By Isaac Butler
(1) Why Fandom Is So Gay by Anne Moore, exploring themes of shame, queerness and the author-audience relationship in fandom in general and Battlestar Galactica in particular.
(2) Fans on Film by Danny Bowes in which the writer looks at depictions of superfans in the world of mainstream US cinema.
(3) Marvelous by Freddie DeBoer, an examination of fan victim culture, the victory of fan culture over popular culture in general and the end of cultural elitism.
(4) Me And The Doctor by Mac Rogers, which explores Rogers' love of Doctor Who and how it has influenced his own writing as a playwright.
(5) My Boyfriend the Fan by Jaime Green, an annotated gchat between Green and her boyfriend Tanner Ringerud, in which they talk about their own enthusiasms, what it means to be both a fan and an adult and how fandom brought them together in the first place.
(6) Our two part Laura Miller in Conversation can be found here and here.
(7) A Death in the Family by Isaac Butler, where I talk about actual death vs. cancellation and what they tell us about each other.
This issue has been an absolute blast. Thanks to all of the contributors for their wonderful work. I will be out of town and posting infrequiently over the next two weeks. 99Seats, Anne Moore, Ben Owen and maybe a couple of other folks will be holding down the fort in my absense.
One thing that's struck me through The Fandom Issue, which I guess I'll leave as a closing thought, is that the process of being a Fan is very similar to the process of being an artist, or (especially) a critic. You do a lot of outside research on whatever you're fixated on. You have long conversations with other people about it. You game out scenarios and alternate versions of the things you're talking about. With Fans, of course, it's with an object of adoration, a sports team (or athlete), a music group, a series of books or films, a television show. With artists it's whatever is the subject matter of their current project. And with critics it's whatever is assigned to them, regardless of whether or not they like it, regardless of whether or not it holds their interest. This is an odd position to be in, to say the least, to have to mimic a super-fans level of engagement with something you don't love.
I hope you've enjoyed the fandom issue. When I return we'll have a call for submissions for the next one. If there's any particualr topic you'd like us to explore, leave it in the comments!
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