Leaving fandom.

[foxmonkey]

That's my question today. When did you know that your fandom love had turned cold, that it was time to move on?

Back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and fandom mailing lists were king, I got into the Hercules/Xena fandom. I was incredibly lucky; I followed a few links to Ksmithares, run by the fabulous listmistress thamiris. It was everything fandom should have been for a newbie, and I absolutely loved it.

My favorite character was Ares, and he appeared on both shows. Sadly, I knew it was time to give it up when Hercules was cancelled; Xena was still on, but by that time the show wasn't jumping just sharks, it was jumping friggin' humpback whales. I moved on.

I dabbled in the Invisible Man fandom for a bit, but having been spoiled by the perfection of my first fandom experience, the new one didn't measure up. And then they started monkeying with the show, and then it was cancelled. Out in the fandom cold once again! Noes!!!

I drifted. I discovered Sports Night fic, read tons of it but never wrote any. The show was in re-runs somewhere, but I only got to watch a couple of episodes before...YOU GUESSED IT, the reruns were cancelled!

Happily, I found popslash and the most fabulous world of LJ, and I've been a very happy online camper for the past few years. Edited to add: I've found a couple of Doctor Who communities that I absolutely love, and I've begun writing in that fandom.

And that, my friends, is my fandom tale.

So! Now you know my fandom past and why I've given up a few fandom ghosts. What's done it for you? Are you currently having a fandom crisis? Where are you now and where are you going?

I am curious Fox. Learn me.

Comments

[silveryscrape.livejournal.com]

The only other fandom love I've had is XF. I read and read and read, and watched until Doggett and Reyes showed up, and lurked the newsgroups and websites, until suddenly I realized I'd read everything and was sick of hearing about how Chris Carter had ruined his own show, even though it's true. Ha. I can still remember the day I was sort of listlessly clicking through Torch's page, debating reading Ghosts and Lovers for the millionth times, when I decided out of boredom to read The Grapefruit Gurus, and boom. Next thing you know, I was googling up the guys and wondering over JC and buying dvds at Barnes & Noble, and then, livejournal.

So, for me fandom is mostly fiction based, but I have to love the source, too... which leaves out SPN, for me, and Bandom, and I just don't watch SGA past the first couple of seasons. And even then I haven't ever felt that rush of fascination like I had with Nsync (and XF), and truthfully I also don't really feel like I have to have that, anymore. XF was my first fandom, and with Nsync I found lj and going to fandom events, and I suspect to feel that kind of fandom love again I'll have to have a whole new experience. For the stuff that's popular now, well. Been there, done that, you know? And none of it's as interesting as Nsync. Bottom line, I guess.

Sounds kind of sad! But it isn't, not so much. I'm happy to keep an eye on JC and Chris and wait for Justin's next record, too. And when RL people talk about Joey & Lance, which they sometimes do, I get a secret thrill. Well, not so secret - it's amazing (or not) how many people you come across who're like "Oh, Nsync, I loved them!" :)

Great question.

[foxmonkey.livejournal.com]

I haven't ever felt that rush of fascination like I had with Nsync

Yes! I remember when I first saw people making fun of JC, I'm like, who? Googled him, fell in love with him IMMEDIATELY, and the rest is history. :-) The more I knew about them the more I wanted to know. I probably chewed my way through a hundred or so NSync sites that first day! Talk about sudden, mad, unholy love. ;-)


with Nsync I found lj and going to fandom events, and I suspect to feel that kind of fandom love again I'll have to have a whole new experience. [snip] And none of it's as interesting as Nsync. Bottom line, I guess.

I'm really enjoying Doctor Who, even though there are some "Chris Carter had ruined his own show" elements on the production side of things. Still, I'm enjoying it enough right now that I can overlook some of the negative stuff.