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My Fannish Origin Story
Let's just pretend I've been posting regularly, shall we?
So some folk were talking about fannish origins on Twitter and it got me thinking, I don't know if I've ever really shared my origin story in any real deapth and it might actually be a fun thing to do. So, here it is.
The only reason I even heard about fanfic was because of the X Files. I was a HARDCORE X-Files fan before I even had the internet (god I sound old now). I'd heard that some folks out there in the "cyberworld" were so sure that Mulder & Scully were in love that they were writing their own stories about it and "R-ing the ST" as it were and as soon as I heard that I HAD TO READ THEM. I remember paying for time at an internet cafe JUST to search for and read fanfic.
Of course once I had my own internet at home I fell down the hole of the Gossamer archive and read ALL THE THINGS (including the terrible Mary Sues before I even realised that was a thing). I wasn't really aware or even interested in slash at first because I was a pretty hardcore Mulder/Scully shipper (they were my first OTP, before I even knew what the fuck those letters stood for).
Me being me, I didn't stay obsessed with the fandom's central pairing for long. I got pretty obsessed with a recurring character in the series, Agent Pendrell who worked in the lab, had a huge crush on Scully and was ginger haired and socially awkward.
Everyone who is surprised that I was obsessed with the dorky lab guy raise your hands. *no hands are raised* I thought so.
Now the Pendrell corner of the fandom was smaller and very friendly and welcoming and this was about the time I thought maybe I could try writing something. About Pendrell, of course. But the problem then is - who do I slash this guy with? I don't want to break up my OTP!
So my first real fic in X Files fandom was a threesome.
Everyone who is surprised raise your hands. *no hands are raised*
Of course there it was only a very small step between writing Mulder/Scully/Pendrell to writing Mulder/Pendrell and the wonderful world of slash opened it's arms to me.
I haven't read any of those old fics in years and I'm a little afraid to. I'm pretty sure the bulk of them are in first person. Oh GOD.
I honestly can't remember how I went from The X Files to Savage Garden. Like, it's a weird leap, right? I mean, I was reading ALL the things (Star Wars episode one, Velvet Goldmine, all the different pairings in X Files etc), but somehow when I discovered that there was a small circle of people writing fic about Savage Garden I was THERE. I was hopping through webrings (ha ha ha WEBRINGS) and reading everything. Not all of it was great. In fact, lots of it was terrible, and a lot of it was getting written in parts with no real idea when (or even IF) the next part was coming. Also not all multipart fics necessarily had proper content warnings thus how I wound up reading a multi part WIP that suddenly had surprise!mpreg and it kind of put me off mpreg for LIFE.
For anyone not familiar with Savage Garden they were a pop duo in the 90's/00's - they had a lot of hits with love songs. I didn't even want to sleep with either of them, I just really liked reading about them. Plus I was totally qualified to write about them because they were from my hometown. In fact, Darren (singer) worked at my local music store when I was a wee thing.
So anyway, RPS. OMG. RPS was SUCH a dirty word in fandom back then. I'm not entirely sure why, but a LOT of people writing FPS about characters in shows were DISGUSTED by RPS. And not only were we writing RPS, we were writing SLASH RPS. We were totally the SEEDY UNDERBELLY of fandom, yo. You write GAY fic about REAL PEOPLE, EW.
I remember one quite well known FPS writer made a throwaway comment about how one of her guilty pleasure was she would occasionally read Savage Garden RPS and OMG IT'S SO BAD but she COULDN'T HELP IT. I was kind of terrified/hopeful that she might one day read one of mine.
Anyway, so my first fic in Savage Garden fandom... was a threesome.
Raise your hands all who are surprised. *no hands are raised* It was Darren/Daniel/Daniel's girlfriend and it all went terribly because of course Daniel professed his love to Darren in the middle of rumpy-pumpy and broke her heart and ANGST ANGST ANGST.
Savage Garden fandom was FUN. We were a small fandom and we had plenty to work with (I mean, Darren is out these days, but back then he just liked to be "ambiguous"). I'm pretty sure I wrote the first high school AU and the first hooker fic, but don't quote me on that. Of course, then the band broke up (as they do) and while the fandom kicked on a while after it eventually died.
I think it was around this time that I thought fandom had died altogether, because the mailing lists (yes, we used to do fandom on mailing lists, GOD I am old) were getting less and less active. I was kind of falling away from fandom anyway, with my own fandom dying and no real interest in a new one so I never really figured out that fandom wasn't DYING but CHANGING.
