Hype Burnout
May. 8th, 2026 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lb_leeRogan: while chatting with Mori, we realized that while we aren’t really good at what most people call fandom, when we’re into something, we STAY into it, often for five years or more. (Our fandom for the work of Spider Robinson has ebbed and flowed and stuck around for twenty-eight years now! He has the gold.) However, we get oversaturated REALLY easily, so we can’t really do most fandoms online, which are BIG and INTENSE and just way too much. It feels like wanting a nice pleasant shower under a waterfall, only to get blasted with a water cannon, and then we go away like an indignant wet cat.
(I was on tumblr in the 2010s and couldn’t stand the sight of Benedict Cumberbatch’s face for years. Meanwhile, I saw a few episodes of Supernatural with my roommate recently and went “hey, this is actually kinda fun!” That’s when I really realized that my UGH response has nothing to do with something being bad, or even popular, it’s just a matter of whether it’s waterfall or water cannon.)
I also admit that there’s a safari hunter aspect for us. We enjoy the thrill of the hunt, finding some dusty gem forgotten in the sci-fi library. It feels like an added accomplishment! (Thank goodness I got off the Marvel/DC train; that business model intentionally feeds that mindset in the worst way.) Tracking down a rare Spider Robinson short story makes it all the sweeter when it’s good; chasing down old multi articles makes me feel like I hunted down an endangered species, only no one got shot! Perfect! (Though it has the downside of making me that one xkcd guy.)
The fandom I was most “successful” in, by most people’s terms, was specific DC comics B-listers, who by the time I discovered them were mostly dead, forgotten, or lost in space. That little fandom was kinda the afterparty at the end of the world, knowing full well that the real party was long since over so we might as well have fun. It was small but devoted, exactly the level of activity that I could handle; it was great.
But a lot of fandoms aren’t just too much but too fast. Everyone’s long since moved on and I’m just getting started! Whaddaya mean it came out forty years ago, it’s still good, ain’t it? Only now am I ready to write my fanfic magnum opus for it! Long have I trained for this day! The crickets and tumbleweeds will witness me!
Also, if there’s one thing I learned from cartoon night, all these fifteen years, it’s that sometimes, avoiding the fandom leads to a better experience. When I made the mistake of looking up Steven Universe and Voltron: Legendary Defender on fanlore, I felt like I’d watched a completely different, much more fun show. Because if it’s not something I’m reading for work (multi research,![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
pluralstories stuff), why would I be taking in something I don’t enjoy? I have to read so much teeth-gritting grossness for work, guys (THEODORE FUCKING SCHROEDER), why would I do that for FUN? There are more books than I could ever read in my lifetime, so why spend it on shit I don’t get anything out of? The day I realized I didn’t HAVE to read Gaiman, Pratchett, or Crumb, no matter how amazing everyone said they were, was a grand and glorious day of freedom, and I recommend it for everyone!
Is it some weird thing where all your friends are into it, so you feel like you have to be a part of it too, however resentfully? Does it satisfy some extremely niche kink you’re ashamed of and so you feel the need to bash the thing so nobody realizes you’re into Jesus clowns? Why waste your time, completely optionally, on something that makes you angry, upset, and take swings at random strangers on the Internet? We’ve got infuriation at home, obligatory!
I could absolutely understand being mad if the series belly-flops catastrophic in the end. (I wasn’t sorry to miss Lost. Everyone was mad about Lost.) But if you hate it from chapter 2... why continue? If your friends refuse to talk to you about anything but their new fandom, and get mad at you for wanting to discuss anything else... that seems more a problem with your friends. Me andnevanna take turns talking about each other’s “you have no idea what this is but I have feelings about it” fandoms regularly! It’s fun, even if the other person is kinda clueless as to the details.
Also, yes, I spent a good amount of time on tumblr getting water cannoned and mad about it... but that was because tumblr wasn’t the place for me. I felt obligated to be there, and I was happier when I left. That, in the end, was a me problem.
(I was on tumblr in the 2010s and couldn’t stand the sight of Benedict Cumberbatch’s face for years. Meanwhile, I saw a few episodes of Supernatural with my roommate recently and went “hey, this is actually kinda fun!” That’s when I really realized that my UGH response has nothing to do with something being bad, or even popular, it’s just a matter of whether it’s waterfall or water cannon.)
I also admit that there’s a safari hunter aspect for us. We enjoy the thrill of the hunt, finding some dusty gem forgotten in the sci-fi library. It feels like an added accomplishment! (Thank goodness I got off the Marvel/DC train; that business model intentionally feeds that mindset in the worst way.) Tracking down a rare Spider Robinson short story makes it all the sweeter when it’s good; chasing down old multi articles makes me feel like I hunted down an endangered species, only no one got shot! Perfect! (Though it has the downside of making me that one xkcd guy.)
The fandom I was most “successful” in, by most people’s terms, was specific DC comics B-listers, who by the time I discovered them were mostly dead, forgotten, or lost in space. That little fandom was kinda the afterparty at the end of the world, knowing full well that the real party was long since over so we might as well have fun. It was small but devoted, exactly the level of activity that I could handle; it was great.
But a lot of fandoms aren’t just too much but too fast. Everyone’s long since moved on and I’m just getting started! Whaddaya mean it came out forty years ago, it’s still good, ain’t it? Only now am I ready to write my fanfic magnum opus for it! Long have I trained for this day! The crickets and tumbleweeds will witness me!
Also, if there’s one thing I learned from cartoon night, all these fifteen years, it’s that sometimes, avoiding the fandom leads to a better experience. When I made the mistake of looking up Steven Universe and Voltron: Legendary Defender on fanlore, I felt like I’d watched a completely different, much more fun show. Because if it’s not something I’m reading for work (multi research,
pluralstories stuff), why would I be taking in something I don’t enjoy? I have to read so much teeth-gritting grossness for work, guys (THEODORE FUCKING SCHROEDER), why would I do that for FUN? There are more books than I could ever read in my lifetime, so why spend it on shit I don’t get anything out of? The day I realized I didn’t HAVE to read Gaiman, Pratchett, or Crumb, no matter how amazing everyone said they were, was a grand and glorious day of freedom, and I recommend it for everyone!Is it some weird thing where all your friends are into it, so you feel like you have to be a part of it too, however resentfully? Does it satisfy some extremely niche kink you’re ashamed of and so you feel the need to bash the thing so nobody realizes you’re into Jesus clowns? Why waste your time, completely optionally, on something that makes you angry, upset, and take swings at random strangers on the Internet? We’ve got infuriation at home, obligatory!
I could absolutely understand being mad if the series belly-flops catastrophic in the end. (I wasn’t sorry to miss Lost. Everyone was mad about Lost.) But if you hate it from chapter 2... why continue? If your friends refuse to talk to you about anything but their new fandom, and get mad at you for wanting to discuss anything else... that seems more a problem with your friends. Me and
nevanna take turns talking about each other’s “you have no idea what this is but I have feelings about it” fandoms regularly! It’s fun, even if the other person is kinda clueless as to the details.Also, yes, I spent a good amount of time on tumblr getting water cannoned and mad about it... but that was because tumblr wasn’t the place for me. I felt obligated to be there, and I was happier when I left. That, in the end, was a me problem.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-09 04:36 am (UTC)We like what we like, but tend to stay out of fandom. But I have to ask? Eighties Voltron or the remake? We like the remake.
2D and Angel
no subject
Date: 2026-05-09 06:45 am (UTC)GOD literally us finding Steven Universe in 2024 and Adventure Time in 2025..barely starting to develop fanzines/comics right now, as we speak
(we also avoided SU bc of the fandom)