Walking the Fan's Road
Jan. 6th, 2015 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alee_grrlSeveral of my friend's/circle are doing the Snowflake Challenge this year. The responses to this daily challenge, particularly to the Day 5 challenge, specifically sperrywink's,response got me thinking about my own fannish origin story. So I decided that even if I did none of the other day's of the challenge I would like to do this one.
Day 5
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
In many ways I was born into fandom, or at least a form of it. My father was a huge scifi/fantasy fan, my mother a huge mystery fan, and both huge fans of music. The social aspects of their fannish ways were different to the current standard, and they never attended cons or exchanged zines (that I am aware of), but the ideas were there. We did attend swap meets, which are not all that different from cons, though the celebrated culture and costuming was a bit different.
I fell hard for movies like The Last Unicorn (the title of this post is in fact a nod to one of my favorite songs from that movie), Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, the animated version of The Hobbit, etc.. I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, stories that introduced the concept of narrative control and agency, as well as the concept of "What if?". I grew up knowing that stories never really end (and not just because of my love of The Neverending Story--I was the target demographic for that movie is so many ways), and I have long had a habit of continuing stories in my head. I had great fun as a child introducing my Care Bear toys to my other toys, gleefully crossing the worlds that they lived in. My brother and I shared enough interests that we were able to swap ideas, theories, and best loved works in ways similar to fan groups. I got my brother interested in reading through Tolkein, the Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman books (which I didn't quite like myself, but figured my brother would), and Dragonlance novels. He introduced me to social geekery via Ad&D and other role-playing games.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized that I discovered broader fandom, including internet fandom, geeky social groups (hi Anime Club!), and the words fan-art and fanfiction. I was aware vaguely of the concepts of a fanwork from my childhood experiences, but I had not encountered words so specifically meant to describe them. Nor had I realized just how many other people enjoyed similar things.
My first internet fandom was Ranma 1/2. I had dear friends introduce me to Ranma 1/2 and other anime, both the shows and the fan communities online. I didn't create a username or fannish identity of myself at that time, instead choose to lurk and read for the most part. I was particularly enthralled with the Crossing Bridges Ranma 1/2 site that focused on cross-overs. So it wasn't much of a leap from Ranma 1/2 to other fandoms (Gundman Wing and Sailor Moon). Then I realized I could find works for other shows that I loved, and I fell into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, due South, Seaquest DSV, and Kung Fu the Legend Continues.
I found a few groups and mailing lists via AOL and Yahoo mostly for Buffy and Kung Fu:TLC. I started a few stories here and there on those lists, but never managed to finish any of them. Mostly I read and commented on others works. I also enjoyed soaking up some of the wisdom and insights of the older fans (Kung Fu: TLC had a very age-diverse fanbase). I got most of my social fandom interactivity on Yahoo Groups (these were mailing lists, for those who aren't familiar with them, and acted as a mix of story update alerts and safe-space for fan discussions).
One of those lists would eventually go on to spawn Twisting the Hellmouth, a site devoted to cross-overs involving Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was the first place I ever posted my own fanfiction. I have since migrated the stories to ff.net as well. But I was never a prolific writer and my one WiP remains unfinished. I haven't given up on it, though I'm sure my readers think I have. I just haven't had the creative energy to finish the damn thing. Other than that handful of stories, most of my fannish interaction online remains reading and commenting on others works, and my fannish social activity offline has been mostly meet-ups with friends discovered online (DW friends primarily) and the occasional Con. I also get a lot of fannish interaction with my chosen family as we are all fans of one sort or another. So there is much geeking out about many things, and the occasional plotting of stories, meta discussions, etc..
As for pseudonyms and fannish identity, I played around with a few in my early years of online fandom activity. My very first user name was fannish in quality though not in use, and that was an identity my father let me create for our Q-Link (think early precursor to AOL) account back in the late 1980s/early 1990s. That id was cheshirekitten and was used only in a monitored Saturday afternoon kids chat group. By the time I was old enough to come up with another user name I felt that the use of kitten would give folks the wrong idea. :D I played with a few others, PumpkinLady18, is the only one I can actually remember at this point and that was my main AOL id. Eventually I settled with v_mures (alternately V. Mures, or vMures). I have a fairly quiet and mouse-like demeanor in real life, and a friend and I had frequently joked about me being a vampire mouse (tiny, cute, and with sharp pointy teeth). So the v is for vampire, and the mures is latin for mice (mus is the singular and just didn't sound right).
