The Long Dark Fandom of the Soul

, , C. David Dent ,

I am not sure what happened this Christmas, but Santa delivered a load of downers to some of my favorite geeks. As we round on 2011 a few voices are speaking to us and I suspect that fandom is going to reach critical mass this year.

Javier Grillo-Marxwatch has written a piece for IO9 that details how he went cold turkey on George Lucas' epic and what it did to his mind. He laments that the industry is stealing ideas "from the same two-hour movie and it has to stop. There just isn't enough meat on the carcass."  I can't say I disagree.

Patton Oswalt wrote a piece for Wired that is bound to ruffle a few feathers (like this guy's). He claims we are "on the brink of Etewaf: Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever." He's not exactly wrong.  I think he's overstating it and his essay devolves into absurdity towards the end.  But the moment between a creation and the inevitable remix is shortening.  

The Director of the The Core made a statement at a recent symposium on Physics in Science that "he believes there is no reason why film makers should shy away from including good science, so long as it is not to the detriment of the story."(source) So even those of us who laugh at bad science in movies are now percieved as somehow wrong.

Back in July, Techland lamented that Comic-Con was killing nerd culture "in a broad and systemic and probably permanent way. Nerd culture is a counter-culture, and counter-cultures can die; in fact if there's one thing late-stage capitalism is good at, it's co-opting and killing counter-cultures. Viz. punk, the 60's, etc."

For my take on all of this I suspect that the root of it is probably the VCR.  Before the late 70s if you wanted to see a program on TV that you missed, you'd have to wait for it to be re-run. If you missed the re-run you'd have to wait for it to be re-broadcast either in syndication or on a special at some unknown point in the future. 

The cool movies and shows were ephemeral.  Comics were alittle better, you could save and trade them but they, too, got lost, thrown out, or sold and unless you knew exactly where to look they could be practically impossible to find. If you didn't enjoy them when you had them you would never enjoy them again.

Toys, lunchboxes, posters of Farrah, stickers, baseball cards.  These things transitioned through our lives and didn't stay except for a few much-treasured items.  Fore every person saved their childhoods thousands of others experienced theirs as temporary. But in the late 70s the home VCR changed things subtly. 

You could now rent or even BUY a move rather than see it in a theatre.  Rahter than miss a show you'd tape it. And suddenly there was a way to preserve the moment.  And once preserved it could be traded, shared and spread.

This is when toys began to have tie-ins.  When comics started to have movies (Superman anyone?) and Star Wars proved how lucrative tie-in marketing could be. For thirty years nobody has had to miss anything. And now with everyone being as connected as they are you can be sure that someone will have it to share. 

The world feeds on nostalgia becsue back then was a time when we had to extract every iota of enjoyment from a thing while we had it and so it tasted better, looked brighter, and touched us deeper.  The reason that the entertainment machine turns like it does is that it tugs at those strains of memory for its enjoyment and letsus remember how we felt rather than have to give us new things to feel. 

So I think that the few folks crying that fandom is on its final breath and that the nerds are diluting themselves into the culture are probably onto something.  But it will be a long time before all of us are dead and there are no memories left to tug on.

I think that new generations will learn to love just as hard on the things that they find in dusty corners and forgotten places.  They will cherish the hand-made and the virtually forgotten.  And it will be through their eyes that we, the ones who had to make do with the fleeting, will find that the things that last are the things that matter and not the things we remember.

 

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An Open Letter to SYFY on the subject of Stargate Universe's cancellation

, , C. David Dent ,

To the Executives at Syfy,

I am a long-time watcher of Syfy (and before that, Sci-Fi) and have considered Syfy one of the main, positive reasons to continue to subscribe to basic cable (in addition to BBCAmerica and Discovery Channel).  I was a fan of the original Stargate TV show for the first few seasons.  I eventually tired of the show because I felt it had explored all of the aspects of the characters it could and I didn't become a fan of the subsequent spin-off of the franchise, Atlantis.  A friend encouraged me to try Stargate Universe because it was a departure from the tone of the previous shows.

I was surprised to find Universe to be a complex human drama set within the Stargate Mythology but isolated and insulated from much of the trappings of that mythology.  Within the crucible of Destiny we could explore both the lighter and very much the darker sides of a group of characters that had deep and subtle characterizations.

It was clear from the premise that a mechanism was in place to be able to introduce new characters as needed to keep things interesting as well as a means (the stones) to provide variations for smaller stories.  And the writers have demonstrated that they are willing to be hard with the crew, abandoning or killing crew as the story demands.  It was a refreshing and welcome addition to my viewing and a real hard-core science-fiction show.

Canceling SGU is a huge mistake.

The Syfy channel is going the route of The Nashville Network (remember them?). Country music fans (myself among them) ceased to watch as the network slowly downplayed the "county" and then eliminated it altogether and re-branded as Spike TV.

Since you've "gone mainstream" you have run the risk of losing the core audience that loved and sustained you when you were Sci-Fi and while we might grumble about "siffy" or puzzle at the wrestling and Friday night schlock horror films as long as you don't forget us we are willing to forgive you. We aren't stupid and we understand that you don't see us as a viable sole audience.  

We want to help you to understand that we love these shows but we aren't willing to change our lives to fit your schedule and so we time-shift and download as a way to allow us to see the programs we love on our terms.  And, unfortunately that isn't reflected in the "traditional ratings" system. But we know where the shows come from and we support the sponsors and buy the swag and perpetuate the fandom as a way to give back to the series creators, studios and networks.

In short, fans are always there and will always be there as long as you don't screw us.  We like Eureka, Sanctuary and Warehouse 13 and will probably like the "American" Being Human.  We'll support them too. But they aren't really "hard-core" Sci-Fi like the Stargate Franchise. SGU was good science fiction. Proper and real. It has great story, acting,... characters and we love the show. AND IT IS SCIENCE FICTION

Without Caprica or SGU you will just be "siffy" to the folks that you set out to create the network for in the first place and we will look elsewhere for our sci-fi entertainment and leave you to your "mainstream" audiences while simultaneously discouraging the fandoms, the online communities, and the other geeks and nerds from even really taking anything you do seriously.

Please reconsider SGU for renewal. It might not be your highest rated show, but it was certainly the one with the most sci-fi "cred" left on your network. And we (the sci-fi fans) would like to keep you in touch with your roots for a little while longer.

You won't find people dressing up as the Ghost Hunters at a convention or buying a Haven action figure.  You aren't going to find a lot of Destination Truth, or Friday Night Smackdown conventions.  Fans continue to spend money on franchises that are dead like Firefly and Star Trek because they love them. You can't go wrong by trusting the there are people out there watching even if the "ratings" don't seem to reflect it.

Listen to the buzz coming from the fans, podcasts, websites, twitter, facebook, and blogs.  This might be a show you can "uncancel" and turn into a win for the Syfy Network.

Sincerely,

C. David Dent

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