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Moving In
14 years ago
Seeing as I'll be moving as soon as I can scrounge up the cash (probably sometime around when I get my first or second paycheque, whenever that happens), the idea of picking up and staking a claim in a different place has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm looking for a full-time job, and thinking about my budget. Doing commissions for a living affords a very free but kind of destitute lifestyle. I have relatively few connections in any of the fields I'm trying to break into, plus I went to art school, so all of my best prospects are entry level retail jobs, punctuated by the occasional freelance gig. My future looks bleak and empoverished, maybe I made some bad decisions about post-secondary education, maybe my crippling social anxiety is beating me down. Anyway, the end result is wavering on the edge of depression. While I'm still sane, I might as well do one of those long journals I do every now and then.
As a response to the stress I've been spending a lot more time here, in the furryverse. It's been making me think a lot about fandoms in general.
Specifically, the new one on the scene, the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom. The show itself is very well-written, the animators did a great job, Lauren Faust has a fantastic eye for design, and I think most importantly, it's a friendly and inclusive universe where everyone is going to help you out if you have a problem in your life.
Nowadays, in America, where wage slavery is the common form of employment, where governments and corporations are slowly whittling away at our rights in the name of securing their own interests, it's easy to forget who you are, what your story is. Understanding financial systems, pharmaceuticals, the entertainment industry, even knowing where your food comes from represents such a baroque task that people would rather couch themselves in shady alternative currencies, homeopathic remedies and snake oil etc. because they offer an elegant and simple solution.
I was prompted by this opinion piece by M Kichell, called Twilight of the American Idols, in which he seems conflicted about the Twilight phenomenon... on the one hand, it's a terrible story. On the other, its mass appeal is seductive to a struggling artist. That kind of fandom meta-analysis what I want to talk about here.
Why do some works of art spawn fandoms and others don't? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, but my own thoughts are as follows: fandoms come out of works of fiction that people want to move in to. They literally want to live in those worlds. Natch, it's impossible, and they know it's impossible, and yet there's a sense of nostalgia for whatever alternate dimension. People want to build the Companion Cube. People wanna dress in steampunk gasmasks or fursuits. Why do they want to move in? Usually because they'd fit into that world better than this one. The world rewards their style of humor. Its history is more interesting, its population more stimulating. The evildoers are cartoonish and unquestionably evil, the good guys heroic, there's no reason to feel ambivalent about anything, and every moment is structured to keep your mind stimulated and entertained.
But ultimately it's a siren song, isn't it? If you're not careful, you end up stuck in yet another seductive religion. Sure, it puts the world into context! It gives you a nice framework or even just a distraction to get through the tough times. However, it can tell you thinks about the world that aren't true, that promote a narrative of racial stereotypes (how many people fell in love with Avatar knowing what the term "noble savage" represents?) and reinforce traditional and restrictive gender roles in which women usually end up happily doing whatever some princely guy says. It's not all political, either... I quite like the inclusive message put forth by MLP:FIM, and I still like this kind of post-scarcity peace and space exploration universe Star Trek frequently postulates. This isn't about content, this is about the world knowing the difference between reality and fiction, especially as technology improves and the fiction encroaches upon reality without gaining the fractal complexity of the world outside the screen.
We're smart, and we know reality isn't a universe that's shown to us through a tiny window on a screen, fed to us in 22 minute clips or between a folded piece of printed card stock. We understand these artistic creations aren't the messy democracy of the street. They're dictatorships. They're gated communities. But that's what makes them so seductive, and I can't help but be taken in by the spiraling shape sometimes. It's kind of disquieting.
As a response to the stress I've been spending a lot more time here, in the furryverse. It's been making me think a lot about fandoms in general.
Specifically, the new one on the scene, the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom. The show itself is very well-written, the animators did a great job, Lauren Faust has a fantastic eye for design, and I think most importantly, it's a friendly and inclusive universe where everyone is going to help you out if you have a problem in your life.
