The Fandom Project

I've already discussed on this blog about my fascination with fandoms and have decided to do my project on them. They're a fascinating part of the digital age and I think that all too often they are labeled as "weird" or "have no lives." Like any miniculture, there are bound to be confusion and misunderstanding. I want to see just exactly what fandom culture is doing to the people of today and whether it is helping or hindering understanding.

I think one of the reasons I'm so interested in it is because fandom culture isn't that different than literary analysis. I can see the eyebrows raising already, but hear me out. Literary analysis is about closely reading texts and seeing what we can learn from them. The same can be said of fandoms only in a more fanatical way. People are more excited about looking closely at the entertainment that they enjoy than what they are forced to do. I bet one could even make an argument for saying that scholars who enjoy their work are every bit a part of that book's fandom as the crazies on tumblr and pinterest.

I'm excited to start curating things because I want to first find out what other people think about it. I know what I think about it (which of course is a semiproblem: sometimes all these blog posts tend to be is what I think about something) but I need to find out what other people think. Scholars or bloggers or sociologists. Fandoms have a reputation for being crazy but do people really think of them that way? I have a pinterest board labeled "geek." It holds all of my nerdy obsessions, which means that it has over 150 pins and is by far the largest board on my pinterest. But those aren't the kinds of things that I plan on curating. I want to curate opinions.

Opinions about what? Fandoms, obviously, but beyond that I also want to curate different forms of opinions on fandoms. What fandoms think of themselves, other fandoms, and other people. What other people think of fandoms, what they think fandoms mean, whether or not they appreciate or look down upon them. I think there is a crazy amount of information on this topic, and I plan on trying to find as much of it as I can find.

Here's to a fun project! I'm excited to get started.

~note~ This post is meant for my Friday, October 18th post. I'm sorry for the tardiness.