User:Galliwasp
Intro
I'm a longtime participant in fandoms and editor of wikis. Largely a frequenter of TV Tropes and various Wikias. Joined Tumblr back when it was still a vibrant fandom haven; somehow didn't have the good sense to leave after it became a hellsite.
Here mainly to expand short/barren pages and to contribute information and perspectives absent from the pages.
Bio
I'm an aspiring author and amateur photographer, currently marooned in the Bay Area with eventual hopes of moving to Seattle, Portland or Los Angeles. In that weird little gray area between Millennials and Generation Z. Currently identify as genderless; he or they pronouns are okay (still figuring this part of me out; dysphoria sucks).
I studied screenwriting in San Francisco, but I have since shifted my focus to writing books. Goal is to write fantasy and science fiction with possible forays into YA if I have ideas.
I like playing and modding video games, reading, roller skating, and as mentioned, nature & artistic black-and-white photography. I mainly listen to electronica and am a synthwave & vaporwave aesthete. I am a goth.
Very left-leaning, a pacifist, a transhumanist and socialist. Most passionate about animal rights. Wishes "don't be a dick" was a political philosophy.
On fandoms
I am a fandom traditionalist. I long for the halcyon days when fandom was about actually about liking stuff, and not relentlessly splitting hairs to find nonexistent flaws in the things you claim to love. I'm an adamant proponent of curatorial fandom, and am against forms of transformative fandom that seek to reject or replace the original canon as the author intended it. However, I also recognize the necessity of death of the author, especially art/artist separation. I overwhelmingly oppose callout culture and purity culture in fandom. As you can probably imagine, I'm deeply unhappy with the direction fan culture has taken since 2014ish. I would like to somehow rectify and course-correct fandom so that it is once again a space for positivity and escapism rather than cynicism and "discourse". However, I currently lack the influence or clout to do so.
To me, fandom is about unabashedly celebrating the things you love. It's about building altars, not burning them. My objective -- as a present fandom participant and as a future author -- is to rebuild those altars.
Fandoms
- Harry Potter
- Doctor Who
- Sherlock
- Dragon Age and Mass Effect
- Jurassic Park
- Several dozen smaller fandoms for lesser-known IPs
I was a nerdfighter for several years before gradually relenting to the reality that I no longer inhabit the same internet that allowed a community like nerdfighteria to be relevant, and that nerdfighteria as I had known it was little more than a product of the (very brief) point in the online zeitgeist it arose from. Nonetheless, my time as a nerdfighter informed many of the views and attitudes about fandom I still hold today. John Green's "nerds like us" quote catalyzed both my understanding of nerd culture and my own then-long-repressed identity as a nerd.
