I have an example of one of those strange sub branches of a fandom that I was a part of once.
It's funny to consider, reading this, what a psycho Tolkien fan I used to be, back in the heydey of the movies. With other psycho Tolkien fans, I joined a roleplaying game. Harmless enough? Right? Until I started getting so fanatically attached to it that the outside world all but vanished for me for a while. The power of the group sort of...had sway over almost every single member except those in rapidly different timezones who still managed to have the lives the rest of us could not.
Luckily there was a big blow up between myself and one of the other players that resulted in me and one of my friends leaving the group and once I was out and had actual time to invest in the world again, it was like I gained a totally new perspective of everything, including my fandom. By the time I did choose to go back to the group, I was beyond being sucked back into the mental place I had been in before(this was an eventual reason for parting from these people when they got pissed that I wasn't a member of their cult of personality anymore). Because I wasn't really one of them, but rather someone who had dared to LEAVE, I was not really allowed to return to the fold...
Looking back on it now, it really WAS a lot like your description of the worst extremists and while I'm still involved in lots of fandom things, I see in myself a tendency to hesitate before I throw myself in with a group of people now. I see myself resisting group dynamics, at least internally, arguing about fandom trends instead of simply going along with them... I even *gasp* have online buddies in fandoms that I know nothing about, something I don't think would have happened if I hadn't gained that perspective during my little online Tolkien blowup.
I sure didn't realize it then but to make a long reply short, I agree with this post.
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Date: 2008-09-05 05:52 pm (UTC)It's funny to consider, reading this, what a psycho Tolkien fan I used to be, back in the heydey of the movies. With other psycho Tolkien fans, I joined a roleplaying game. Harmless enough? Right? Until I started getting so fanatically attached to it that the outside world all but vanished for me for a while. The power of the group sort of...had sway over almost every single member except those in rapidly different timezones who still managed to have the lives the rest of us could not.
Luckily there was a big blow up between myself and one of the other players that resulted in me and one of my friends leaving the group and once I was out and had actual time to invest in the world again, it was like I gained a totally new perspective of everything, including my fandom. By the time I did choose to go back to the group, I was beyond being sucked back into the mental place I had been in before(this was an eventual reason for parting from these people when they got pissed that I wasn't a member of their cult of personality anymore). Because I wasn't really one of them, but rather someone who had dared to LEAVE, I was not really allowed to return to the fold...
Looking back on it now, it really WAS a lot like your description of the worst extremists and while I'm still involved in lots of fandom things, I see in myself a tendency to hesitate before I throw myself in with a group of people now. I see myself resisting group dynamics, at least internally, arguing about fandom trends instead of simply going along with them... I even *gasp* have online buddies in fandoms that I know nothing about, something I don't think would have happened if I hadn't gained that perspective during my little online Tolkien blowup.
I sure didn't realize it then but to make a long reply short, I agree with this post.