Why I Love Fandom

So, looking back on the entirety of our class and everything that we've been working for the entire semester here is what I have to say...

"I love fandom!"

If it was possible, I would go online right now, get ordained and marry myself to fandom and have lots of fandom children.

Why, you might ask, would I love a thing were any Tom, Dick, and Harriet can spew their opinions all over each other and then descend into faux-fisitcuffs over character interpretation?

"Why" is exactly the reason for this.

As a person who has always asked why, always questioned, curioused, wondered and pushed for a concrete reason behind any action that I was asked --read ordered--to take, fans take all of the millions of whys and hows and whos and create whole universes in order to develop, defend and state their reasoning.

The creators of whatever have already given us these characters, a setting and a world but that's not even for the discerning fan these days. We have to ask why, we have to know more and we have to be able to take an active role in the texts we're taking in.

At the end of the day, Harry Potter belongs to JK, Teen Wolf belongs to Davis and various and sundry fandoms sprouted as a result of the source material and that's wonderful.  Fans take their work and play with it:

They put themselves in it, change the setting, throw characters into alternate verses, mesh two fandoms together in a gooey mix, and interpret the source material in ways that the original creators either refused to or couldn't due to marketing, sales, or vision.

One of my very favorite things about FanFiction in particular is the way that fans ask billions of questions and then proceed to answer them themselves before the book is even half way done.

Sites like FanFiction, AO3, Tumblr, LiveJournal, AdultFanFiction and the like are avenues for writers, readers, artists, critics, etc to contribute to a thing they absolutely love.

 

Take for instance this iconic image. Baby Potter probably being left on a Surrey porch the night/morning of October 31, November 1st by Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid, three powerful yet stupid wizards who decided that it's OK, he'll live throughout the cold weather and he'll be fine.

This image right here has launched thousands of fics

1. Instead of a lightning bolt, it's the Yucatec sign of the Sun and Harry is actually the Avatar for Kinich Ahau, a Mayan sun god. 
2. Harry is left out in the cold for too long and as a result develops an inner ear infection: he is deaf for the rest of his life and because he was without magical healing for the first 11 years of his life, could not be put to rights.
3. Harry dies in the cold of the night, as a baby might and passes into the Spirit World, unfortunately due to the looming prophecy, he is brought back by Dumbledore with Dark Magic to do his bidding.
4. Harry is kidnapped by vampires hunting in the night and trained to hate all Wizarding kind; he eventually slaughters all of Wizarding Britain.
5. The Horcrux in Harry's scar takes over in this moment of weakness as Harry's magic struggles to keep him alive. He is squib, unable to use Harry's magic but proceeds to terrorize the Dursley's/Little Whinging until such time as he is allowed into the Wizarding world.

 And then of course there are the thousands upon thousands of Not BWL!Harry or Mistaken!BWL Harry where his twin or younger sibling is either really the Boy Who Lived or actually not and Lily and James, who survive due to Voldemort's extreme mercy; fanonically, it's hilarious to think about Voldemort firing Stunners at Lily and James but that's what ends up happening more times than not. 

And this is just one moment of the movie, a visible representation of the books. It amazes me how much care, attention and time goes into really good Fanfiction, fanart and fanvids. These people, like the rest of us, have lives: school, work, families whatever and still have the time to devote to this living, breathing entity. It  amazes me every time I read a new Fanfiction or see a new video, read new meta or just log into Tumblr.


I personally don't need to own a thing in order to appreciate it, take pleasure in it and ultimately challenge its existence.

At the end of a day, fandom is a powerful, independent collosus with the ability to dissect a text in less than ten minutes.

So give yourselves a big pat on the back, play this song on your listening device and walk out like:

You A Boss Ass B*!<#

Disclaimer: There is foul language, cursing and general blackness going on in this video. If you are easily offended please do not watch it!

Wanted to share some cool fan created things I've seen!

Considering our discussion of Harry Potter's lack of diversity, I wanted to show some fan created things that added diversity to the story.

I brought up the fan-reading of Harry Potter as half-black. I'm not sure if this is the original post because I don't think the blogger tagged it as anything in particular but here's a post explaining their reading. Here's a comment that was added on that I think shows how this reading deepens the characterization.

