Fangirl!

[partly]

I am, I have discovered, a total fangirl.

Okay, I've always been a fan. I get carried away with the stuff I like. Hang out at conventions, read and write fanfic, tape and watch the things I'm interested in obsessively, join mailing groups and LJ communities that talk about what I like, and basically act like a geek.

This has never bothered me. I am, when it comes right down to it, very comfortable with who and what I am. What I find amusing is that I'm drifting around in fandoms that have become popular enough to annoy people. The other day I was reading a journal (not sure where mind you, just surfing around) and I ran across an entry that basically said that they wanted to have the head of Harry Potter on a stick because they didn't like the books and were massively tired of everyone who was endless talking and posting about it. This was followed by many "Me Too" posts until someone said that LOTR was the bane of their existence and that they wanted to have Gandalf's head on a stick to set next to Harry's. More "Me Too" posts until someone said they wanted to replace "LOTR" and "Harry Potter" with "Wolverine" and they would be happy. It was generally decided that, because of their popularity, these fandoms were devoid of any value and were merely repositories for brainless, tasteless sheep.

At which point I realized that I annoy a great many people just by existing. I love LOTR, HP and Wolverine. The fact that they are popular doesn't change the fact that I love them. Yes, those fandoms are full of newbes and plebes, and people who are more interested the actors than the characters, but so what? Those fandoms are also ripe with wonderful themes, motifs, characterizations and dramatic possibilities.

Granted there are times when I feel the urge to proclaim that I've been a fan of LOTR almost longer than Orlando Bloom has been alive... and times when I wish people understood that there is a difference between the actor and the characters... and times when I want to point out that writing and reading porn that stars the actors' bodies is not the same as being a fan of the story or even the characters...

But somehow that feels like I'm defending or justifing my liking of the fandom, and that gives the complaints a weight that they don't deserve.

The people who were complaining about HP, LotR and Wolverine weren't doing it based on the merits -- or lack there of -- of each book/movie/comic/fandom. They just were whining that others were enjoying something they didn't like. And while I understand the irritation of having a lot of people like something that you couldn't care less about, the elitism that is inherent in choosing your likes and dislikes based only on how many others like them bothers me. It's just as stupid to dislike something because "everyone else likes it" as it is to like something because "everyone else does". In either case, you letting others dictate what you do.

And if you're so arrogant to believe that simply because you don't like something, it shouldn't exist-- well, there's very little chance that you will ever be happy.

And I will, usually, be glad to be the one that irritates you.

Comments

[crantz.livejournal.com]

I'd feel so lonely if I only went into fandoms that had nobody else around.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the "nobody else around" as the "only a small percentage of the population around" thingy. Every fan needs some mundanes to freak; it's like a need. If you can't walk down the street dressed so weirdly that people turn to give you strange looks (which Partly always excelled at...) then you need to be able to be reading something that makes them look at you funny when they learn that even though you're reading a comic book printed in Japanese, you don't speak/read the Japanese language. Or somesuch.

If something gets too popular, there's nobody around to freak. It's quite a serious problem! ;-)

[partly.livejournal.com]

If you can't walk down the street dressed so weirdly that people turn to give you strange looks (which Partly always excelled at...)

HEY! Okay... it's true. But even if I can get people to give me strange looks just by how I dress (or the fact that I have hair wraps) that doesn't stop me from having Japanese manga written in Japanese when I don't read Japanese... or from reading comic books when there are few people around here who think adults shouldn't read comics... or having LotR or Wolverine all over my work computer... or going to midnight movies...

See, I can be part of popular fandoms and still be considered weird. I can freak out almost anyone.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I can freak out almost anyone.

Just 'cuz you're in the boondocks...but, y'know, more opportunites are BETTER. Right?

[partly.livejournal.com]

Fandoms with people are a lot more fun. And a lot more entertaining.

And, do to the relatively low-density geek population in the area I live in, fandoms with a lot of people are more likely to have a representation near me.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

The only thing that irritates me is that annoying whiny country music at 5 am.

