Interesting post on big fannish events
Jul. 14th, 2009 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayThis post is fascinating to read: http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/111170.html
The stuff in the comments is even better. I warn you, there are spoilers in the comments for every TV series, film and book published in the last 100 years. Not kidding.
Although they are being remarkably disciplined with Torchwood, for which I am thankful. A TW marathon shall be scheduled as soon as I have five hours to mainline it.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Which are the major fannish events that I've been there for and which ones do I wish I'd been there for? Or even wish that there had been a fandom for so that reaction could be seen?
Reading through those comments, I've actually been there for a lot of them. I'd found The Bronze (the official Buffy posting board) just before Innocence aired so I was there for the explosion and it was epic. Becoming was awesome and the summer after that had some of the most interesting speculation and biggest output of creativity that I've seen.
The Harry Potter book releases have been huge. Book 7 was like a worldwide event and I had so much fun in the run-up and reading the thousands of articles and comments on it after I'd finished mainlining it in a day and a half. I put it down long enough to watch the Tour de France stages that weekend and that was pretty much it. Then the joy continued for weeks as people read it and discussed it and made me think about it in entirely new ways.
The week between Stolen Earth and Journey's End was the biggest, most amazing week I've seen in Doctor Who fandom. Everyone was so buzzed, so filled with ideas and speculation. We all expected to have our hearts broken because we'd fallen hard for Donna, but we still didn't know how it would go. Would Donna be revealed as a Time Lord? We knew that the Tennant was leaving, but was this going to be our regeneration episode and, if so, who was the new Doctor? I remember posting at the time about how much I was loving that week and I still feel that way about it.
I think the great thing about those events is the way that the community suddenly comes together for a while. Whether it's to speculate madly, celebrate insanely, mourn (OMG, Sirius! Dumbledore! DONNNA!) or organise write-ins to save beloved shows or characters, the life and energy for those times is an amazing thing to be a part of.
Can you imagine what fandom would have done with *that* scene in Fangorn Forest if Two Towers had been released now? Or the reaction to Blake's death in MASH? (That gets me hard even though I wasn't even born when it was made) Or how insane fandom would have gone for "Luke, I'm your father"? And as for Wrath of Khan...
Fandom drives me insane sometimes, but then I remember that stuff and remember why I'm still here.
The stuff in the comments is even better. I warn you, there are spoilers in the comments for every TV series, film and book published in the last 100 years. Not kidding.
Although they are being remarkably disciplined with Torchwood, for which I am thankful. A TW marathon shall be scheduled as soon as I have five hours to mainline it.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Which are the major fannish events that I've been there for and which ones do I wish I'd been there for? Or even wish that there had been a fandom for so that reaction could be seen?
Reading through those comments, I've actually been there for a lot of them. I'd found The Bronze (the official Buffy posting board) just before Innocence aired so I was there for the explosion and it was epic. Becoming was awesome and the summer after that had some of the most interesting speculation and biggest output of creativity that I've seen.
The Harry Potter book releases have been huge. Book 7 was like a worldwide event and I had so much fun in the run-up and reading the thousands of articles and comments on it after I'd finished mainlining it in a day and a half. I put it down long enough to watch the Tour de France stages that weekend and that was pretty much it. Then the joy continued for weeks as people read it and discussed it and made me think about it in entirely new ways.
The week between Stolen Earth and Journey's End was the biggest, most amazing week I've seen in Doctor Who fandom. Everyone was so buzzed, so filled with ideas and speculation. We all expected to have our hearts broken because we'd fallen hard for Donna, but we still didn't know how it would go. Would Donna be revealed as a Time Lord? We knew that the Tennant was leaving, but was this going to be our regeneration episode and, if so, who was the new Doctor? I remember posting at the time about how much I was loving that week and I still feel that way about it.
I think the great thing about those events is the way that the community suddenly comes together for a while. Whether it's to speculate madly, celebrate insanely, mourn (OMG, Sirius! Dumbledore! DONNNA!) or organise write-ins to save beloved shows or characters, the life and energy for those times is an amazing thing to be a part of.
Can you imagine what fandom would have done with *that* scene in Fangorn Forest if Two Towers had been released now? Or the reaction to Blake's death in MASH? (That gets me hard even though I wasn't even born when it was made) Or how insane fandom would have gone for "Luke, I'm your father"? And as for Wrath of Khan...
Fandom drives me insane sometimes, but then I remember that stuff and remember why I'm still here.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 03:42 pm (UTC)It's interesting to note that I've seen hints of fandom blowing up about Torchwood - although I can't be sure because I haven't read any of it, so won't be spoiling you :) But at work our discussion is mostly, "I liked it." And a bit of discussion of bits we didn't like or expected to happen that didn't, or happened that were unexpected, but mostly the response is rational. I hate fandom for its irrationality about that sort of thing.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-14 03:53 pm (UTC)Fandom explosions of the negative kind are the ones that I avoid. SG-1 put me off that kind of thing and I think it's fandom's attitude that was the reason I didn't go back even after Daniel's resurrection. But otherwise, when it's the excited kind of explosion with lots of speculation and discussion, I thoroughly adore it. Fandom can be so fractured that it's wonderful when we get those big events that bring everyone together.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 08:24 am (UTC)Wow, that's abnormally fast!
Fandom can be so fractured that it's wonderful when we get those big events that bring everyone together.
Have there ever been any? All of the things mentioned in that post (at least on the first page, I got bored after that) are negative things that I'm very glad I wasn't around for.