Everyone who replied seemed to think that if fandoms have inherent value it is because they bring people together and form a certain community. People need to connect with other people and connecting through a common interest is an easy and fun way of doing that. I found this really interesting mixed with the fact that not many people seemed to respond to my question. If fandoms are a sense of community, then why don't people want to talk about them in a public place? And I'm not talking about something specifically devoted to fandoms (such as a pinterest, tumblr, facebook or google+ page) which can be considered a "safe place" for such things to be talked about. I'm talking about discussing intellectually the value of a digital culture phenomena. Not many people seemed to really be interested in that.
One of my friend's liked the post. I know that she is a big fan of a lot of different fandoms, but she didn't say anything. I can assume that because she liked the status she thought that fandoms have value (and since I know her personally I feel pretty safe assuming that) but I don't know why she didn't think to explain why.
As I have done my research on fandoms through curation, I've discovered that people often consider fandoms to be "crazy" (see my previous post here) and identify as "other" than the general population (often called "normal people" within a given fandom.) But why? And what does that have to do with Moby Dick?
As I have looked through Moby Dick for my facebook project, I've gained a new appreciation for how much research and study Melville went through to find out as much as he possibly could about whales. And he didn't just study the anatomy or make up a new classification system, no, he tried to find every source for every famous story ever told about whales. He looked up quotes and tied them together, from epic poems to the bible. He found everything that he could about whales so that he could write a story about them, even if the story he found had nothing to do with the novel he eventually was going to write. He then piled all of those quotations and information at the beginning of the book and titled it "Extracts." This portion of the book is easily looked over and ignored, but was deemed important enough that Dr. Burton told us that we had to read it.
Why?
I think Melville (and by extension -- Ishmael) is a huge fan of whales. He displays all of the symptoms of a fanboy. He spent a large amount of time finding whatever information he possibly could about a topic and righteously defended it when he thought people might attack the subject (exp: chapter 24 of Moby Dick). Ishmael considered himself "apart" from the landsmen, and thought of them as ignorant. And the most important detail: Melville has a lot of "unnecessary" whale content. Content that nowadays, I am convinced an editor would have had him throw out in order to be more focused upon the plot.
Moby Dick is held in such high prestigious accord that I don't know if people will feel uncomfortable considering themselves a part of a "Moby Dick Fandom." Because of the stereotypes regarding fandoms (held both within and without) it's not the most comfortable of ideas. But, I think that the study of literature is the precursor of the fandom.
In order to make sure that Moby Dick has a fandom, I searched for fanfiction on fanfiction.net. This is only a portion of the results I found:
Moby Dick has a fandom. But do they include academics? I think so. Academics may not write fanfiction about the novel, but they do write papers and papers on it. They look through the text to find tiny evidence of their theories and string it together to help others look at the story in a different way. Isn't this exactly what fandoms do? I have found many examples of theories and analytical readings within fandoms. Below is an example of this. This is not one of the very best that I've seen, but it demonstrates some of the ways fans are dissecting their shows or books in order to discover different meanings or readings of them.
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| It also shows how fandoms are more likely to freak out, but you can't write that into an academic paper |
Melville is a highly respected, talented author. He was also a fanboy over whales and everything to do with whaling. He was as obsessed as any fangirl today. Academics are highly focused and intelligent men and women who are doing a better accepted form of fan theory, allowing their analytical skills and education to grant them the time to obsess over something they enjoy without being judged (at least too harshly) for it.
Fandoms can be extreme and frightening, especially when someone jumps into one unprepared, but I think that the aversion and mockery of fandoms should stop. I think that people shouldn't be afraid to admit to being in a fandom, or think that if they are then they're some how weird or different from other people. Fandoms aren't actually a new concept at all, it's a really old concept that is now getting access to a more general public. I believe that the more fandoms become accepted, the better people will be at studying and learning from the media and entertainment that they consume, rather than being embarrassed about it. After all, if studying 500 year old literature still has value within the academic sphere, then why can't fandoms?
What do you think?
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