Up until last week, "One Direction Infection," a Tumblr blog created and maintained by an eighth grader we'll call Claire, looked like any other 14-year-old's Tumblr. But over the weekend Claire's subject matter took a sharp turn. In place of candid shots of Harry Styles and Zayn Malik, there are now photos of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; instead of inspirational image macros, there are annotated crime scene photos. Gawker's Max Read on where social media fandoms meet conspiracy theories.
posted by Rory Marinich
on Apr 25, 2013 -
99 comments
For generations both societies lived apart from humanity, united in their common experience as outcasts. But as so often happens when downcast but fanatical groups find themselves in the ascendancy, today their factionalism is
exposed and the rivalry has erupted into
open conflict.
[more inside]
posted by GhostintheMachine
on Feb 28, 2013 -
25 comments
Does having sex with you entail becoming married, whether legally, magically, physiologically, or some other de facto permanent relationship? Y/N If Yes, please describe our new life together.
It's an unpredictable dating world out there when you're a fanfiction protagonist. With the proliferation of anonymous
kink memes populated by imaginative,
trope-savvy slashers and other fan-writers (usually women), you can never be quite sure when your next amorous encounter in fic may veer into the dubiously probable or physically impossible. Luckily for sexually-active fic-heroes everywhere, fan-writers Coruscera and Linbot have created a helpful meta-fandom survey to ensure your future romantic interludes run smoothly for all partners involved:
"
Special Circumstances Questionnaire for Sexual Partners (Male): Long Form."
[NSFW for explicit sexual language. Possible trigger warnings for discussion of sexual consent and very unusual sexual practices.]
posted by nicebookrack
on Jan 18, 2013 -
19 comments
Who to root for now? As a result of FOX/News Corp. going into business with the New York Yankees through by
acquiring a 49% stake in the Yankees's regional sports network, Craig Robinson disavows his Yankees fandom, and goes in search of a new baseball team to which to swear his allegiance and passion.
posted by dry white toast
on Nov 21, 2012 -
93 comments
Vulture's Top 25 Most Devoted Fan Bases: "Vulture has scanned the great plains of pop culture, weighing passion versus mere popularity to decide the 25 Most Devoted Fans of entertainment, which kicks off our weeklong exploration of all things Fandom. It's important to underscore that this list is not about mere numbers — it’s about fervency."
[more inside]
posted by roger ackroyd
on Oct 15, 2012 -
81 comments
SF conventions, and snapshots of SF conventions, go back a long time. Here's
Midwestcon 2, put on by the Cincinnati Fantasy group in June 1951; shots include
a haunting image of Henry Burwell, publisher of Atlanta zine
Science Fiction Digest, and an already-old
E.E. "Doc" Smith. From Retronaut,
an unnamed 1980 con in LA. From the Mills photo archive,
con costumes from the late 60s through the 80s. Forrest Ackerman, editor of
Famous Monsters of Filmland,
in "futuristic costume" at the first WorldCon in 1939. This last from the endless compendium that is the
MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive.
posted by escabeche
on Aug 1, 2012 -
19 comments
Isaac Butler’s excellent blog
Parabasis (previously noted in MeFi conversations about
Mike Daisey and
Spidermusicals) usually centers on issues in the US nonprofit theater. Occasionally, he takes on a different topic in depth with a series of guests. This past week, he hosted the
Fandom Issue:
I am less interested personally in whether the Rise of the Fan is good or bad for our culture, and much more interested in what it means. This week, we assay the Fan from a number of different angles. Who are these fans? And what does it mean to be one? What happens to love when it becomes a communal activity? And what happens to it when the beloved cannot or will not respond?
[more inside]
posted by HeroZero
on May 22, 2012 -
13 comments
Creamsicle is tumblr's newest
OTP. In this little internet corner of endless fannish possibility, "where large fandoms become generational phenomenon, and unlikely smaller ones explode into supernovas of animated gifs, a full-fledged internet meme-turned-actual fandom [has been spawned] in less than 24 hours."
[more inside]
posted by dustyasymptotes
on May 11, 2012 -
71 comments
Here's the deal: If you don't play for, or you are not an employee of, the team in question, "we" is not the pronoun you're looking for.
"They" is the word you want.
Why
"We" is the most overused term in sports.
posted by The Gooch
on Oct 20, 2011 -
154 comments
I'd like to welcome you all lords and ladies, gentlemen, ladies, time-ladies, time-lords, aliens and those of you in the cheap seats to a documentary produced and aired by WYES-TV New Orleans in 1986, focusing on Panopticon, the first US Doctor Who convention. (
1,
2,
3) (MLYT, in authentic multi-copy VHS fuzz-o-vision!)
[more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry
on Apr 14, 2011 -
17 comments
Contrary to a lot of idle criticism, Bungie's
Halo series of video games has
a surprisingly rich backstory -- a universe complex enough to support
seven bestselling novels,
a wiki with over 7,000 articles, and
one of the most successful ARGs in history (including
a full-fledged radio drama). The series has also turned out sweeping audiovisual work, from the games'
cinematic cutscenes and
epic music (lots of free previews) to
top-shelf anime and the Hollywood-quality short films --
ODST,
Believe,
Deliver Hope,
Landfall -- that were made to promote the games (the latter of which, produced by Neil Blomkamp,
inspired District 9). And that's apart from all the material produced by Bungie's dedicated fan base:
genuinely hilarious machinima from
Red vs. Blue,
professional-level graphic novels (table of contents at the top),
gorgeous artwork,
hours of recorded dialogue,
complete transcripts of
hidden apocrypha, and more
factual analysis,
story speculation, and
casual discussion than you can shake an energy sword at. But most of these pale in comparison to the latest and greatest exercise in Halo beanplating: the
Svmma Canonica, a 40-page, 17,000-word formal treatise on the nature of canon in the world that Bungie built, and how it will fare once Bungie moves on and the franchise is managed by 343 Industries. Discussion
over at Bungie's official site, or at decade-old fan forum
Halo.Bungie.Org.
posted by Rhaomi
on Jan 31, 2011 -
71 comments
Before the internet, nerds communicated through
Amateur Press Associations (APAs). Members wrote and photocopied their individual 'zines on a subject, then mailed them to a central mailer, who collated and mailed the completed sets to all the members. The earliest APAs were founded by printers and amateur journalists.
The National Amateur Press Association is the oldest, founded in 1876. Later APAs were often the province of science fiction and comic book fans. They are
still around [pdf]. A lot more inside...
[more inside]
posted by marxchivist
on Aug 2, 2010 -
12 comments
