Why Academia is Basically the Same as Fandom
by a baby not-quite-done-baking academic, but a veteran paladin level fan
1. You don’t get paid for your contributions, but you keep trucking anyway
Fandom is entirely crowdsourced. Fans write for fans. Fans commission work from each other, enter competitions, run entire websites, launch campaigns, raise money for charity, make graphics, art, fanvids, fansongs, crafts, cosplays, conventions — all for the pure joy of it! Fans bring cancelled shows back to life, fill in the gaps canon leaves behind, write extensive meta (critical analysis) on their fandom, and spend a lot of their time just creating. Fandom is an imaginative and creative space where originality thrives and quality of work is rewarded — but rarely financially (looking at you, Twilight/Fifty Shades/Cassandra Clare).
Similarly, academics are constantly speaking, writing, publishing, analysing, and reading for little if any financial return. Journal articles are continually pitched and churned in the name of a) passion, but mostly b) career development. There is massive pressure on academics to continue producing original content based upon existing work — just like superfans! You definitely don’t become an academic for the dollar — people dedicate their lives to study because they care — essentially, because they’re fans.
2. You become irrationally and fanatically obsessed with figures impossible to meet
I remember having a revelation when I was eight years old. I was laying in my bunk bed, staring up at the mattress of my sister’s top bunk, and it hit me with the weight of a hammer –
Harry Potter would never love me.
I knew I loved him. Irrevocably, with every fibre of my eight year old being, and yet… our love was impossible. Beyond Romeo and Juliet impossible. Beyond starcross’d. Like, not societally difficult, but literally impossible. Harry Potter wasn’t real.
Even now I am suddenly devastated by the idea that I won’t ever meet Dean Winchester. Like, not Jensen Ackles, the actor who plays him — but the snarky, brooding, wounded, and very fictional Dean Winchster of CW’s Supernatural.
Similarly, people become so embroiled in their research that they become best friends with people long dead.
22 year old me had a very similar moment to eight year old me when, sat in the Bodleian library, I realised I would never so much as hear the voice of the topic of my research, the long dead Frances Currer. It’s devastating. I feel like Ann Radcliffe is a member of my family. Wilkie Collins is my best friend. And none of them will ever know I exist.
3. You become utterly and irreparable distraught by things that don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things (but god help the fool who reminds you of this)
Every academic has had the moment when they stumble across an article that says the exact same thing they’re trying to argue. Except, mostly, it doesn’t — it says something about a vaguely similar thing, in most cases. But the sheer HORROR and PANIC involved in realising your entire project is OVER because you accidentally tapped into the brain of someone you have never met and LEECHED A PAPER FROM THEIR VERY PSYCHE is overwhelming. Academia involves a lot of nervous breakdowns over page formatting. I have seen some of the most rigorous and heated debates I have ever witnessed over referencing styles. Go to any conference and you will witness nothing tenser in all of your days than the darkness that befalls the room with a viciously worded question post-paper. The fear, hilarity, passion, enthusiasm, horror, rage, and jealousy that grips people over the minutiae of academia is both frightening and amusing. If you’re on the outside. From the inside, the world is AT ITS END.
The same thing happens in fandom. So-and-so posts a Twitter selfie with so-and-so and OFNJGJHNDJDKDFD FLAMESSSS ON THE SIDE OF MY FAAAAAAAACE LET ME DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE WHAT IS AAAAAAAAAAAAIR, etc, etc. Becoming obsessed with something leads to heightened feelings about any happening or eventuality that occurs in relation to that thing. Especially when you know it inside out, in the way academics and superfans do — anything new is precious and needs to be relished.
4. There’s lots of blogging, social media, blogging, twitter, blogging and open source platforms involved
If you don’t have a basic grasp on how the internet works then either pursuit is going to be a hella lonely experience. Academics and superfans essentially live online. A big part of this is the fact that often you won’t find another fan/specialist for miles — the internet provides a way for people with niche interests to connect and exchange information.
5. People get really mad at you if you don’t continually write
You have never known wrath until you feel the force of a fan base who really want the next chapter of your epic 50,000 masterpiece fanfic. The acronym ‘WIP’ will strike cold fear into the heart of any seasoned fan. A dead fanfic (one left unfinished) is not just a dead fanfic — it’s an insult.
A similar wrath can be felt if you eventually reply to your supervisor’s emails after two months of doing nothing but watching Hell’s Kitchen on Netflix.
Writing is important, and apparently finishing something matters. Killjoys.
6. You form cliques based upon your mutual faves
You judge people based upon their preferences and specialisms in either field. In a seminar, I once instantaneously decided I loathed someone based upon the fact they didn’t like a book I loved. I don’t use ‘loathe’ hyperbolically here — I knew, absolutely, that they were a legitimate threat to the continuation of civilisation. Someone bad mouths your research in a footnote? Congratulations, you are now nemeses! Enemies lie everywhere — and they have opinions different from your own.
Similarly, you can become best friends ever with someone if they like your favourite obscure thing. I once screamed in someone’s face because they were foolish enough to mention The Black Tapes in my presence. Many a time have I read a conference program and decided who I would be best friends with months in advance (never has this best friendship been pulled off successfully — perhaps down to the wild googly eyes and mild foaming at the mouth whenever someone mentions anything I vaguely like).
7. Existential crisis is a big part of your life
Writing desperately about something only about thirty people in the world care about can naturally lead to you silently screaming ‘WHAT IS MY LIFE’ into the darkness at 3am while soaked in coffee and your own fanatical sweat.
8. Screen adaptations of your pet topic can either rejuvenate or destroy you
A film or TV adaptation of your favourite thing, whether fandom or research topic, can lead to simultaneous feelings of joy and dread.
On the one hand, lots more people will know about your thing!!
On the other hand, lots more people will know about your thing…
Aside from the protectiveness that comes from viewing yourself as some sort of pseudo-guardian to your sweet precious subject matter, there’s also the very real fear that whatever you love is going to be massacred to pieces before your very eyes by the corporate wankery that is mainstream media production.
9. A social life outside of your thing becomes difficult — people don’t really get you
You just don’t know how to talk to human beings who don’t adore [x], let alone people who have never even heard about [x]. This isn’t through a lack of desire or wont of trying — you just don’t know how to make your words form sentences that don’t have something to do with obscure eighteenth century pamphlets, or exactly why and how this character is the most precious cinnamon roll. Your brain becomes a sponge saturated in whatever you soak it in, and when you squeeze it, that’s the only thing that’s gonna come out.
10. Your life is consumed by your passion
Fandom and academia can be isolating, stressful, emotional, all-encompassing, dominating, devastating, and generally a total rollercoaster — but ultimately, there is nothing more wonderful than having a genuine passion for something, anything! It is inspiring, creative, unifying, and enriching to care. Sometimes it’s the only thing that keeps us sane. And loving something with your whole self and dedicating vast chunks of your life to it doesn’t hurt anyone.
Unless you’re a superfan of killing people. Then that’s an issue.
