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

[gnine]

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!

Comments

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Here via xparrot.

I'm American and watch about 2/3 American-produced shows with the occasional British sit-com and mostly anime making up the rest.

Before I figured these things out, as a kid I thought most of what I watched originated in the good 'ol U.S., but then I learned that a lot of the shows I watched were just edited and dubbed Japanese cartoons or done by Japanese studios. I loved Robotech and Silverhawks, for example. First it was the art--WAY better than American-made cartoons--and then the type of stories that drew me in and seemed to be lacking at the time in other shows.

I got out of those when I got older and really only watched sci-fi on TV and the occasional anime movie, which I loved because they were like adult versions of the cartoons I'd watched when I was young. Then when anime hit the internet I got into it more--until recently it was just too difficult to find.

I watch a few anime shows now and prefer subtitles so that I hear the original voices and inflection (and have picked up on swear words and when they've changed/censored the dialogue). I was having a conversation with a 13 year-old camper the other day who watches a TON of anime but only ones that are English dubbed. She doesn't like subtitles as much, yet was way ahead of me on pronouncing the characters' names correctly and how the vowels and consonants should sound (though she hadn't picked up any vocabulary). I like the teamy adventure stuff; she is into the soap-opera type stories with complicated romances.

I wouldn't say that I particularly seek out ANYthing Japanese, because a lot of it can be really creepy or just bizarre. As for British stuff, I don't think of the origins of books much unless there's a lot of hoopla about it (like Harry Potter) so I can't say that I seek out that, either, though I do love a good Neil Gaiman. Though...I would say I do seek out Australian authors because finding them in a bookstore is rare so I'll tend to buy one when I see it if I notice it in the author blurb and not worry about the plot summary. Morris Gleitzman and John Marsden, notably!

I only run into a few references or jokes that I don't get (and picked up on a few running gags that are obviously very funny if you grew up with them). But then in the comments to one video, someone explained that a character looked happy at the end because a single cherry petal fell in his tea and that's a sign of good luck, and I realized I'm probably missing quite a few references like that.

Are there any particular tropes/stereotypes/character traits/plot devices you particularly associate with a certain culture’s material?
In anime I've noticed there are a lot of orphans with great destinies. Also that bad guys turn out to be good guys a lot. Way more than good guys turn out to be bad guys, which tends to happen in Western stories.

Fandom
I think about half the people I know in fandom are from the U.S. and about half are British, but I do know a few are from other European countries (non-English-speaking) and post in both English and their native language.

Do you think this changes depending on what fandom you’re in? I think most of the anime fans I've seen online are from the U.S. but I don't know as many of them.

Do your expectations for the fandom and its fanwork change depending on the source culture? Heck, yes. Both seem to be into slash but the anime crowd seems to be younger...I browse art at deviantArt as well, and there's definitely a growing crowd of beginners putting up a lot of fanart in the various animes I watch. Maybe because it's a cartoon to begin with, there seems to be much more in drawn fan work in anime and somewhat less in fanfiction and the reverse is true for Stargate and Sanctuary, Glee &etc.



Nationality: United States
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: Sure
If yes, how would you prefer to be called (e.g. LJ handle/name/nickname/anonymously, etc): Doesn't matter... Janet is fine
If needed, would it be alright for me to contact you for more questions/details via email/skype, etc.? Sure...buffalogirl @gmail.com

[gnine.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for this, you'll probably hear more from me in the next week or so as I go through all the data I'm getting. Again, thank you for the help!

[gnine.livejournal.com]

So I know this is ridiculously after the fact (busy summer/additional research/the fact that I'm a horrible procrastinator and more all account for it) but if you have the time/inclination, I have a few follow-up/additional questions that would be a big help if you could answer:

In what ways (if any), for you personally, do your fannish practices change depending on the source culture of the material you're fanning on? (e.g. do you watch more music vids for anime, do you read/write particular kinds of fic for western shows, do you seek out cons for only certain types of fandoms, etc.) The more specific the examples, the better.

Semi-related to the above question, in what ways, if any, has your fannish practices changed over your time in fandom? (both in general over the years you've been in fandom and in specific fandoms. ) And have these changes at all coincided with differences in source culture? (eg for western fandoms, you've always just watched/read fic w/out much change over time but with Japanese fandom, you started watching anime then moved on to music vids then progressed to
helping scanlate manga because you went on to learn Japanese, etc.)

And one or two questions on one topic I might be exploring in a bit more detail, so:

Are you interested in/have any experience with/in slash/Boys Love/yaoi/ m/m etc.? If yes, do you notice a difference in how it is approached/explored depending on the source culture of the material? Examples/details appreciated.

Do you personally approach it differently/have different expectations for how it's depicted in fan works depending on the culture? If so, in what ways?

Oh, also, if I don't already know it (ie know you in person) and you're comfortable sharing it, what gender do you identify yourself as?

