Snowflake Challenge: Day Twelve
Jan. 12th, 2016 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiki_engWhat makes you fannish? And by that we mean, what is it about a tv show/movie/book/band/podcast/etc that takes you from, "Yeah, I like that," to "I need MOAR!!!" Is it a character? A plotline? The pretty? Subtext that’s just screaming to be acknowledged?
In your own space, tell us what it is that gets you to cross that line into fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I don't really tend to do fandom that way? Fandom is usually not about the canon for me, like, my first steps into online fandom were not motivated because of a source material I really loved; I went looking for fandom because I heard about fanfic and it sounded like an interesting literary thing? Like, for me it was another source of stories, I am pretty sure, and that's still kind of how I do fandom. I'll read in fandoms I don't know if they're writing tropes that are interesting to me or I stumble on a summary that's really intriguing.
Sometimes the fandom will pull me into the canon, and sometimes not. Like, Generation Kill made me watch the source material, which is really great, but the mini-series didn't make me want fic, it just gave me a crush on Alexander Skarsgård and opinions about Nate's face - like, my appreciation of the fandom was enhanced by my having watched the mini-series, but watching the mini-series wouldn't have sent me looking for the fandom, and how I appreciate and interact with the canon and the fandom are different things.
I tend to take on more of a consumer role in fandom, so my motivations for being in a particular fandom tend to be more in line with why you might listen to a CD or watch a particular drama, than having fallen in love with a CD and needing more, or needing to change something somehow.
When I create prompts for things like exchanges that tends to be more motivated by my love of stories in general than a particular canon. I'll go for things that seem interesting to me, or like there's a lot of potential there - like, one of my prompts for a yuletide fandom was zombies, not because I particularly like zombies, but because I felt that fandom/trope match-up had a lot of potential.
When I'm picking yuletide fandoms I've gone with: canons that have really great worlds I'd be interested in seeing more of [Alice (2009)], canons with unrealised ships that I've gotten really invested in [Pasta (TV)], canons with characters I have fallen in love with [Sungkyunkwan Scandal], canons where I'm invested in the creation of fanworks for fanworks' sake [Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor (Tumblr)], canons I fell in love with and just want more of [Shakespeare Retold - Much Ado About Nothing]. ...and sometimes canons fall more into one category.
When I'm writing something it's usually for an exchange, and I'll sign up to write canons and characters I'm familiar with and would be comfortable writing in a lot of different ways and reviewing source material a lot, and then I get my recipient's request and just try to make them happy and write where our tastes overlap as much as possible. When I write something outside of an exchange it's a fandom that I'm comfortable writing in and a theme or trope or story that interests me, basically. Usually I'm motivated to write for the sake of writing, but sometimes it's because I've fallen really hard for a particular dynamic [Remus/Sirius] and want to explore that, or, an idea snags me and I start giggling and then there's a line and then there's a story [Someone needs a hero. Someone is holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.] - it varies.
My fannish engagement isn't really me falling in love with a series of canons, but falling for a series of fandoms and the stories they like to tell, that's what lures me in.
In your own space, tell us what it is that gets you to cross that line into fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I don't really tend to do fandom that way? Fandom is usually not about the canon for me, like, my first steps into online fandom were not motivated because of a source material I really loved; I went looking for fandom because I heard about fanfic and it sounded like an interesting literary thing? Like, for me it was another source of stories, I am pretty sure, and that's still kind of how I do fandom. I'll read in fandoms I don't know if they're writing tropes that are interesting to me or I stumble on a summary that's really intriguing.
Sometimes the fandom will pull me into the canon, and sometimes not. Like, Generation Kill made me watch the source material, which is really great, but the mini-series didn't make me want fic, it just gave me a crush on Alexander Skarsgård and opinions about Nate's face - like, my appreciation of the fandom was enhanced by my having watched the mini-series, but watching the mini-series wouldn't have sent me looking for the fandom, and how I appreciate and interact with the canon and the fandom are different things.
I tend to take on more of a consumer role in fandom, so my motivations for being in a particular fandom tend to be more in line with why you might listen to a CD or watch a particular drama, than having fallen in love with a CD and needing more, or needing to change something somehow.
When I create prompts for things like exchanges that tends to be more motivated by my love of stories in general than a particular canon. I'll go for things that seem interesting to me, or like there's a lot of potential there - like, one of my prompts for a yuletide fandom was zombies, not because I particularly like zombies, but because I felt that fandom/trope match-up had a lot of potential.
