Comments on: Show creators, tired of the crazy wing of your fanbase? Here’s how to get rid of them.

By: Pope Lizbet

Pope Lizbet — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:10:38 +0000

A particular subset of this fandom once showed up on statements (which is a fan-friendly space by and large) literally weeks after someone had made a statement that they found it disturbing that there was a comm specifically for Supernatural incest spanking fic, and pitched an absolute hissyfit that the community still remembers as “spankwank” (and which may or may not have resulted in the community, which exists for the writing of single declarative sentences, to start posting single-declarative-sentence spankfic about the show, all of which ended in “and it was hot.”) The true hilarity is that the poster who made the oh-so-inflammatory original statement? Writes original fiction featuring prominent BDSM themes. But the idea that anyone might find it off or unsettling that there was enough interest in that specific manifestation of various kinks to support a community was so horrifying they had to tell everyone they knew to come over to statements and start telling her what a bad bad person she was.

My opinion of Supernatural fandom had previously been based entirely on its statements representatives, who indulged in normal fansquee and linked to fic occasionally – about par for the course in that comm. I haven’t forgotten that batshit, and since then have noticed that there seems to be quite a bit of it in that fandom.

By: Dan P

Dan P — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:30:02 +0000

Okay, I don’t know that I’ve ever watched more than half an episode of Supernatural, but I did happen to see the first half of that one. (minor correction to your post, while attempting to avoid spoilers: it’s not that there’s a fan of theirs out there writing about their adventures, it’s that there’s a series of books of their adventures written by someone who has no idea they exist, and *those* books have a fandom.)

And, you know? I think they avoided the usual metafictional suck traps and pulled off some good television. Their one encounter with an extreme fan was played more for the protags’ surreal experience than for laughs at the fan’s expense (though there was one of those, at the end of the scene). As for the “ick, slash” conversation, it seemed fairly solidly in-character, but the overall effect seemed like more of a shout-out than a rebuke.

I may have been won over in these opinions by a later reference to Kurt Vonnegut that name-dropped Slaughterhouse-5, Cat’s Cradle, and Kilgore Trout.

I am a fandom

Best typo of the week!

By: Ryuutchi

Ryuutchi — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:11:09 +0000

Yeah, reading that wank through my friends of friends list was just… amazing. Supernatural fandom is this perfect little bubble of fannish entitlement right now. And by “right now”, I mean “for the past year and a half, or thereabouts.

It’s got a lot of batshit fans for a show with very little name recognition.

By: Tablesaw

Tablesaw — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:33:38 +0000

What’s odd is that, for a very long time, TPTB have taken great joy in creating Wincest moments that everyone in the show acknowledges except the brothers.

I think it has less to do with the SPN slash and more to do with the Jared/Jensen RPS. As one of the FW links amusingly notes: “I have no idea what to do with the fact that Sam and Dean getting together because they found slash about themselves on the internet is now exactly as plausible as Jensen and Jared getting together because they found slash about themselves on the internet.”

By: Silviamg

Silviamg — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:51:22 +0000

I don’t think there’s ANY fandom that doesn’t have incest slash fic somewhere. Like those stories about the twins in Harry Potter. *shudders*

And I’ve read some pretty craaaaazy posts. Including a woman who insisted she had a relationship with a fictional character and he spoke to her in dreams.

Yeah.

And I like fan fiction and fandom, but I just skip over the icky pairings, like John Connor/Sarah Connor/Cameron threesomes. No thanks.

By: veejane

veejane — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:45:32 +0000

Every fannish object develops the fandom it deserves. If the show-writers were not historically so reactive to the fandom — perforce the loudest, thus the craziest, segments thereof — then the fannish entitlement would be much less widespread. But the show itself has normalized a relationship where fannish desire can directly affect what occurs onscreen, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that fans of lesser… perspective… would assume that all their desires should become canon.

The sad part is that a writer engaging with fans that directly almost always makes for crappy story. It certainly makes for a story that loses comprehensibility (and relevance) as soon as the fannish context is gone by. It was lame and crappy storytelling when Aaron Sorkin did it on West Wing; it’s still lame and crappy storytelling now. Even the satisfaction of rebuking a small segment of one’s audience cannot be worth that compromise of quality.

By: Emily H.

Emily H. — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:27:36 +0000

I’m not going to try to argue that those Supernatural fans are in any way being sane or reasonable, but honestly, the concept of that episode weirded me out a bit. I mean, the vast vast majority of people who write Wincest know that real-life incest is a terrible idea, they aren’t upset by the actors having girlfriends, they don’t expect Wincest to happen on the show; they’re reasonable people with one ridiculous hobby and by and large they know how ridiculous it is. So if it were me (it’s not; I’ve had some slash fandoms, but not Supernatural) I’d feel intensely embarrassed if my favorite show came out and said to me on national television, “We know you’re there, and you’re hella creepy.”

By: Darkrose

Darkrose — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:19:50 +0000

I don’t have a problem with the Wincest–I actually love the fact than SPN slash means you either write incest or RPF. What makes this wank hilarious is the indignation of fans who seem to think that it’s insulting to suggest that other people might not share their opinion.

By: Stephen Granade

Stephen Granade — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:03:57 +0000

I’ve enjoyed reading Fandom Wank for just this kind of thing. It’s not a noble impulse, I’ll admit, but sometimes boggling at other people’s craziness is its own reward.

By: wintersweet

wintersweet — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:03:58 +0000

Aww, the iscream4dean link is a 403 now. Oh well. I think it’s all hilarious.