random thought of the day

[wildestranger]

I was wondering, as you do, about People Outside Fandom (whom I know exist, but try to avoid), and their perception of fannish devotion. Or actually, I noticed my old Gary Oldman poster of "Have you seen this wizard?", and started thinking about whether, for people outside fannish circles, that would be more embarrassing than the poster of Gerard Way which I currently have on my wall. Note that I personally have no shame about either of them.

But considering that Harry Potter is a children's book, and that My Chem is seen as an emo band for silly teenage girls, which would be more embarrassing to find on the wall of a 29-year-old woman? How would our culture read the fact that I've had such posters - what would it say about me to those who are outside the fannish subculture?

Yes, I'm trying to avoid doing my thesis, how did you guess? ;)

[Poll #1206019]

Comments

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

I think that fanatical devotion to Harry Potter is probably one of the most accepted forms of fannish devotion around, because it's not just a bunch of books, it's a global phenomenon. Everybody knows what Harry Potter is and everybody knows somebody who's a Harry Potter fan, and you can pretty much laugh off your love of HP with a wink and nobody thinks twice about it.

But with things that are less huge--tv shows, bands, whatever--I think the level of enthusiasm that's normal in fandom is harder to present to non-fannish types, simply because it's not so pervasive as HP.

...I don't know if I'm making any sense.

[wildestranger.livejournal.com]

I agree - for an adult to read HP and show enthusiasm for it is a bit quirky, but not necessarily childish or crazy. Not to mention that these are foremost books (in the UK at least, known for being books rather than films), which are culturally privileged over TV or music or such.