Expectations and Interpretations
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| Title: | Expectations and Interpretations |
| Creator: | Deborah Wright |
| Date(s): | July 1, 2003 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fanfiction |
| External Links: | Expectations and Interpretations, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Expectations and Interpretations is a 2003 essay by Deborah Wright.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
The other day, while wasting time amusing myself by LJ-skipping through links of friends of friends and such, I once again came to the conclusion that I'm out of step with being a fan (snark). I'm not really surprised.
This isn't about any one particular fandom. I suspect that what it's really about is expectations and my own snarkiness towards The Powers That Be who control what we're allowed to see on TV in the U.S. I'm only talking about TV here, because that's the medium that I seem to be attracted to for what I refer to as my "participatory fan behavior" (i.e. writing fanfiction, creating vids and maintaining webpages).
I've read quite a few LJ posts recently--posts going back over several weeks regarding various TV shows. Some of these posts are rather incredibly detailed analyses of various episodes of particular shows. I find these posts fascinating. Reading them, whether I agree with the analysis or not, can be a revelation. I've been taken down different paths for shows that I might not have found on my own. I'm grateful and amazed all at once. Broadening the possibilities for and expanding my understanding of characters that I love is something of which I can't get enough. To those of you who have written those posts (too many to name)--I thank you.
What makes me shake my head in perplexity and decide that I'm just not a fan are the many posts that do one or more of the following with much wailing and gnashing of teeth:
- Posts that lament how TPTB have treated their favorite character (whether plot-wise or personality-wise) Posts that lament the direction (plot-wise) that TPTB have taken their favorite show Posts that lament the poor writing and/or massive plot holes in Episode X of their favorite show or the continuing poor writing and/or massive plot holes in this show over many episodes Posts that lament the lack of character interaction between the fan's OTP (slash/het/friendship) in Episode X or over the course of many episodes
There's a fine line between the kind of thoughtful analysis that I mentioned enjoying (which usually includes a certain amount of candid criticism of the show being analyzed) and the kind of breast-beating lamentation that I don't understand. These lamentation-posts generally convey a tone that suggests that there's something personal about all of this, as though TPTB are knowingly and deliberately doing these things just to piss off the fans who hold certain points of view about the shows in question. Or, perhaps I just don't have the requisite depth to be able to comprehend the tragedies done to shows and characters that require this kind of emotional blood-letting. (okay, maybe that was a bit too sarcastic - if so, I apologize)
- Posts that lament the dearth of/abundance of slashy moments between the fan's OTP (perspective obviously depending on whether the fan is a slasher or not)