Holiday Wrap-up

[wickedwords]

This christmas, I got two awesome presents, awesome in completely different ways. From my husband, I got an iPhone, and I have spent a lot of time bonding with it. I love that I can read on it--I have set up shortcuts to both my LJ and DW pages--and I installed the kindle for the iPhone app, and am working my way through the adventures of sherlock holmes (which was free, and thus it doubled its awesomeness.) I've got a few games, and the heyway and shazam apps, plus the facebook and pandora apps. I also use it as an ipod a lot, and even have the Adam Lambert album on rotation. Fandom is joy, and music is joy, so if you know of any good fan mixes, point me to them please.

The iPhone is win, I swear.

In a completely different manner, my son also wins for presents this year. When I opened the gift from him, I got a calendar and a bar of organic dark chocolate and a book; turning it over, the book turned out to be Twilight. I laughed, he laughed; we high fived. His well-developed sense of irony is a total score.

The double irony comes in that I decided that since I had it, I might as well read it, and so I take it with me to radiation every day. Since I can only manage about 10 minutes at a time of being in Bella's head, this is working out. If they're backed up and it takes longer to get to me, I read Holmes or email, or play games on my iPhone. Seriously, radiation sucks, but I'm loving my waiting room time.

Interestingly, having the Twilight book with me is giving me a whole new perspective on being out about fandom. Okay, my son hates to be seen with me, but it's his own fault for giving me the book. *g*. The thing that makes him the most uncomfortable though is that female fans of the series openly approach me to talk about the series and how much they love it--and after gushing to me, they will 'see' him too, and try to talk to him. That's what's making him hide under the desk more than anything; he's not used to being seen like that.

So, anyway, these women come up to me and talk about their experiences, how much they love the books, about their favorite scenes, and talk about things that I'll really love later in the series. They are open and enthusiastic, and just by having the book in my hand, I have created an instant bond with these strangers, a community of two or three in the waiting room of a hospital or at a restaurant or, well, anywhere. I still have my fannish community by iPhone, but the in-person warmth and openness is exciting. I guess I just love talking with fans that are in love with their fandom, no matter what that fandom might be. The fact that they are in love is totally cool.

Comments

[cathexys]

I find the twilight fandom (esp the twimoms) fascinating! It's like HP only more so. I don't even know how to fully articulate it, but I always felt like HP created fandom on its own but it ultimately was a lot like 'ours' and the two merged with one another fairly easily. I have a hard time seeing that happen here...

Except for you :) Of course!

[wickedwords]

It's more like beauty and the beast fandom than it is HP. With HP, there were a lot of early adopters in Media Fandom, though many of them stuck with lists at the time. A few did migrate over to FF.net, HP for Grownups, the Snape Hermione spaces, etc. So even though the vast majority of the fandom walked in cold, there were enough media fans involved that vocabulary, concepts, structures etc created a way for the two groups to join up several years down the line.

I'm not looking for it, so I don't know if there is a set of early adopters out in twilight fandom, but I'm guessing not. So it'll be more independant and build its own universe, like Xena did, along with a lot of other threshold fandoms.

:-)

[elke_tanzer]

I guess I just love talking with fans that are in love with their fandom, no matter what that fandom might be. The fact that they are in love is totally cool.

And this is why fandom works. :-D

Btw, I get a similar effect when I carry a copy of Temeraire around... strangers mention that they love it, and I babble at strangers about how awesome it is. Without mentioning fanfic at all, mostly. :-)

Re: :-)

[wickedwords]

oh, that's cool! I love that part of fandom.

[jssangel.livejournal.com]

I haven't been on LJ much lately, so I missed your transition to a place where you are getting radiation. I am sorry that you are in a tough place health-wise. Good thoughts and wishes to you!

You know what your experience with Twilight made me think of? When HP: Deathly Hallows came out, and literally everyone was reading it. I live in NYC and I remember the week after the release, everywhere I went people were all reading the same book - on the subway on the bus, in the parks (since it was July)...

I have this great mental picture (and I wish I had taken a real picture of it) of the steps of library on 5th ave(with the lions) packed with people at lunch time. Literally hundreds of bright orange book covers shining in the sun.

It was a very cool moment of literary (if not fannish) togetherness.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds absolutely fabulous! What a great moment to have as a memory.

As for my radiation, eh. You were having a baby when I was diagnosed with cancer, and I'm at the tail end of treatment now. The baby is much more important.

[veredus.livejournal.com]

but the in-person warmth and openness is exciting

YES YES YES

This is what I miss the most with the online community. Not to knock it, but in-person communication just can't be duplicated in the digital ether.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

For me, there is just something different about being in person and talking about fandom. It's why I go to cons, and probably will continue to do so even after I become the crazy old lady that people have to be nice to because she's been in fandom so long. *g*

[geeklite.livejournal.com]

I love it when fans are fannish, but couldn't some of these people be fans of something less horrible and boring? Maybe sewage plant operating manuals? ;)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Maybe sewage plant operating manuals?

I've heard that the plot stinks. o_0