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GRRM: ASOIAF
Feb. 12th, 2007 02:59 pmJust curious:
Who else out there might be interested enough in George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" to start a discussion group?
I've been lurking for a bit on the existing fan sites: Tower of the Hand*, Westeros, and the Westeros message boards (powered by EZboard), and I found one LJ community recently.
It's strange how fundamentally *different* their fandom feels from my corner of HP. Kinda.... Well, they're more "grown-ups" (at least, supposedly), but their behaviour is decidedly *less* grown-up than I'm used to. They're not as polite with one another, for one thing. Okay, granted, *every* fandom has its snark, and lord knows I'm not naive enough to think that HP doesn't get nasty. (Wank fests? Ship wars? BNF deathmatches? WHO, US? Never.) But I dunno.... Maybe it's because it's more heavily male. Maybe it's because it's smaller. It just doesn't seem a very friendly fandom.
Funnily, someone started a thread there recently asking about people's ships...and one of the first responses was from a (male) user telling the original poster to "Please return forthwith to whatever Harry Potter "ship" you disembarked from." All I could think was, "You arrogant asshat." I mean, sure, a lot of fans can say that HP was their first fandom. A lot of them take shipping too seriously (it's not the be-all and end-all of the series, although I'll state that HP has a different focus and thus the "ships" are part of the resonance of the books). But for fuck's sake, is HP really worth that much derision?
So far, it's attitudes like this that have left me completely uncompelled to comment. But I would like to be able to discuss the books with people who are inclined to speculation (their boards seem more geared toward simple clarification, which I can totally buy. The books are massive and very difficult to keep track of). I crave meta-discussion and filled-in backstory. And I've noticed lately that many on my flist have been reading or are talking about ASOIAF on their journals.
So... anyone out there feel like carving out our own niche?
*This is one amazing site, but I wish it had some more meta conversation as well.
Who else out there might be interested enough in George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" to start a discussion group?
I've been lurking for a bit on the existing fan sites: Tower of the Hand*, Westeros, and the Westeros message boards (powered by EZboard), and I found one LJ community recently.
It's strange how fundamentally *different* their fandom feels from my corner of HP. Kinda.... Well, they're more "grown-ups" (at least, supposedly), but their behaviour is decidedly *less* grown-up than I'm used to. They're not as polite with one another, for one thing. Okay, granted, *every* fandom has its snark, and lord knows I'm not naive enough to think that HP doesn't get nasty. (Wank fests? Ship wars? BNF deathmatches? WHO, US? Never.) But I dunno.... Maybe it's because it's more heavily male. Maybe it's because it's smaller. It just doesn't seem a very friendly fandom.
Funnily, someone started a thread there recently asking about people's ships...and one of the first responses was from a (male) user telling the original poster to "Please return forthwith to whatever Harry Potter "ship" you disembarked from." All I could think was, "You arrogant asshat." I mean, sure, a lot of fans can say that HP was their first fandom. A lot of them take shipping too seriously (it's not the be-all and end-all of the series, although I'll state that HP has a different focus and thus the "ships" are part of the resonance of the books). But for fuck's sake, is HP really worth that much derision?
So far, it's attitudes like this that have left me completely uncompelled to comment. But I would like to be able to discuss the books with people who are inclined to speculation (their boards seem more geared toward simple clarification, which I can totally buy. The books are massive and very difficult to keep track of). I crave meta-discussion and filled-in backstory. And I've noticed lately that many on my flist have been reading or are talking about ASOIAF on their journals.
So... anyone out there feel like carving out our own niche?
*This is one amazing site, but I wish it had some more meta conversation as well.
