Fannish Migration Meme

[selenak]

Seen on various flists.

Have you ever followed friends/favorite authors into a fandom without ever having seen/read the source material?

No, not in the sense of having become a fan, let alone writing fanfiction, without having seen/read the source material. In fact, that's one of my tried and true anti-kinks. I absolutely hate it when someone states "I haven't watched/read XYZ, but here's my story" - few things make me back off faster as a reader. And I've seen it happen in a lot of fandoms- people basing their characterisation on fanfiction, rather than on the source material. (Mind you, in a fandom like Doctor Who, where with 40 years of canon material, some of which has been destroyed forever - thanks, BBC! - it's impossible to have watched everything. However, it's easy to keep writing about what you are familiar with, i.e. if you've only watched New Who, stay away from the previous regenerations and companions, and try to avoid grand sweeping statements about the Doctor's lives and emotional states during same. Or if you've watched Four but no previous regenerations, then kindly stay away from One to Three. And so on.) (And then there is the "I only watched the Methos episodes" phenomen of Highlander fanfiction. Which used to drive me crazy. This might qualify whoever is writing to write about Methos, but the Duncan characterisation almost invariably is faulty or sucks, and often the same is true for the Joe characterisation, for Amanda and Richie.)

All this being said: what did happen to me was that I became curious about fandoms by reading crossovers in which I didn't know one of the fandoms involved, or by "meeting" characters via roleplay at theatrical_muse when I was still active there. This then led to my tracking down the original source material and becoming fannish, or not.

Have you ever really enjoyed the source material, read the work of specific authors into a fandom, and yet have no interest in the fandom as a whole?

That did happen, usually with source material that didn't or doesn't have a large fandom to become involved with, like, say, Dexter, but also with a really big fandom like Harry Potter where I liked the novels and the occasional fanfic by writer I already was familiar with elsewhere, but no more than that. What also happens in regular intervals is that shipping wars and character bashing in various big fandoms drive me crazy and I have to absent myself from doing anything but watch/read the source material for a while. Though the "bah, fandom!" mode usually is then elevated by reading great fanfic or great meta once I get back into it.

Have you ever been strenuously pimped by your friends into another fandom and immediately fell in love with the source material?

Absolutely. Sometimes it took a bit longer - with Buffy, for example, which was pimped to me by fellow Highlander fans, but which I didn't get fannish about until perhaps three quarters of a season, or Alias, where it also took a season and some episodes more - and sometimes it really did happen very quickly. *pauses for mournful thought of having marathoned most of Heroes season 1 during the last s1 hiatus and the effect that had back then*

Have you ever gotten into a TV show/movie before your friends and busily pimped the source material to them in the hopes that a fandom would ensue?

I'm still feeling smug about successfully pimping both Babylon 5 and Alias to andrastewhite. This increased the percentage of Londo/G'Kar and Arvin Sloane fanfiction to no end, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Not the only example of successful pimping - looks at bimo and thaliaseawood - but still one of my favourites.

Have you ever gotten into a TV show/movie and tried to pimp it to your friends only to find out that they’d just gotten into it as well and were about to pimp right back?

Not really, no.

Have you ever been part of a mass migration into another fandom?

Hm, as I joined Buffy fandom between s2 and s3 of the original broadcast time when the show was at the height of its popularity - yes, I suppose? On the other hand, I usually never leave old fandoms behind completely, and keep coming back every now and then. Also, the biggest fannish mass migration in my time on lj was to Supernatural, and I just couldn't follow, even when for a time everyone seemed to be crazy about it. (The "no nasty girls near our boyz"!!! posts around SPN s2 were a big, big reason, admittedly.) Since it's unfair to make judgments about something based on fannish reactions, I eventually got around to watching the first season, decided it really was not for me and have been happy to stay away from that particular migration ever since.

Comments

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Probably there is nothing I can say that is truly in defense of the Supernatural fandom, since I tend to stay the fuck away from episode reactions and stick to the fic/vids/art/occasional bit of meta if it's level-headed. This way, I get all of the good bits, but none of the bad bits--and I don't notice the actual glaring issues with the show until someone points them out months later, but oh well. (I'd like to think the "no girls allowed!" trend has settled down a bit, since the fourth season had not only a female character who flirted shamelessly with the boys and promptly became a fan favorite but also a recurring female character whose sex scene with one of the boys is generally considered the hottest of the show. But then, the first one was only in two episodes and the second one gets bashed for her acting, so. I'm just going to shut up now.)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

There, there. I've loved my share of flawed primary sources - *looks with undeterred fondness at Star Wars prequels* - and I don't want to you to feel bad for enjoying something. I was just explaining why I never could join SPN fandom when about two thirds of my friends did!

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Have I ever told you that I watched La Femme Nikita only because I think Peta Wilson is hot?

...that is far less off topic than it might seem.

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

You have never told me that, but now I am wondering how this can possibly be on-topic.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

I don't even know if the show is good or not, but I suspect it isn't. Yet I'm sure I watched at least two seasons, and I'm not at all ashamed for that. Nor for my extremely shallow reason for watching it...

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh! That makes much more sense in relation to the context. I myself can admit to only watching a terrible James Dean biopic because it had James Franco in it, although that was admittedly less of a timesuck...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

This reminds me: have you seen Milk already?

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

Hell yes I have, and it was awesome! And sad, but in a hopeful sort of way, except it was still a bit depressing because that was thirty years ago and things have not really gotten all that much better except in a couple states. Still, hopeful is hopeful.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Well, I did stop short of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I couldn't do that even for Peta Wilson.

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

See, I watched that even without caring who she was.

I've made better decisions in my life.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Bad movie decisions: I saw The Messenger (that horrible Joan of Arc massacre by Luc Besson) and didn't walk out of it, just because the guy I had a crush on wanted to watch it. After three hours of suffering I had enough material that I can rant about the movie for hours to this day, but at least I was cured of the crush.