foamclub-blog

[foamclub-blog]

Another social aspect of fandom

It's obvious that without social bonds, fandom would not be what it is, since it's mainly contact with other fans and sharing love for a movie, series, book etc. which keeps a fandom together. But in that togetherness there is also exclusion. Even though you can meet people through fandom and even gain friends, it's also possible that you have friends who are into a fandom that you aren't. And that's what I'm talking about. If one person in a group knows nothing of a certain fandom, it can feel quite excluding for that person when the others talk about the series, joke about it etc. This might either result in a stubborn reaction from the excluded person, who will refuse to go along and thus will refuse the fandom, often on the whole. Or it results in a soft form of peer pressure, in which the person will, inspired by their friends, start to watch the series. This in order to be able to join in the fandom and not feel left out. After all, when people love something, they enjoy talking about it to their friends. Either way, the feeling of being left out in a fandom can be quite strong because people will always want to belong somewhere, whether it's 'mainstream' or 'subculture'. And this again can make a fandom stronger. This is just a simple short analysis but I there is some research on fandoms and I'm not sure if they include the downside of fandom in the sense of not-belonging. I'll find out! And maybe I'll also find out what makes Supernatural so great, when (if) I start watch

[foamclub-blog]

Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime. Fandom is people you don’t tell your mother you’re meeting. Fandom is people in the closet, people out and proud, people in costumes, people in T-shirts with slogans only fifty others would understand. Fandom is a loud dinner conversation scaring the waiter and every table nearby. Fandom is you in Germany and me in the US and him in Australia and her in Japan. Fandom is a sofabed in New York, a roadtrip to Oxnard, a friend behind a face in London. Fandom talks past timezones and accents and backgrounds. Fandom is conversation. Communication. Contact. Fandom is drama. Fandom is melodrama. Fandom is high school. Fandom is Snacky’s law and Godwin’s law and Murphy’s law. Fandom is smarter than you. Fandom is stupider than you. Fandom is five arguments over and over and over again. Fandom is the first time you’ve ever had them. Fandom is female. Fandom is male. Fandom lets female play at being male. Fandom bends gender, straight, gay, prude, promiscuous. Fandom is fantasy. Fandom doesn’t care about norms or taboos or boundaries. Fandom cares too much about norms and taboos and boundaries. Fandom is not real life. Fandom is closer than real life. Fandom knows what you’re really like in the bedroom. Fandom is how you would never, could never be in the bedroom. Fandom is shipping, never shipping, het, slash, gen, none of the above, more than the above. Fandom is love for characters you didn’t create. Fandom is recreating the characters you didn’t create. Fandom is appropriation, subversion, dissention. Fandom is adoration, extrapolation, imitation. Fandom is dissection, criticism, interpretation. Fandom is changing, experimenting, attempting. Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer. Fandom is signal and response. Fandom is a stranger moving you to tears, anger, laughter. Fandom is you moving a stranger to speak. Fandom is distraction. Fandom is endangering your job, your grades, your relationships, your bank account. Fandom gets no work done. Fandom is too much work. Fandom was/is just a phase. Fandom could never be just a phase. Fandom is where you found a friend, a sister, a kindred spirit. Fandom is where you found a talent, a love, a reason. Fandom is where you found yourself.

http://hesychasm.livejournal.com/187818.html  (via copper-girl)

Given the ultimate research goals of this project, I thought it would be beneficial to end the blog with this piece. Written by a fan, about the nature of fandom, it describes the experience of participating in fan-related activity; the good and the bad. It also illustrates the diverse nature, the wide range of people who are drawn to participatory expression of fandom. Given the sheer number of notes of this piece on Tumblr alone, I think it is fair to say that many fandom-active individuals feel that this represents their experience to some degree.

When I first began to put together ideas for this project, I have to admit I had certain preconceived notions about what my research would uncover. I have had a Tumblr account, and have followed various fandom-related blogs, for almost a year now, though I’ve always been more of a bystander. I had my series that I liked, and had no idea how extensive the world of fandom was on Tumblr. All I knew was that every time I logged on, I was blown away by the artistic expression I saw on my dashboard, and I wanted to understand how it came to be that Tumblr had come to pull together so many talented young people.

