I'm fairly sure it's no crazier than other fandoms. It's just in ascendancy right now.

Maybe a little. Because Homicide fans liked to drink at the Waterfront but I've never been mugged for my Cafe Hon T-shirt. Maybe if it said "Bodymore, Murderland"

Uh, some Lord of the Rings fans believed that Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan were in a relationship, but were forced to hide it, but gave out secret signals in interviews and stuff.

Some Harry Potter fans are convinced they're married to Severus Snape on the astral plane.

I'd go with Dana on that. Also, part of the craxy is its romantic sensibility, something that hits a chord with the teen set (if not only the teen set); so you get a certain kind of response you might not get in a different fandom.

Barb, I've gotten that kind of reader-letter too, and after boggling a bit I just had to ignore it. It's a certain type of reader-entitlement that assumes that the writer is merely there to produce for the reader, and the reader gets to dictate what that is. While not all of your friend's readers may love the direction she's going, thankfully only a few of them also have the gall to tell the writers what to do.

Well, that's a lot of crazy, too. Maybe Twilight-crazy seems crazier cause I can't imagine being into it. That last book seriously grossed me out.

Uh, some Lord of the Rings fans believed that Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan were in a relationship, but were forced to hide it, but gave out secret signals in interviews and stuff.

Some Harry Potter fans are convinced they're married to Severus Snape on the astral plane.

... Okay, fair points. I guess I'm just currently weirded out by the idea of fans offering to buy someone's clothing or stealing their library card just because "souvenirs" of the town the book is set in.

Oh, they're all bugfuck. Some of them are possibly the same bugfucks.

And maybe the difference is, if somebody DID tell me, "It's crazy, being really obsessed with a city you've never been to because of TV."(Because I know it is.) I could say "Yeah," without being offended.

... Okay, fair points. I guess I'm just currently weirded out by the idea of fans offering to buy someone's clothing or stealing their library card just because "souvenirs" of the town the book is set in.

Well, it is quite bonkers. But, yes, I agree it's because there's a physical location connected with the beloved fantasy world - and it's not like Angel being set in LA, 'cause LA is already super famous. Whereas this place had no particular claim to fame before the Twipocalypse, and now I guess it's pretty much the Mecca of sparkly mormons vampires.

It is thoroughly disconcerting, though - I think the difference isn't so much in the level of craxy, but more in the fact that Joe Public is being sucked in. It's a little like the unpleasant intrusiveness of RPF - only it's impacting on totally innocent people who have in absolutely no way volunteered to be obsessed over, or to be public figures.

Must be very strange.

It's a little like the unpleasant intrusiveness of RPF - only it's impacting on totally innocent people who have in absolutely no way volunteered to be obsessed over, or to be public figures.

Totally word. I mean, the fact that these are adult women--mothers-- who are approaching teenage girls and offering them cash for a cheerleading uniform. I just want to grab them by the shoulders, shake them, really hard and say, "Lady, what would you do if some strange, whacked out individual approached your kid? Right, move along now before I call the cops."

I mean, going back into the memory banks, I remember when Twin Peaks was at its cultish high, weren't people descending on the small town masquerading as it and going into the diner and ordering cherry pie? People have this inherent mentality that drives them to want to be a part of something they love, in whatever way possible. Alyssa, after her first Atlantis book came out, got an email within the first week from a reader who loved the books. In the email was an attachment-- the reader had rushed right out and gotten a tattoo of the Atlantis symbol from the books on her inside of her forearm.

I will admit to this, however-- I think I'm falling just a little in love with Robert Pattinson, because of how he's dealing with all this craxiness with a certain measure of bemusement and most importantly, distance. (He's talked about how he's playing Edwards as this character who's monumentally depressed and has an enormous amount of self-hate, which is right on the money. Plus, as he said, "One hundred eight year old virgin, man-- there are issues there.")