Arthur 9/5/08

Here are cartoons from Arthur, King of Time and Space since last Friday. Fanfiction cartoons in a separate post.

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Thanks for reading.

Fanfiction 9/5/08

Here are cartoons from the fanfiction sketchbook website (New URL: http://arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/3faces/) since last Friday. Arthur, King of Time and Space cartoons in a separate post.

( Featuring characters from DOCTOR WHO, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, Supeman comics, STAR WARS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and STARGATE SG-1 )

Thanks for reading.

comments in others' LJs

theferrett wrote a post about extremism in fandoms, to which I responded so:

Three decades ago, if you were a crazy Star Trek fan, you had to work to find other fans, going out of your way to conventions and subscribing to badly-typed newsletters.

I didn't know you knew me then.

[there are extremist fans who] stop treating it as a hobby and start treating it as a mandate from God

I've been meaning for years to write an essay about how fandom is a symptom, or a consequence or a something, of whatever it is in us that drives us to religion, in those of us who have rejected religion or just haven't grown up with it permeating society like it used to before the Enlightenment. Because fandoms do meet many of the same human needs that organized religions meet; and, as you note here, ennable many of the same negative behaviors religion does. But it's a great, big meaty topic that needs to be done right and I'm too lazy not interested enough to actually research; I'd rather write my fanfiction and draw my crossover cartoons.

[the worst extremists get] insular and nasty, becoming spiteful towards the outside world and the heretical sub-branches of their fandom

On the other hand, I'm sure lots of the worst-behaved fans got into it partially to find someplace where they were the in crowd and could exlude others from the top.