The blogger also did some illustrations of these interpretations:

First picture can be found here. Last two can be found here.

Something else I found were these really cool make up and hijab looks for each of the four houses. Personally, I like the Slytherin best but that might come from House bias.

These can be found here.

I then found the tumblr amusliminhogwarts, which seems to be a story in blog format about--you guessed it--two muslim girls who go to Hogwarts. There isn't a lot so far, but you can read it easily in chronological order here. You can see how the original idea started and a lot of discussion about it on one of the authors blog here.

I also found a few tumblrs dedicated to discussing types of students that were ignored in Harry Potter. There are a few specifically about LGBTQ+ students (magicqueers or queerhpheadcanons) as well as some that are about all kinds of diversity (hiddenhogwarts.) Remembering our conversation in class last week, I think you guys would be interested in looking at the disabled headcanons that people have. There's a lot of really great ideas about how the castle changes to accommodate disabled students and how professors and other students help disabled students using magic. Maybe there's something in there about deaf students, like we were discussing last week.

I think these things are really really cool and I wish this diversity could have been in Harry Potter. But since it wasn't, I'm glad the fans are taking things into their own hands.

Now I have a confession to make. I really hate Sherlock. For several different reasons that are long and complicated and definitely not something that you want to hear if you like the show, so I won't make you listen to that.

I used to be in love with it though and I wanted to share one of my favorite Sherlock fan creations from when I was into the show. There is a tumblr that is basically a cross between roleplay, text blog, and fanfiction. It's called "Text Messages from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." The basic premise of it is that two people are roleplaying Sherlock and John. People send them questions and they answer them in character and in the format of text message transcripts and the occasional prose. Although they can't control what people ask, the two creators use the questions to create a story that goes along with the canon story line. Most of the action that happens takes place in between what happens in the episodes and seasons, so you'd most likely have to watch the episodes to know exactly what's going on 100% of the time. The timeline that these texts take place starts after the first episode of season 2, and they're currently doing Season 3.

What makes this so great is that a lot of what happens is because of the fans. Someone will send a question that will move along the story. It's interactive fanfiction, basically.

Here's a link to their index (though that doesn't have all of the texts just the most important ones.) Warning that it is shippy (Sherlock/John), though not all of the texts are and when there's prose it gives warning for any triggers or not safe for work material. The shippy aspects are slowly moving so the earlier texts are less likely to have shippy things in them. Also warning that there are triggering things in the material but again there's trigger warnings for everything.

I haven't kept up with the blog for for about a year but I do have fond memories about the fandom (called the Texts subfandom) and of reading it.

Ooooh, Fandom I love you. [How much?] Hella

I don't even know where to start. Okay, that is a bold-faced lie. I have like 400 places I could start but I am going to start by bringing up what I scratched at in class.

I loved Star Wars Uncut. It filled me with strawberry bubbles and kittens (all of which had to be surgically removed) and it makes me more of a Star Wars fan than before. But why? Why are bearded Leias and cat Lukes endearing to me?

Because that's what we are inside. There is something out there that fills us with nerd joy till we're bursting. We consume movies like candy, binge watch T.V. shows, and read book series until they makes us cry like 2 year olds. We scream (in happiness) at the sight of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé and dress up as anime characters. Isn't that just the best thing?!

I am a fan of many things and Fans are one the them. I mean, just look at them.

No, but seriously. Fans are the best. They are smart, funny, creative, sexy, and lovely. Are there some assholes out there? No, not at all. All of them are perfect and amazing and rainbow-butterflies fly out of their mouths and- Absolutely, there are assholes out there. But don't crap on the entirety of a pretty amazing part of humanity. We are obsessive and that behavior can produce something as charming as Star Wars Uncut.

I am not the best at expressing why fandom is useful or good thing but I have to believe its true. I mean, it just makes me so happy to hear people just humming the background music of a specific scene in a movie. That shows a connectivity that I can't really put into words right now and probably not for a while.

This leads me to the Fandom assignment. I and super duper stoked to be a part of this but at the same time I am a bit wary. I don't know if I'm up for such a task. I mean, don't worry, I will be charging at it with a stupid amount of ferocity but I don't think I'll be able to express fandom properly. I don't even know if it can be done. I just know that I really, really, want to.

