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everything's FINE
Things I know about yesterday: Donnatella Moss didn't die. I learned that on AIM. Then I learned about denialcorp on AIM as far as SV's concerned, and I share the following: EVERYTHING'S FINE. Then I saw Angel and lots of people died, but since it was the APOCALYPSE and also most of them were demons I'm pretty sure that's not a spoiler. Seriously, it's not a spoiler, I'm just being cavalier about mortality.
And in that spirit, I give you![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
raincitygirl's denialcakes LJ entry, full of distracting comedic links and Jon Stewart's commencement address at William & Mary College. The latter is really damned good.
*
I'm living in a place where I don't really have a participatory fandom; where my diversity is manifest as dilution, or the center cannot hold, something like that. Babylon 5's the deepest of my current wading pools, and, I say again, dude, any fandom where ff.net's the go-to fic archive (Enemies & Allies, being specialized, and having under 20 stories, not withstanding, of course) is a sorry state of affairs.
But B5's representing in a big way. There's a loud and energetic group of girls here on LJ, and over at t_m; folks likebarkley and andrastewhite are watching the episodes anew and we're having character discussions and some fearsome debates. Totally not sneezing at the B5 fandom, of whose ranks I am proud to be a member: I love you all.
But I was thinking about the experience of fandom, of *a* fandom (rather than fannishness in general), and I do kinda miss being part of a big meaty one. For the purposes of this argument, "Big Fandom" describes a group of people who largely know one another's names and reputations, where there's BNFs and where people can be identified by writing style, where there's a dozen specialized fic archives and fan sites that people know by name or acronym, where there's flamewars and aggravation and community -- all around one specific show/book/medium.
Maybe LJ and the current tread toward polyfanism has created a dilution of the big-ass fandoms, but they're still around. You can see it in HP, for one thing, in SV, in the Buffy/Angelverse still, even. In the comicverse/Batverse/JL-verse too, at this point. And there's probably still folks participating in the West Wing fandom, though I don't know the state of it at the moment. CSI and Alias both seem to have considerable community followings. What else? Where's the Big Fandom, nowadays?
I had it last in Farscape, before that was WW, and to a degree in SN, though Sports Night never had the same kind of community feel as other Big Fandoms. Before that, of course, was XF, the One Big Fandom To Rule Them All, and before that, I had Trek, the One Big Fandom To Birth Them All.
Now -- I have B5, and we're the fannish equivalent of the kiddie table. We're trying our damndest, but at the end of the day, there's maybe a dozen of us total, t_m and ff.net. Jeremiah never got off the ground, though the Samwise and Markus fans are representing over on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
valhalla_sector like troopers. Band of Brothers will never be a fannishy fandom, because, oddly, we've got too much respect for it to take it to that loving/mocking place. camp_toccoa is an awesome community, and a great crowd, but, you know, not the same thing.
And then there's Firefly, which, as Punk commented when we were discussing this, is a side-dish fandom. Everyone's got a lump of Firefly on the side, next to their main-course Angel or HP or SV or Farscape. Firefly -- there's no there there, despite the fact that it surpasses, in sheer numbers, all three of my other fandoms combined.
So, what's the buzz? Am I alone in this? Are other folks noticing a fannish diaspora that's caused a dilution in the concept of Big Fandoms? And for you kids who are still in Big Fandoms -- where are they? HP, SV, Alias? How're they workin' out for you?
And in that spirit, I give you
raincitygirl's denialcakes LJ entry, full of distracting comedic links and Jon Stewart's commencement address at William & Mary College. The latter is really damned good.*
I'm living in a place where I don't really have a participatory fandom; where my diversity is manifest as dilution, or the center cannot hold, something like that. Babylon 5's the deepest of my current wading pools, and, I say again, dude, any fandom where ff.net's the go-to fic archive (Enemies & Allies, being specialized, and having under 20 stories, not withstanding, of course) is a sorry state of affairs.
But B5's representing in a big way. There's a loud and energetic group of girls here on LJ, and over at t_m; folks like
barkley and andrastewhite are watching the episodes anew and we're having character discussions and some fearsome debates. Totally not sneezing at the B5 fandom, of whose ranks I am proud to be a member: I love you all.But I was thinking about the experience of fandom, of *a* fandom (rather than fannishness in general), and I do kinda miss being part of a big meaty one. For the purposes of this argument, "Big Fandom" describes a group of people who largely know one another's names and reputations, where there's BNFs and where people can be identified by writing style, where there's a dozen specialized fic archives and fan sites that people know by name or acronym, where there's flamewars and aggravation and community -- all around one specific show/book/medium.
Maybe LJ and the current tread toward polyfanism has created a dilution of the big-ass fandoms, but they're still around. You can see it in HP, for one thing, in SV, in the Buffy/Angelverse still, even. In the comicverse/Batverse/JL-verse too, at this point. And there's probably still folks participating in the West Wing fandom, though I don't know the state of it at the moment. CSI and Alias both seem to have considerable community followings. What else? Where's the Big Fandom, nowadays?
I had it last in Farscape, before that was WW, and to a degree in SN, though Sports Night never had the same kind of community feel as other Big Fandoms. Before that, of course, was XF, the One Big Fandom To Rule Them All, and before that, I had Trek, the One Big Fandom To Birth Them All.
Now -- I have B5, and we're the fannish equivalent of the kiddie table. We're trying our damndest, but at the end of the day, there's maybe a dozen of us total, t_m and ff.net. Jeremiah never got off the ground, though the Samwise and Markus fans are representing over on
valhalla_sector like troopers. Band of Brothers will never be a fannishy fandom, because, oddly, we've got too much respect for it to take it to that loving/mocking place. camp_toccoa is an awesome community, and a great crowd, but, you know, not the same thing. And then there's Firefly, which, as Punk commented when we were discussing this, is a side-dish fandom. Everyone's got a lump of Firefly on the side, next to their main-course Angel or HP or SV or Farscape. Firefly -- there's no there there, despite the fact that it surpasses, in sheer numbers, all three of my other fandoms combined.
So, what's the buzz? Am I alone in this? Are other folks noticing a fannish diaspora that's caused a dilution in the concept of Big Fandoms? And for you kids who are still in Big Fandoms -- where are they? HP, SV, Alias? How're they workin' out for you?
no subject
Well, from the days B.H. (before
My fannish experience started with Star Trek as well, and it was a pleasant one, so I have good memories of the Big Fandom experience, but I can't say the Small Fandom experience frustrates me. It's quite fun, being a pioneer.*g*
no subject
but I can't say the Small Fandom experience frustrates me. It's quite fun, being a pioneer.*g*
Agreed, particularly here, because B5 is so friendly and awesome. But I almost miss some of the...anonymity of a big fandom. Then again, as the internet gets smaller, with LJ and blogs and so on, there's not really anonymity anywhere in fandom to be found.
no subject
My last fandom was the Silmarillion, which was also based on ff.net. The difference was, it was much more tightly organized - there was *one* mailing list, and we used it for discussion, and to plug our fics on ff.net. The B5 fandom seems to be very fragmented by pairing, and broken down into very many small lists and LJ-communities. Which makes it harder to get to know people, and also harder to find what's out there. There are advantages to the way we have it, though - the Silmarillion community nearly broke down because when people didn't get along there was nothing they could do to avoid each other. And the community we have is nice too.
no subject
Also, couldn't resist. The new