Fast forward about seven years where I'm pretty much out of it but occasionally checking in to dead mailing lists and I get an email out of the blue from![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amproof to let me know my (Savage Garden Fanfiction) geocities site is about to go down forever. Of course this is the point where I learn fandom isn't DEAD it just MOVED - to LJ, so I get an LJ, fall face-first into the disgusting, beautiful, stage-gay-ey world of MCR. Like everyone I started with Frank/Gerard but pretty soon it was ANYONE/ANYONE, with a particular bent of Ray/anyone. Also I avoided Panic at first because I thought they were babies but I totally didn't hold out long there, not with all the awesome GSF and BDSM to be had.
Interestingly upon my return to fandom I noticed that RPS was NO LONGER a dirty word, probably because fandom seemed to have moved beyond that to push more taboo boundaries like incest *hands*. No really, it took me quite a while to get past that. But oh, I DID.
So that's my Fannish Origin Story. What's yours?
So some folk were talking about fannish origins on Twitter and it got me thinking, I don't know if I've ever really shared my origin story in any real deapth and it might actually be a fun thing to do. So, here it is.
The only reason I even heard about fanfic was because of the X Files. I was a HARDCORE X-Files fan before I even had the internet (god I sound old now). I'd heard that some folks out there in the "cyberworld" were so sure that Mulder & Scully were in love that they were writing their own stories about it and "R-ing the ST" as it were and as soon as I heard that I HAD TO READ THEM. I remember paying for time at an internet cafe JUST to search for and read fanfic.
Of course once I had my own internet at home I fell down the hole of the Gossamer archive and read ALL THE THINGS (including the terrible Mary Sues before I even realised that was a thing). I wasn't really aware or even interested in slash at first because I was a pretty hardcore Mulder/Scully shipper (they were my first OTP, before I even knew what the fuck those letters stood for).
Me being me, I didn't stay obsessed with the fandom's central pairing for long. I got pretty obsessed with a recurring character in the series, Agent Pendrell who worked in the lab, had a huge crush on Scully and was ginger haired and socially awkward.
Everyone who is surprised that I was obsessed with the dorky lab guy raise your hands. *no hands are raised* I thought so.
Now the Pendrell corner of the fandom was smaller and very friendly and welcoming and this was about the time I thought maybe I could try writing something. About Pendrell, of course. But the problem then is - who do I slash this guy with? I don't want to break up my OTP!
So my first real fic in X Files fandom was a threesome.
Everyone who is surprised raise your hands. *no hands are raised*
Of course there it was only a very small step between writing Mulder/Scully/Pendrell to writing Mulder/Pendrell and the wonderful world of slash opened it's arms to me.
I haven't read any of those old fics in years and I'm a little afraid to. I'm pretty sure the bulk of them are in first person. Oh GOD.
I honestly can't remember how I went from The X Files to Savage Garden. Like, it's a weird leap, right? I mean, I was reading ALL the things (Star Wars episode one, Velvet Goldmine, all the different pairings in X Files etc), but somehow when I discovered that there was a small circle of people writing fic about Savage Garden I was THERE. I was hopping through webrings (ha ha ha WEBRINGS) and reading everything. Not all of it was great. In fact, lots of it was terrible, and a lot of it was getting written in parts with no real idea when (or even IF) the next part was coming. Also not all multipart fics necessarily had proper content warnings thus how I wound up reading a multi part WIP that suddenly had surprise!mpreg and it kind of put me off mpreg for LIFE.
For anyone not familiar with Savage Garden they were a pop duo in the 90's/00's - they had a lot of hits with love songs. I didn't even want to sleep with either of them, I just really liked reading about them. Plus I was totally qualified to write about them because they were from my hometown. In fact, Darren (singer) worked at my local music store when I was a wee thing.
So anyway, RPS. OMG. RPS was SUCH a dirty word in fandom back then. I'm not entirely sure why, but a LOT of people writing FPS about characters in shows were DISGUSTED by RPS. And not only were we writing RPS, we were writing SLASH RPS. We were totally the SEEDY UNDERBELLY of fandom, yo. You write GAY fic about REAL PEOPLE, EW.
I remember one quite well known FPS writer made a throwaway comment about how one of her guilty pleasure was she would occasionally read Savage Garden RPS and OMG IT'S SO BAD but she COULDN'T HELP IT. I was kind of terrified/hopeful that she might one day read one of mine.
Anyway, so my first fic in Savage Garden fandom... was a threesome.
Raise your hands all who are surprised. *no hands are raised* It was Darren/Daniel/Daniel's girlfriend and it all went terribly because of course Daniel professed his love to Darren in the middle of rumpy-pumpy and broke her heart and ANGST ANGST ANGST.