When I first created my DW journal I was going to do a non-fannish journal and not connect it to my fannish identity at all. This user name is basically just a shortened form of my legal name with the addition of grrl. It's also a bit of a pun in that I've always been fond of cats and the song "Alley Cat Strut" and when read aloud alee can sound like alley (depending on whose reading it). Then I realized that I didn't particularly care if people could connect my fannish identity and this one. So they two aren't as separated as they might have been. :D
And thus concludes my fannish origin story. Told you it would be long. ;)
sperrywink's,response got me thinking about my own fannish origin story. So I decided that even if I did none of the other day's of the challenge I would like to do this one. Day 5
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
In many ways I was born into fandom, or at least a form of it. My father was a huge scifi/fantasy fan, my mother a huge mystery fan, and both huge fans of music. The social aspects of their fannish ways were different to the current standard, and they never attended cons or exchanged zines (that I am aware of), but the ideas were there. We did attend swap meets, which are not all that different from cons, though the celebrated culture and costuming was a bit different.
I fell hard for movies like The Last Unicorn (the title of this post is in fact a nod to one of my favorite songs from that movie), Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, the animated version of The Hobbit, etc.. I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, stories that introduced the concept of narrative control and agency, as well as the concept of "What if?". I grew up knowing that stories never really end (and not just because of my love of The Neverending Story--I was the target demographic for that movie is so many ways), and I have long had a habit of continuing stories in my head. I had great fun as a child introducing my Care Bear toys to my other toys, gleefully crossing the worlds that they lived in. My brother and I shared enough interests that we were able to swap ideas, theories, and best loved works in ways similar to fan groups. I got my brother interested in reading through Tolkein, the Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman books (which I didn't quite like myself, but figured my brother would), and Dragonlance novels. He introduced me to social geekery via Ad&D and other role-playing games.
It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized that I discovered broader fandom, including internet fandom, geeky social groups (hi Anime Club!), and the words fan-art and fanfiction. I was aware vaguely of the concepts of a fanwork from my childhood experiences, but I had not encountered words so specifically meant to describe them. Nor had I realized just how many other people enjoyed similar things.
My first internet fandom was Ranma 1/2. I had dear friends introduce me to Ranma 1/2 and other anime, both the shows and the fan communities online. I didn't create a username or fannish identity of myself at that time, instead choose to lurk and read for the most part. I was particularly enthralled with the Crossing Bridges Ranma 1/2 site that focused on cross-overs. So it wasn't much of a leap from Ranma 1/2 to other fandoms (Gundman Wing and Sailor Moon). Then I realized I could find works for other shows that I loved, and I fell into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, due South, Seaquest DSV, and Kung Fu the Legend Continues.
I found a few groups and mailing lists via AOL and Yahoo mostly for Buffy and Kung Fu:TLC. I started a few stories here and there on those lists, but never managed to finish any of them. Mostly I read and commented on others works. I also enjoyed soaking up some of the wisdom and insights of the older fans (Kung Fu: TLC had a very age-diverse fanbase). I got most of my social fandom interactivity on Yahoo Groups (these were mailing lists, for those who aren't familiar with them, and acted as a mix of story update alerts and safe-space for fan discussions).
One of those lists would eventually go on to spawn Twisting the Hellmouth, a site devoted to cross-overs involving Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was the first place I ever posted my own fanfiction. I have since migrated the stories to ff.net as well. But I was never a prolific writer and my one WiP remains unfinished. I haven't given up on it, though I'm sure my readers think I have. I just haven't had the creative energy to finish the damn thing. Other than that handful of stories, most of my fannish interaction online remains reading and commenting on others works, and my fannish social activity offline has been mostly meet-ups with friends discovered online (DW friends primarily) and the occasional Con. I also get a lot of fannish interaction with my chosen family as we are all fans of one sort or another. So there is much geeking out about many things, and the occasional plotting of stories, meta discussions, etc..
As for pseudonyms and fannish identity, I played around with a few in my early years of online fandom activity. My very first user name was fannish in quality though not in use, and that was an identity my father let me create for our Q-Link (think early precursor to AOL) account back in the late 1980s/early 1990s. That id was cheshirekitten and was used only in a monitored Saturday afternoon kids chat group. By the time I was old enough to come up with another user name I felt that the use of kitten would give folks the wrong idea. :D I played with a few others, PumpkinLady18, is the only one I can actually remember at this point and that was my main AOL id. Eventually I settled with v_mures (alternately V. Mures, or vMures). I have a fairly quiet and mouse-like demeanor in real life, and a friend and I had frequently joked about me being a vampire mouse (tiny, cute, and with sharp pointy teeth). So the v is for vampire, and the mures is latin for mice (mus is the singular and just didn't sound right).
When I first created my DW journal I was going to do a non-fannish journal and not connect it to my fannish identity at all. This user name is basically just a shortened form of my legal name with the addition of grrl. It's also a bit of a pun in that I've always been fond of cats and the song "Alley Cat Strut" and when read aloud alee can sound like alley (depending on whose reading it). Then I realized that I didn't particularly care if people could connect my fannish identity and this one. So they two aren't as separated as they might have been. :D
And thus concludes my fannish origin story. Told you it would be long. ;)
no subject
Date: 2015-01-07 09:42 pm (UTC)