Good morning!
I know I usually do an herb post Monday but I’m all over the place lately and wanted to discuss fandom this morning.
Do I have any? Not yet (she says hoping one day there will be many discussions of Team Donald and Team Colin). There are many authors nowadays that have huge fan bases. They sell products, merchandise, have fan fiction sites (which I’m against btw). They even have fans tattooing their quotes and characters or symbols on themselves. The darker side is that they also have stalkers, threats, trolls who attack them behind a screen and make horrible comments. Let’s face it, the internet is a wondrous thing that allows everyone to discuss their favorite books, authors, characters, etc. There is always a flip side to having an online presence though and many authors have dealt with it on a daily basis. Even John Green was threatened because of who the CASTING DIRECTOR (NOT Green) chose for a character in his Paper Towns movie. John Green, for those of you who don’t know, is a very teen positive person with a huge online presence. To attack him personally for what he has no control over is absurd, but these are the fans that have taken it too far.
You know that hidden path I talked about yesterday? These are the fans that got lost. It is one thing to enjoy a book and relate to the characters, or even want to emulate them. Some take it too far. Fans can sometimes get wrapped up in a book and characters so tightly that they can’t find the responsible straight asphalt path of reality and have stumbled head first into the brambles. This is not healthy.
I read an interview from Sherrilyn Kenyon and Maggie Steifvater (both fantastic authors if you haven’t already heard of them). They discussed the dangers of being a famous author and how it takes its toll on your self-confidence. I am currently searching for it and will post it here when I find it. Just an FYI, there are 44,000 fans following Sherrilyn Kenyon at the moment and 66,400 fans following Maggie Steifvater - both on Twitter.
How many of those fans have taken it too far?
Have a great day!
I know I usually do an herb post Monday but I’m all over the place lately and wanted to discuss fandom this morning.
Do I have any? Not yet (she says hoping one day there will be many discussions of Team Donald and Team Colin). There are many authors nowadays that have huge fan bases. They sell products, merchandise, have fan fiction sites (which I’m against btw). They even have fans tattooing their quotes and characters or symbols on themselves. The darker side is that they also have stalkers, threats, trolls who attack them behind a screen and make horrible comments. Let’s face it, the internet is a wondrous thing that allows everyone to discuss their favorite books, authors, characters, etc. There is always a flip side to having an online presence though and many authors have dealt with it on a daily basis. Even John Green was threatened because of who the CASTING DIRECTOR (NOT Green) chose for a character in his Paper Towns movie. John Green, for those of you who don’t know, is a very teen positive person with a huge online presence. To attack him personally for what he has no control over is absurd, but these are the fans that have taken it too far.
You know that hidden path I talked about yesterday? These are the fans that got lost. It is one thing to enjoy a book and relate to the characters, or even want to emulate them. Some take it too far. Fans can sometimes get wrapped up in a book and characters so tightly that they can’t find the responsible straight asphalt path of reality and have stumbled head first into the brambles. This is not healthy.
I read an interview from Sherrilyn Kenyon and Maggie Steifvater (both fantastic authors if you haven’t already heard of them). They discussed the dangers of being a famous author and how it takes its toll on your self-confidence. I am currently searching for it and will post it here when I find it. Just an FYI, there are 44,000 fans following Sherrilyn Kenyon at the moment and 66,400 fans following Maggie Steifvater - both on Twitter.
How many of those fans have taken it too far?
Have a great day!