For a long time, the image of the fan and fan culture was summed up by an infamous skit by William Shatner on SNL, in which he implores the trekkies to “get a life.” To be a fan was to be a passive stooge of the culture industry, one who mindlessly buys its products, and memorizes its trivia at the expense of their own creativity and life. Gradually this image began to change. The field of “Cultural Studies” demanded that we see fans as not just passive recipients of the culture industry, but active producers, who create their own interpretations, their own meaning, and their own activities with fan fiction, cosplay, and creativity, by poaching the commodities of the culture industry. Lately, however, the division between official product and consumption have broken down in a different way, as fan activity has become integral to marketing and maintenance of the value of intellectual property. Fans rabidly defend their favorite franchises online, harassing critics and anyone seen to deviate from canon. Suzanne Scott had dubbed this practice the convergence culture industry, it is fan activity not passivity that drives the industry. 

At the same time that fan culture and practices have changed in popular culture,  the fan has moved beyond the confines of popular culture to become a general figure of political and cultural participation. The platform formerly known as twitter is dominated by Elon Musk fanboys who rush to defend his increasingly erratic actions. Therapists have had to adjust to the way in which Taylor Swift has become the dominant cultural force in the lives of young women. Last, but not least, the Trump rallies seem to be both fan service and rallies around the particular cult of personality of Trump. The fan has become a cultural, political, and economic force in our society. What has caused this transformation? What does it mean for us? What can be done about it?

In this episode we discuss the following thinkers/ideas/texts/etc.:

• Detroiters (Although Jason mistakenly referred to Sam Richardson as Sam Davidson)
• The Breakfast Club 
• Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment 
• Michel De Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life
• The Chicago Cubs
• Martin Scorcese’s criticism of Marvel Films
• Gamergate 
• Henry Jenkin’s Convergence Culture (Jason mistakenly called him Harry Jenkins, really failing the name game here) 
• Suzanne Scott’s Fake Geek Girls  
• Phish
• The New York Times coverage of film critics on Tik Tok
• Jason’s Spinoza tattoo (which can be seen here on this very Spinoza-fanboy blogpost) 
• Star Trek Fan Films 
• Kirk/Spock Fan Fiction 
• Fifty Shades of Grey coming out of Twilight fan fiction
• Theodor Adorno 
• Adorno on Jazz 
• Rich Men North of Richmond 
• Bill Bragg’s Rich Men Making North of a Million 
• Andre Agassi 
• Venus Williams 

——————-
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!