MEME: Unpopular Opinions

[dlgood]

Stolen from everywhere but I want to play this time.

1) Comment with one of my fandoms or a character or two from that fandom.
2) I'll answer with one or two of my unpopular opinions about that fandom or character.

OR! You can also comment with fandoms I'm not into, and I'll tell you why I'm not a fan.

Current fandoms/shows I'm watching: College Basketball (Mens & Womens), Dexter, Chuck, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother - I watch A LOT of television and could comment on a lot more...

Comments

[scwlc.livejournal.com]

In my view no. I have never considered anything involving real people to really be 'fandom' unless you're dealing with a deliberate "breaking of the fourth wall" situation. I even find historical fiction to sometimes be a blurry line for me. Real people and events are more about hashing out odds and other things like that which separate them from what I would call a valid 'fandom'.

I don't know, I've never been sufficiently into any sport to have a word that would apply to real people in a similar way to fandom, but I truly feel it's a sufficiently separate issue between the fictional world and the real that a line should be drawn.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I have never considered anything involving real people to really be 'fandom'

The behavior of the fan is exactly the same - and it's the fan that makes it 'fandom'. The way a person reacts upon finding out who'll direct the next Harry Potter movie... the way a person reacts upon finding out who the next coach of their favorite team. Exactly the same.

The fan's psychological connection to the event. The same. The fan's actual connection? I don't know Gilbert Arenas any more than you know Harry Potter. Yes, Gilbert Arenas is a real athlete (who is playing the 'character of "Agent Zero" much more than he is actually playing basketball this year). Regardless of objective reality - they are about the same amount of real to you or me.

And beyond which, the sports fan is a fan of the team - often more a fan of the uniform than the actual player. Just as a TV fan may well be more a fan of a TV Character than the actor playing the role.

I can see how one might categorize differences about between some sort of standard fanfic and RPF. (And do not doubt, there are people on my flist who write Sports RPF.) People who actually play the sports and know the players personally often cease to be fans in the same way. But then, the same often holds for actors.

You may want to draw some sort of a different definition, but to me it's artificial.