Fandom Shouldn't Be Hard
Jun. 19th, 2009 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxNot to be all cheerleadery. God knows I can get my cynical bitch on. It's hot. I've had a shit-load of overtime in the last couple of months. Haven't had anything resembling a vacation since Christmas. Etc. Life and the world is tough, so I wonder... why should fandom be? (Other than the fact that it always is. That's why we have fandom_wank)
Anyway, why did we seek out other fans, fanfic, meta, etc, in the first place? Because it gave us pleasure. It was fun. So why are we often so determined to suck the fun out of it with flame wars and kerfuffles? Why do we make rules about "this is okay but this isn't" when, even if it's not sucking the fun out of it for us, it may be for someone else?
I know this sounds hopelessly saccharine, but it shouldn't have be so hard. We got into fanfic or a fandom because there was something about it that we enjoyed. Sometimes that's hard to remember. Fandom is an amorphous, unrestricted thing and that's the good thing about it. Room for a bunch of different stuff and different people. We can't always play nice about everything, but I tend to think live and let live works fairly well because, in the end, it should be about the fun and the escape from regular life.
Okay, so now someone smack me for being Polyanna. I'm much better at griping and bitching. It's just that sometimes I think we shouldn't try to make fandom hard. Embrace the fun, it's what brought us here in the first place.
Anyway, why did we seek out other fans, fanfic, meta, etc, in the first place? Because it gave us pleasure. It was fun. So why are we often so determined to suck the fun out of it with flame wars and kerfuffles? Why do we make rules about "this is okay but this isn't" when, even if it's not sucking the fun out of it for us, it may be for someone else?
I know this sounds hopelessly saccharine, but it shouldn't have be so hard. We got into fanfic or a fandom because there was something about it that we enjoyed. Sometimes that's hard to remember. Fandom is an amorphous, unrestricted thing and that's the good thing about it. Room for a bunch of different stuff and different people. We can't always play nice about everything, but I tend to think live and let live works fairly well because, in the end, it should be about the fun and the escape from regular life.
Okay, so now someone smack me for being Polyanna. I'm much better at griping and bitching. It's just that sometimes I think we shouldn't try to make fandom hard. Embrace the fun, it's what brought us here in the first place.
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Date: 2009-06-20 03:54 am (UTC)Also, I really want to finish that Unsouled!Spike/Buffy fic I have sitting on my hard drive now. ;-)
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Date: 2009-06-20 04:05 am (UTC)And maybe it's the weather creating the wank? :)
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Date: 2009-06-20 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 05:03 am (UTC)Quoted for truth. That's why I enjoy fandom and if it gets to be too much Serious Business, that's usually when it's time to take a break.
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Date: 2009-06-20 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 02:41 pm (UTC)Room for a bunch of different stuff and different people. We can't always play nice about everything, but I tend to think live and let live works fairly well because, in the end, it should be about the fun and the escape from regular life.
Absolutely .
I can see how difference of opinions can lead to heated debates but what makes me uncomfortable or uneasy is when people become all high and mighty and say : it should be like this ! And not the other way around!
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Date: 2009-06-21 12:47 am (UTC)Kathleen