Again, thanks for your time, any details you have already or can additionally provide are a big big help! ^_____^

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...As for source material v. fannish practices--I think I'm more "into" the characters from western shows (Stargate, X-Files) than the anime that I watch, though that's possibly because I started watching anime only more recently. I know it's not because they are cartoon characters--I was very heavily invested in G.I. Joe for a while, which was my first great fandom. I haven't sought out vids for anime and haven't read a lot of fanfic (though I participated in the AU BB and chose a Bleach story). I think I am drawn to the genres for different reasons, so what I like in the fandom is different. I watch anime because the art style is wonderful and the fan art can be amazing...and the stories they tell are either so unreal/fantastic (Bleach, Naruto) or so plain goofy/odd (Ouran High School Host Club, Death Note) that it would never work with live actors. And I want the stories that the SHOW is telling me, because they are so amazing and wonderful--I don't need fix-its, fillers, AUs, and so on in the form of fanfic; I'm happy with what I'm getting already. Maybe after I watch Ouran through another couple of times I'll want to write an AU story in which Hikaru and Kaoru are CEOs of a fashion design firm and they hire a new model named Tamaki...but maybe I'll never get there. Same with Naruto and Bleach--I want to know what happens next in canon--I feel like they are long and plotty novels (technically I suppose they are). With Stargate, or even X-Files, Fringe, Glee...though the story is linear, there is a lot of space for other events to have occurred. Not every episode follows right after the last. It's more like a series of short stories than one long novel. So...I feel more drawn to fanfic (this was true of G.I. Joe also). As for type of fic, I like things that stay true to what the show is like and maybe highlight its underlying aspects (one exception). Like...Naruto is pretty much ninjas and action and sacrifice and struggle with a little bit of romance as comic relief. A story that was all romance/porn just wouldn't work for me. Stargate is adventure and loyalty and camaraderie and sacrifice and fighting the good fight...and while romance might not be overt, MY GOODNESS there's a lot that can be read into the show. So...romance/porn, yeah, that works for me.


HAHAHA, SGA made me a slasher. Nobutreally, when I started reading and posting fanfic (except I wrote X-Files fanfic back before I was on the internet which doesn't count), I was writing het in the G.I. Joe fandom. And Gen too. Then I got into SG-1 and read only gen, sometimes Sam/Jack...then I got into SGA and learned about McShep. This was during the third season or so-there was a lot out there already. At first I wondered why everyone was so into the porn (I was against it on principle because I hate the stereotype that all guys think two girls making out is hot and I hate the prevalence of such gratuitous photography on deviantArt--I thought it would be just as sexist to stick two hot guys together). ANYway I finally figured out that though the porn is often written as plain PWP, there's usually just as much going on with character analysis, plot devices, woobifying, h/c, fun tropes, and other things that make slash worth reading. Sadly I've found that most anime (Bleach notably) tends to stick to the h/c slash or at least a lot of angst and it's not as appealing.

So far they have all progressed pretty much the same. I've started with artwork, then started writing fanfic, and read fanfic the whole time. I haven't written anime fanfic yet, but I have definitely drawn fanart.

I will add a little more after lunch...

[calcitrix.livejournal.com]

Are you interested in/have any experience with/in slash/Boys Love/yaoi/ m/m etc.? If yes, do you notice a difference in how it is approached/explored depending on the source culture of the material? Examples/details appreciated.

Ooh, definitely different approaches. Slash (as mentioned above) was introduced to me in SGA in McShep form. I would never have made the connection on the show without fan influence (if writing for myself, I'd have written gen, probably). But most of the appeal in the pairing is the fan following of the pair rather than the canon moments on the show. In fact, 99% of the appeal is the fans--the fic, the artwork, the manips, the vids. In the G.I. Joe fandom I read a total of ONE slash story just to see, and it truly had no appeal for me. It had all of the pitfalls and failings of "immature" slash (for lack of a better expression)--"gay for you/out of the blue," "first time," and "but then he realized he didn't have to be gentle like he would with a woman" were all there in this relatively short story and it was just blech. Like, the story was written without developing the relationship or a reason to slash--the author just wanted to whip out a slash story and it could have been any two characters, and it was really obvious. But McShep, boy do the fans care about the characters. Most of the time you couldn't replace Sheppard with, say, Lorne or Ronon and have the story make sense, or McKay with Zelenka. I think that's really unique to SGA and MOST of the other western shows (What I've read of Numb3rs, Doctor Who, Torchwood, X-Files, &etc. slash isn't just ANY MALE CHARACTERS X AND Y, but their OTP).

I think in Anime this is a little less the case, though the canon relationship does tend to play an important part in who people ship with whom (and I mean Naruto with Sasuke because they were on the same team, there was a betrayal, etc. not canon romantic relationship). But on shows like Bleach, all of the boys are so pretty (and quirky really ;) that lots of people pair X with Y not interchangeably, but also NOT because they see X and Y as their OTP. Like an author might write Bleach porn with Ichigo and Renji, and in the next story pair Ichigo with Byakuya, and the next Renji and Hisagi (and so on). There are a couple pairs that have a larger following than others, but really only maybe two. I think the same is true for a lot of the shows that have larger casts, like Prince of Tennis, Naruto, Hetalia, etc.

One thing that at first threw me off but now I love to pieces is that in Ouran High School Host Club, the Hitachiin brothers (twins, Hikaru and Kaoru) play the romantic "forbidden love" roles in the club. They actually call it "twincest" on the show. At first I was like, "WHAAAAAT???" But now I just laugh it off as those wacky Japanese! and think it's adorable. Honey Senpai is labeled the "Lolita type" and so on. That would NEVER fly on an American show (even though obvs Supernatural has its own fan created version of that). So I guess...on American/Western shows I expect more characterization, and reasons for slashing, pining, longing, and so on before the big hook up. In anime it's already canon that there's stuff like TWINCEST, hello--no need for a set-up if it's already set up. I expect more thinky psychological stuff--at least a little--from my fic based on Western stuff.

I am female.

I hope that all makes sense. Let me know if you want any more details.

(fixed syntax)