I got all choked up when I read "Open Tumblr letter to younger fans, from a 77-year-old TOS fangirl" from Fandom Grandma
[via Flamingo Slim's Tumblr, mostly Starsky/Hutch],
especially this part:
This moved me because not only do I expect to BEcome one of these old ladies who still finds comfort in TOS ("the original series" of Star Trek), but because it shores up my decision to emphasize the positive side of fandom in my book---a decision I've sometimes doubted as I also see, of course, the downside of the internet.
But there's a downside to everything we do, because humans.*
It's hardly a secret that the internet is problematic, and so can be fandom. I stand by my choice to emphasize the positive, in this case.
This open letter has 11,550 notes [likes and shares] on Tumblr, so I guess other people see it that way too.
Thanks to Mortmere for sending this letter to me!
A random example of Spirk fan art, "love beams" from 2009 moiramurphy.deviantart.com/art/TOSART-Spirk-63596479
(She manipulated actual screenshots from the show of Kirk and Spock looking at each other.)
_____________
* “because x” was a Word of the Year in 2013, but this is the first time I've used it, because it fit so well.
[via Flamingo Slim's Tumblr, mostly Starsky/Hutch],
especially this part:
"The friendships you make in fandom will be with you for life. Like all friendships, they will wax and wane as the focus of your life shifts over time, but you will always be able to pick up the thread.Please contact me in 25 years and remind me of this too.
"You will — to give you a hypothetical example — be 77 years old and discover Tumblr and get a rush of Spirk [Spock/Kirk] feels after a decade of not giving TOS a thought, and contact your 83-year-old fangirl friend in the nursing home, to whom you haven’t spoken in several years.
"You will open the conversation with, 'So, Jim and Spock love each other and that just makes me so happy.'
"And your friend in the nursing home will sigh and say, 'Yes. They do love each other. It’s such a comfort.'"
This moved me because not only do I expect to BEcome one of these old ladies who still finds comfort in TOS ("the original series" of Star Trek), but because it shores up my decision to emphasize the positive side of fandom in my book---a decision I've sometimes doubted as I also see, of course, the downside of the internet.
But there's a downside to everything we do, because humans.*
It's hardly a secret that the internet is problematic, and so can be fandom. I stand by my choice to emphasize the positive, in this case.
This open letter has 11,550 notes [likes and shares] on Tumblr, so I guess other people see it that way too.
Thanks to Mortmere for sending this letter to me!
A random example of Spirk fan art, "love beams" from 2009 moiramurphy.deviantart.com/art/TOSART-Spirk-63596479
(She manipulated actual screenshots from the show of Kirk and Spock looking at each other.)
* “because x” was a Word of the Year in 2013, but this is the first time I've used it, because it fit so well.
Nice art! It fun being an old fan and having kids find out you share their fandom: now I’m sought out at family gatherings—cause i can actually have a conversation with kids— as equals—on topics like Dr. Who.
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