Nowadays, in America, where wage slavery is the common form of employment, where governments and corporations are slowly whittling away at our rights in the name of securing their own interests, it's easy to forget who you are, what your story is. Understanding financial systems, pharmaceuticals, the entertainment industry, even knowing where your food comes from represents such a baroque task that people would rather couch themselves in shady alternative currencies, homeopathic remedies and snake oil etc. because they offer an elegant and simple solution.
I was prompted by this opinion piece by M Kichell, called Twilight of the American Idols, in which he seems conflicted about the Twilight phenomenon... on the one hand, it's a terrible story. On the other, its mass appeal is seductive to a struggling artist. That kind of fandom meta-analysis what I want to talk about here.
Why do some works of art spawn fandoms and others don't? I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, but my own thoughts are as follows: fandoms come out of works of fiction that people want to move in to. They literally want to live in those worlds. Natch, it's impossible, and they know it's impossible, and yet there's a sense of nostalgia for whatever alternate dimension. People want to build the Companion Cube. People wanna dress in steampunk gasmasks or fursuits. Why do they want to move in? Usually because they'd fit into that world better than this one. The world rewards their style of humor. Its history is more interesting, its population more stimulating. The evildoers are cartoonish and unquestionably evil, the good guys heroic, there's no reason to feel ambivalent about anything, and every moment is structured to keep your mind stimulated and entertained.
But ultimately it's a siren song, isn't it? If you're not careful, you end up stuck in yet another seductive religion. Sure, it puts the world into context! It gives you a nice framework or even just a distraction to get through the tough times. However, it can tell you thinks about the world that aren't true, that promote a narrative of racial stereotypes (how many people fell in love with Avatar knowing what the term "noble savage" represents?) and reinforce traditional and restrictive gender roles in which women usually end up happily doing whatever some princely guy says. It's not all political, either... I quite like the inclusive message put forth by MLP:FIM, and I still like this kind of post-scarcity peace and space exploration universe Star Trek frequently postulates. This isn't about content, this is about the world knowing the difference between reality and fiction, especially as technology improves and the fiction encroaches upon reality without gaining the fractal complexity of the world outside the screen.
We're smart, and we know reality isn't a universe that's shown to us through a tiny window on a screen, fed to us in 22 minute clips or between a folded piece of printed card stock. We understand these artistic creations aren't the messy democracy of the street. They're dictatorships. They're gated communities. But that's what makes them so seductive, and I can't help but be taken in by the spiraling shape sometimes. It's kind of disquieting.
In my opinion, reality isn't all that much. My expectations from it have gotten progressively lower as time passes.
This is to say, yes, it is escapism but not entirely self-indulgent, corrosive escapism. Lynda Barry -- one of my favorite authors -- has a quote about escapism in art which I think is incredibly relevant to this:
"I believe there is something in these old stories [fairy tales] that does what singing does to words. They have transformational capabilities, in the way melody can transform mood. They can' transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay. I believe we have always done this, used images to stand and understand what otherwise would be intolerable." -- L. Barry, _What it is_ page 40
And this echoes Sigmund Freud's ideas about children's play. He argues in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" that for some children, repeating a fantasy -- pleasurable or unpleasant -- gives them a sense of control that they might not otherwise have in their lives. The place for fantasy and fandom, I believe, is in its power to relieve personal stressors and redefine the vexing problems of the waking life. It is not meant to be politically incorrect (it might very well be). I apologize. I just realized you were probably speaking in terms of sociology, and I am merely speaking in terms of personal psychology. In any case, I feel your ambivalence and would say that anything productive you can get from a fandom is a blessing in and of itself. To overanalyze what you find pleasurable is to invite more stress into your life.
