FANDOM

I saw this in one of the forums I regularly visit that is not BYJ related and I want to share it with you.

Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime. (fandom is instant technical know how on downloading, uploading, making websites, forums, videos and just about anything related to the world wide web. fandom is exorbitant electricity and dsl fees)

Fandom is people you don't tell your mother you're meeting. Fandom is people in the closet, people out and proud, people in costumes, people in T-shirts with slogans only fifty others would understand. Fandom is a loud dinner conversation scaring the waiter and every table nearby. (fandom is people you sometimes tell your mother, you're meeting though she absolutely cannot understand what on earth would you still be talking about when you see each other, that you havent discussed, dissected, and digressed on the forums, emails, sms, and phonecalls. fandom is staying for more than four hours in the mall's food center with the occasional trip to starbucks)


Fandom is you in the US and me in the Philippines and him in Korea and her in Japan. Fandom is a sofabed in Singapore, a roadtrip in Hawaii, a friend behind a face in Malaysia. Fandom talks past timezones and accents and backgrounds. Fandom is conversation. Communication. Contact.

Fandom is drama. Fandom is melodrama. Fandom is high school. Fandom is Snacky's law and Godwin's law and Murphy's law. Fandom is smarter than you. Fandom is stupider than you. Fandom is five arguments over and over and over again. Fandom is the first time you've ever had them. (fandom is feeling sadness, hurt, anger, joy, elation all in the span of one day, over news that absolutely has NO obvious and direct relevance to your everyday life - ouch! ahahahaha)

Fandom is female. Fandom is male. Fandom lets female play at being male. Fandom bends gender, straight, gay, prude, promiscuous. Fandom is fantasy. Fandom doesn't care about norms or taboos or boundaries. Fandom cares too much about norms and taboos and boundaries. Fandom is not real life. Fandom is closer than real life. Fandom knows what you're really like in the bedroom. Fandom is how you would never, could never be in the bedroom.

Fandom is shipping, never shipping, het, slash, gen, none of the above, more than the above. Fandom is love for characters you didn't create. Fandom is recreating the characters you didn't create. Fandom is appropriation, subversion, dissention. Fandom is adoration, extrapolation, imitation. Fandom is dissection, criticism, interpretation. Fandom is changing, experimenting, attempting. (fandom is IMX, Broasia, cdjapan, hmv, kinokuniya, yesasia, SINO center etc. etc. etc. - shipping lah? )

Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer. ( fandom is expression of a creative genius you may or may never know existed within you. and the best part - a matter of perspective really, you enjoy doing it even though you dont get PAID for it)

Fandom is signal and response. Fandom is a stranger moving you to tears, anger, laughter. Fandom is you moving a stranger to speak. ( fandom is subtitles and no subtitles, bad and good dubbing and everything in between. fandom is habitual marathon, overnight videofests. )


Fandom is distraction. Fandom is endangering your job, your grades, your relationships, your bank account. Fandom gets no work done. Fandom is too much work. Fandom was/is just a phase. Fandom could never be just a phase. Fandom is where you found a friend, a sister, a kindred spirit. Fandom is where you found a talent, a love, a reason. (fandom is insanity and sanity, spending hard-earned money for a 7 day trip, a seat at a concert or a movie premiere, a meet and greet, and knowing it was well worth it. fandom is workdone when you should be WORKING really. fandom is where i found BAE YONG JOON!!! and where i found you (yes guys..)

Fandom is where you found yourself....(MAYBE.... ahahaha)