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I feel a social obligation as a fan of something, especially if it's obscure
This obligation includes such activities as posting about whatever it is on places like IJBMer Updates and sequentially posting in all the episode-specific threads on MyAnimeList (if it's an anime series), for example.
Comments
Hell, I started the kickstarter thread over that feel.
I know that feel, more or less solely in reference to a certain book series that is kind of the only thing I'm really a true fan of. Or the only thing I'm a true fan of that no one else seems to have heard of. I used to recommend it at our "ostensibly a sci-fi and fantasy reading club" at least before the opportunities to recommend books seemed to disappear, but no one ever listened. I have yet to ever meet someone in person who was as passionate about this series as I am. As in, I've met a few people IRL who have read them but aren't as big of fans, and the one huge fan of it I know over the internet is Hawaiian.
I am starting to get the feeling there's some aura surrounding me that keeps people from ever taking my recommendations. Sort of. I dunno. Except for Frances, who I turned into an Evangelion fangirl basically.
Be thankful I'm not recommending this particular series I love so much to you guys. Well, I don't have time now to seriously work at it. Maybe I'll try later, like after I've finished the new book in about a week.
You know all about me and Warhammer. I'm holding back on the jokes because I know how annoying it can be.
this is why i post about The Old Republic so much
I make it a point to recommend stories or things people normally wouldn't check out to see if they at least would try. If they don't, it's no biggie, though.
with that said.
*shoves a Planetary issue down everyone's throat*
Most people I know have heard of Higurashi, Warhammer, and The Old Republic, or at least stand a chance of hearing about them pretty easily.
No one has heard of Ysabeau Wilce and the Flora series. No one. Well, not literally, but comparitively no one.
For me, lately it's Serpent's Tongue (link if you haven't been following the Kickstarter thread)
Can't really say I feel the need to promote my obscure likes and shove them down everyone's throats.
The interesting thing about obscurity is that as much as I like to privately whine and moan "OMG why has no one heard of this series it's so amazing", I would never wish for it to become truly popular. Because essentially every time that happens, the fanbase is always filled with a great deal of idiots, and stupid Flora fans would be horrifying, because there's so much potential for so much to go so wrong in that regard. And they probably wouldn't even understand the world and worldbuilding, which is what makes it amazing, even more so than the characters or plot or the actual prose.
Why?
It's...uh...kind of cutesy and girly on the surface, and there's a fair amount of talk about clothes, and just generally a lot of superficial trappings that seem like they could trap superficial people at that layer and make the focus of a large part of fandom really irritating. Because underneath all that is a brilliant adventure with some of the most believable, solid, but really interesting (as in, rarely done well in YA fiction, or any kind of fantasy) military and political...um...stuff I've ever seen.
The author has a background in military history, but also is really fond of the cosmetic aspect of things, and it's set basically in Victorian California but with magic. So yeah. If you read it you might see why I'd be worried about dumb fangirls.
Huh.
I might check it out sometime, because why not.
This isn't shoving stuff down people's throats; it's more so just even mentioning something at all.
INUH: The first book, Flora Segunda, isn't that long or complex, at least compared to the next book. Also, the really neat political stuff doesn't become nearly as obvious until the second book. There's a fair amount of in-universe terminology that's somewhat unique so if you have any trouble just let me know. And a basic knowledge of San Francisco geography helps...
Glenn: Right, exactly. And in my case, it's not so much the obligation that bugs me as the fact that the few times I try to recommend things, people just ignore me.
In a way, it's just flat-out because I don't really have close friends at school. My closest friendship is a long-distance one. And she and everyone else I know have heavier workloads than me and actually do the work and often have jobs or activities.
I'm the person people should be recommending things to, if anything. But for someone who's not likely to be critical of what I do consume, I'm still really baseline picky (and I don't play any sort of games at all), and as it is, my life right now is "I really want to watch Avatar and Community and Supernatural but I can't for another week."
I don't think I really have this feeling.
he probably was referring to my comment.
I know this feel, but it's been a while since I've felt it, honestly, and I've learned to suppress it.
It tends to happen to me when I get obsessed with something. I think the only remnant of this is occasionally wanting to get people to watch Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
See I'll only do this if I think the other person might like the thing. Just going out and being a verbal shotgun about things I like that are obscure seems like a bit too much work. And too likely to piss off passersby of the thing than just not have a reaction from them at all.
It's hard to be selective when your friends claim to be open-minded and always looking for new books to read. But I'd say you've got the right idea, Alk...
swords swords swords swords
Alex has a sword for a tongue. True story.
^^^PREDICTABO
IWillNotMakeAGeeseHowardJoke.
IWillNotMakeAGeeseHowardJoke.
IWillNotMakeAGeeseHowardJoke.
IWillNotMakeAGeeseHowardJoke.
It's partially a case of general nerdery and partially a case of being a "frontiersman", if you get my meaning. The worldwide community for European martial swordsmanship is pretty small compared to the likes of sport fencing, kendo, LARPing, RPG playing -- pretty much everything to do with swords that isn't what I do has more "user support", so to speak. So it's a question of how I get word of this system out there, even if it's just a piece of knowledge or two, you know?
Swords are really cool and stuff and lots of people agree. But most people who think swords are cool indulge in that via a very different context to myself and miss everything that's so interesting and unique about the reality. And I totally get that most people want to just have fun with whatever thing and that's fine, but at the same time, there's no harm in acquiring some new knowledge or -- if you're a LARPer, SCA person or whatever -- altering your training a bit to take the real thing into account a bit more.
Basically, if you're gonna nerd out? Do it right, I say.
The new Flora book got mentioned in a long, list-y io9 article about interesting-looking sci-fi/fantasy books coming out this month. I feel vindicated. Sort of. The description blurb sucks, especially compared to some of the other ones they used for other books. Doesn't give any idea of what I like about the series.