A good mutual of mine - @mfcst - inspired this Drabble ! Thank you fren
Academia is going to seriously double down on analysing fandom culture, especially after the unfortunate happenings at the San Diego mosque - and the shooter’s use of the Ongezellig fandom to signal his politics, with much success.
Fandom is now literally the best juncture at which the unique features of the internet can be observed playing out, along with how they influence or are influenced by the Analogue world.
You have the Content/Material itself. It could be an anime, a book, a game, a cartoon. It exists independent of interpretation, sure, but gains significance through our IRL or digital consumption. Hence why we have pervasive ideas like “Death of the Author” and the preeminence in our spaces of Interpretation, through which the next variables have their effect.
You have Format, aka forums, personal blogs, short form content like TikTok edits or Instagram reels, where discourse on the Content can take place. Format intersects with Politics (sexuality, race, gender), whether domestic/national/international, and while most common talking points come from the analogue world, they are transformed by their interaction with Cyberspace, and this all plays out in such a way that one can get a million different iterations of Fanon.
I propose we call each variation of Fanon a “Sect”. One’s interpretation of any particular piece of media (the Content), is filtered through real world things like politics and gains about as much importance and consequence as any other expression of ideology and belief. It becomes tantamount to how they would act if in a political party or paramilitary group!
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