This is wild to me, because it's the complete opposite of my experience in fandom. Of course, my primary fandom was Buffy, not Trek (I've enjoyed lots of Trek, but never spent time in fandom places for it), and I also know this is a characteristic of male vs. female fannishness, but... - ThreadSky

mollymay.bsky.social • 12 days ago

This is wild to me, because it's the complete opposite of my experience in fandom. Of course, my primary fandom was Buffy, not Trek (I've enjoyed lots of Trek, but never spent time in fandom places for it), and I also know this is a characteristic of male vs. female fannishness, but...

Reposted from Lincoln Michel

This quote from @adamkotsko.bsky.social is something that's always fascinated (and weirded me out) about fandom. Sorry to novel plug but also a big part of METALLIC REALMS, which includes a Star Trek-ish space opera franchise.

theunderline.substack.com/p/late-star-...

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thelincoln.bsky.social•12 days ago

I suppose one difference here is that Buffy was just one show (fans seem to ignore the movie?) and so fans everything is automatically canon? No need to explain contradictions in a plethora of books, movies, and series?

thelincoln.bsky.social•12 days ago

I may be exposing my ignorance here though and maybe there are a lot of expanded universe Buffy novels too?

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

There are! There's a huge comics universe, and a lot of novels too, though definitely not as much as Trek has

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

There was a time when Buffy was the most studied TV show in academia.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/the-rise-of-buffy-studies/407020/

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

This is probably one part of it, though I would say canon contradicts itself in ways that a lot of the discourse is about trying to resolve those discrepancies. Another big piece of it is that Whedon and his writers were weaving in subtext & symbolism purposely, in ways most Trek probably doesn't.

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

when I think about the absolute reams of discourse I've read analyzing every bit of symbolism from Restless (and every other dream), the way I've read multiple essays on something as seemingly simple as Buffy's fashion vs. Faith's in S3, the idea that symbolism is not discussed or is dismissed...

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

is again just not at all my experience. And that's before you get to the VAST reams of discourse on souls, morality, gender, feminism, race, sex, etc., etc. I believe the quote above may be the way many people interact with fandom, but it's definitely not how a large portion of fandom operates.

mollymay.bsky.social•12 days ago

(Yes, the entire world is on fire and this is what I'm choosing to engage in today. Also, I should add that the OP's upcoming book has been on my TBR since I first heard about it, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.)

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