I like to experience things on my own, and the internet exists in such opposition to that concept that I think it gets perceived as hating mainstream things or hating that people are having fun, or just kneejerk contrarianism. It's not, though, it makes no difference to me what other people enjoy or how many friends and strangers they share it with.
What suffocates me is the way that fandom makes anything popular inescapable. It pushes other people's interpretations of things in front of me all day every day and that conflicts with my preference for spending time alone with my own thoughts about a piece of media and arriving at my own conclusions. It also homogenises details that could otherwise be left open to personal interpretation. Every fanartist might have a different approach to drawing the same character, but overwhelmingly a consensus will emerge about key features, behaviours or in-jokes that get amplified, and it overwrites spaces where ambiguity could otherwise exist.
I like ambiguity a lot. I like projecting my own thoughts and influences onto art and stories, and sitting quietly with them and thinking about my own relationship to them. It's really hard not to come off as a grouch when I can't do that because of this massive established culture of public consumption. When I ask friends not to 'spoil' me on things, I mean don't tell me anything about them. Don't influence my approach to them. It feels like a constantly losing battle, like I'm trapped in an enormous book club I never signed up for.
jbbartram-illu
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
pixelskylines
prguitarman
