• In reviewing a book on Twilight fandom for Religion Bulletin, writer Kelly Baker discusses how all her female family members pondered the novels. "We read them, we talked about them, we criticized them, and we reread them. Despite the bad prose and melodramatic storyline, something about the books managed to appeal to all of us. What was it about the series that drew us in? What kept us reading? Why did we all hate Breaking Dawn? What vision of the world did we consume by embracing this fantasy? What did fandom suggest about us and the series?"
• At Freakonomics sociologist Jennifer Lena discussed the factors that influence the spread of musical taste. Her conclusion is that our taste for communities is what determines our other tastes. "Some people are into local music scenes because they like to interact with the musicians and other fans on a regular basis. They like that ticket prices are low and that the music is relatively unknown outside of their core group...In contrast, the global pop music experience is almost totally mediated by screens—blogs and music videos, for example—and most Pop fans have no unmediated interaction with the performers...We tend to think about taste as being all about aesthetic style, but ask someone what kind of music they like and they are likely to say, 'Oh, I like a little of everything.' Of course, we don’t actually like all music, indiscriminately. Instead we choose what bluegrass we like, or what kind of rock appeals to us based on our preference for one kind of music community over another."
• Comics Beat memorialized The Comics Buyer's Guide as an entry into comics fandom. "There was no internet to bombard you with information on every topic, so every introduction to a secret world of obsession was really an initiation. Through Don and Maggie I learned about Doctor Who and Stephen King for the first time, and probably more. (I was a very lonely, isolated home schooled kid with no friends, so this was the only way to learn of anything off the beaten path.)" A professional career followed. "I’ve said it many times but Maggie is my role model—I want to be as smart and inquisitive and engaged as she is every day of my life. Now, many years later, I’m told I’m a role model for some younger women in the field. You try to pass it on."

What's central to your fandoms? Tell us about it in Fanlore. Contributions are welcome from all fans.

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• Hollywood.com recently decided to look more deeply at the different strains of Twilight fandom and identified people who were fans of the books, fans of the movies, fans of the genre, and fans of the fandom. "Speaking with fans, it’s clear that their interest in this franchise is not always as reductive as oiled young abs and sinful enjoyment of B-cinema. Their passionate, earnest reasons for counting themselves a part of this fanbase may not sway you to either Team Edward or Team Jacob, but at least the fandom no longer seems as frighteningly foreign."
• A similar look at the competing strains of a fandom appeared in a much more indirect way at Criminal Element, with Lyndsay Faye writing about the Clear Distinction Between Fandom and the Baker Street Irregulars. "I trust that this article clears up any remaining confusion regarding the word fandom, and its woeful inexactitude when characterizing the Baker Street Irregulars. I likewise hope I have assured the reader the BSI cannot be both a respected literary society and a fandom, any more than Australia can be both a continent and an island. One earnestly hopes that this will settle the matter for good and all, and we can move on to other, better topics."
• The Learned Fangirl looked at a movie about K-pop fandom because "there aren’t nearly enough pop culture examples that are from the perspective of fangirls. Fortunately, there is Answer Me 1997 (2012), a Korean drama, half-set in 1997, the starting point for K-pop’s unending hallyu wave of manufactured groups. This is a show for present or former fangirls of music — from Beatlemaniacs through the Metallica/Megadeth fan battles to those with Bieber fever."
• Meanwhile in China, a look at the fandom of textbook characters is to see a new generation at play. "Such a large scale of nostalgia probably can only happen in China – if the post-80s generation was not the first only-child generation, if they haven’t lived through China’s sea changes in the past 20 years, if they are perfectly happy with their adult life now...Like the lyrics in song “Li Lei and Han Meimei” go, “The happiness and sorrows in textbooks, the right and wrongs outside of textbooks…like Li Lei and Han Meimei, we all live in a future that we would never have thought of before.”"

If you have stories exploring fans and fandom, why not share them on Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