I have realized over the past few weeks, reading through the responses of those who graciously took the time to complete my survey, and spending hours looking through various tags in an attempt to find examples I could use to illustrate my observations, that the real story here is the art itself - it’s about the people creating it and sharing it. 

The responses to my survey illustrated that Tumblr is home to a group of dedicated and passionate fans. These fans coalesce into tight-knit, if imperfect, communities and at least some of the youth that participate in these fandoms find real value in aligning themselves with others who share their interests. As a result, these respondents expressed genuine positive effects in their lives, including an increased feeling of confidence in their knowledge and abilities and an increased desire to share and create pieces of art. 

While it’s clear that Tumblr is not the first forum to facilitate fandom, it does represent what some might see as the future of fandom - a multimedia-friendly interface that allows for simultanous sharing and discussion, as well as social-media integration in the form of friending and following [1]. The community that is being built on Tumblr does not seem to be an extraneous part of the lives of those who exist in it. Indeed, according to the responses I received, it seems to be fitting in to a larger part of who these fandom participants are. They seek to express their affection for the series they find that in some way reflect issues they face in their own life. They use Tumblr when they are away from their computers on their mobile devices. They cite real, solid friendships forming as a result of their participation in these communities. And in some cases, they are finding new modes of expressing themselves by opening up about their interests online. 

The ultimate goal of this research was to determine, to some degree, whether online participatory fandom encourages or inhibits artistic and individual expression in youth and young adults. By polling a sampling of adolescents and young adults who have had experience in fandom throughout their teen years, I gathered data that provided some level of context as to what a group of users have experienced. By drawing from these responses and illustrating my observations with reblogged pieces of art and expression from various fandoms represented on Tumblr, I hopefully made a case for the idea that fan communities online help young people to bolster their artistic and expressive urges and develop their talents and identities. 

Thank you to everyone - artists and fans alike - who participated in this project. Please, feel free to reblog or comment on any post made on this blog! Your input will only help to continue the discussion about fandom online.

1. Kopytoff, V. (2011). "Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter." New York Times. 

(via participatoryfandom)

[foamclub-blog]

I think not watching/reading something because 'it's too popular' is the most pointless and selfish reason not to watch/read something. You are deliberately closing yourself out of a fandom, because you don't want to be a part of it. Because you think it's too mainstream, and you don't want to be mainstream. Oh god no, the horror. And when other people start liking something after you liked it, you think 'I liked it first, stay away from my fandom.'.  That's the essence of fandom elitism. Right there.

[foamclub-blog]

