![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fandom shelf-life.
Jan. 5th, 2005 12:07 pmEventually, all of my fandoms fade, but it's odd how some of them come back again and again, and some never do.
For instance, I've been a Monkees fan for...er...nearly twenty years now, and every few years it pops up again to take over as my primary fandom. The same is true of Les Miz. I'll go nuts over them for a while, drive hours to get to performances, and then they will fade...but they always come back.
In contrast, QL, S&H, and TPM, once unseated as primary fandom, have never come back. Oddly enough, they were the three fandoms I was most active in (TPM to a lesser degree) in terms of output: writing, editing, running mailing lists, paneling, etc. QL was even my primary fandom for 4.5 years straight, something I can't see happening today. Did I burn myself out in those fandoms? I didn't feel it at the time, but I'm fairly sure that had something to do with it. It's the main reason, other than lack of spare time, why I don't get so deeply involved with fandoms today.
The current resurrected fandom is, if you've guessed from the icon, LOTR. It's been like this ever since 2001: I'm all about it during the winter, just before the movies come out (except for the first year, when my enthusiasm in LOTR was less than nil until I actually saw the film); I practically live on TORn and the interest is sustained for several months until it gradually begins to fade mid/late-year, until I'm pretty certain nothing could drum up that level of interest again. And then whammo, the anticipation for the next film starts and I'm right back in it. This winter, I figured that wouldn't happen. No new instalments, and ROTK is my least-favorite of the three films so I wasn't even particularly looking forward to the DVD. I didn't get a copy of the 2-disc, I didn't bother to pre-order the EE...stuff I've done for the first two films, but not this time. But then I finally picked up the EE two weeks later, a move made less out of "I want to see it" than "ehh, might as well." I stuck it in the player, pressed play, and that popping noise you heard next is the vacuum left behind by my being instantaneously sucked into the fandom again.
Heh. Is it a symptom or a cause that listening to "The Breaking of the Fellowship" on the soundtrack still gets me in the gut every single time, after all these years?
For instance, I've been a Monkees fan for...er...nearly twenty years now, and every few years it pops up again to take over as my primary fandom. The same is true of Les Miz. I'll go nuts over them for a while, drive hours to get to performances, and then they will fade...but they always come back.
In contrast, QL, S&H, and TPM, once unseated as primary fandom, have never come back. Oddly enough, they were the three fandoms I was most active in (TPM to a lesser degree) in terms of output: writing, editing, running mailing lists, paneling, etc. QL was even my primary fandom for 4.5 years straight, something I can't see happening today. Did I burn myself out in those fandoms? I didn't feel it at the time, but I'm fairly sure that had something to do with it. It's the main reason, other than lack of spare time, why I don't get so deeply involved with fandoms today.
The current resurrected fandom is, if you've guessed from the icon, LOTR. It's been like this ever since 2001: I'm all about it during the winter, just before the movies come out (except for the first year, when my enthusiasm in LOTR was less than nil until I actually saw the film); I practically live on TORn and the interest is sustained for several months until it gradually begins to fade mid/late-year, until I'm pretty certain nothing could drum up that level of interest again. And then whammo, the anticipation for the next film starts and I'm right back in it. This winter, I figured that wouldn't happen. No new instalments, and ROTK is my least-favorite of the three films so I wasn't even particularly looking forward to the DVD. I didn't get a copy of the 2-disc, I didn't bother to pre-order the EE...stuff I've done for the first two films, but not this time. But then I finally picked up the EE two weeks later, a move made less out of "I want to see it" than "ehh, might as well." I stuck it in the player, pressed play, and that popping noise you heard next is the vacuum left behind by my being instantaneously sucked into the fandom again.
Heh. Is it a symptom or a cause that listening to "The Breaking of the Fellowship" on the soundtrack still gets me in the gut every single time, after all these years?