Savage Garden fandom was FUN. We were a small fandom and we had plenty to work with (I mean, Darren is out these days, but back then he just liked to be "ambiguous"). I'm pretty sure I wrote the first high school AU and the first hooker fic, but don't quote me on that. Of course, then the band broke up (as they do) and while the fandom kicked on a while after it eventually died.
I think it was around this time that I thought fandom had died altogether, because the mailing lists (yes, we used to do fandom on mailing lists, GOD I am old) were getting less and less active. I was kind of falling away from fandom anyway, with my own fandom dying and no real interest in a new one so I never really figured out that fandom wasn't DYING but CHANGING.
Fast forward about seven years where I'm pretty much out of it but occasionally checking in to dead mailing lists and I get an email out of the blue from
amproof to let me know my (Savage Garden Fanfiction) geocities site is about to go down forever. Of course this is the point where I learn fandom isn't DEAD it just MOVED - to LJ, so I get an LJ, fall face-first into the disgusting, beautiful, stage-gay-ey world of MCR. Like everyone I started with Frank/Gerard but pretty soon it was ANYONE/ANYONE, with a particular bent of Ray/anyone. Also I avoided Panic at first because I thought they were babies but I totally didn't hold out long there, not with all the awesome GSF and BDSM to be had.Interestingly upon my return to fandom I noticed that RPS was NO LONGER a dirty word, probably because fandom seemed to have moved beyond that to push more taboo boundaries like incest *hands*. No really, it took me quite a while to get past that. But oh, I DID.
So that's my Fannish Origin Story. What's yours?
no subject
Xena is not a fandom I was ever in, but I was so very happy it existed! I imagine it would have been a HUGE deal when the Gabrielle/Xena stuff actually became canon!
Oh wow, the thought of you reading a whole bunch of Bandom fic without knowing what they looked like is SO INTERESTING. What happened when you finally saw what they looked like? What did you THINK they looked like? I mean, I read a bunch of hockey fic just like it was original fic before I'd really gotten a look at any of the dudes and then when I finally saw them I was like, WOW, THEY'RE NOT THAT ATTRACTIVE. Was it like that?
RPF is REALLY interesting in how flexible it is! I'm not sure WHY this bunch of dudes in bands have somehow become characters we like to see in a variety of AUs whether they be in space, or werewolves or detectives or what, but they ARE and we DO. It's SO fun.
Thanks for sharing your origin story bb!
no subject
From what I remember, people were INTENSE in the Xena fandom. The fanart (except for podfic--that's something that I didn't come across until I got on LJ) was off the charts. Who knows how enthusiastic it would've been if Xena had aired nowadays. It helped that the show and everyone involved with the show understood the high queer factor and served it up without being apologetic about it. The only really sucky thing was the series finale (in fic terms it ended up becoming really nonsensical ghostfic). :-/
After three months of reading Bandom fics, I was at a friend's house in early January 2011, flipping through his DVR. As it happened, he'd recorded the NYE show that had MCR performing in it. Soon as I saw them do Na, Na,Na and SING, I was a goner. Hunted down every Bandom primer, picspam, Tumblr post, all the music videos and interviews, etc. IT WAS GLORIOUS (Not a spoiler: IT STILL IS!!!!)
Overall, none of the Bandom peeps looked anything like I'd imagined. As a matter of fact, all them were HOTTER. >:)
Another thing I couldn't believe is that a LOT of the things people wrote about in the canon fics ACTUALLY HAPPENED (for example, Mikeyway and Gabe Saporta dirty dancing. *g*) Also, even after you put the vids and albums and performances to the side, there's tons and tons of canon available! Somehow, the hugeness of said canon (even if you look only at MCR, that was about a decade or so worth of canon left!) didn't overwhelm me. Keep in mind, that the canon for the previous RPF fandom I'd been in (C6D RPF) would add up to about 1.5% of Bandom's. Srlsy.
I'm totes nodding at your comment about the Hockey peeps. There was this one fic that I considered reading. It was...disappointing to find out what the dudes looked like. Like you, I didn't find them attractive at all so I soon lost interest in reading Hockey RPF. *hands*
In all truth, my getting into Bandom without any visual clues til later was a singular event. :P
RPF can be anything we want. Granted, that's also the case in FPF fandoms. What I really like about Bandom is the unpredictability of the peeps. They do awesome things, mottsy ones, etc. I like the complexity of their stage/public personae and how we can pick and choose how to approach them. In short, \Bandom/! Hee!
Thank you for this opportunity to look back. ^_^