gnine | O Mighty Flist (and beyond), I seek your assistance!

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O Mighty Flist (and beyond), I seek your assistance!

As you may or may not know, I’m currently working on my MA in Critical Media and Cultural Studies at University of London, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). For my thesis, I’m delving into the question of how culture, one’s own, as well as that of the source material one is fanning on, affects how fans identify and interact with said media and the fandoms surrounding them.

I am very aware that academic scrutiny of fandom has at times been…less than pleasant, shall we say. With that in mind, I’d like to make clear that it is not my intent to place fen or fandom under the microscope, but rather to use them as one concrete example in the broader investigation of culture’s impact on the field of media studies.

The following questions I’ve split into two sections, one focused on the media itself, the other on fandom as a whole. These are just a jumping-off point; feel free to answer as many/as few of the questions as you’d like, in as much/little detail as you feel comfortable. If you’d prefer to comment anonymously or email me directly at gnine AT livejournal DOT com, that’s fine, too.

Media Questions:

How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?

How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?

Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?

If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)

Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?

The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?

Fandom Questions:

At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?

Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?

If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?

Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?

Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?

Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?

Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:

Nationality:
Native language(s):
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in):
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as):
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper:
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc):
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.?

Beyond that, if there are any other details, personal experiences, general trends you’ve observed, feel free to expound. Further discussion/questions in the comments is also very welcome.

If anyone's willing to link this in their journals, I’d be grateful, as the more responses the more expansive the research.

Thanks for your help!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Whenever you get the chance is fine ^__^ *huggles*

Thank you so so very much for the detailed responses! Rather than tl;dr, it's ridiculously helpful! Seriously, THANK YOU! You'll probably hear more from me in the next week or so with more questions/discussion as I go through all the data I'm getting. ^__^

Like that definition of 'culture'. And to be honest, I debated putting a note about that at the beginning myself, because, yeah, the definition of 'culture' is truly a continual debate in most of the social/cultural sciences. I was using country/culture similar to you were, with the understanding that they're not the same, but for the purposes of these questions, they can be taken as almost synonymous. I swear half of academia is just coming to some agreement on semantics! ^_-

Also, as I mentioned to someone else above, so very much NOT tl;dr; this is just what I'm looking for and all these details help greatly! Thank you thank you! Expect to hear from me in a week or so with more questions/discussion as a sort through all this data. Again, THANK YOU! ^__^

...Also, I LOVE your icon, years later and my sister and I still randomly quote that line!^__^

Nationality: British
Native language(s): English
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in): English
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper: Yep
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): "Zoe" is fine
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? Yep - I can PM you my email address if needed

Just a quick note before I start: I'm not feeling too fannish at the moment. By this I mean I still watch TV sometimes; I still play games; I still read books (more than in a couple of years, in fact) and try to read some fanfic. But every speck of spare mental energy I have right now is going into the book I'm writing, and it's not leaving me any time to be truly immersed in any fandom at all. So when I speak about fanning on things, I'm not doing so with the all-encompassing love that I would if I had "time" to do it; I hope I'm still fannish enough for the study...

Media Questions

How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country? At the moment; less than half, unless you count carefully not RPSing the EPL, in which case a little more than half.

How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)? About 80% of it at the moment, the rest being JRPGs and the odd bit of anime.

Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom? Yes, on both counts; I used to watch more anime and play even more JRPGs than I currently do, and my English-to-American book and show ratio has swung around a lot over the years.

If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.) Dubbed/translated games; translated manga; subbed anime.

Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why? I gravitate to JRPGs. For a games fan, there's this whole debate about whether they're actually RPGs, i.e. role-playing games; they don't offer the same option to decide what to do to advance events as WRPGs (computer or tabletop); they're only role-playing in that they're interactive stories in which the gamer walks the characters through events. Thing is, they're often quite fun interactive stories; western studios' work on WRPGs too often leaves the storytelling part unpixellated due to the attachment to letting the gamer choose the path through the story. So I particularly seek out Japanese games.

Other than that; I prefer UK shows to US ones, probably because I grew up with the UK storytelling and social conventions, but I don't really avoid US ones. Books; there's a lot of exciting new SF/F coming through in Britain at the moment, more so than from US writers, but I'm not ignoring US writers, and one of my biggest fandoms at the moment is by a US author.

