Has escapism into fictional stories gone to far or is it good for participatory culture?
Fandom and fan fiction of TV shows and films is something that has exploded across the Internet over the last few years. People everywhere(myself included) are becoming more and more involved in the characters in books, movies and TV series and the characters being portrayed. There are two sides to this story that I have thought a lot about.
On one end of the spectrum I think that some super fans do get out of control and probably take it way to seriously getting extremely involved in the fictional world. There have been numerous public incidents of fans stalking celebrities or even attacking them trying to get as close as possible. A recent example of this is when a young female fan jumped on famous Twilight actor Robert Pattinson(see right for picture) while he was walking through a crowd. Obviously the girl wasn’t intending to hurt the actor but these sorts of actions can get out of control and become dangerous for everyone involved. There are tons of websites for fans to get up to date information on their favourite celebrities Perez HIlton is a common one as well as Gawker.com These sites although invasive into the lives of celebrities are relatively harmless.
The other side of TV fandom is that TV has been used as a escapist medium that allows us to get lost in a fictional world and step outside the stress and hardship of our daily lives. These fictional worlds often glamorize certain lifestyles or love stories that viewers can become really involved in but that they can still relate to on a social level. An example of a show glamorizing a certain lifestyle would be the popular CW show Gossip Girl that focus’s on the lives of a group of rich upper class people living in NYC. There are also popular movies again like Twilight or The Notebookk that have intense love stories that young girls fantasize about having themselves. There are various online communities that allow fans to talk to other fans about the shows and movies as well as create “fanfiction” and create there own storylines and attempt to predict what will happen in the future. This is where I make the distinction between going to far and fandom that can be good for participatory culture. When fans are joining online communities and bonding together over a love for a certain show it can be positive and a beneficial social event. It allows people to bond over common interests and come together to create their own culture and meaning from the TV shows and films. Its completely harmless for fans to create their own websites and post pictures and discuss the celebrities and plot lines on the shows in moves. Where this gets dangerous is when people are so wrapped up in a show that when it ends or when a beloved character dies for example they are devastated. There is a great article written called "When Fans Go To Far" by Steve Ryfle that discusses how fandom can be positive as long as its not taken to the extreme. He gives examples of people sending actors thousands of letters, spending hours of their day outside the celebrities houses waiting to catch a glimpse of them and people getting extensive plastic surgery to look almost exactly like their favorite actor or actress. This is seems absolutely insane and its scary to think the lengths that some fans will go and how far into these fictional worlds they have gone.
I agree with you. It seems that there is a fine line between fandom, fan culture and stalking/obsession. Fan culture can be a harmless expression and creation of cultural meaning for a group of people. Using your example of Twilight, it is relatively harmless for young girls to read the books or watch the movies and fantasize about themselves in a similar romantic narrative. However when fans become so absorbed in "Twilight culture" that they completely lose themselves in it and lose a sense of reality, there is a grave problem. Fan culture is harmless, as long as there is a firm line drawn between fandom and reality.
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