{"id":232012,"date":"2014-01-18T07:48:09","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T07:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/01\/18\/a-word-about-fandom\/"},"modified":"2014-01-18T07:48:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T07:48:09","slug":"a-word-about-fandom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2014\/01\/18\/a-word-about-fandom\/","title":{"rendered":"A word about fandom"},"content":{"rendered":"

stultiloquentia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

ifeelbetterer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I really do think the biggest problem about show runners, authors, and suchlike responding to fandom\u2014online or otherwise\u2014is that they\u2019re fundamentally misunderstood what fandom is.<\/p>\n

They see a group of fans and they assume that they, the author, is like unto a god for these fans and that they can send decrees down to them from on high.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what fandom is at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No one is more critical of art than fandom. No one is more capable of investigating the nuances of expression than fandom\u2014because it\u2019s a vast multitude pooling resources and ideas. Fandom is about correcting<\/em> the flaws and vices of the original. It\u2019s about protest and rebellion, essentially. Fandom is the voice of a mob that can do better than the original, that often flies in the face of the original, that will accept nothing less than the best the medium (and the human at the helm) is capable of. Fandom is about putting debate and conversation back into an artistic process\u2014-especially<\/em> if the artist or author in question has become so vain that all criticism falls on deaf ears. (Moffat, I\u2019m looking at you.) Fandom is about mutual creative expression\u2014-there are no gods in fandom and every time someone thinks they\u2019ve become a god of fandom, fandom corrects them again. (Cassandra Clare, I\u2019m looking at you.) Fandom doesn\u2019t need permission and it\u2019s certainly not waiting for it. (Robin Hobb, I\u2019m looking at you.) And fandom doesn\u2019t actually want your attention; often, they\u2019d rather you left them alone to get back to what they\u2019re doing better than you anyway. (Supernatural, I\u2019m looking at you.)<\/p>\n

I would bet dollars to donuts that most of the people who run into this post could name five fics off the top of their head that could go head-to-head with canon any day of the week. I could name five fanvids with more biting commentary than a NYTimes review of the same film. I\u2019ve definitely\u2014and this is the easy one\u2014seen hundreds of thousands of better fanart than the promotion materials for a lot of mainstream films and television shows.<\/p>\n

Fandom is not worshipping at the alter of canon. Fandom is re-building it because they can do better.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This.\u00a0 I write fanfic because your show was almost good enough.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

stultiloquentia: ifeelbetterer: I really do think the biggest problem about show runners, authors, and suchlike responding to fandom\u2014online or otherwise\u2014is that they\u2019re fundamentally misunderstood what fandom is. They see a group of fans and they assume that they, the author, is like unto a god for these fans and that they can send decrees down … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A word about fandom”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[2090,247,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}