#is so important
The Internet Answers How Fandom Changed Their Lives
The Internet Answers Gail Simone’s Question: How Fandom Changed Their Lives
Fandom saved me. From myself, I guess.
Reading and rereading (and re-re-re-re-reading) my Pratchett and Bujold collections (and listening to the audiobooks when I couldn’t read) until I had them memorized, that is what got me through my worst depressions for the last decade. Perhaps it was more obsession than fandom, though. It was a comfort to ‘visit’ (and occasionally draw) these much-loved worlds and characters, but it was an ultimately sterile experience, emotional maintainance without progression.
I found real fandom community in 2019 - the Good Omens “Ineffables” fandom specifically - with all the fic and art and aus and metas and chats that entails. And I’m old, there was a learning curve, but I love it. I love the mass-participatory aspect of it, the diy attitude, the gentle self aware humour. It triggered a surge of creative energy that I am still riding; my confidence as an artist has never been higher. For me it is both an outlet and an inlet, a seemingly endless wellspring of inspiration and encouragement, a platform to shout from, a door I can open. I love that in fandom, I can be a consumer, a creator, a student, and a mentor all at once, with no gatekeepers.
It’s not hyperbole to say, my fandom got me through The Covid Times - but honestly, that might be the least of it. I’ve spent a long time just trying to “get through”, and I want more than that. I want to become a better, more generous, confident, and compassionate person, in my selfimage, my relationships, and my art - through fandom, I am finding ways to practice.
I wrote a little comic about it
Love that I get the strangest looks for wearing a face mask at the hospital. Like if I wear it in public, some people get weird, but if I walk into a waiting room at the hospital with one on (because I know they aren’t going to let me wait in a separate area like they’re supposed to and I want at least a little protection) and everyone just loses their shit. Literally, a woman in the corner whispered “oh, she’s sick” when I sat down.
This is a hospital. Y’all are sick too. THATS WHY IM WEARING IT.
11x03 - Til Death Do Us Part
Fascinated by how hard it is to find people who genuinely love all three women in the Fapezberry trio but like, say what you will about them as individuals or as a group, there’s undeniably such a powerful story in an underdog becoming friends, real friends with her former bullies who genuinely care about her and show it in smaller and bigger ways and move past high school dynamics while acknowledging how the ghosts of that can haunt relationships into adulthood but ultimately human connection is work and if you’re willing to put that work in beautiful things will grow from it
