Moby-Dick and Fan Culture

What I have decided to focus on for this post is communication within fandoms, particularly criticism about the fandom itself. 

Moby-Dick is considered a unique novel because of the broken or one-sided communication performed by the characters. As with all types of communication, the aggregate of the communication within the novel leads to a certain conclusion.   "[The] atypical nature of most speaking in the novel encourages the negative view[...]that the world is a place where communication is suspect and perhaps impossible" (Barnett 140). Although throughout the book various speeches and conversations are made about the White Whale and Captain Ahab, "the multitude of verbal styles consciously represents the heterogenious collectivity of mankind" (141)  Likewise, indvidual fans think differently and have different ideas, but they all generally come to the same conclusions.  

 Can fandoms be compared to a product?  Technically they start out as a product or series of products, such as a book or movie.   As the item increases in popularity, authentic merchandise as well as fan-created materials begin to circulate.  As people invest themselves emotionally within a fandom, or begin to immerse themselves within it, they seek to know whether or not the immersion is worth their emotional energy based on the opinions of others.  Fans promote fandoms because they like their involvement and seek to express their liking and their identity within it.  This especially happens within social media, because it brings together a variety of people who are not necessarily geographically or socially connected, but sometimes people who share mutual ties of trust.  Interested fans also examine the opinions of other people they don't know to get a feel for what the quality of something is. 

A study by Buzzetto and Moore found "participants exhibiting prosumer behaviors through the use of social media as a means to share comments, perspectives, and opinions about goods and services. As such, mediated messages conveyed through SNS [social networking sites] are influencing purchase decisions with word of mouth messages paramountin consequence and ability to impel action" (Buzzetto-Moore 77.)  In Moby-Dick, Ishmael starts out as a prospective whaler who goes off information he gathers from Queequeg, Captain Peleg, and other people with experience in the industry.  Later, Ishmael becomes such a fan of whaling that he spends most of the book promoting and detailing its work.

Participating in a fandom sometimes requires spending money to attend movie screenings, buy books/DVDs/Blu-rays, or to buy paraphanelia to the materials to make it.  Individuals who want to spend money may be influenced by their peers in their decision whether or not a product is worth investing in.  To give a personal example, I am not a Whovian (follower of Dr. Who), but I want to be because I have seen Whovian-generated memes on Facebook promoted by friends who ARE Whovians, and since I trust their reputation (aka I know they're awesome) I am inclined to think positively of the fandom.  Fandoms can also require serious time commitments (e.g. making memes or costumes). This is also true of online missionary work of the LDS Church, but that's another story.

David Tennant as the 10th Doctor.  Photo Courtesy ABC Radio. 

Then fans make them into something their own. Fans recreate their fandoms on social media sites for bite-sized chunks.  On You Tube, for instance, "they come to consume pop culture like movies, television, and songs thesame way they enjoy cookies or chips – in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggetsmade to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed (Miller,2007) [...] It can be considered a buffet of “snack” videos, highly meeting people’s needs for high-speed entertainment munching" (Shao11 ) It's called getting your daily dose of [Insert fandom name here]).  Consider this version of "Call Me Maybe."  All current episodes of Star Wars in one setting.  If that isn't a pick-me up I don't know what is.

For fans, creating content can fulfill personal needs.  "On Wikipedia, people can create new items or edit existing items with results that are immediate, obvious, and available to the world. Such contributing experience can help people believe that they have an impact on the group and that support their own self-image as an efficacious person (see Bandura, 1995; Kollock)" (14-15).  So when I make or share a meme, I do it because I have observed something insightful about a fandom and want others to know about it.  I want to be a part of the fan dialouge and enlighten others about how awesome something is.

Self-generated meme.  Picture courtesy of ABC.

Then fans evaluate media created by other fans and the industry.  Because the internet is so customized to the individual user, user customization and feedback is vital to sites as well as fandoms and the creators themselves.  "Customization provides individuals with an opportunity to express their interests, tastes, thoughts, and values. It also has the potential to generate positive attitudes and behaviors towards the sites (Carpenter, 2000; Graham, 2002; Kalyanaraman and Sundar, 2006)" (Shao 18).  And in this way, fans get feedback from each other about their common interests and ideas.

So how about Marvel's Agents of SHIELD?  How does social media inform us about this show?  Following the conversations on Facebook that the FB site for the show has posted,  I have noticed the generally negative trend of commentary on the show.   However, the fans who are defending the show usually have the following reasons:

1. The show is just barely starting and it could take a season or two to get on its feet.
2. The show is supposed to be about the AGENTS, so obviously people who are expecting a mini superhero movie every episode WILL be disappointed.
3. The show has a very small budget, which accounts for the lack of certain elements the viewers could be wanting, like having an actual superhero cameo.  For instance, a Hulk cameo would never work because the show does not have the budget for that (and in my opinion, even if it was just Bruce Banner it would still be difficult to pull off because the Avengers are level 6 and don't know that Coulson's back--and they might not respond well to that revelation)
4. The real reason the ratings are low is because people have the option of watching episodes on ABC.com or Hulu on their own time. (not actually said online, but true)
5. People who are now disaffected with the show need to get off the Facebook sit.

However, in the last two weeks the general comments have improved because apparently the episodes were more appealing  (except I'm not sure about last week.  Last week's episode I didn't like so much).

Screenshot of my FB status after last week's episode.

 Discussion within fandoms also focuses on the subject of the media at hand as well as its quality.  This link to a fan discussion board discusses the ending of the latest Marvel film, "Thor: The Dark World" (but it contains serious spoilers, so don't look at it if you haven't seen the movie yet).   Although the participants in this conversation say a lot of different things, their discussion also arrives at a consensus. 


What this is telling me is that although people can be of different backgrounds and ideologies they can still come to an agreement in order to navigate a common problem.  However, this seems to contradict the effect of conversation taken in the earlier quote from Moby-Dick, that communication is hopeless and pointless.  This might seem to make this positive perception of fan culture a little superficial, but taking the quote in context of the book, it is more easily understood.

  Moby-Dick is quite a different animal from today's social networks.  Unless you're FB friends with someone, you can hardly see the character development visible in books that lies behind the day-to-day conversations, and even with FB friends sometimes it's still obscure.  While we can communicate, we do fall short of true understanding, because we cannot see what lies behind people's statements.   This is why there are such terrible miscommunications on board the Pequod, if this holds true.  Ahab is so deeply immersed in his monomania that he refuses to allow the objections of Starbuck or anyone else to deter him from his quest.   Ishmael is keenly aware of the limitations of his relationship with Queequeg, who is from an exotic culture and whose values and ideas are completely different, but this only heightens the sublimity of their friendship.  In fan culture, everyone watches a movie or reads a book differently, even if such media are mass distributed, and it is easier to come to an agreement with people who agree with your tastes than those who do not.  But as far as superficial information-gathering is concerned, it's still the best way to gather information, even if we really don't know how to use it.