By the same token, I avoided the sites that seemed geared toward this exclusivity - which has always been a problem in the Tolkien fandom, as far as I can tell. The nature of the original works themselves seems to leave a bit of a division in the fandom.
I agree with both. As I'm getting a broader view of the history of fanfic archives (versus just Tolkien fandom, which I've lived for almost 20 years and studied for the past few), I feel like there was a tension in the Tolkien fandom that comes, at least in part, from a source material that has always been taken with a scholarly level of seriousness by many fans and the gatekeeping that tends to come with it. ("You must know *this* much 'lore' to ride the ride.") So while online fanfic and the archives that arose from its writing were very much pulling away from a traditional academic/publishing world mindset, there was a subset of the fandom that wanted that traditional "legitimacy" conferred by, for example, being accepted for publication somewhere exclusive or winning an award because they either occupied those worlds already or those things had value/meaning to them.
I remember my early days in fandom it was unthinkable that you weren't writing fic to become a better writer. Later when, as a fan studies researcher, I came across the notion in other fandoms (or parts of the Tolkien fandom I wasn't a part of) that this wasn't the way A LOT of people were approaching fic? It was honestly mind-blowing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-10 12:21 am (UTC)I agree with both. As I'm getting a broader view of the history of fanfic archives (versus just Tolkien fandom, which I've lived for almost 20 years and studied for the past few), I feel like there was a tension in the Tolkien fandom that comes, at least in part, from a source material that has always been taken with a scholarly level of seriousness by many fans and the gatekeeping that tends to come with it. ("You must know *this* much 'lore' to ride the ride.") So while online fanfic and the archives that arose from its writing were very much pulling away from a traditional academic/publishing world mindset, there was a subset of the fandom that wanted that traditional "legitimacy" conferred by, for example, being accepted for publication somewhere exclusive or winning an award because they either occupied those worlds already or those things had value/meaning to them.
I remember my early days in fandom it was unthinkable that you weren't writing fic to become a better writer. Later when, as a fan studies researcher, I came across the notion in other fandoms (or parts of the Tolkien fandom I wasn't a part of) that this wasn't the way A LOT of people were approaching fic? It was honestly mind-blowing.