Hey, another JA fan! This is so interesting, because I started in fandom as a JA fan, at Republic of Pemberley. What forum do you use?
The reason I actually did this post is that I'm really into Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South right now (and the BBC adaptation), and I just can't figure out why this fandom seems to mostly live on a forum. I understand the fandoms that were around before LJ was big, but the N&S adaptation came out in 2006, and it's what really made the N&S fandom exist. By that time, LJ fandom was fully alive and kickin'! ...Although now that I think about it, many on the N&S board say they're converted P&P fans. Maybe they were comfortable with the forum format and just stuck to it.
Jane Austen fandom on lj seems to skew much younger and less meta-y.
I think being an older fandom whose canon appeals to an older audience has a lot to do with how different JA fandom is to DAO fandom including the difference in medium.
This is really interesting, and something I haven't thought of before. I guess because when I think of JA, or N&S, I think: it's literature! Of course the people into it are going to be older and more intellectual. For my former main fandom on LJ, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I just naturally think: it's called Buffy. It's going to be teens and they're going to talk about T, A, and general ass-kicking. But instead it's sort of flipped--I found very meta-oriented groups talking about BtVS, and JA--not so much. Then again, I shouldn't talk. I was 17 when I got involved in JA, and pretty much what I wanted to talk about all. the. time was Marianne and Brandon getting together. Though I did have a lot of meta, too.
That said people have been quite supportive of me writing femslash.
ooooh whom? (Please say Lizzy/Georgiana...I want me some of that.)
I think the fact that Jane Austen fandom has no major lj presence does put me off a bit.
I agree! Why isn't it here? I want it to be here! I tried to do this whole fic fest thing to liven up the 19th c. lit fic scene and it was a COLOSSAL FLOP. I thought if I built it they would come, you know? But very few came!
no subject
The reason I actually did this post is that I'm really into Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South right now (and the BBC adaptation), and I just can't figure out why this fandom seems to mostly live on a forum. I understand the fandoms that were around before LJ was big, but the N&S adaptation came out in 2006, and it's what really made the N&S fandom exist. By that time, LJ fandom was fully alive and kickin'! ...Although now that I think about it, many on the N&S board say they're converted P&P fans. Maybe they were comfortable with the forum format and just stuck to it.
Jane Austen fandom on lj seems to skew much younger and less meta-y.
I think being an older fandom whose canon appeals to an older audience has a lot to do with how different JA fandom is to DAO fandom including the difference in medium.
This is really interesting, and something I haven't thought of before. I guess because when I think of JA, or N&S, I think: it's literature! Of course the people into it are going to be older and more intellectual. For my former main fandom on LJ, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I just naturally think: it's called Buffy. It's going to be teens and they're going to talk about T, A, and general ass-kicking. But instead it's sort of flipped--I found very meta-oriented groups talking about BtVS, and JA--not so much. Then again, I shouldn't talk. I was 17 when I got involved in JA, and pretty much what I wanted to talk about all. the. time was Marianne and Brandon getting together. Though I did have a lot of meta, too.
That said people have been quite supportive of me writing femslash.
ooooh whom? (Please say Lizzy/Georgiana...I want me some of that.)
I think the fact that Jane Austen fandom has no major lj presence does put me off a bit.
I agree! Why isn't it here? I want it to be here! I tried to do this whole fic fest thing to liven up the 19th c. lit fic scene and it was a COLOSSAL FLOP. I thought if I built it they would come, you know? But very few came!