Fandom and Deathly Hallows

[thescarletwoman]

While sitting on the couch today, resting my hand (it is MUCH better, at long last. Not picking up the violin any time soon -- but it's better!) I started thinking about the release of DH only 100 some odd days away, what will happen to fandom.

So -- a little poll. And please, pass it around. I'd love to get a huge response!


[Poll #962166]

Comments

[froda-baggins.livejournal.com]

Fandom will, of course, explode in a giant fiery ball of wank.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I think things will slow down as they inevitably due when a story comes to an end. We'll lost a bunch of people but others will continue to hang around. It's been 40 years since Star Trek first aired. There are still ST:TOS fans. It's been 10 years since Buffy first aired. There are still Buffy fans. There are still Babylon 5 fans and Lord of the Rings fans and old school Battlestar Galactica fans and Robin of Sherwood fans etc. Plus there are new fans out there who have never read the books or seen the films, regardless of their age, and they'll suddenly find it, get the bug and want to talk to other people about it.

It won't be as bright and shiny and filled with speculation but people will still want to draw pretty pictures and write stories and play in the sandbox, even if it's now a smaller and less exciting one.

[r-grayjoy.livejournal.com]

This fandom is huge. I don't think it'll die off. There likely will be a gradual decline, but it won't die completely. I hope.

Here's my prediction for a rough order of events:
1. DH release
2. tidal wave of wank, in which a lot of people threaten to leave the fandom
3. almost everyone gets over it
4. fic and art happen again
5. people become more open to AU and 'canon-tinkering' (I sincerely hope)
6. the fandom diminishes somewhat as people wander off to other fandoms, but a lot of us will continue to read/write/draw/etc. in this one as well
7. I don't want to think beyond that ;P

Normally I would say that new canon = new possibilities for fic, but with this book... probably not so much. But I AM sincerely hoping people will be seriously motivated to write 'alternate endings'!

Anyway, I'm not going anywhere. ::pitches a tent and prepares for the long haul::

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

I think AU will be more possible when the series ends, because we know what all of those little details mean (or don't mean)--we'll know that if we pull on X string, the consequences are going to reverberate along Y line... we'll know the logic of the thing for sure.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

The first thing that will happen is a huge rush of discussion, followed by a huge rush of fic.

After that, things will slow down, but not die out--it will most likely, imho, go to the level of other "perpetual" fandoms, like Tolkien or Douglas Adams or Star Trek or whatever--a major factor in the fan world, but the people who have to be on the latest bandwagon will move on to whatever comes next.

For myself, whether I drift out or stay in the "permanent fandom" will probably have a lot to do with how it works itself out. Are there lots of interesting things to talk about.

[niko-hime.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no I don't think that fandom will die out, not completely. I think that, with the series over, there will be a lot of... I don't want to call them AUs, but PUs - possible universe - fics. Because we'll know (thanks to her closing chapter) what happens to most of the characters. But we won't - I'm guessing - know *how* it happened. Or what will happen beyond that in the world of Magic. This of course following the explosion of fandom that always happens after the releae of a new book and will probably simmer for another year yet.
As for myself, I think that this series will always be a part of my life. I fully plan on passing it along to my offspring, along with Tolkein and L'Engle and a hundred others. And some day, if we're lucky, maybe fandom will be rekindled in our kids. I mean, hell, I only just found out that my mom slashed Kirk/Spock when she was my age, I'm sure my kids and I will have a similar revelation regarding Remus/Sirius :P

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

I think it will die off... but never die off to nothing. It'll always be around, and there will be new people joining all the time, but it will never reach the heights it has in the past few years and will for the next two or so. There'll be a sharp spike of fandom activity with the new canon, but after that it's all downhill. But it'll still be a pretty high hill!

Personally, I reached the point where I'd pretty much read everything I could, and anything else I find now is just same old plots, same old theories, over and over again. But I've been in this fandom for five years, which is a relatively long time considering how intense it is as a fandom (Star Trek of course I've been into for far longer, but that has a massive, massive canon to work with, and I was never as in-depth involved as HP with it.) After DH comes out, I'm sure I'll go back to fic reading and theorizing and discussing for maybe a year more, and then there'll just be more fandoms with active canon to get involved in :) HP by then, barring any, very unlikely sequels, will be a closed canon. AU will be the only thing left.

