involved so personally. It troubles me sometimes. On a personal level it can interfere with my own enjoyment of a show. (I've commented before that I swore that I would never get involved in fandoms again because it's such a double-edged sword. Of course I keep dipping my toe in anyway.)

So, yes, fandom. It's been my observation in the past couple of years or more that fandom itself is something of a double-edged sword for the shows that they support. They're obsessed, they love fiercely, they bring energy and buzz and even sometimes keep a show alive. Every show needs and wants a rabid audience. But fans can have a crippling effect too. And I'm not sure that that self awareness is present as much as it should be. I love Veronica Mars but I kinda stay away from the fans--except for the people I already know--because they kinda scare me. And I worry sometimes that they have the opposite affect from the one that is intended when it comes to bringing new fans to the show.

It's a fine line between enthusiasm and off-putting obnoxiousness. To draw an example from a different setting on the television dial: I watched Farscape occassionally when it was on the air. Didn't love it, didn't hate it. I tended not to make time to watch it, but maybe would have gotten into it eventually. My feelings were basically neutral. However. Over the years, there's a segment of the fandom that has struck me as so obnoxious, smug, so "this is the best show ever, ever, ever, and all else is crap, and if you don't like this you're obviously stupid, you have no taste, and how can you like "X" and not like this, there's something wrong with you." (I'm paraphrasing a little. Maybe a lot. But the attitude is there.) It's a huge turn off for me. I don't think I will ever watch Farscape now. Petty of me? Yes. Am I missing out on something really good? Probably. But it has these associations for me now. And I can't get past them. Sorry to all of my Farscape friends out there. Nothing personal against any of you. I love you all and I'm not thinking of you in the context of this paragraph.

The above has been an eye-opening personal revelation for me. I don't proselytize very aggressively for "my" shows anymore. I don't want to be the one that turns a potential fan into an annoyed "get away from me with this show"-type of person. I watch a little bit of what goes on in the VM universe and I worry that as hard as they're working to bring in new fans, they may be sending a lot of people running in the other direction too. It's why as a fan of various shows, I have to keep things a little lighter in my public fannishness. I obsess from my living room. (Boy, do I ever.) But "out there," I have to keep a little bit of emotional distance, or the fun goes away and the angst and the stress replaces it. I have enough of that in my real life. I finally realized that I don't need it in my fan life too.

Standard disclaimer: All of the above is not to say people who "do" fandom differently are wrong or that anyone has to agree with me. It's just how my own thinking and interactions have evolved over the years.

Comments

What an evening . . .

[joseph-obrien.livejournal.com]

I've since chalked the whole Farscape fan incident to the intellectual insecurity that walks hand-in-hand with the social retardation common to so many sf/fantasy/comic book fans. They need to constantly emphasise their own intelligence, because they consider it to be their strongest personality trait. Unfortunately it tends to manifest itself as a sense of unearned superiority, essentially telling other people that they're dumb. Which just leads to further social alienation. They need to feel smarter than everyone else, because it's all they've got going for them.

Re: What an evening . . .

[suzannemarie.livejournal.com]

There may be something to that. There are a lot socially underdeveloped people out there.

Another element that it seems like I see often in fandoms: that being a seeming inability to like something or extol the virtues of something on it's own merits. Personally, I far prefer to read about "I love show X because so and so is a wonderful character and the writing moves me, or amuses me or etc., etc." to "Show X is so good, not like show Y which sucks and has much worse writing and acting, etc. etc." Of course it's perfectly acceptable to dislike any show and/or to compare any show unfavorably to your favorite one. I don't object to the idea in and of itself. Where it becomes tiresome for me is when a pattern emerges of praising one thing by constantly tearing down something else. Or when an unwritten rule seems to arise that if you like a particular thing, then you're not allowed to like or appreciate the perceived rival to it.

Re: What an evening . . .

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

Or like when SGA people give the smack down to the SG-1 people and vice versa...