Words! Words on the journal I wasn't expecting them at! On? ...*blinks* Words!
Thank you for this - I was starting to doubt my perspective and critical orientation, and little stuff like that. Perhaps theorizing about a culture that I belong to wasn't the best idea. (TOO LATE NOW!)
The really interesting and creative thing about the theory I'm digging through (that isn't written by the oversimplifiers) is how it's possible to (academically) theorize fandom without resorting to tidy generalizations! There are also ways to deal with the loss of the subject and author under postmodernism while still acknowledging that subjectivity and authorship exist. One book (I'll email you the info) spends an entire chapter explaining how TPTB =/= a dominant class, and how that's true for a lot of reasons, meaning that whenever fandom is described as anti-hegemonic... well, there is no hegemony to be anti- to. The problem with the oversimplifiers (as it's been argued by other academics) is that they reduce fandom to a set of productive behaviours, full stop. (I have some of this in my previous post.)
The shared language/experience thing's why I like talking about "fandom culture" rather than "fan (or audience) behaviour (or practices)". There are norms, there are codes, and there are behaviours and practices and audiences, but it's not just about posting a fic or looking up spoilers (some academics? really into the idea of spoilers. IDK.) or anything so tidy. Fandom is messy! It replicates power structures (BNFs, mods, people being human people), it provides an imaginative space, it does lots of things but it sure as hell ain't limited to a) fic, that b) exists because we fans don't have "economic power" that would let us wander up to whatever non-existent hegemony and demand that Scully's strawberry shampoo get mentioned in an episode, so therefore back to c) fic.
Long reply is long, too. My bad. Thanks for commenting, I really did need to bounce this off another brain. So, ♥
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branchandroot
To be clear, I didn't stay up just to see if someone would reply. Woo stress insomnia + hot weather.
Date: 2010-05-31 09:08 am (UTC)Thank you for this - I was starting to doubt my perspective and critical orientation, and little stuff like that. Perhaps theorizing about a culture that I belong to wasn't the best idea. (TOO LATE NOW!)
The really interesting and creative thing about the theory I'm digging through (that isn't written by the oversimplifiers) is how it's possible to (academically) theorize fandom without resorting to tidy generalizations! There are also ways to deal with the loss of the subject and author under postmodernism while still acknowledging that subjectivity and authorship exist. One book (I'll email you the info) spends an entire chapter explaining how TPTB =/= a dominant class, and how that's true for a lot of reasons, meaning that whenever fandom is described as anti-hegemonic... well, there is no hegemony to be anti- to. The problem with the oversimplifiers (as it's been argued by other academics) is that they reduce fandom to a set of productive behaviours, full stop. (I have some of this in my previous post.)
The shared language/experience thing's why I like talking about "fandom culture" rather than "fan (or audience) behaviour (or practices)". There are norms, there are codes, and there are behaviours and practices and audiences, but it's not just about posting a fic or looking up spoilers (some academics? really into the idea of spoilers. IDK.) or anything so tidy. Fandom is messy! It replicates power structures (BNFs, mods, people being human people), it provides an imaginative space, it does lots of things but it sure as hell ain't limited to a) fic, that b) exists because we fans don't have "economic power" that would let us wander up to whatever non-existent hegemony and demand that Scully's strawberry shampoo get mentioned in an episode, so therefore back to c) fic.
Long reply is long, too. My bad. Thanks for commenting, I really did need to bounce this off another brain. So, ♥