It's also every fandom ever when there's a movie or tv show based on a venerable source text. meanwhile plenty of fans love the original and enjoy the reboots or updates.
Ship wars are stupid. As is finger-wagging and bashing and shutdown attempts because some think they can tell others what it's really about and what matters.
Spot-on post! Thanks for linking it. I particularly appreciate the point about how ridiculous it is to feel superior about authenticity of a source material or early fandom. That's always baffled me.
It just seems like such a weird cognitive dissonance, that people who are in fandom, and are therefore almost certainly engaged with interpreting the source material to some extent, can have this massive blind spot about allowing other people to do the same.
Yep, and the assigning of the labels, how do you even define a True Fan when fandom has such diverse opinions in interest and taste to begin with, "true" according to WHOM? Who wrote the rule book? Are some fans more qualified than others to dictate what it's acceptable to care about, focus on, get upset over...why are they more qualified? Does # of years in fandom x what you ship x claims to greater levels of sanity divided by pie decide it? New kids slap the label on as well. Maybe they're hoping to fit in better?
People aren't going to like or approve of certain factions, ships, approaches to the text--that seems like part of fannish life. But the post focuses on the attempts to docket and stamp on a label, falsely assigning intrinsic value and elevating their own perspective in the process.
I agree completely. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, with the second season start to Game of Thrones, because a large, prominent portion of the ASOIAF book fandom is dominated by people who believe to the very bottom of their hearts that they did, in fact, write the rule book on being a True Fan, and therefore get to dictate everybody else's fannish experience for them. It's really frustrating, because I get excited about the show and want to talk about it with other fans, but I feel running into the wall of, "If you're not criticizing it at a level we find appropriate, you are not a true fan of the books
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I really like the essay's points about how that labeling attempts to eliminate debate and rebuttal. Where instead of actual argument or discussion, instead there's "but your viewpoint and feelings are less worthy to be heard and less valid than mine" from the get-go. In GoT, you could have insights from fans deeply familiar with the books that make for richer discussion, but that goes south when the old shool fans keep telling everyone else their perspective has no value. people who arrive late to a party often notice things others can't because sometimes it's hard to step back and see clearly when you've been immersed for so long. It's also true that focuses shift, or we add on to what was already awesome, expand the lenses we use to incorporate that. That fans bash each other for that is frustrating. I recently watched (like a car wreck) a blatant example of True Fanhooding where fans took issue with negative opinions while they denigrated other things others were enhusiastic about. There was a strong air of gatekeeping and Othering
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Yes, the thing is fandom is so diverse in viewpoint and favorites and style and taste and whatfans want from their source texts and what they're in it for, it seems ludicrous IMO for any one group to even attempt to take the high ground of Proper Fanhood (yet some keep trying).
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It's just like the way I can never understand people who get ANGRY at people who like a different 'ship. Why? Who cares?
In conclusion: People. Why so stupid?
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Ship wars are stupid. As is finger-wagging and bashing and shutdown attempts because some think they can tell others what it's really about and what matters.
Reply
It just seems like such a weird cognitive dissonance, that people who are in fandom, and are therefore almost certainly engaged with interpreting the source material to some extent, can have this massive blind spot about allowing other people to do the same.
Reply
People aren't going to like or approve of certain factions, ships, approaches to the text--that seems like part of fannish life. But the post focuses on the attempts to docket and stamp on a label, falsely assigning intrinsic value and elevating their own perspective in the process.
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I agree completely. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, with the second season start to Game of Thrones, because a large, prominent portion of the ASOIAF book fandom is dominated by people who believe to the very bottom of their hearts that they did, in fact, write the rule book on being a True Fan, and therefore get to dictate everybody else's fannish experience for them. It's really frustrating, because I get excited about the show and want to talk about it with other fans, but I feel running into the wall of, "If you're not criticizing it at a level we find appropriate, you are not a true fan of the books ( ... )
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