Fandom is the place where people get your jokes.
Jayne ,'Serenity'
The Minearverse 4: Support Group for Clumsy People
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls and The Inside), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
Yes. And fandom is the place where people get that not all of your fannish references are jokes, simply because they're fannish.
Fandom is the place where people get your jokes.
Yes. And your book references, too.
And your Sondheim references. Well, I guess that's really Betsydom. Still.
In fandom, you don't have to include all the backstory when you're commenting on something. When I'm comparing something in SG-1 to Christianity in my class, I have to explain what SG-1 is and why something on a SciFi show might relate to real life and still people look at me like a weirdo because I watch TV and have a brain. Here, people get it.
In a whole bunch of sharing with some kravvers (there's an odd fandom, right there), I mentioned that my "Other Interests" section on my day job's intranet was basically "Teaches krav maga and watches television."
The instructor I was talking to was quite surprised. Didn't think I was the type to watch more than ten minutes of TV. I told him, no, I'd recently come to accept that TV was a hobby of mine, the way some people follow sports.
I think in LA, that might be easier to get across than in other places--he came down to "Oh, I dated a woman who followed TV like that, but she was in the business."
I don't think he was ready for the full fandom discussion.
Yeah, outside of LA (or at least in Education), where people are really proud of not watching any tv, it is not, in general, considered a reasonable hobby. This is, IMO, unreasonable, but it's not like I'm convincing most of them of most of my other quirks, either.
TV is teh awesome!
I actually just watched the pilot of the West Wing. Looks like I might enjoy it a bit. I'm more excited for Aaron Sorkin's new show, though - it's the West Wing, but about television!
Considering I have Buffy fandom to thank for more than half of my friends today, I refuse to be embarrassed about geeking out over a TV show.
Gris, you haven't seen West Wing? The first few seasons are really amazing. I'm definitely curious to see the new show.
I tend to wax rhapsodic about the power of narrative. I consider it a diversionary, but not dishonest, tactic. I'd rather save my fights for policy stuff, with people I know from work and potential work. Other people, it depends on my mood. But I'm way less embarassed about pretty much anything I watch than having read Angels and Demons (It was there. I needed something to read during down time at work.)