shipping without watching

[cimorene]

How many of you get into a fandom, whether just to read or enough to care about pairings and things and ship OTPs, without being into the canon?[Poll #1151050]

I'll come clean!

Even though I have watched more of it now, I actually wrote a Due South ficlet when I had seen only four episodes. I've never watched all of it, even though I have it on dvd, and it's still my favourite fandom for reading, though I never participated actively. I've got OTPs in Highlander (I've seen all the Methos episodes and nothing else, but man, oh, man, I could never have gotten through that godawful drivel without copious amounts of alcohol) and the Sentinel (I've actually only seen the first two episodes - there was alcohol both times).

I may attempt to write meta about this after the poll, so I'd love to hear any thoughts you have or have had on the subject.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I have read a few fics in fandoms whose canons I am not familiar with, usually on other people's recs (or because it's something I'm betaing; I've betaed an awful lot of stuff in fandoms I don't know), but I usually find it makes me cranky because I get confused and can't tell who people are or what they're referencing. Also I don't like not knowing what's canon, what's fanon, and what's the author's invention.

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

Heh. This is timely. Lately I've been trying to decide whether I want to start a 'No Canon Required' recs list. That is, stuff I've enjoyed without needing any canon basis, but I wasn't sure that many people read with no prior fandom knowledge the way I do.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I've always done that! When I started the habit I was just following writers I liked from fandom to fandom. But even now I tend to figure that if I get confused I can always stop. I don't read unfamiliar fandoms all the time, of course - just if the curiosity strikes me for some reason.

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

I should have put money on other people reading the same way. Maybe it's just that I don't see them talking about it much. Originally I followed authors, but mostly I think it's because I follow recs and a particular fandom seems to specialise in just the type of story I'm after at that moment in time.

I'd estimate that about 90% of what I read is in fandoms where I barely know the canon. Sometimes I'll get hooked enough to engage in the fandom, but that's fairly rare. I end up being able to pick out what's canon/fanon though; the little things that occur over and over in multiple stories and end up making you sigh just as much as someone who is a fully fledged fadom member.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

90%, really! There don't seem to be that many fandoms around with completely unfamiliar canons from where I'm sitting. I know there are a lot of anime fandoms, though. I suppose I could find a lot of reading that way if I cared to look.

[copracat]

I read the whole Sports Night archive without ever having seen an episode. (I miss the Sports Night Archvie... ) I was subsequently allowed the sheerest delight of coming across the show unexpectedly. I looked up at the TV and there they were, there they all were, exactly as they should be, except that I had mixed up which actor played Casey and which Danny and it took me a while to reconcile early canon Jeremy with archive Jeremy.

Like you, I've seen all the Methos episodes and very little of the rest. I read an SG1 archive having seen the movie but very little of the TV show.

It's a multi-fannish thing. If you like new fandoms, you're likely to follow your friends to new fandoms and to be pimped as much by the fiction as the source.

As an Australian of a certain age, I grew up in fandom when it wasn't so easy to get hold of source, TV would screen here sometimes years after it first aired in the US. Some fans would have tapes mailed to them from US friends and then make copies for other fans here. Not like now.

I wonder if fandom will come before source less often now? I read a Smallville story first - Te's wonderful first (almost first?) story in the fandom - then started devouring TWOP recaps (it was called something else then, I think) and, more slowly but still within a week or two of US airing, getting hold of the episodes. That was the first time that my experience of a new show was contemporary with US fandom. It changed the dynamic, I felt much more involved in the fandom and confident in engaging with it.

These days we can see a show within hours of the first US or UK airing. Ah, globalisation, your unintended consequences: stronger, better, faster fandom!

[norah.livejournal.com]

It depends on if you watch TV, or watched it when you were younger.
I, for example, have never seen a full ep of the following shows:
Starsky and Hutch
Pros
Stargate: SG-1
Highlander
Mag 7
Angel
Smallville
Queer as Folk (US or UK)
Entourage
Numb3rs
The OC
Pre-Nine Dr. Who
early BSG

Questionable:

• Original Star Trek (I may have seen a full ep? At some point? But I don't remember doing so. I saw one or two of the movies, I think)
  
• The Sentinel (I saw my first ep of this a month ago, but I don't think that counts)
  
• I think I've seen a few full eps of X-files - I know what Mulder and Scully look like - but it was more a "they were on when I was in the room" thing
  
• I saw Season 6 of Buffy because a friend lent it to me when I was sick. I've never seen or had a desire to see any more.

