Anyway fandom is a clunky word. I'm writing a long meta about fandom right now and I keep going to back to scrub or refine my use of it in different contexts: general fandom, online fandom, "genre" fandom, and even in some instances the use of fandom to designate the whole phenomenon of the source material, fans, fandom culture, and history. ARGH. *kicks language*
Yes, this. It really is a clunky word. What's the difference between "fans" and "fandom"? What about "fan community"? There's two tags in my bookmarks account/digital notebook, "fans" and "fandom", and I have no earthly idea how to keep them apart. They feel different, but it's hard to pinpoint why. When tagging new bookmarks or notes, I constantly hesitate between which of the two words "sounds" more appropriate. Maybe "fandom" is something that encompasses the people ("fans"), especially when it's used to designate not just the people but also "the whole phenomenon of the source material, fans, fandom culture, and history"?
It feels to me as if using "fandom" to denote only the people kind of erases the people as individuals. What I mean is... There's that thing about how using phrases like "the library has done this or that" obscures the fact that it's librarians who do things, and the library is technically just the building. Use a term that directly refers to people, though, and you immediately remember all sorts of people-related caveats about individual tastes, skills, backgrounds, motivations, and so on. Saying "the librarians have done this or that" makes it vastly clearer that there are individual people involved.
Could it be that the term "fandom" has the same erasing effect as "library", to a certain degree? It's a very broad term that, in the general usage where it normally occurs, encompasses more than it really should and make an amorphous entity out of what is basically a bunch of individuals. It makes the people involved sound more connected than they really are.
Um, in short, I haven't thought about this very deeply and hope your essay will help me figure out what to do about those damn tags ;) More talk about genre later, perhaps, must go to bed now but I wanted to jump on the terminology thing.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 12:44 pm (UTC)Yes, this. It really is a clunky word. What's the difference between "fans" and "fandom"? What about "fan community"? There's two tags in my bookmarks account/digital notebook, "fans" and "fandom", and I have no earthly idea how to keep them apart. They feel different, but it's hard to pinpoint why. When tagging new bookmarks or notes, I constantly hesitate between which of the two words "sounds" more appropriate. Maybe "fandom" is something that encompasses the people ("fans"), especially when it's used to designate not just the people but also "the whole phenomenon of the source material, fans, fandom culture, and history"?
It feels to me as if using "fandom" to denote only the people kind of erases the people as individuals. What I mean is... There's that thing about how using phrases like "the library has done this or that" obscures the fact that it's librarians who do things, and the library is technically just the building. Use a term that directly refers to people, though, and you immediately remember all sorts of people-related caveats about individual tastes, skills, backgrounds, motivations, and so on. Saying "the librarians have done this or that" makes it vastly clearer that there are individual people involved.
Could it be that the term "fandom" has the same erasing effect as "library", to a certain degree? It's a very broad term that, in the general usage where it normally occurs, encompasses more than it really should and make an amorphous entity out of what is basically a bunch of individuals. It makes the people involved sound more connected than they really are.
Um, in short, I haven't thought about this very deeply and hope your essay will help me figure out what to do about those damn tags ;) More talk about genre later, perhaps, must go to bed now but I wanted to jump on the terminology thing.