• Entertainment reporter Ken Baker has written a novel about a pop star dating a fan but in a twist it's the star who stalks the fan. His inspiration was the intimacy provided by social networking in contemporary fandom. "Fans know so much about
 their idols. The interesting thing is that it doesn't seem to have spoiled 
the fantasy or dampened their fanaticism. If anything, it seems to only 
fan the flames of their passion for the celebs. As they say, information 
is power, and I think fans feel empowered to know so much and become that much more interested in their favorite stars."
• Hypebot provides a different take on music fandom, but one which also looks at the role of technology. Several public relations specialists weigh in on how music fandom currently functions. "The older online music communities were ecosystems dedicated to either genres or geographic locations...Now that communities are forming around artists and personal tastes, these older characteristics of ecosystems are evolving, but some are stagnated based on the fact that complementary activities need to take place away from the community for it to evolve." One concern? Over-reliance on a particular online platform. Another is how much the artist can offer. "The artists that have thriving fan communities are generally a result of their cult of personality, not their art. Most don't have artistic output rate high enough to maintain engagement by the community, hence the need to be...more than the sum of their art."
• Tor.com recently proclaimed Babylon 5 set the bar for fandom in the 21st century. "[W]ay back at the end of the last century, one of the first sci-fi fandoms did have the internet, complete with online spoilers! That fandom was centered around Babylon 5, and though we don’t talk much about Babylon 5 now, the narrative structure of the show, in tandem with internet discussion, essentially created the model for TV fandom today." Technology played an important role: "Babylon 5 was also one of the first TV shows to market itself through grassroots internet outreach, assuming (correctly) that science fiction fans were hanging out online. This was back in the days of Genie and Usenet, but a lot early internet jargon found its footing here. For example, those who didn’t post on the forums were called “lurkers” and at one point, [Babylon 5 creator] JMS, left the forums for a time because of too much “flaming.” He triumphantly returned, of course, after a basic moderation system was sussed out. At the time, all of this stuff was brand new."
• Speaking of fannish history, the MediaWest Con blog hosted a piece on fanzine archives citing several collections including "The University of Iowa Special Collections (aka the Fanzine Archives). This is the largest media fan collection currently in place. They have jointly partnered with the Organization For Transformative Works...which helps fans donate zines, flyers, convention program guides, fanvids, audio and video recordings etc. The OTW has an active outreach program called Open Doors with a volunteer assigned to facilitate donations. The University may be able to help pay for shipping. They can also handle large collections and, if needed, may be able to help arrange for someone to box and ship the zines."

If you're a music fan, a Babylon 5 fan, or have been a fanzine contributor, why not write about it in Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

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• The media has apparently decided that there are women in fandom -- a lot of them even! One of the latest features to announce this information appeared in Time Magazine, which unfortunately focused more on how their presence is controversial rather than how their contributions are awesome. But it did counter the idea that female fandom is a novel occurrence. "Karen Healey suggests that “many fandoms have been primarily female (often white, middle-class, straight, cisgendered women — but again, not exclusively) spaces for a very long time, often co-existing beside primary male fandoms for the exact same media. Women in the ’80s were trading stories and arguing about the plot arcs of Star Trek and Dr. Who, much as they do now.” That’s a point that writer and editor Rachel Edidin agrees with. “Modern fan culture has always been female-driven,” she says. “The ferocity with which people engage and identify with fictional media and build subcultures around it seems to develop in inverse proportion to their social power. There’s a case to be made for the intensity of women and girls’ engagement in fandom — especially narrative and/or direct-engagement fandom like fan fiction or cosplay — as a cultural underclass co-opting a dominant narrative in which they’re overwhelmingly underrepresented as both creators and characters.”
• Features about female majority fandoms do seem to be multiplying. Writing for Grantland, reporter Sam Lansky discussed his experiences with K-Pop fandom. "The term “idol” correlates with the tendency toward celebrity apotheosis worldwide, but in the States, it’s rare to find anyone other than Ryan Seacrest use it to describe a pop star, since I don’t know that American fans care as much about idolatry so much as they care about themselves. Consider the instances of stalking, hacking, and B&Es targeting celebrities in the Western world...All of these aims are ultimately selfish ones, crassly commercial or materialistic. For the sasaeng fans, the business of deifying K-pop stars serves no indirect function: The lawless obsession isn’t a means to an end, it’s an end itself."
• Meanwhile at The Awl, Rachel Monroe takes a look from the inside rather than the outside at celebrity fandoms. "The crush was a private thing that happened in my room, but it was also a shared activity between friends...Our crushes weren't about anything as simple as attainability, or kissing. You couldn't take Paul McCartney to the homecoming dance; the very idea was absurd, because the homecoming dance was an absurd nothing, especially when compared with the immensity and violence of our feelings. My mom should've understood. At the Beatles' 1966 concert in Chicago, she'd had to slap my Aunt Martha hard to get her to stop from screaming herself into a faint. From the teenyboppers to the Beliebers, teenage girls have been mocked for their crushes, but that scorn is just a shoddy mask for the anxiety these crushes inspire."
• In writing about the strategy of promoting fantasy sports to its fans, FOXSports writer Reid Forgrave suggests women respond to fandoms differently. "The NFL knows what it’s doing here. Its embrace of fantasy football...gives fans a sense of control over this sport where many of us are priced out of attending more than a game or two a year." And “[o]nce you were able to create a competition within a competition, you brought those niche audiences to your television to watch your product,” said Ryan Fowler, the FOXSports.com fantasy editor. “That’s where it changed, where you were able to get women to see what the guys liked about it.”"
• Women are also making gains in being recognized on the professional side. The Mary Sue noticed that half the Hugo Award winners were women this past year, including the winners for best fan artist and best fancast.

If you have things to say about female fandom, why not write something for Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

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