My "embarrassing fandom gap" is "everything originally produced outside the UK, the US and Japan". :/ Really need to broaden horizons sometime.

The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ? Well...
* People seem to die more often in anime than in Western animation.
* The manga style of art and using different drawing styles to portray the same character in different circumstances.
* Is it just the few I've read, or do manga series have more dramatic peaks in different places when compared to Western comic series?
* When watching anime I'm aware there's a whole subset of references I'm completely missing due to inadequate knowledge of Japanese culture. I can tell they're there but haven't a clue what they are.
* American spelling's a big one.
* So are American notions (and changing notions, at that) of society, femininity, race, religion etc. Almost what I naturally "expect", but not quite.

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material? Buddy-cops feel American; subordinate/superior cops feel British. Shows that tie each episode neatly up at the end feel American; ones that don't feel British. Mecha and tentacles feel (very) Japanese... and there seems to be a whole sub-coding to anime femininity that I don't yet get so couldn't begin to describe.

More later...

Fandom Questions

At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality? No, as 80% of my fen-time is in one group that's about half American, quarter British and quarter rest-of-world.

Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in? Yep; in other fandoms and at general SF/F fan-meets the British ratio increases, because the face-time increases and, well, based in the UK...

If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions? Yes and no. Aside from Pendracon, which I'll leave out of this discussion if Kip doesn't mind, I've only been to general cons as opposed to fandom-specific ones; but three of these started as lit cons or TV-cons-thrown-in-lit-con-style, and one was much more a media con with a little lit stream. That's a whole cultural divide in and of itself. I did not feel comfortable at the media con; I would not have felt happy about striking up a conversation with a stranger; the programming was very different and centred more around personalities than Interesting Stuff.

Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences? Only ever attended fan events in the UK.

Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings? Some differences in US and UK English, including grammar, have caused confusion; outside discussion of the fan-work itself, social expectations have clashed.

Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture? Yes, but not always very much so. I associate stacked-high fanfic and art much more with JRPGs than WRPGs, for instance, due to aforementioned note about WRPGs generally having less storytelling and the point I should have made about them having less characterisation. Books and shows; the fanwork amount seems dependent more upon the original medium than the original culture, scaled for popularity and, on the books side, on the author's opinion of fanwork (e.g. there is far less fan-art for one of my big fandoms in which the author has banned fanfic than one would expect from the size of the fandom; I chalk this to the fic-and-art people staying clear of producing much of anything more than to the author's nationality).

at Readercon this weekend went to a fanfic panel -- fabulous! Four were writers -- in both fanfic and traditional publishing formats so that they could legitimately comment and one was an academic and great fanfic reader. Her name is Erin Kissane -- might hunt her up on this topic. Also a panel on writing from other languages and one from other cultures. diane could give you background -- I'm being nuts trying to put together and service for the Gulf Oil spill.

because reading all the responses are so interesting. Hey hon! You're alive! \o/ ♥

I should have put your bit about Japanese game shows in my response too! Humor is such a tricky thing, because it's generally so culturally based and doesn't translate well. Japanese humor still generally goes over my head too, though I have a great fondness for the tsukkomi/boke stuff (well, really only when Arashi do it) because the snarky comeback reminds me of the straight man/ridiculous man humor that you see sometimes in US and UK humor. Snark and wit works across cultures for me.

Heee, great! I've been having a great time reading through other people's responses, and I linked it in my journal to see if anyone on my flist will bite (and haha,

kegom already did, I figured she would get a kick out of this study). Just reply back here with more, or PM me or whatever you want. If you do so here, I'd be curious to see if discussions get sparked in the comments, as people compare notes, as it were. :D

I'm alive, yes! (I'm also supposed to be studying for my five-hour long exam I have in two weeks... *whistling innocently*) Thanks, btw, for linking me here! I wanted to thank you in your post, but was somehow unable to find it again. (I'm seriously dyslexic when it comes to posts - I recently discovered that a friend who I thought hadn't updated in ages had, in fact, posted at least twice a month... but for some reason, I never saw her posts! And it wasn't that she'd taken me from her friendslist or they'd been private, or anything, because I could see them just fine in her journal. Me and LJ posts just seem to have a really weird relationship.)

