Have you ever liked a certain book, comic, TV show, band or film? Is liking them just a past time to entertain yourself or an unhealthy obsession that leads to staying up till 2 am reading fanfiction (explained later)? Because I have. And if you're like me, then you are not alone.
Fanatic domains a.k.a. "fandom" have been a big part of our society. These are groups or subculture which are composed of fans who have certain feelings toward a common interest. They interact with each other either offline in conventions or online in forums. A fandom can be anything! For example, if you like Adventure Time one can make fanworks: stories, art, videos, gifs. One of these are the so called "fanfiction." These are stories that are written by fans to satisfy their fantasies and create their own story based on a novel, TV show, comic, etc. Fanfiction may or may not tie in with the story's canon; sometimes the fans use the story's characters in different situations that do not relate to the plot line at all. Fun fact: Virgil's Aeneid is literally an epic fanfiction of The Iliad.
One of the first notable fandoms is the Sherlock Holmes fandom which started in the 19th century when fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work began protesting and mourning when Holmes was killed off in the books. This led to creating the first ever fanfiction in 1897 to 1902. The Sherlock fandom is still growing due to the acquired fame of the British TV series Sherlock (10/10 would recommend).
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| Fan art for the Sherlock TV series on a Dutch telephone booth |
In the late 1970s, science fiction fandoms began to emerge. One of the first largest science fiction fandoms is the Star Trek fandom a.k.a as the "Mother Fandom" due to being the first media fandom. They also first introduced the slash fic where you put two male characters together in a romantic love story. This genre of fanfiction is now the most popular genre in the Internet (also my most favorite genre).
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| Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock are the first characters to be in a slash fic |
Fandoms are everywhere. With the emerging of the Internet, fandoms became bigger. Tumblr, a microblogging site, is home to 50 million fans generating an enormous amount of love for their favorite fandoms (this is where I first entered fandoms in 2012). LiveJournal is the home of many archives for fanfiction, fanart, and meta as well as community discussion. FanFiction.net is by far the biggest and most popular fanfiction archive on the internet. Often called “The Site That Must Not Be Named” or “The Pit of Voles” because of the notoriously bad quality of fics posted there (although there are also rare quality fics there). Archive of Our Own or AO3 also archives fanfiction that is run entirely by fans. DeviantArt also archives a lot of fanart and home to millions of fanartists.
Fans can also attend conventions and events where they can partake in cosplaying and roleplaying, interacting with fans and artists. Comic-Con is one of the biggest annual fan conventions where popular artists and celebrities attend to participate in panels (attending Comic Con might be a dream come true for me *inserts crying emoji*).
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| The 2015 New York Comic-Con |
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| Harry Potter fans dressed up as Hogwarts quidditch players |
Fans can sometimes be viewed negatively as teenagers that have an unhealthy obsession over something. Some fans devote almost 90% of their time in doing fan activities. Although sometimes it can be very dangerous considering that you can neglect your real-life responsibilities, we aren't God to judge them. Fandoms are already their way of life now. These obsessions can really help them in many ways, believe it or not. So what are you waiting for? Join the dark side now. We have cookies and Tumblr.
(Dan Howell (danisnotonfire on Youtube) explains fandoms in a more entertaining and understandable way in the video above. Feel free to watch it! )
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