unspeakablehorror (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unspeakablehorror) wrote2021-09-24 10:07 pm
unspeakablehorror) wrote2021-09-24 10:07 pm
Entry tags:
Thoughts on Fandom
The thing is, I have a rather tenuous relation with fan culture in general because I find many, many aspects of it deeply alienating, and yet at the same time, I feel there are some valuable things in it.
But I find it a bit puzzling how many mixed messages I see, that make me feel that a lot of the time what people are claiming as values are only held to as long as self-interest is concerned.
So for example, some of the same fans who claim that fans are capable both of enjoying something and being critical of it, that it's okay to enjoy things that are objectively bad, will then claim this is not true when it is something that triggers the right disgust levers in them. Now, I am not here to say that those disgust levers are purely preference based in nature. I have never believed that of my own disgust, though I do believe there is certainly a preference component. I do however think one is equally capable of hating something and also being critical of it.
But is it not incompatible to hold to the one ideal sometimes, and then the other at other times? Is it important not to tell other people what kinds of content they can like, to defend the right to make that content, or should the content people are allowed to make and absorb be rigorously controlled because they are incapable of thinking for themselves, or because it might inoculate bad values in them?
Because I can say that if I genuinely felt the latter was true for fandoms, creators, or works that were 'bad enough', I wouldn't be a Star Wars fan. But I do not take an approach of 'I will only like 'acceptable' things and try to make sure everyone else likes 'acceptable things' only or 'shaming people is bad unless it's something I personally dislike and happen to realize is bad'. I do not do this both because I do not wish to imply that the issues Star Wars has are somehow 'not bad enough' for people to feel serious antipathy to it, to its creators, or to its fans, and because I'm not going to drop something I like just because it's terrible. I'm not. I won't do it. Nor will I expect anyone else to.
It's wonderful if one can find deep connection to things that aren't aggressively terrible, but I think if one digs far enough, one starts realizing that there are so many skeletons in so many closets. I encourage people to do that digging, but at the same time, I don't think anyone's obliged to let go of the things they've created personal meaning in for themselves. If something like that causes one to wish to move on from a work, or simply not be able to connect with it anymore, that's fine, but that's a personal thing, not a moral obligation.
But I find it a bit puzzling how many mixed messages I see, that make me feel that a lot of the time what people are claiming as values are only held to as long as self-interest is concerned.
So for example, some of the same fans who claim that fans are capable both of enjoying something and being critical of it, that it's okay to enjoy things that are objectively bad, will then claim this is not true when it is something that triggers the right disgust levers in them. Now, I am not here to say that those disgust levers are purely preference based in nature. I have never believed that of my own disgust, though I do believe there is certainly a preference component. I do however think one is equally capable of hating something and also being critical of it.
But is it not incompatible to hold to the one ideal sometimes, and then the other at other times? Is it important not to tell other people what kinds of content they can like, to defend the right to make that content, or should the content people are allowed to make and absorb be rigorously controlled because they are incapable of thinking for themselves, or because it might inoculate bad values in them?
Because I can say that if I genuinely felt the latter was true for fandoms, creators, or works that were 'bad enough', I wouldn't be a Star Wars fan. But I do not take an approach of 'I will only like 'acceptable' things and try to make sure everyone else likes 'acceptable things' only or 'shaming people is bad unless it's something I personally dislike and happen to realize is bad'. I do not do this both because I do not wish to imply that the issues Star Wars has are somehow 'not bad enough' for people to feel serious antipathy to it, to its creators, or to its fans, and because I'm not going to drop something I like just because it's terrible. I'm not. I won't do it. Nor will I expect anyone else to.
It's wonderful if one can find deep connection to things that aren't aggressively terrible, but I think if one digs far enough, one starts realizing that there are so many skeletons in so many closets. I encourage people to do that digging, but at the same time, I don't think anyone's obliged to let go of the things they've created personal meaning in for themselves. If something like that causes one to wish to move on from a work, or simply not be able to connect with it anymore, that's fine, but that's a personal thing, not a moral obligation.