RPS as my myth.

[pop_tarts]

[I should disclaim that this post is half for me, and my 'needs to write a myth paper in a month' ass. :) so uh, yeah. pretention ahead.]

This post has been brewing, off and on, for almost a year now, ever since I went to Orlando the first time. But now that I'm in a mythography (the analysis of mythology) class, the tools to say this have maybe finally coalesced. Come together. Whatever. Plus if anyone accuses me of taking myself too seriously, I've already got the response: I write RPF, a, and b. I'm a mythology major. Not being taken seriously in regards to what comes out of my mouth is a matter of course.

Someone emailed Kel and I and asked whether we thought the story 'flesh mechanic' could have been written in any other fandom -- she also said, she had heard someone else say that it couldn't have been. And I had to reply with "well, I'm a mythology major and Kel's a psych major, and we both have minors in another language - thinking in terms of analysis is kind of a matter of course."

And that's just intro, because:

I think katemonkey or popfantastic said that first, and I think I stole it off one of them, possibly both of them. I know I stole the idea of nsync being, a holy experience, from Alestar. And the idea isn't a new one, I've read it everywhere.

But here's why it's true.

Anyone who's been to a concert, nsync or not, will admit that it can move you, it can change you. We've all had that feeling in the stadium, of feeling *more* than you are. For me it was seeing nsync in concert, and I know I'm not the only one. Ancient religion used to have mystery cults in which you were shown something, did something, and had something done to you. That's all they know about the mystery cult of Demeter. you were initiated into the goddess -- not into the cult of the goddess, but the goddess herself, because she was that feeling, she was fertility, not the goddess of. That's how the greeks thought about their gods, as forces and feelings as well as people who liked to hang out and drink ambrosia.

Now, you say, one of the fundamental bases for myths is that they were oral traditions (those of you know know any definitions of myth). They were sung, orally, buy bards called aoidos in the greek tradition.

Now here's what we do: we type out our stories, often in chat rooms. We email post them (often), we LJ post them. But this medium is fragile, compared to books. it's not quite sung but it's not quite a literate culture, in the way books are, either. It's something in between and yet new. It's the modern equivilent, because in the digital medium --

How many people remember Em's fic? Helen's? (picking them just because they're two well known writers I can think of right now that have since disappeared.) Where is it now?

It's easy to delete things, and yet you can remember the plot, maybe, and reuse it. Maybe a line will come up later that sounds like Helen. The idea stays the same. the Internet is not a static medium, what we do here, and it's chock-a-block full of reused themes, characters that are almost similar, plots which are the same and yet a little different. We all cannibalize each other, and it's great. --ancient myth is the same.

Also, our source material -- the guys and their lives -- is perceived as belonging to "the group" rather than a particular author. that's a big part of myth. Not to mention that we're taking someone else's names and turning them into something, rather than creating our own. Myth was all about borrowing names and faces and themes, and mixing them together to create new things from the old, rather than simply new things.

So nsync is a mystery cult, and we're initiated by going to concerts and feeling that feeling we do when they sing to us, and the internet has epic poetry qualities. What do they have to do with each other?

Fic is participation, plain and simple. When we write, we become part of the process, active participants rather than simply that fan in her bedroom who wants to wake up and have Justin marry her. We step away from waiting for them to fall in love with us? And we become a participant.

As kel says: There's a difference between trying to appreciate something and become a part of its process. When you write fanfic, you stop being just a fan and become part of the process, even though you're doing it without permission. You're a hitchhiker on the process, but you're not just a fan anymore.

We aren't just fans, we're participants -- and through fic, we participate throughout the year, not just at concerts or watching footage.

By the very literature we write, we give life to what we're a fan of, what we love. And that approach to literature isn't simply a literature view: it's religious in nature. It's not religion, don't get me wrong. but it's not simply "this is a good story". The content itself of fic -- based on themes we share of things we love -- makes it mythic. it's a mythic framework, not history or biography.

This organic approach to both literature and being a fan, I think, colors a lot of what I do. because it's not about the actual guys, themselves. It's really not. It's about what we bring to the party, and what we take away for ourselves. They're not gods, but they're not just characters, either. they're the catalyst for our own personal emotions.



this post was brought to by nia's post about RPF, the incredible response and discussion about the levels of celebrity that flesh mechanic brought about -- post-modernism for dummies, aka me -- and way too long studying for my Theories in Mythography class.

...and just so no one thinks that I'm pretentious all the time, and think that this is a totally serious topic: the greeks used to portray their gods as disgusting, immoral wrecks. they used to *make* *fun* of their mythic figures. as do we. I mean, once you realise that justin and chris have probably had farting contests -- and these are the characters and figures you 'worship', it kind of puts the rest of life into perspective. *grins*

Comments

[marythefan.livejournal.com]

This is interesting, because I've been trying to formulate some thoughts on the state of squee as a shamanistic experience. Or biofeedback. Or both. Whichever, I think part of it is allowing yourself to be open to the experience, or it's not going to work.

I've been thinking about it more on a personal, instinctive level, but it seems to me that allowing myself to not just act out but feel the emotional part of the rituals of popslash fandom allows me access to a purity of emotion that I've only ever experienced before as a teenager, when everything was immediate and intense and the most important thing in the world at that moment. I wonder if I'm deliberately putting myself back into that state of consciousness by participating in popslash - and if there was something in me that needed that kind of release, which is why I reacted so strongly to it.

[pop-tarts.livejournal.com]

See, that's it. It's a personal level? But we're not going around thinking that justin loves us. That justin-the-person even knows we exist. It's about our personal emotions and where they're invested. :D

And the personal level *is* the religious, or mythic, or whatever. Because mythology is deeply personal. And purity of emotion, I like that. I like that a lot. it's true.

Finally, the idea that you're putting yourself back into it-- I totally think that's true, at least for me. like, I choose to do these things because of the change that they affect in my feelings. it makes me happy, whatever. And I also like your idea that it's because 'we' (in general, and specifically, since I agree with you) need that kind of thing.

I hope you don't think this is rude -- I just really really liked your comments. I was worried that the post didn't make any sense, and I think what you said really clarified parts of what I wanted to say that I didn't even *know* I wanted to say. *grin*

[smartlikejustin.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. That's it perfectly. I was thinking about the differences between being a fan and participating in fandom and how the participation changes things. And the fact that I couldn't come to any conclusions tells me it's been far too long since I've been in any sort of academic setting.

And I didn't know you were a myth major, man. Fascinating. That was my minor.

Hmmm...Yes, I very much like this post.