Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls by Katherine Larsen and Lynn S. Zubernis

Category: 50 Books

fangasm

When I saw this book on Netgalley I thought, “Hm, that sounds interesting.” It was these bits from the description that caught my eye:

And yet even as they reveled in their fandom, the authors were asking themselves whether it’s okay to be a fan, especially for grown women with careers and kids.
… But what Kathy and Lynn found was that most fans were very much like themselves: smart, capable women looking for something of their own that engages their brains and their libidos.

And this:

Fangasm pulls back the curtain on the secret worlds of fans and famous alike, revealing Supernatural behind the scenes and discovering just how much the cast and crew know about what the fans are up to. Anyone who’s been tempted to throw off the constraints of respectability and indulge a secret passion—or hit the road with a best friend—will want to come along.

When I read that I immediately thought of my friend, Laura, who just happens to be a fangirl. A fangirl of what, I will not say, for she has multiple fandoms and I’m sure I’d get something wrong. I too, am a fan, but my fandoms are too general for me to be a fangirl, I think. I love baseball and cartoons. (I LOVE baseball. I LOVE cartoons. LOVETY LOVE them.) But I don’t feel like a fangirl because I don’t have a community that I’ve joined. My Twitter is filled with baseball talk/news, but it’s not something I interact with, really, I mean, everyone hate-follows Jose Canseco, right?

So this book is about two college professors, who happen to be major fangirls of a show called Supernatural (which I have seen an episode, but thought it was too scary, although I did like their car.) and they talk candidly to other fans, the actors, the show runners, etc. about fans and being fans. There is a bit of discussion over the shame of being hardcore fans of TV shows, music, anything really, as well as some academic talk about fandom, but mostly it’s about Kathy and Lynn as they sort of Thelma and Louise it across the country (and into Canada) to go to various conventions and even to the Supernatural set. If you’re not a fan of the show, Supernatural, or if you’ve never seen it, I don’t think that will deter you from not enjoying the whole book. I really liked most of it. I especially loved the interviews with Jim Beaver (who was Ellsworth on the best show ever made, Deadwood.) And I love how, as fans, every time they got to do an interview with anyone who worked on the show they were always excited, always a fan, always believing that it was too good to be true, and that they’d have to psych themselves up to be pros and not fans while interviewing people.

It’s very interesting to see how their relationships with friends and families are affected by the time they give to their fandom. They get so caught up in their research for their book that several of their very important relationships are broken, I’m talking a spouse here. They have to weigh their choices of being wives, mothers, professionals, etc. with being fans and trying to write a book about being fans. One of the problems I had with this book is that it’s autobiographical, but they don’t want too many details about their friends and family in it, so those parts are glossed over even though that seems to be the most important part of the book.

See, it never adequately answers the question of is it okay to be a hardcore fan? These women alienated friends and family all in the name of fandom and in research and writing of a book. Certainly they are not the first people to do this, and trust me, I get that there were more problems with the relationships than just a TV show or writing a book, but still, we give our time to what we think is important. This book never talks about the pathology of obsession. And they never say if this fandom and pursuit of this book changed their lives for the better or worse. Because they gloss over their lives and broken relationships, the end of the book feels less than honest and very incomplete.

That being said, this is one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time. I wanted to write this whole book off and say, well, they didn’t do what they set out to do, they still feel shame for being fans, they constantly talk about slash fic and ask ALL the people EVERYWHERE, “What do you think about slash fic?” and I mean, give it a rest. And really, when none of the show business people cared or even had a problem with slash fic, and only other fans either loved or hated it, isn’t that your answer? Only you, the writers and readers of slash fic, give a shit about slash fic. So while the book frustrated me, I can’t help but admit it made me think a lot.

And it also made me call my friend Laura and apologize to her for ever making her feel ashamed for loving her TV shows so hardcore. Then we discussed how thankful we are for being best friends who have never been fangirls of the same thing. Cos then we’d probably just feed off each other and destroy all other meaningful relationships.

This book is available October 1, 2013 from University of Iowa Press

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