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Aug. 23rd, 2006 09:14 pmfandom is quick, and it's crazy, and above all, it's weird.
this is not the kind of hobby that's easy to explain to non-fans. when someone asks what I did this weekend, I'll say "read", or I'll say "played on the computer", but I won't say "oh, I read fanfiction for about 30 total hours and I can't wait to do it again!". Because then there are the explanations about what fanfiction is, who does it, why I like it, and what it is, exactly, that I read, and pray god my brother isn't in shouting distance because he WILL, every time, answer for me with "gay porn". Sometimes, he'll bring up Harry Potter or boybands and thanks, that's not a conversation I want to have with my grandmother, no matter how awesome she is. And I've never found a quick explanation that doesn't sound patronizing: "fanfiction is fiction written by fans. can you say "fanfiction"?" Next time I'm going with "it's like free amateur tie-in novels" and just hope that works.
and okay, it's crazy. we can one and all admit that this level of obsession with fictional characters and/or celebrities is more than a little odd. we're a nutty little subculture with weird insular lingo and weird social. we write cross-gen slash about a boy and his potions professor, we write amtdi about a colonel and his teammate(s), we write barista AUs about boybanders. it's like a really big, international, intergenerational, decentralised cult of Crazy Shit. we have ideological schisms! name me a single bowling league or bridge club that can say the same.
also, fandom is fast. you can be racing a live source, or racing the website disfunction that follows a spread of fannish disinterest, or you could just be racing a ficathon deadline. but the majority of fandom today is 'net based and everybody knows the 'net speeds you up. it's an everchanging web and there's no gurantee that your site or your server or your favorite author'll still be there tomorrow.
this is not the kind of hobby that's easy to explain to non-fans. when someone asks what I did this weekend, I'll say "read", or I'll say "played on the computer", but I won't say "oh, I read fanfiction for about 30 total hours and I can't wait to do it again!". Because then there are the explanations about what fanfiction is, who does it, why I like it, and what it is, exactly, that I read, and pray god my brother isn't in shouting distance because he WILL, every time, answer for me with "gay porn". Sometimes, he'll bring up Harry Potter or boybands and thanks, that's not a conversation I want to have with my grandmother, no matter how awesome she is. And I've never found a quick explanation that doesn't sound patronizing: "fanfiction is fiction written by fans. can you say "fanfiction"?" Next time I'm going with "it's like free amateur tie-in novels" and just hope that works.
and okay, it's crazy. we can one and all admit that this level of obsession with fictional characters and/or celebrities is more than a little odd. we're a nutty little subculture with weird insular lingo and weird social. we write cross-gen slash about a boy and his potions professor, we write amtdi about a colonel and his teammate(s), we write barista AUs about boybanders. it's like a really big, international, intergenerational, decentralised cult of Crazy Shit. we have ideological schisms! name me a single bowling league or bridge club that can say the same.
also, fandom is fast. you can be racing a live source, or racing the website disfunction that follows a spread of fannish disinterest, or you could just be racing a ficathon deadline. but the majority of fandom today is 'net based and everybody knows the 'net speeds you up. it's an everchanging web and there's no gurantee that your site or your server or your favorite author'll still be there tomorrow.
