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Me + my fandom = OTP
Jul. 8th, 2009 05:39 pmThis goes back to some discussions about the nature of fandom that were going on a few weeks ago. I don't do meta much (well, at all), so if my thoughts aren't coherent I do apologize.
It strikes me that in discussions of "fandom" as an entity, it's kind of assumed that people are multi-fannish, flitting around from fandom to fandom, constantly distracted by the new and shiny, and that that's just how fans are. To me, this is odd, because I am staunchly monofannish. I was involved in Buffy fandom for several years, although I did not participate in traditional fannish creative activities like fic while in that fandom. Then, as the posting board I was on began to die down and people started to migrate to other services like LJ, my level of participation in the fandom decreased, but through fannish friends I found The Libertines in late 2005. I found the Libs fic fandom in 2006, wrote my first fic ever that fall, and have been happily ensconced in Libertines fandom ever since. I am a fan of other things, of course - as I type, I'm keeping an anxious eye on my Torchwood dl. But I wouldn't consider myself a member of Doctor Who fandom, per se. I don't write meta or reviews or fic. I just watch. Obsessively, mind you, but I just watch. I just don't feel the urge to get involved fannishly in anything besides the Libs. If and when I run out of fic ideas, I doubt I'll go looking for another fannish sandbox to play in. If I find something else, fine, but I won't actively seek it out. I'll still write, but it probably won't be fic.
I wonder if I'm a special snowflake, or if there actually are other people like me. People who have an OTP with their particular fandom, rather than fandom at large. I have the impression that a lot of meta is written by multi-fannish types, perhaps because of their interest in fandom as a whole. I also think that larger fandoms that attract the multi-fannish meta types work in a different way than smaller communities that may have more monofans in them. Certainly, what I know of the bandom RPS community from my friends who participate in it is that it has quite a different dynamic than Libertines RPS, and I wonder if that's because people who frequently migrate from fandom to fandom bring in ideas and ways of doing things from other fandoms which are then accepted and become part of "what fandom does." For instance, fic challenges are a big part of other slash communities, but have never taken off in Libs fic. I had to ask someone on my friends list who writes in bandom what a "Big Bang fic" was. I thought it was something to do with orgies!
Anyway, as I said, just wondering if there were other monofans out there, and whether you think of yourself as being part of "fandom" as a whole, or just your particular fandom.
It strikes me that in discussions of "fandom" as an entity, it's kind of assumed that people are multi-fannish, flitting around from fandom to fandom, constantly distracted by the new and shiny, and that that's just how fans are. To me, this is odd, because I am staunchly monofannish. I was involved in Buffy fandom for several years, although I did not participate in traditional fannish creative activities like fic while in that fandom. Then, as the posting board I was on began to die down and people started to migrate to other services like LJ, my level of participation in the fandom decreased, but through fannish friends I found The Libertines in late 2005. I found the Libs fic fandom in 2006, wrote my first fic ever that fall, and have been happily ensconced in Libertines fandom ever since. I am a fan of other things, of course - as I type, I'm keeping an anxious eye on my Torchwood dl. But I wouldn't consider myself a member of Doctor Who fandom, per se. I don't write meta or reviews or fic. I just watch. Obsessively, mind you, but I just watch. I just don't feel the urge to get involved fannishly in anything besides the Libs. If and when I run out of fic ideas, I doubt I'll go looking for another fannish sandbox to play in. If I find something else, fine, but I won't actively seek it out. I'll still write, but it probably won't be fic.
I wonder if I'm a special snowflake, or if there actually are other people like me. People who have an OTP with their particular fandom, rather than fandom at large. I have the impression that a lot of meta is written by multi-fannish types, perhaps because of their interest in fandom as a whole. I also think that larger fandoms that attract the multi-fannish meta types work in a different way than smaller communities that may have more monofans in them. Certainly, what I know of the bandom RPS community from my friends who participate in it is that it has quite a different dynamic than Libertines RPS, and I wonder if that's because people who frequently migrate from fandom to fandom bring in ideas and ways of doing things from other fandoms which are then accepted and become part of "what fandom does." For instance, fic challenges are a big part of other slash communities, but have never taken off in Libs fic. I had to ask someone on my friends list who writes in bandom what a "Big Bang fic" was. I thought it was something to do with orgies!
Anyway, as I said, just wondering if there were other monofans out there, and whether you think of yourself as being part of "fandom" as a whole, or just your particular fandom.