Btw, I read your stuff too, and it was SO interesting to see how differently we viewed some of the stuff, or just how different a focus we put on things! You'd thought of things that I hadn't even considered. (The awesome female characters in Japanese anime/manga/drama, for example - I'd totally forgotten them! Possibly because I haven't really watched/read any of those three in ages and I used to read/watch shonen shows more than shojo, but still, that's really somewhat embarrassing. ^^")

And I'm completely with you on the (Arashi-based) tsukkomi/boke stuff! "Snark and wit works across cultures for me", indeed: I just recently started watching the British motor show "Top Gear" and really, the first thing I thought when I saw the three presenters interacting was "OMG THESE THREE MIDDLE-AGED BRITISH GUYS ACT LIKE ARASHI! O_O", because they have exactly the same kind of "showing their friendship through snarking, being horrible to each other and then turning around and being somewhat sweet towards each other" that Arashi have. (Seriously, in one of the vids I watched they were in Africa and one of them fell in love with the car - and old Opel Kadett - he was driving. Cue endless mocking from the other, culminating in them playing sad love songs through their ipods at him when his car broke down. I honestly sat there and thought "...this is exactly what the Arashi members would do...")
I wonder which this has more to do with: Similar concepts of humour, or similar concepts of friendship?

Edited 2010-07-13 18:34 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the linkage, btw! ^__^

Thanks so much for the linkage! And yeah, I'm curious about discussions as well! ^__^

I wonder which this has more to do with: Similar concepts of humour, or similar concepts of friendship?

Ooh, now *that's* an interesting question. I'd actually be more inclined to lean towards the latter, rather than the former. I, too, have found humor to be one of the hardest things to translate between cultures and, at least in the situations your describing, though it *is* definitely funny, there's also an element of these guys joking around and just being *them* and we happen to find it funny or cute and adorable (or slashy *cough* ^_-)

What d'ya think?

Thank you thank you for these, wonderful detailed responses, awesome! Expect to hear back from me in a week or so as I sort through all the data. Thanks again! ^__^

Oh, that sounds fun! And interesting! Good luck with your service! *huggles*

Media Questions:

How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
None at all, I think

How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
About 20%? Not too sure.

Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?

Somewhat. I used to be a huge consumer of tvb (hong kong) drama series, particularly wuxia series and they are originally produced in Cantonese which is my mother tongue. Since 2000, my consumption of them has decreased a lot. I don't even watch tvb series anymore because I prefer veteran actors over the new actors. Now, 90% of what I fan over are from Japan while the remaining 10%, US and UK.

If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)

Scanlations and subs mostly.

Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?

I avoid Korean and Taiwan dramas. I usually get really annoyed at the characters. I seek out Japanese animation/manga because I like them. Sorry this response is not very helpful.

The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.)?

I guess more cultural references than anything. Can’t think of any off the top of my head.

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?

Yeah. Sentai and magical girls I will always associate with Japan. Evil sects are not evil and good sects are actually kind of terrible, and EPIC BROMANCE of “we will mix a drop of our blood in a bowl of water and drink to be brothers forever” I will always associate with wuxia. The main charac will always save the day in the nick of the time, I will always associate with American stuff… just to name a few.

Fandom Questions:

At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?

Yeah.

Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?

No, not really. I’m not a very social person.

If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?

Only ever been to anime conventions so this question doesn’t apply.

Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?

Nope.

Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?

Sometimes. I used to be more social than this, so I did have some fan friends from other countries. As I grew up watching Japanese animation/reading Japanese manga, it never occurred to me that Japanese humour/narrative style is something people sometimes have to get used to. I like open-ended endings but some find it really hard to accept. Also, kickass ladies who can defend themselves/do awesome things was not new to me due to exposure to wuxia (where female characs are usually fighters themselves or awesome in other ways. PERHAPS I AM BIASED BUT I’D SO LOVE TO BE YAN SOU SOU FROM DRAGON SABRE HEAVEN SWORD. ) so hearing about how rare strong females are in tv series had been an eye opener for me.
Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?

A little. For example, I expect at least ONE tentacle-sex fic/art from Japanese animation/manga but not so much from other cultures unless it is populated by people who also fan over Japanese animation/manga.

Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:

Nationality: Malaysian
Native language(s): Cantonese
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in): English
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper: Yes
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): anonymously
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? Yes. You ask me here. I will check back in three days.

For me, my one 'bulletproof kink', as it were, will always be camaraderie, a solid ensemble cast where you can really get the sense of friendship and connection. That's why I initially fell so hard for Stargate: Atlantis and Star Trek, because the feeling of team (or as my friends say, TEAM!!!1!) is so strong. Where you show friendship through ribbing, teasing, insults and being utter bitches to each other but being totally squishy for each other underneath.

One Piece manga/anime has a similar idea, of nakama, which I think roughly translates to crewmates. People who are together through thick and thin, support each other and have fun (and fight evil). Nakamaship, where you're closer than family. I've seen this with a variety of sentai/group superhero manga, like Sailor Moon!

Did you ever read, hmm, I think say-it-again translated it, some articles in Japanese media that tried to delve into why Arashi's popularity as a boyband was rising across all different demographics? I remember a big reason was because Arashi as a group was really close, that as someone outside the group, you could feel their closeness and friendship and felt drawn to them because of that.

you know, for all that fanfic and fanworks tend to focus on the romances, I...hmm, don't really have a point, but I'm wondering how much friendship and other bonds are a draw in getting people into a source/canon?

I'm sorry, I am in need of sleep, I'll probably look back on this in the morning and think, what on earth did I write. |D;;; Oh well. ^^;;;

I'd be happy to give you a shout-out on Twitter. I've got about 800 followers, most of them due to my writing on Anime Diet.

Best of luck with your research!

Media Questions:

How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
About 20-30% I do watch some American shows rather on time when it is the correct season. But even then I jump across various ethnic media.. so quite hard for me to give you estimate or percentage.

How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
Only about 20-30-40% give or take.. my reasoning behind this percentage is similar to my first response.

Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
Depends on what I can find.. and the numbers can go up and down.

If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)
Muddling through raws... I refuse to wait.

Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
I love Japanese mostly anything, and usually avoid American dubbing... unless if it was a video game ie. Kingdom Hearts. Sometimes I watch Chinese movies/dramas....because I rather play a game I understand the language for. I rather avoid American dubbing, because I believe it underwrites the originality of the original anime, which is based on the manga. I usually also seek out English translated graphic novels, since I can't really read Japanese. Same scenario with Chinese books.

The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?
Narrative styles when it comes to Japanese books.. and Pacing when it comes to Japanese movies, go figure.

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
Probably when I look at intense samurai honor.. it would bring to my mind the Japanese historical aspects.

Fandom Questions:

At a guess, are the majority of the people you regularly fan with your nationality?
Probably.. depends on the fandom... I wouldn't know - since many people in my fandom are online crowds.

Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in?
Depends..

If you go to live fan events/conventions/meet-ups, have you attended different fan events for media of different cultures? (E.g. have you gone to both conventions for an English-language series (such as Supernatural) and anime conventions?)If so, have you noticed any differences between such conventions?
Yes, in U.S. cons, it is a lot more disorganized while when I was in Japan attending TAF, I saw so many lines, more orderly.

Have you ever attended fan events/conventions/meet-ups in more than one country? If so, did you notice any differences?
Nope

Has fanning with people from various countries ever caused surprise/confusion/misunderstandings?
Yes and no.. but not really.

Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture?
Yes.

Additionally, there are a few details that’d be helpful for everyone to include, if they could:

Nationality: U.S.
Native language(s): Chinese, English
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in): Japanese, Chinese, English
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper: Sure
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): animemiz
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? Probably..

Thanks so much for the offer...currently I'm sorting data/going over stuff with my professor, not sure how much more data I need right now...could I get back to you in a few days?

So, hi.

You know me, but here's my info to start off with, for the record:

Nationality: Swedish & Swiss
Native language(s): Swedish, French & English (as in, I learned them all in childhood and speak them all fluently)
Language(s) you most often fan in (e.g. write/read/discuss in): English
Gender (that you're most comfortable identify yourself as): Female
Is it all right for me to reference you directly in the final paper: Go ahead!
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): LJ handle (unless RL would add something of value to you, then go ahead and use that!)
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? ♥

How much of what you fan on is produced by your own culture/country?
The country I grew up in? About 0%. If we go back to 1987, there was one children's program I loved, loved, loved. But I was 7 back then, so it wasn't exactly fanning. And since then? Yeah, nothing.

