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rfmcdonaldA week ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
springheel_jack had an interesting post speculating about the nature of fandom.
I may be affiliated with this group.springheel_jack began his post by referring to the new Star Trek movie, by all accounts a big hit--maybe even a crossover film--and something that pleased long-time Star Trek fans. I can be counted among that number; I might well see the movie again, I'm so pleased with it.
I may be affiliated with this group, but I don't belong to it. As I understand the concept of fannish culture, it relates to people who only belong to fannish circles, who don't participate in any social networks beyond those of fandom. I don't attend sci-fi conventions or anything of the like, for instance, and I do take part in multiple networks of friends: soc.history.what-if people, University of Toronto people, blog people, second- and third-generation people, et cetera. But is this necessarily enough? certainly most of the people I know have extensive Internet presences, and have interests which are often fairly similar to my own.
The phenomenon of fannish culture might be part of a wider phenomenon, another manifestation of the oft-observed phenomena of social networks being self-reinforcing, often detached from other networks. If the people I know and the social networks I belong to have shared interests, how can I easily find new friends and new interests that I might also like? That's one reason why I ask readers to suggest new blogs I might be interested in; new outlooks, new interests, are things I'm always on the lookout for. I'm not sure that I'm doing such a good job, though. (Then again, on Facebook I'm quite reluctant to friend or be friended at random; I like to at least know the people I'm connected to there. LJ and blogging is different for me, perhaps since they're more impersonal media.) Maybe I should start attending events listed in eye and NOW at random and see what happens.
So, what do you think about all this? Am I onto something? Am I wrong? Do you have any suggestions as to how to deal with constrained social networks? Are there points that I've raised or that you'd like to bring up?
springheel_jack had an interesting post speculating about the nature of fandom.What's been bugging me is that this is a Big Geek Culture -slash- Fandom Event, and it brings back all my puzzlement and difficulties and frustrations with Geek Culture and Fandom.
There's two alternatives, I guess. LJ was not always one hundred percent fannish, but it is now, the non-fan types having gone to other services as LJ's cachet has disappeared. I have mixed feelings about the whole idea of 'fandom', insofar as I understand it at all. And I'm not really a fan - I don't feel that I imbibe culture in that way, exactly. So while I'm interested in fandom as a cultural phenomenon, as a way of being related to culture, I'm not terribly interested in fandom's day-to-day activity on its own account. In fact I'm bored by it.
I may be affiliated with this group.
springheel_jack began his post by referring to the new Star Trek movie, by all accounts a big hit--maybe even a crossover film--and something that pleased long-time Star Trek fans. I can be counted among that number; I might well see the movie again, I'm so pleased with it. I may be affiliated with this group, but I don't belong to it. As I understand the concept of fannish culture, it relates to people who only belong to fannish circles, who don't participate in any social networks beyond those of fandom. I don't attend sci-fi conventions or anything of the like, for instance, and I do take part in multiple networks of friends: soc.history.what-if people, University of Toronto people, blog people, second- and third-generation people, et cetera. But is this necessarily enough? certainly most of the people I know have extensive Internet presences, and have interests which are often fairly similar to my own.
The phenomenon of fannish culture might be part of a wider phenomenon, another manifestation of the oft-observed phenomena of social networks being self-reinforcing, often detached from other networks. If the people I know and the social networks I belong to have shared interests, how can I easily find new friends and new interests that I might also like? That's one reason why I ask readers to suggest new blogs I might be interested in; new outlooks, new interests, are things I'm always on the lookout for. I'm not sure that I'm doing such a good job, though. (Then again, on Facebook I'm quite reluctant to friend or be friended at random; I like to at least know the people I'm connected to there. LJ and blogging is different for me, perhaps since they're more impersonal media.) Maybe I should start attending events listed in eye and NOW at random and see what happens.
So, what do you think about all this? Am I onto something? Am I wrong? Do you have any suggestions as to how to deal with constrained social networks? Are there points that I've raised or that you'd like to bring up?