[kerryblaze.livejournal.com]

I think it will slow down, but be around for a long time. There will still be 2 movies and new people reading the books. Star Trek and Star Wars are still around.

[dark-branwen.livejournal.com]

I'm concurring with just about everyone else. HP would be damn hard to kill off entirely. It won't be as huge as it is/was, but there will still be faithful loyalists, people who sort of drift in and out of the fandom, and the beloved latecomers.

What I'm curious to find out is what the next big fandom is going to be.

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

Slow fade -- slower b/c of the still-to-come films for books 6 and 7, you know? Likewise I suspect I will eventually fall out of this fandom, but it might well take several years, depending on many other factors in my own RL. *g*

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

The fandom won't die, but it will get certainly change and may even get smaller. The final book may usher in an influx of new superfans who are only now getting around to reading the books now that the series is complete, but the oldsters who've been here since forever will be wandering off to find a new muse or will return to their RL obligations.

[coffee-n-cocoa.livejournal.com]

Fandom won't completely die, but it will fade/grow smaller eventually, especially once the last two films are released and there's no canon of either the book or film varieties to look forward to. There will still be new people moving in, and if the films are ever remade there will probably be a new surge, like in the LotR fandom.

Personally, I think it'll be hilarious if they remake the films 15-20 years from now and I discover my daughter starts writing fanfic because of it!

[royally-mieped.livejournal.com]

Well there's more to fandom than fic/art. There's also RPs and I don't see those dying off anytime soon.

[snorkackcatcher]

I assume HP fandom will tail off somewhat after a while, although I don't suppose it will vanish or anything like it -- it'll just become smaller. (Although still substantial -- after all, other fandoms for completed works such as LOTR are still huge.)

[mijmeraar.livejournal.com]

When you consider the fact that today's children, their children, their children's children ... some of them are going to pick up a Harry Potter book and then later on some of them will get interested in fandom. So on, so forth. Harry Potter is definitely immortal in my eyes, and while it may not have the amount of fans it does today I couldn't see it ever stopping.

[idea-of-sarcasm.livejournal.com]

Here via the daily_snitch (and, by the way, I love your header)

Yes, fandom will slowly die off after DH, I can't see how it won't. Well, of course there will be a ballooning of fandom after the book - fic, discussion etc., where we all have to skip 20 pages back on our friends list every day. But, I can't see it ever completely dying off - and not just because there are still two more movies to come, it's one of those that's too big to just go away. There are many smaller fandoms of shows that got cancelled many years ago that are still going quite strong.

But, it will decline - you can even see the drop off now since the last movie/book.

As for my own commitment, I know it will drop off, even without the books ending. I'm not exactly a "lifer" when it comes to fandom things - although I suppose HP could be the exception. But, at the very least, the involvement won't be the same after awhile, that is inevitable in any case (well, and especially if the characters I like/write are killed off, that will just make it go faster - I can only do so much AU)

And as for fic and art, of course it's going to vary on how the book goes, and who exactly dies etc. But I can see canon!fic flourishing at first, and au/ignoring canon growing after time.

[idleleaves.livejournal.com]

It'll slow down like it does between books, only more so, but die? Nah. Like someone said, there's still original Star Trek fic being written and it's been thirtysome years since it aired. There'll always be a fan base, I think, although those who go from popular fandom to popular fandom will move on.

But there's so going to be wank. There'll be extraordinary wank. There'll be wank like we have not seen wank before. People will curse JKR with all the words that have been invented and some that haven't, but that happens with every book.

*pokes*

[robriki.livejournal.com]

Hey you! Can you finish up last week's fanaticize poll so Rose can submit our points? Danke shoen!

[starshine-rain6.livejournal.com]

Remember that reception on Saturday (after the B minor concert) where they were being all uppity? Yeah, guess who had an invitation afterall? But they mailed it to my house rather than my apartment, so I didn't know about it!

[thescarletwoman.livejournal.com]

Heh. Should not have been so snooty and uppity then. We should have given her your name and let -her- have seen that we were on the list. Could have seen Oltman afterall, I suppose.

And also -- happy belated birthday!