Comments | fortfrolic: The last fanboo

fortfrolic

The last fanboo

Nov 18, 2008 12:21

It's well-documented how much I hate "Twilight" and the entire phenomenon. No offense, Twihards, but I don't just think its bad fanfic (which it is), I think it's arguably a dangerous text for young women to be attracted to (somewhere between "suicide attempts will help me win back my one true love" and the bruises=sexy domestic abuse parable of ( Read more... )

Comments 18

heyiya November 19 2008, 02:31:25 UTC

LARPing doesn't seem all that out there to me... I've never gone near it, but a good proportion of my flist has, including people who don't identify with fandom any other way. Maybe it's just not as much connected to online fandoms for the reasons you say--it seems to have large overlap with theatre geek territory, something I say not from any great knowledge but just from stuff the assorted practitioners I know seem to say.

I suspect that the geek hierarchy got it right and the last and greatest fan pathology is furry porn...

cathexys November 19 2008, 02:52:33 UTC

I agree that furries are the true bottom of the geek hierarchy, but I'd say that LARPing is pretty close there for the reasons fortfrolic mentions: it's not just tabletop RPG, which is way geekier than MMORPGs for the F2F scheduling reasons--it's dressing up *and* RPGing.

Otoh, it's more closely allied with RenFaire and battle reenactment...

The odd thing abut the two things you mention that one's the most hidden--to me--fan activity. I mean I was in fandom for quite a while before I even knew what LARPing was and how to do it, and I've yet to see it live...and the other's the most visible and most well known fan behavior.

Heyiya, I do think that LARPing and improv theatre probably have a lot in common but you seriously know large groups of people who LARP but wouldn't connect to fandom/ID as fans? Where fo they LARP? I thought that it was mostly restricted to cons...

cathexys November 19 2008, 02:57:25 UTC

Also...I thought you RPGed? Did I misunderstand? Or just not D&D?

(And now I imagine you playing Vampire, of course!!! *bg* Tremere or Malkavian??? [OK, I researched that for an ur-reference on the Buffy fanon of Childe...]

fortfrolic November 19 2008, 03:54:51 UTC

I did spend a good deal of time RPing online (back in the Buffy days through IRC chats, and then later in the HP days on message-board based prose RPGs). That said, all my RP experience was only loosely tethered by rules (if at all), most of them structured to encourage canonicity and discourage people engaging in OOC behavior. You might get banned for, say, playing Neville Longbottom as a sociopath and crucio-ing half of his friend at the in-game Yule Ball, but there was never any structure in terms of when one character could/couldn't engage with another, and only limited restrictions on, say, characters having skills beyond their years.

Alas, I've never played D&D. The boyfriend (who has spent many an hour in the proverbial dungeon) keeps trying to get a game together here in LA, so hopefully I'll get the chance to hone my tabletop skills.

Thread 9

ixchelmala November 19 2008, 02:49:03 UTC

Seriously, I need to tell you or just post already my effing theory on how canned Ms. Meyers story characters are... and I don't mean from the world of Vampires and all that. I think she lifted it from somehitng much closer to her own upbrining. But yeah. Let's talk...

Oh yeah, and enkeli was throwing around the same idea you have about going to see the fan-girl squee of insanity.

fortfrolic November 19 2008, 04:37:04 UTC

Hehe, yes we should definitely catch up! I'm not sure what my "Twilight" plans are, so you guys keep me posted on when you might be going. We can quietly exchange Meyers concerns so as not to be tarred and feathered by Twimoms.

ixchelmala November 19 2008, 07:35:30 UTC

Sounds good! I will confer and get back to you. Either way, being tarred and feathered is defined to be avoided.

enkeli November 19 2008, 20:24:54 UTC

okay, so this will teach me to read posts before posting myself. :)

yes, definitely want to be at ground zero for this... and ix and i will keep you posted on plans!!

and i say, twimoms - BRING IT ON! ;) actually, twimoms kinda scare me and i'm really just putting on a brave front.

puffkrispy November 19 2008, 17:28:03 UTC

I agree with your sentiments about Twilight and the fandom, though I wouldn't say that I necessarily hate it. I just .. Well, something about the fandom really makes me uncomfortable. It's insane, obviously, which isn't really an anomaly in fandom - I mean, I've been in the Potter fandom for five years, so admonishing another fandom for being crazy feels a bit like the pot calling the kettle black. The fandom and anti-fandom (i.e. Twilight Moms v. Twatlighters and so on) that have come up at the same time is kind on interesting to observe. Don't get me wrong, I'm as against what I call "geek on geek crime" as any other geek, but there's still something about the mass hysteria that makes me want to run away screaming.

Also, can I just mention that in every interview I've read with RPattz and Kristen Stewart, they come off sounding like complete ungrateful assholes? Kristen Stewart, especially, calls the fans of the books retarded in a particular interview on MSN ... What? I get that then fandom is crazy and that maybe they weren't ( ... )

enkeli November 19 2008, 20:19:30 UTC

it's arguably a dangerous text for young women to be attracted to

i know we discussed this at length, but i'm so glad you've said this. :)

i've been meaning to email you to see what your plans were re. viewing this flick. i have to see this mess go down in person... !!

jennyanydots21 August 3 2010, 13:28:00 UTC

I realise it's two years after this was originally posted, but there's so much interesting stuff going on here that I couldn't resist... Also, hello! *waves* I'm an obscure first year PhD candidate from University College Dublin researching new media. I Googled you after looking over my notes from Console-ing Passions this year - your paper on Twilight and Comic-Con was one of the highlights of the conference for me, and I spent a lot of time explaining why "panopticomicon" is funny once I got home... Interesting how much of what you're talking about in this post - re: gut reactions to the Twilight fandom - came up in the panel on Twilight at Console-ing passions - did you have some input into that ( ... )

Your timing is spooky... fortfrolic August 3 2010, 16:24:25 UTC

Hey ( ... )

Re: Your timing is spooky... jennyanydots21 August 3 2010, 17:52:12 UTC

Ha, congrats on the D&D virginity loss... and your new axe! (Gotta warn you, your house is likely to fill up with latex weaponry if you're not careful...) I've found myself that the pressure of trying to come up with (vaguely meaningful, non-ranty) LJ prose while you're doing academic writing gets impossible after a certain point... but hey, your LJ'll still be there if/when you want to come back to it ( ... )