i have no idea what the movie is about. i think clocks are involved.

[sideways]

Something something an interesting Twitter conversation I eavesdropped on about the evolving nature of (a) fandom: "early fic (at least what i read) was deeply in conversation with the source. even aus were very connected to the canon. now, fic is in conversation with other fic." 

Something something the current Goncharov phenomenon consuming Tumblr, in which an entire landscape of fanfiction is being written about a source that doesn't actually exist. A wonderful mess of fleshy fan creation with nary a skeleton to drape it on but familiar patterns and expectations and tropes.

It's been very amusing to watch from the fringes, and there has been gorgeous meta written about the "yes, and" nature of Tumblr and the creative power of collective fandom. But there is something a little bittersweet in it too, for me, and I think the Twitter conversation touches on why.

Comments

[queenlua]

that was a v interesting thread; thanks for the link!

a kinda-related "old fandom" thing i'm sometimes kind of nostalgic/wistful for was when fandom felt more... diffuse? it wasn't just "check the ao3 category for your fandom;" you'd find some geocities site with stuff from a few authors, or you'd find some thread on gamefaqs where someone was updating their fic weekly in the same forum thread, or some fandoms would *strongly* prefer fanfiction.net even when ao3 was coming into vogue...

and those really did *feel* different and sort of implicitly select for different thing—i don't see as many shaggy dog stories where someone's clearly just riffing on their own HIGHLY specific worldbuilding for thousands of words, the way i remember on the weird forum threads. (not because ao3 *bars* that sort of thing, of course, just like... network effects, genetic bottleneck mentioned elsewhere in the comments, etc)

it's not even that that stuff isn't getting written anymore, i think—i'm sure there's subcultures around wattpad and such i'm totally unaware of, and there's always some elementary school kid writing their own fanfic without even knowing there's a word for it—but that kind of experience doesn't feel like the "default" anymore, haha. (and i do get a little bit twitchy when e.g. a certain type of fan wax poetic about ao3 as though it is All Of Fandom, and saved All Of Fandom... i adore ao3 but the world is so wide, yaknow?)

[sideways]

Yeah, that's a really good point! On the one hand I enjoy not having to go searching far and wide for fanfiction (and then losing wads of favourites when sites go down... sob), but otoh AO3 naturally lends itself to a certain homogeneity. Because it's all in one place, and the majority audience will inevitably be loudest, and you can easily see around you what styles of technique and narrative will rake in the most approval.

(Relatedly: I always wrinkle my nose a little when people claim AO3 is algorithm free. It's free of one very particular type of algorithm, sure, but if we're talking literally then it's a website with a search function so of course it has an algorithm, and if we're talking culturally then it still has its ways of prioritising and boosting certain works.)

[queenlua]

I always wrinkle my nose a little when people claim AO3 is algorithm free

+100, yes, haha. just because i prefer AO3's algorithm to eg "however the heck Twitter decides to show me stuff" doesn't mean it doesn't have one... can't avoid it...!