 I want to tell someone I read fanfiction and not have them look at me like I'm a child. I want to have important and moving conversations about ships without being misconstrued as a crazed fan. I want people to understand that they can read some really awesome porn online and shamelessly share it with others who like that....but...ya'know...not awkward.

This is going to be a lot of fun but its probably going to send me into a dangerous spiral of self analysis. Just like a mad dunk did to this man.

Look at him...Look how far into himself he is sent. Where is he? Who is he? Is he me? Yes. That is my future. I'm going to get dunked on by this Fandom project.

Back to the Lego Movie

            Laura brought up the Lego Movie earlier and this is another post/comment to hers. I just saw the film and I agree that it is Awesome (see the movie), and it is a text that seems to have been made for this class. As Laura said, this film both works with and subverts the mono-myth. We’ve got the (bearded) mentor, herald, trickster, shape shifter, and shadow almost as caricatures of those roles, all done in a spirit of parody. Yet, there are a couple of serious moments (see the movie) that work to directly evoke and counteract the role of the hero.

http://williamsonsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/The-Lego-Movie.jpg

            What is really weird is that one of the conflicts of the movie is almost copy-pasted from the John Fiske article we read. I think I can safely say without spoiling anything that there is a conflict over the use of the “instructions” that come with Lego sets. There are some characters who want to follow them to the letter without deviation and those who want to ignore them completely. So there is the product as the manufactures have created them to be used and the way the people use them in subversion to the manufactures. But, now the manufactures have made a text permitting such use of their product, which Fiske would say was their effort to contain the subversion, something like the example he provided, the shopping mall promoting “mall walkers” (40-41).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2013/10/lego_a.jpg

            And there is more. Many of the Lego characters are a walking cross-textual spaghetti bowl.  As he is in the previews and posters I can mention that Lego Batman features prominently in the movie. There are all kind of jokes and references about him and every other superhero/character Lego person. And so all of these characters bring behind them their associated fandoms and tangled inter-connected fandoms. The film makes use of it all.

            In summary, everyone in class should see the Lego Movie. It is worth it on its own and may be useful in class. Laura is right about the song. Be ready for that.

Note: should anyone from Warner Bros. or Lego read this I would not mind being paid :)

My Star Wars story

Like Iris, I honestly don't remember watching Star Wars for the first time. I think I've probably seen the whole series once and that was when I was a young kid so I don't remember much about it.

I know most of the big things. I know that Darth Vader is Luke and Leia's father, I know Luke and Leia are siblings. I know that Yoda is a small green dude who talks strangely. I know that everyone hates Jar Jar Binks. I know about Leia's slave bikini (and I remember reading somewhere that Carrie Fisher absolutely hated that outfit.)

But otherwise, I remember very little about the movies. So rewatching A New Hope was like seeing it for the same time.

I do have fond memories of wanting a lightsaber and of playing with my cousin's Star Wars figurines. And I did read a few of the Star Wars books though I think they were about Episode 1. I read one book about the Phantom Menace, but from Darth Maul's point of view, which is cool. And I read one book from the point of view of Boba Fett

And now I feel like I'm making it sound like I was more into Star Wars as a kid than I was! But I really have almost no recollection of watching the first three movies. While my parents liked Star Wars, we watched more Star trek when I was growing up. So I guess you could say I'm part of the notorious Star Trek vs Star Wars fight that we've been discussing in class, though I do like both, I just have a preference.

My girlfriend, however, is so into Star Wars that when we began to watch A New Hope so I could prepare for tonight's class, she was bouncing in her seat in excitement and squealing when her favorite characters came on screen. And I think seeing how much she loved it made me enjoy the movie so much more. I think sometimes that happens with people we are close to. Passion about media can inspire others to appreciate it more and I think that's what makes fandoms so special. A group of people who so ardently love something can sometimes make you want to look deeper to find out what exactly they are seeing and suddenly, you're sucked in too. (There’s something to also be said about how important it is that fandoms also criticize the media they are consuming but that’s a whole different topic.)