How much of what you fan on is originally produced in your native language(s)?
If you accept English as one of my native languages (though it's not a language native to either of the countries I hold passports to), then I'll just say 50%, because it's really hard to quantify, and I feel like I fan half on Western, half on Japanese stuff.

Have either of the above changed over the course of your time in fandom?
How to map this out without essaying...
Okay, so I had my very first fanning phases on dubbed anime (which I didn't know were not native to my culture) and books originally written in English and then translated to Swedish.

Second fanning phase was almost exclusively on things produced in the US and UK.

Third fanning phase was a return to anime and manga, though this time around I knew that they were produced in Japan - and this sparked an interest in the language and culture.

Then I fanned some more on Western stuff, and now I'm back to fanning Japanese things (which I read and watch in the original Japanese, while living in Japan and going to Japanese fandom events).

If/When consuming material not originally produced in a language you are fluent in, how do you access it? (e.g., dubs, scanlations, muddle through the raws and just enjoy the pretty people/art/voices, etc.)

It's been a progress of dubs (when I was aged 5-13), subs and translations/scanlations when I first had no understanding of the language, and then gained some paltry language skills (19-24), and then I upped my fluency and now I'm at the point where I will always seek out raws first, before reading translations, because I want to experience things as close to the way as the original author intended them to be.

I'm not elitist in a this is the ONLY TRUE WAY of doing it! kind of sense, but for me, reading someone else's translation leaves me one step removed from the source, and that in turn takes away some of my enjoyment.

This might tie in with hating spoilers, and hardly ever rewatching or rereading anything - my first experience with a new chapter/episode is kind of like an emotional high, and if if I have this experience out of sequence (being spoiled for something that will happen in it before it's happened/reading panels or pages out of order) or filtered through someone else's words that is like a dampening layer between my emotions and the texts I pursue in search of those emotions.

Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?

I avoid Swedish stuff. Like I said, there was the one children's program (I remember it as cool SF about a dystopia where laughter and fantasy were basically outlawed, and rebels fighting to overthrow that oppressive rule), but since then? Um... I tend to find Swedish-language movies pretentious and boring, and what's produced for domestic TV feels like it's all so slice-of-life that I have no interest for it. I'm aware that this is more of a prejudice than a fact, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything avoiding Swedish TV/movies. See - I want something beyond the ordinary in my fiction! Mystery or magic or at least some action, and I cannot for the life of me think of any Swedish show that's offered me that.

The one exception is Swedish books - I do read Swedish books, and I love them, too. But the books I seek out are - not surprisingly! - the ones that contain the aforementioned extraordinary elements.

What I seek out: well, either you'll have see it as seeking out things in "my" culture when I fan on anything Western (since I am all kind of mixed, but at least solidly Western), or you'll have to go for the fact that I seek out US/UK stuff and mark that down as another culture. I don't even know myself - I think of it as "mine" in that I understand pretty much everything (including cultural/historical references), and it feels familiar... at the same time, there are nuances you have to have grown up with to fully grasp, I think.

For example, the US High School experience is one of those things that show up everywhere in fiction, but that is totally alien to me - our school systems are just that different... So as an abstract, I understand it - I know more or less how the system works, in theory, and I am familiar with many high school narratives. On the other hand, I can't compare any of the HS scenarios I see on TV with my own experience.

I also do differentiate between US and UK stuff, where I see the US as producing quantity, and the UK as producing quality. (There's another essay here, don't you know!)

Lastly - and this should already be obvious in my previous answers - I seek out Japanese texts. Because my love for anime literally goes back almost as far as I can remember (age 5 or 6). And now I've made Japan my home, and I'm doing my best to master the language, and, yes, fandom has been a huge reason while I've done all of that. (This is not something I advertise, though, especially not in real life.)

The first time you watched/read/listened to something produced by a culture whose material you had not previously fanned on, were there details you had to adjust to (e.g. narrative styles, character depictions, pacing, cultural references, etc.) ?