When I'm picking yuletide fandoms I've gone with: canons that have really great worlds I'd be interested in seeing more of [Alice (2009)], canons with unrealised ships that I've gotten really invested in [Pasta (TV)], canons with characters I have fallen in love with [Sungkyunkwan Scandal], canons where I'm invested in the creation of fanworks for fanworks' sake [Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor (Tumblr)], canons I fell in love with and just want more of [Shakespeare Retold - Much Ado About Nothing]. ...and sometimes canons fall more into one category.
When I'm writing something it's usually for an exchange, and I'll sign up to write canons and characters I'm familiar with and would be comfortable writing in a lot of different ways and reviewing source material a lot, and then I get my recipient's request and just try to make them happy and write where our tastes overlap as much as possible. When I write something outside of an exchange it's a fandom that I'm comfortable writing in and a theme or trope or story that interests me, basically. Usually I'm motivated to write for the sake of writing, but sometimes it's because I've fallen really hard for a particular dynamic [Remus/Sirius] and want to explore that, or, an idea snags me and I start giggling and then there's a line and then there's a story [Someone needs a hero. Someone is holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night.] - it varies.
My fannish engagement isn't really me falling in love with a series of canons, but falling for a series of fandoms and the stories they like to tell, that's what lures me in.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 04:08 am (UTC)You know, I was about to say that I don't think I've ever gotten into a fandom w/o knowing the canon. And then I remembered Fall of 2010 when I spent ~3 months reading Bandom fic while having absolutely no idea of who was who or what anyone looked like. LOL!
So, in short, I get what you mean by being so much into a trope that you can't help but check it out.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 05:12 pm (UTC)What trope(s) lured you into bandom? How did you end up there?
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-14 12:31 am (UTC)Anyhoo, I can actually pinpoint the exact date when Bandom caught my eye: it was THIS POST at
As it happens, I'd left due South fandom about two months prior and was kinda looking around to see if anything pinged me. I read "Second Circle" and then the rest of
It was really good timing and that I got to read a lot of the good fics without hitting any 'meh' ones. I read a lot of Spencer/Ryan and then moved to Pete/Patrick. Spencer/Brendon was next followed by Frank/Gerard. And that's when I fell in lurve with Bandom for realsies. Fast forward to January 1st, 2011. I was at a friend's house, flipping through their DVR and became mesmerized by the rock band whose lead singer had really bright red hair. At the end of their performance (for one of those New Year's Eve-type of shows), the host introduced them as My Chemical Romance and I was like WHAAAAAAAAAA? (also: *_________*).
THEN, I checked out as many primers and ship manifestos as I could since I had so much canon to catch up on. Luckily, I managed to drag my bestie and well as some other fannish friends with me so I wasn't, like, totally on my own.
It really helped that MCR was at a high point (they were on the 3rd leg of the World Contamination tour at this point) and that they (as well as the rest of the Bandom dudes) were relative active.
Overall, this was such a matter of (again) great timing AND the fandom being v. active AND that there were a lot of fanworks that I could consume. I'm not sure Bandom would've taken such a hold of me if one of those things had been missing. :D!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-14 03:32 am (UTC)It's really cool that you can remember the exact fic that grabbed you and trace it to that rec, and, yeah, timing can be everything getting into a fandom. It was a pretty exciting time in bandom, I feel. :)
(Also: Hard Core Logo?)
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-14 05:18 am (UTC)Hee, one of the reasons I remember it so precisely is because I was desperate to find fics that made me feel all the things. My searching went unfulfilled until I read *that* fic. Also, it was early days of
(Yup, HCL ate my brain for a while. The RPF that came out of it was pretty good).
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 07:36 am (UTC)/My fannish engagement isn't really me falling in love with a series of canons, but falling for a series of fandoms and the stories they like to tell, that's what lures me in./ - Oh, that's really interesting... *nods*
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 05:32 pm (UTC)Which, in the case of Alexander Skarsgård made What Maisie Knew a generally terrible film - it's like, here, watch Alexander Skarsgård be a beautiful human being who really cares about this kid. (It's a great film, I am just kind of offended by how weak I am to its charms.)
*nods*
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 08:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 09:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-13 09:38 pm (UTC)And I think adventure trash may be the perfect term... :D