Adult Fandom: C/D

adult fandom is great. wtf, thread? i'm glad that people's imaginations get captured by stuff, especially if that stuff makes them happy and allows them to meet similarly captured fellow travelers. better than getting all crazy about the rapture or the gold standard or w/e.

full disclosure: my mom cuts pictures of benedict cumberbatch out of waiting room magazines.

I'm confused by this thread too, especially since ilx is full of mostly obsessive fans of all sorts. As far as I know there is no line to cross between fan and fandom. And if there is, where would that line be? I've never been in a fan club or made officially recognised contributions to anything but I'd still say I'm part of many fandoms because I enjoy, support and communicate about these things.

But I do dislike fan consumerism and many other fannish traits intensely and believe that those tendencies destroy the good things. The word "fanboy" is a valid insult in my eyes.

most people - adults, even! - are fans of something or someone to a greater or lesser degree and it just manifests in different ways

an adult with no cultural enthusiasm or the willingness to display it - someone who just stays in their lane and drearily consumes whatever their demographic is supposed to be into - is much weirder and duller than someone unabashedly excited about a sport or author or musician or whatever that they love

fandom is the mechanism by which dreary consumption and lane calcification happens though

I wouldn't consider myself a part of any particular fandom (Fandom?) but I do appreciate that various fandoms exist for things that I like. Like Tuomas, I appreciate there being people who want to have in depth conversations about the media I enjoy. I can also really see the appeal of immersing yourself deeper into a particular world. I think video games offer this opportunity, but I am uniformly terrible at the kind of video games that provide immersive environments, so it is fun sometimes to read websites or "extended universe" stuff about fictional characters I like. Sure some people get really weird about it and tying your identity up completely with somebody else's creative input might cause some problems but people get weird about everything. I guess I mostly see fandoms as harmless often charming hobbies.

Oh god no wait I've gone to multiple Star Trek conventions so I guess I take back the first part of my comment. LLAP.

creative output, not input

Also I think fandom as it originally sprung from the geek/sci fi/Star Trek/slash fic/convention-type mentality is a whole other animal from sports fandom, if for no other reason than liking sports, even fanatically, is considered a normal, positive way of interacting with popular culture, insofar as its strongly encouraged (wear your favorite team jersey to work day, for example) and met with approval. Fandom as in fictional universe fandom is still very much associated with basement dwelling dorks with no social skills, etc. etc. etc., and considered ripe for mocker. Like, when everybody is talking about going to a Cubs game on Saturday I'm sure not going to pipe up "Oh well, there is this movie event where theaters show remastered versions ST:TNG episodes on the big screen!"* So two different animals, IMO.

*Actually I totally would. Fuck the haterz.

soi-disant online hardman explains maturity, sweet sign me up

― every moser (wins), Saturday, 29 March 2014 14:18 (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― wins, Friday, 16 May 2014 16:07 (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool post

Seriously, can't think of a better arbiter of what constitutes adult behavior than a representative of vice magazine who posts pathetically transparent subposts on an internet forum under that name

online hardman is a vice mag rep? great HBO program, dude. kudos.

jk it's a rubbish name

if some dude calls you tanline nerdman will u change it

http://static.thecia.com.au/star-trek/deep-space-nine/7/02b5.jpg
star trek sports fandom

CA killin it itt

Being too cool to express enthusiasm is soooo coool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaKskB43I_M

cool revive

SHOTS FIRED

mods wtf

Dwight Yorke, back with a vengence!

we used to be m8s m8

You were great.

Anyway. What you listening to atm? Into any of the PC Music stuff? I can't get enough of that at the moment.

Thom M aka Jim_F is trying to get me to go see Perfume in Ldn in Nov, fancy a meetup?

gonna ilx message ya

the issues raised in this thread I think have made me less of a spurs fan

thanks tbf

A pretty good piece in the Atlantic about antis in the context of Depp v Heard.

Interesting, disturbing read. Makes sense that the conspiratorial mindset of recent years - qanon, flat earth, anti vaxx - would spread in these ways I guess.

Oh very much so. Horrific to see. The linked tumblr essay in that piece was very good.

The pathologies on display cross over a great deal with what a lot of Americans think about political folks, too

imo, fandom in general trends toward pathology and the stronger it is, the unhealthier it is.

About the only fanatical fandom I think deserves any slack are fans whose lives are so physically constrained that their experience of the world outside of their room(s) is almost entirely mediated, so that apart from meeting their most basic physical needs they live vicariously through identification with their chosen idols. Not coincidentally, the idols of choice among this demographic tend to be athletes.

I recently discovered that there's a zoomer fandom for classic Hollywood, and they even do the "x is cancelled" type discourse around whatever someone in the fandom has dug up on some ancient stars. Today I read the sentence "the stuff that's coming out about Marlene Dietrich is some truly wild shit"; not quite as good as a few days ago tho when I saw someone say "Henry Fonda looks suss fr".