OTW Fannews: Digging Into Fandom

  • Hollywood.com recently decided to look more deeply at the different strains of Twilight fandom and identified people who were fans of the books, fans of the movies, fans of the genre, and fans of the fandom. “Speaking with fans, it’s clear that their interest in this franchise is not always as reductive as oiled young abs and sinful enjoyment of B-cinema. Their passionate, earnest reasons for counting themselves a part of this fanbase may not sway you to either Team Edward or Team Jacob, but at least the fandom no longer seems as frighteningly foreign.”
  • A similar look at the competing strains of a fandom appeared in a much more indirect way at Criminal Element, with Lyndsay Faye writing about the Clear Distinction Between Fandom and the Baker Street Irregulars. “I trust that this article clears up any remaining confusion regarding the word fandom, and its woeful inexactitude when characterizing the Baker Street Irregulars. I likewise hope I have assured the reader the BSI cannot be both a respected literary society and a fandom, any more than Australia can be both a continent and an island. One earnestly hopes that this will settle the matter for good and all, and we can move on to other, better topics.”
  • The Learned Fangirl looked at a movie about K-pop fandom because “there aren’t nearly enough pop culture examples that are from the perspective of fangirls. Fortunately, there is Answer Me 1997 (2012), a Korean drama, half-set in 1997, the starting point for K-pop’s unending hallyu wave of manufactured groups. This is a show for present or former fangirls of music — from Beatlemaniacs through the Metallica/Megadeth fan battles to those with Bieber fever.”
  • Meanwhile in China, a look at the fandom of textbook characters is to see a new generation at play. “Such a large scale of nostalgia probably can only happen in China – if the post-80s generation was not the first only-child generation, if they haven’t lived through China’s sea changes in the past 20 years, if they are perfectly happy with their adult life now…Like the lyrics in song “Li Lei and Han Meimei” go, “The happiness and sorrows in textbooks, the right and wrongs outside of textbooks…like Li Lei and Han Meimei, we all live in a future that we would never have thought of before.””

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We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

News of Note
  1. kiki-eng commented: www.lefigaro.fr/bd/2012/11/08/03014-20121108ARTFIG00628-herge-aurait-il-eu-un-amant.php "La BD Georges & Tchang : une histoire d'amour au XXe siècle, raconte l'hypothétique relation amoureuse entre le père de Tintin et son ami chinois Tchang Tchong-Jen."
    • Claudia Rebaza commented: Ooh, interesting one! Thanks for the link :)