So, you see, it is EASY LIKE PIE to have 90% of your fandoms be unfamiliar canon. Of the canon I have seen, I'd say I saw at LEAST 50% well after becoming very active in the fandom.

[vass]

I'm not good with visual sources, so my watching of TV and movie canon is patchy to say the least. It takes so much *time*.

And winnowing the canon from the fanon is fun.

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

I seem to have this thing where once I start becoming familiar with the fandom I develop an itch to move on elsewhere.

With bandom, I would say I was reading it for a month before I had any idea who was who or any idea of actual canon. The most information I had was having heard a song or two on the radio. The same could be said for pop, except it took me longer to discover the canon and I got more heavily involved once I did. I'm actively seeking out bandom canon information now and developing favoured pairings/characters, which means I'll be looking for something new to read in soon unless I get too busy to read a lot online.

I had no concrete knowledge of Harry Potter, Pros, Smallville, The OC, Sentinel, Due South, Entourage or a bunch of other small fandoms when I started reading the stories (Yuletide can be really good for that). Of those I've only become slightly familiar witha couple of them. I think the thing is that I find story universes addictive. If I read one really engaging story then I don't want to be finished with the characters and I start seeking more - it's why fandom suits me, I think.

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

I grew up in fandom when it wasn't so easy to get hold of source, TV would screen here sometimes years after it first aired in the US.

Ha! Yes! I still remember waiting eagerly for my Buffy tapes so I could participate in the MightyBigTV (TWoP) forums properly. I didn't consider that that may have been a factor in my willingness to read canon-free.

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Stargate Atlantis is my default fandom and I've only watched 5-7 episodes. I think I've reached the point where I'm more in love with the stories fandom gives me than the shows themselves (exceptions being Sherlock Holmes, Due South and Sports Night, things I loved without there necessarily being a fandom element to them)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I see - you've read more old fandoms than I have, if you've read more than a story or two in all of those. (I haven't even heard of Mag7, I think? That's not the same as Blake's 7, I take it.)

I'd forgotten Starsky & Hutch, though. I've only seen the recent movie - which I love - but I have no desire to watch any of the original, after watching some vids. I've seen most of the rest of your list (at least in small bits), though, for fannish reasons. I sought out very limited quantities of Smallville and the Pros as well as the Sentinel and Highlander long after I'd done a great deal of reading in the fandoms, out of fandom curiosity. Same with Due South and SG1, except that I then saw more of them. Most of the rest I've actually seen because Wax or someone else was actually watching them on purpose and wanted me to see them, though.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I seem to have this thing where once I start becoming familiar with the fandom I develop an itch to move on elsewhere.

Hahaha. You could say I move on when I get familiar with them, but I suspect that's a coincidence... it just takes a certain limited amount of time to get bored with a fandom. Most fandoms are not big enough to provide unlimited reading. I'll eventually run out and come to the place where there's only the new things that are being posted each day to read, and the volume isn't great enough to satisfy me that way in most fandoms simply because the percentage of good stories is not high enough. I become frustrated and disgusted with the lack of good things to read, and also, of course, bored. Then I look for a more plentiful supply of reading material elsewhere.

I think the thing is that I find story universes addictive. If I read one really engaging story then I don't want to be finished with the characters and I start seeking more - it's why fandom suits me, I think.

I definitely do that too! This is what always leads me into the unfamiliar fandoms. I'm also drawn to a good, strong OTP, so fandoms where something like that stands out from the first little sampling I read are especially interesting.

[norah.livejournal.com]

I've read at least 5-10 stories in each of those fandoms except for Starsky and Hutch.

And Mag 7 is the Magnificent Seven, an old western series (though now that you mention it, I haven't seen Blake's 7 either - or Farscape - or Babylon 5 - or...) that has a small but ongoing active fandom (in which I don't read).

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. I've never read any Farscape - I'm not sure I realised there was a fandom. I loved B5 in high school, but I've only ever read two stories - just didn't seem to get into it for some reason. One of the few shows with a good canon lesbian OTP, though. I always feel less drawn to read and write canon pairings, though, with tv shows; getting to see it makes me satisfied usually.

And of course, I've heard of that show! I didn't know it was a western, but yeah, just my sudden failing at abbreviations.