I mean, Objectivism. Can we define it as Ayn Rand fandom? Some artist out there is dying to be the next Ayn Rand, and with the Internet able to connect us so quickly... who knows! I just don't know if we understand our social landscape and the result of being surrounded by the same imagery as everyone else day after day. I'm sure Marshall McLuhan had something to say about it, but I haven't read anything he's written, haha.
(Maybe I should.)
Swatcher, I always feel guilty for the degree that you open yourself here to us all just wanting to share and receive others' perceptions of life, fandom (of various sorts), and so on, and yet I audit rather than participate. I've always appreciated the way your mind works, inasmuch as you've brought that into the light here. Have completely similar impressions about MLP:MiF, having been recently introduced to the first franchise animation with a narrative that actually impressed me after a very long wasteland of stuff I have found difficult to take much from. Nice to see worthwhile design, writing, animation, and storytelling all in one package, the entire production has been worth a shout-out, and I've only seen the first 4-5 episodes thus far.
As far as stepping into other worlds, I've been doing that so long, I almost take it for granted, though strangely I do it most when I'm not dragging myself down in more chemical escapism, but probably get a lot more out of the fantasy experience. MUSHes in the 90s, briefly IRC 'collaborative story writing' RPG like Kaerwyn in '03, and even just chilling places like Luskwood in SecondLife. The Internet is a remarkable thing in its capacity to give us a potentially less destructive out when faced with a world we feel powerless to fix, and build relationships to last a lifetime while doing so (unlike some less constructive chemical+introspective approaches). I just can't seem to find one that leads me to a happy and regular life... Perhaps some of us will always be tantalized by what's on the other side of the barrier of impossible change, whatever it be that month or year or moment.
When I hear an adult arguing passionately for something along the lines of, "If you've nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear" then I want to curl up and wake up in Ponyville.
I dunno if escapism is necessarily awful, but I think that making a world people want to move into is pretty easy *ahemstepheniemeyer* and that artists who are working in the genre of immersive and romantic worlds should be aware of the power that they possess.
Actually I'm really not sure what I'm trying to say here. I don't think I'm being clear at all. OH WELL.
There's something to be said here outside of furry and indeed outside of the kind of "fandoms" you are alluding to.
Drama Docs, Reality Television, Talent Contest Competition, Music Television... There's plenty of candidates in traditional media which drip feed bullshit and give an incredibly warped view of reality - but in themselves prove a comfort blanket. And because they often claim to be documentaries rather than stage managed affairs - they can be exhausting to watch unless you bring them right into your heart and absorb them fully.
Dude, I simply cannot stress strongly enough that you watch Charlie Brooker's shows, ESPECIALLY Screenwipe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaVhyURSfZU
But then, I'm crazy. ^.^;;
Sometimes i imagine certain universes are not as fun while the camera's not running. Like, the ANGRY BEAVERS, for example, i sort of picture going out to find them in the woods, and they are just really silent uninviting beavers at this point. Unable to mate, just living in their damn. I picture the cartoon world to be so rambunctious and unstable, we'd have to go back and forth.
The world I'm working on kinda sorta alludes to that a bit? But it's my intention to pretty much ensure that every place is actually just a different brand and/or flavor of 'crazy', in its own way. We'll see how well I'm able to pull that off.
Also whatever the impact of Twilight on the landscape itself I can't be too angry at Stephanie Meyer. By all accounts she invented Bella to live out her fantasies of being romanced by handsome vampire boys. And I created Sedric to live out my fantasies of strutting around in a raincoat and getting my balls slapped about. I'm just not vanilla enough for a movie deal is all
So I guess I wish both us luck for great jobs in which we went and learned for.
I like the idea of a post-scarcity sort of world, especially when I see the gap between the rich and the poor get wider and wider. Maybe it's just nice to think that out there, somewhere out there, there is another place where things are better- or if they aren't, there's a way somehow to make them better. As nice as human society is, there are some things wrong with it that just really frustrate me. At least, that's how I feel at quarter to 1 in the morning.