Research!

[featherynscale]

I need some help from the flist on this one, particularly those of you who consider yourself fannish. I'm interested in what the experience of fandom is like for people, generally, I think. If you could take a moment and comment below, I'd appreciate it.

What I'm particularly interested in knowing about are things like: how/when do you know you are a fan? What are your criteria for determining who is and is not a part of a fandom? What sorts of activities, if any, are you likely to participate in due to or related to your fandom? Does it affect your language or other behavior outside of strictly fandom-related activities? How does your fandom play out in your day-to-day life, if at all? That sort of thing.

Seriously. Talk to me about fandom. It's for a class I'm working on.

Thanks!

Comments

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

I think it's a matter of where you place it (book, movie, tv show, band, etc) on your personal priority list. I can't even begin to list the amount of things I've blown off to catch an episode of a show(including a college-level quarterly exam), the things I've re-arranged to catch a movie, to go to *one* bookstore in particular because they were the only one in the area carrying a particular book. Not to mention the recent Kevin Sorbo sighting in Atlanta. *sigh* Remember how fixated I was for that one moment of fangirl squee? Yeah. That's Fandom, for me, anyway.

Pride also factors into it. For instance, there was no such thing as pride for me when I first saw the advance standee for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over a year ago in the lobby of the AMC at Regency. I squeed loudly, I danced a little jig, I jumped up and down clapping my hands and squeeing at the top of my lungs. The employees looked at me like I had gone insane, but I couldn't have cared less.

And yes. There was much despair and depression over the final episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. And yes, I realize that it is/was a tv show. The ending still shook me to the core.

I find something almost mythological about it, too. Mythological in the sense that I learn from what I see/read/hear. I learn a lot, actually. For example, Before I ever kissed a boy(which was when I was 6, btw), I was studying Han and Leia in tESB intently, to try to learn how from what they did. Hee.