Review: The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture

Title; The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture Author: Mark Schilling Year: 1997 I spotted this book first in the library during my Japanese studies and picked it up immediately~ later I had the chance to buy it (for cheap xD), so I did! It's a great book on various subjects from Japanese (popular) culture and everyday life. It's called 'encyclopedia', even though it doesn't cover everything - which is virtually impossible, yet the subjects covered are definitely interesting. Although, also a bit outdated. A great deal of the subjects are from the sixties and seventies, which is understandable. As a researcher, it's easier to look back on things, than to describe what's happening right in front of you. On the other hand, this is about things that you won't just stumble upon on the internet! That's why we have books, right? xD The book consists of essays on each subject, giving you a decent introduction to each of them, from the manga Doraemon to singer Misora Hibari. The contents are listed alphabetically (it's an encyclopedia after all), but this has a negative result too: when reading through the book you come across any subject at random. It might have been an idea to create chapters to group certain entries, like manga, movies, music, television...  As I mentioned before, the book – written in 1997 - is a bit 'outdated', but what's in this book is certainly an important part of the Japanese culture from the sixties to halfway in the nineties (the entry on SMAP is one of the most recent ones), and worth knowing if you want to be able to understand the cultural background of the Japanese. I did some extra work to list the contents of the book plus a really short indication of what it’s about. ~ Animal Friends: on animal hypes in Japan ~ Ashita no Joe: 60's-70's manga that reflects the youth sentiment of the time ~ Blood Types: on blood types and characters ~ Chibi Maruko Chan: 1986 manga and 1990 tv anime on the life of a girl in 1970. ~ Consumer Culture: economic growth, tv's and fridges. ~ Doraemon: robotcat to the rescue. A seventies manga that's still everywhere. ~ Downtown: most successful comic duo in the nineties. You know them from HeyHeyHey. ~ The Drifters: a comedy group, popular in the sixties to eighties. ~ Eleven P.M.: a late night tv show aired in1965. ~ Godzilla: Japan's monster movie creation. ~ Gurume: 'gourmet', on food culture. ~ Heibon Punch: Japan's version of 'Playboy'. ~ Instant Ramen: your favourite cup noodles. ~ Ishihara Yujiro: Japan's macho actor. ~ Juliana's: the disco that had to close down. ~ Kadokawa Haruki: movie director and president of Kadokawa Shoten Publishers. ~ Karaoke: from sleazy bar to mainstream entertainment. ~ Kimi no Na wa: fifties radio drama. ~ Kohaku Uta Gassen: end of the year singing contest between male and female team. ~ Komuro Tetsuya: successful record producer. ~ Kuroyanagi Tetsuko & Totto-chan: the bestselling autobiography. ~ Kuwata Keisuke & Southern All Stars: bringing rock in Japanese. ~ Mario: a plumber to conquer the world’s game market. ~ Matsuda Seiko: the 'queen of scandal' who became a role model for women. ~ Matsuda Yusaku: another popular actor. ~ Misora Hibari: the queen of enka. ~ Mito Komon: on Japan's historical 'jidai geki' drama's. ~ Miyazaki Hayao: countering Disney. ~ Miyazawa Rie: 1990's pop goddess. ~ Musekinin Otoko: Salaryman in movies etc. ~ Nagashima Shigeo: Yomiuri Giants's most popular baseball player. ~ Naruhodo the World: Japanese TV quizzes. ~ News Station: making TV news more interesting. ~ Nodo Jiman: from radio to TV, long before Idols. ~ Onyanko Club: the popularity of averageness. ~ Oshin VS Ie Naki Ko: teary drama in the eighties. ~ Otomo Katsuhiro: otaku becomes famous manga artist. ~ Oyaji Gyaru: women who behaved much like men. ~ Pachinko: the addictive game. ~ Pink Lady: 1970's pop music duo. ~ Power Rangers: they actually debuted in 1975! ~ Rikidozan: from pro-wrestler to TV personality. ~ Rockabilly, group sounds & the birth of Japanese Rock: exactly that. ~ The Rose of Versailles: shoujo manga.  ~ Royal Weddings: the emperial family goes to an idol status. ~ Sakamoto Kyu & Sukiyaki: the only Japanese nr. 1 hit in the USA. ~ Sannen B Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: high school drama in times of education crisis. ~ Sanrio: bringing kawaii to the masses. ~ Sazae-san: seventies housewife manga. ~ Shonen Jump: your weekly phonebook dose of manga. ~ SMAP: on idol groups & Johnny Kitagawa's 'pretty man factory'. ~ The Sumo Dynasty of the Hanadas: on Sumo champions. ~ Taiga Drama: NHK's yearly historical drama. ~ Takarazuka: the all-girl musical theater. ~ Takeshi Beat: Takeshi Kitano's achievements in various fields. ~ Tezuka Osamu: on 'the god of manga'. ~ Tora-san: a series of movies & a national hero. ~ The Trendy Drama: on bubble-economy jdrama. ~ Trans-America Ultra Quiz: enduring torture to win the game. ~ Ultraman: fighting evil & more merchandise. ~ Waka Daisho: an all-round nice guy. ~ Yakuza Moves: classics & Yakuza ethics. ~ Yamaguchi Momoe: the retired queen of pop. ~ YMO: the techno-pop trio. ~ Yoshinaga Sayuri: a popular actress in the sixties ~ Yuming & the Birth of New Music: Yumi Arai and the combination of folk and pop. ~ Zoku: subculture tribes.

[foamclub-blog]

So I decided to (re)make a Japan blog! Because sometimes I have the urge to write something about Japan... It just happens. The Japanese culture is too awesome/weird/fun/interesting/different NOT to be shared! ^_^