All of the above! It's weird - because I watched anime when I was so young, I had all this fiction produced in a foreign culture around but I didn't even know it! I mean, I thought it was French. Maybe. I guess I didn't think too hard about it - I just knew that it was something I could watch during the summers when I was in Switzerland, and I hated going back to Sweden where all kids' shows were lame and nothing exciting ever happened in shows aimed at my age. I was totally high on the danger and tension in shows like Saint Seiya (Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque) and City Hunter (Nicky Larson), where things like death actually happened.

(For example: one of my favorite characters saved his friends by sacrificing his vision through putting out his eyes. It wasn't graphic at all, but... wow. Then his friends took care of him and went on a perilous journey to try and find a healer who could help him and to me this showed that whoever made these shows took me seriously, because it wasn't all just bumbling bad guys and slapstick-like last-minute escapes from danger and I ate it up with a spoon.)

I can clearly remembering having these thoughts when I was maybe ten or eleven, and so being into Japanese texts now isn't exactly new - but it's still different. The storytelling is totally different from Western things in a lot of ways - the arcs, for example, the 600-chapter epics that just keep getting better (well - the one 600-chapter epic, at least I will never shut up about One Piece, no), the way a lot of people - including me, now - get their stories in weekly installments... And there's other things, too. But you have another question about that, so I'll answer there!

So, yeah. I see most Western TV as episodic, and... ah, I guess a lot of Western stuff is simply more collaboratory. Even in things like US comics, which have huge complicated plots that go on forever in installments there seems to be so many creators involved - new writers introduce new plotlines, and then the writers replacing them retcon everything and... I'm not really familiar with Marvel and DC, but it seems that even something that superficially looks like it might be really similar to Japanese texts (comic books vs manga) they're created in really different ways.

A lot of Japanese texts are created by one individual - the mangaka - who does both plot and art. That's one thing that strikes me as exceedingly rare in Western fandom. (The exception of course being novels - Harry Potter and Twilight are one-creator texts, and just look at how huge they've become! They're probably closer to the way a lot of popular Japanese texts are being produced than anything else - one creator comes up with the original plot, and then it's turned into anime or movies or what have you... Plus, huge fandom and huge merchandising department.)

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?

Because Japan and the West are so far apart both in distance and history, there are tropes and archetypes that are just different. It can range from Japanese character traits like humorous gluttony (which is a staple in shounen, and possibly in shoujo too, though I don't read enough of it to know) and characters with no sense of direction to the differences in Japanese and Western redemption arcs.

"Redemption" in a lot of Western stuff means that you have to die for the bad things you've done. Sorry, if you tried to kill the heroes, it means that even if you have a change of mind the most you can hope for is to be allowed to give your life for theirs.

Conversely, in Japanese shounen, former enemies turning into allies is a staple.

If I keep looking at the sort of texts that I'm a huge fan of in Japan, and compare them to things for the same age group in the West, Japan also does a lot more with death and danger. Even in kids' shows, people kill and are killed. There is a lot more implied or even explicit abuse in peoples' pasts and such.

Oh, and because of the arc vs episode nature of Japanese and Western texts mentioned above, things in Japanese texts strike me as having far more consequences than in a lot of Western texts. (Again, this is probably due to the one-creator vs team-creator thing that happens when you compare anime and US TV). For example, the most realistic and heartbreaking character death (and the effects of said character's death the survivors) was in One Piece, and it just crushes any character deaths I can think of in my western fandom. (Let's not even go into how Stargate: Atlantis killed a main character, and in the next episode it was like he'd never even existed, much less like anyone was still mourning him...)

(And because I'm a spoilerphobe myself I'm not posting anything too spoilery here, but I know you'll know exactly what I'm talking about,

gnine!)

Annnnnnnnnnd this is getting really, really, REALLY long so... let me know if there's anything else you'd be interesting in discussing, and I'll try and get back to you quicker than I did this time!

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O Mighty Flist (and beyond), I seek your assistance!

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Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3

Re: Part 4

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fanfic forum

Don't mind me, just starting a mini-discussion in the comments..

Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3

Answering here, because it's ...about culture? At least somewhat!

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Re: I'm terribly sorry, this is going to be long. >.> 3/3

Re: Answering here, because it's ...about culture? At least somewhat!

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Friendship- Team!

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Latest reply EVER, gomen!

Part 2 of the massive REPLY OF DOOM

Part 3! Only one more part to go...

Part 4 - DONE! :D