Fandom

I’m not usually one for podcasts, but I discovered @fansplaining a few weeks ago and have really been getting a kick out of it.  It is a “podcast by, about, and for fandom, hosted by Flourish Klink & Elizabeth Minkel” and it is fantastic.

I was going to wait until I’d listened through all the archives before posting a recommended list of episodes but I am impatient.  So!  Here are my favorites so far:

• the two most recent episodes are on race and fandom (part a & part b), in addition to all the podcast itself there are a number of interesting/important essays, posts, and other resources linked in the episode notes

• the episode on baseball fandom

• the episode on fan linguistics, with my fave internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch, and if you haven’t seen her writing on ship names, on the “because noun” construction, on incomplete sentences, etc then go read it now because you are missing out

When Umberto Eco died a few months ago I started getting really into what you might call the semiotics of fandom.  I love Eco but it’s honestly a pleasure seeing fans address fandom using fannish language.  Sometimes I try to read academese and I can’t even.  ;)