The Tolkien Society VS The Society of Tolkien
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People who are proud of being part of "the official fan club" or "the big fan club" are pathetic. Like dude, you are not any more representative of the community or the original work itself just because you are a self-important Karen.
Like sure, be a fan. Be part of a club. But like... you are still just a person who is a fan of something, you're not Jesus Christ, you don't own the thing.
People like this like to pretend they are somehow big names and a big deal because they attached to someone else's creative work.
This disturbs me about fan culture. How many things have we seen when certain "important in fandom" types bullied others, abused them, scammed, started witchhunts because of petty reasons, etc.? This is the nerd version of the typical movie main cheerleader bitch.
I'm not sure that is their aim. They seem to want to redefine both, not represent them.
The concept of an Official club can only hold water if it's something along the lines of "the original creator is actively here in this group", and even then it's dubious.
Yes, yes and yes.
But now more and more people are conditioned to only like the fan fiction version of things. We have a whole generation of people who live by the fan fiction of Harry Potter. No, not the actual sotry, but theirn "headcanons" and "condings" and such.
Ask these people to describe Hermione or Sirius or whichever character. I bet my ass they will do it based on Tumblr edits and Ao3 tags. Not what the story actually says.
You can't do that if the author is around and will answer your questions in real time. Not even Just Kiddin' Rowling, queen of retcon allows for that.
Good ol' Hermione and her white face sticking out from behind a tree.
They are mere snowflakes taking credit for an avalanche.
I was part of the official Eragon fan club a long time ago. Even entered into the official contest to see the movie premiere whereever it was. Back when both those were huge things at their peak.
That gives me the authority to say that it is both incredibly easy to join "official fan clubs" and that it is totes cringe to not be ashamed of it.
The movie is indefensibly bad, which shows that no amount of money or hype can protect anything. And how lucky Harry Potter fans are with their adaptations.
The first book and first half of the second are decent, if cliche and generic (though you can tell some actual effort was put into worldbuilding). In fact, the Brother's subplot in the second book is one of the best fantasy stores I've read. And the idea of the hero being so overconfident he permanently cripples himself was such a bold choice I can only remember it ever happening once before (Earthsea).
But then the second half of that book happens, he magically turns into a half elf Chad and heals all wounds, and it just goes downhill from there.
I'd still recommend it as a great read for children, as it lacks the antiquated language of most other fantasy classics. But its not a high quality work and probably worthless for anyone above middle school.
Yes, this is the correct application of gatekeeping. Sure the big guys have a right to gatekeep and try to keep the fandom pure (let's ignore that they've already been coopted in this example), but the flip side of that is that people who don't like it can make their own groups with their own rules and then they keep out anyone who they don't like. This is not totally unlike capitalism and the creation of new companies that hire more employees. It ensures competition and demonstrates that nobody "owns" canon. More groups for everyone makes a vibrant community - NOT trying to create a super club that appeals to the least common denominator. NOT saying that you're the main fandom and then trying to squash all competition. The more the merrier - most people would be fine with a "LGBT queer themes in Tolkien fan club" existing as long as they don't have to be a part of it.
I think I'm preaching to the choir here but just wanted to put it to words.
Fanboy culture yeah, same thing we see in console wars or even here when we argue the merits of a particular game. It's fine to disagree but people take it oddly personal when you don't like the same things they like.