The rest of it...I'm with ya on!!

I still find it weird that LOTR and Wolverine fandom aren't five social outcasts sitting in a corner geeking out while everyone else reads V.C. Andrews or something. At least HP was popular when I read it, but I did feel like I was doing something wrong by reading a popular set of books. Totally against my inner identity, that. It does help to realize that there ARE chunks of people who find each of them annoying, of course. There's shades of that "normal" outcastedness to that.

[partly.livejournal.com]

I'm not an outcast. I am normal.

Or so my personalities keep telling me.

I still find it weird that LOTR and Wolverine fandom aren't five social outcasts sitting in a corner geeking out

This is a very good point as neither seem to be really fan-friendly. I read HP long after they were popular but I had you to lead the way so I knew they had to have some geeky value.

You outcast, you.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I think neither was accessible to many teenagers until they were presented in a teenager-friendly format. I mean, usually walking around with a comic book branded you as a social outcast. Likewise any book as long as LOTR.

*sings a rousing chorus of "God Help the Outcasts"*

Yay!

[powerpynt.livejournal.com]

In 1969 I was in the navy and had a day free. The PX had a bookrack, and on it I discovered a huge paperback that had a cool cover; something that might suit a guy who'd spent years taking drugs and living as much in fantasy as out.

I'd never heard of Lotr, Hobbit, or Tolkein, but I read the 500 some pages in one pass and tucked the book away for another read much later.

In 1975 I was bored and picked up a new paperback novel at a local drug store. It was called Salem's Lot, and the white, embossed cover with a single bright red drop of blood hooked me to pick it up more than anything else. I'd never heard the name Steven King, and couldn't have cared less really. Any port in a storm. I loved it, again in one pass overnight, and then read everything King wrote until maybe Cujo.

I've since had friends pound King, particularly writer friends who think he's pedestrian. And in the end on reflection, I had to agree with certain novels...Firestarter for example...not only a so so book, but a really stupid movie adaptation. But it felt funny to defend my taste, and to defend against what was part jealousy and part popularity rebellion.

I stopped reading King when he bored me, the same reason I've never read Rawlings past a few pages or Silmarillion.

Taste is a scary thing, and some people find it necessary to drop their taste into others laps, just as an evangelist might try to convert. To that end they will generally use any means, including elitism. Picasso lovers might scoff at Monet huggers might spit on Peter Max afficionados and so on, because being unique, or at least part of a small, intellectually superior collective is indeed seductive. And some people live to be seduced. Don't fall for it. The more people bleat, the more likely they are the real sheep.

As for porn, I have to say for some reason I never thought I'd see that word here; not that it matters, I just found it amusing that it surprised me.

And it never occured to me there was a world out there of book characters doin' the nasty. The idea that hobbits even have sex strikes me as a little oogy, like thinking about my parents doin it. I know they did....but lord I don't wanna think about it.

I visualize Wolfie on his back, hands solidly gripping the waist of a nubile lass who moves above him. They both begin the power breathing that will bring release...and as all humans do, even those with adamantite additions, a little involuntary muscle spasm occurs; a spurt of electrical energy from the brain to the motor responses to exclaim how happy life has become.

The next frame shows the girl dead, still bleeding from her sides, and the penitant Wolverine standing at a Xavier Institute blackboard writing for the hundredth time:
"I will never have naughty thoughts again...I will never..."

[partly.livejournal.com]

And it never occurred to me there was a world out there of book characters doin' the nasty.

I sometimes lurk in very scary places and forget that not everyone has been there. Not all knowledge is enlightening.

As for your little insight in to Wolverine... thank you. I'm sure I will never look at him the same way again. LOL. *wipes tears of laughter away*

[powerpynt.livejournal.com]

Scary doesn't scare me lass. I'm only hurt that you never gave me the address.

I swear...I saw it happen! Talk about scary!