Insider Fandom Knowledge Coming Up Against Limits

[chelseagirl]

Background here about a particular fandom which has drawn a lot of *cough* older folks who've never been in a fandom before: So . . . the fandom that I write in the most, Alias Smith & Jones, is unusual in that many of the active members are older folks who watched the show when it first aired in 1971 and knew nothing about fandom until they found stuff on the Internet, sometimes fairly recently. There are other folks, who've found it during periodic reruns on cable channels or in the UK, where it's brought back from time to time, so not everyone is in their 50s and older, but quite a number are. I should say, while I was on a long hiatus from the fandom in the 00s, it had a good run on LJ where it was more typically fannish folks and mostly slash, but that seems very quiet these days, when I've peeked. BUT ANYWAY . . .

The discussion groups are mostly on Facebook, these days, which startled me at first. (I had literally looked everywhere BUT there, when I reread my old stories and got interested again.) Some of the folks who are new to fandom are coming across our in-group terms, which I don't even think of as in-group terms anymore, for the first time. Some of the questions are startling, because I'm so engrained in fandom culture that I forget how things look like to an outsider. But they're also logical.

For example, people were puzzled as to why a character not from canon is an Original Character. Shouldn't they be Author's Character, because they're not from the original source? I'd never thought of that as remotely ambiguous. But what we see as Canon vs. Original, they're seeing as Original vs. Author's -- so when they see the labels on AO3 or wherever, of course they're confused.

The other thing is that many of them don't understand the term or stigma of the Mary Sue, and some of them use it to describe any Original Female Character. You can imagine, if one has labored long and hard to make a character three-dimensional and imperfect and un-Mary Sue, how that might sting? And then one realizes they don't know that they've just delivered a grave insult.

It's making me look at fandom practices from an outsider's point of view. This both really underlines what a rich culture has developed in fandom and particularly regarding fanfiction -- and also how now that it's spread to a wider audience, there are folks coming in who aren't being initiated with the ways we are used to thinking of as, well, fandom.

Comments

[maplemood]

That's so interesting! I'm pretty far from being in my 50s, but I did start really getting into fandom a bit later than some people do, and I didn't have nearly as much of a steep learning curve. I wonder if just being on the internet a good bit lets you pick up a bunch of fandom terms sort of through osmosis. But it's great to hear that people who wouldn't otherwise have heard of fandom are finding it now!

[chelseagirl]

I, er, am in my 50s, and as I was 9 in 1971, you can imagine many of these folks are Older Than Me. I came up the hard way, through fanzines and etc., so it's fascinating to see folks who *are* older than me who are such newbies. Really quite adorable, except yes, maybe they're less patient about being initiated into the culture?

[ginger_rude]

I wonder if just being on the internet a good bit lets you pick up a bunch of fandom terms sort of through osmosis.

There might be something to that. Or at least--well, I suppose I've been in "fandom" a lot longer than "fanfiction," but I knew what a Mary Sue was, for instance, for--it seems like a long time?

[lunabee34]

That's so interesting. I take so much of the fannish lingo for granted, too (which in an adjacent issue makes it really weird when the younglings start using the terms differently than they've been used in the past).

Do these fans get mad or push back when they're corrected, or are they glad for the info?

[chelseagirl]

Hmm, now I'm interested in that. I'm not on Tumblr at all anymore, but I'd be curious what the new generation of fans is doing differently.

Besides shaming. I saw a lot of that on Tumblr and it did not make me enthusiastic to join in.

[lunabee34]

One example I saw on FFA is young fans using gay panic to mean feeling anxious about meeting your girlfriend's parents for the first time or coming out instead of the, you know, real meaning of the phrase.

[corvidology]

when the Person of Interest fandom was first active on livejournal fans new to fanfiction were having the same old discussions/arguments that seemed already settled to me. I do think fandom becoming more visible is bringing in a lot of new people who really don't get it at all and don't seem to want to take the time to learn.

[chelseagirl]

That's the question. I get feeling like what's been established is potentially irrelevant to them, particularly if they're discussing on Facebook boards and other places that aren't traditionally fannish. But if they are using AO3 or even Fanfiction net, there are established practices . . .

[merisunshine36]

This really is sociologically fascinating! I wish I could chat with some of them. It would be great to see them at a con!

[chelseagirl]

I don't think they do cons, though. It's just a very different approach to the whole thing, not really recognizing a fannish subculture as such, but just going, "Cool, people have been writing stories about this thing that I love."