#goncharov fandom

[lemon-and-lead]

a lot of the lighting in Goncharov is absolutely stunning. I was inspired to do a study of katya during the cafe scene.

[bug-juices]

I saw the resurgence of the movie Goncharov (1973) and thought I remembered the name from somewhere, turns out my grandpa was a huge fan! I was digging around and found some old posters from the original theatrical release. (Looking back they were really obvious with the Katya/Sophia)

[cfiesler]

I really wasn’t expecting this old paper of mine to suddenly be relevant, but... did you know I did a whole study of Goncharov fandom?  I doubt anyone even remembers alt.goncharov, but there was this absolutely wild thing where in the late nineties the community was essentially taken over (from Scorcese fanboys) by fanfiction writers and shippers. It was AMAZING. I saw @destinationtoast ‘s post about Goncharov AO3 stats and I really hope that some of the stories there are from folks who posted on alt.goncharov back in the day. Because I read a LOT of fic when I was doing this research, and that late nineties Katya/Sofia REALLY holds up. ::chef’s kiss::  Seriously, alt.goncharov was ahead of its time and the fans involved were the coolest.

Anyway let me know if you have questions about this research! 

Title: Ships and Ice Picks: An Ethnographic Excavation of alt.goncharov

Abstract: Many research studies of early fandom and fanfiction online communities have focused on well-known fandoms such as Star Trek and X-Files. In this paper, I describe findings from trace ethnography and discourse analysis of archived posts from the Usenet group alt.goncharev. During the time period between 1995 and 1999, the community underwent a significant shift from discussions of the film itself to a focus on fanfiction and "shipping." I argue that this forgotten fan space reflected an early microcosm of the kinds of fandom discourse we see decades later, with respect to the largely gendered conflict that ensued as this shift occurred. I conclude that just as fanfiction writers managed to "win" control of alt.goncharov, in our current time we will continued to see increased attention to and respect for transformative fandom and queer fans in particular. 

[mil-lilitre]

"Tell me, my sun, was it ever really about time?" 

My study of Sofia and Katya’s last meeting before Sofia left Katya. Sofia knew she and Katya were never “right person, wrong time”. At no point in their lives could they have crossed paths and been together, not when Katya was back home, not when she was building her empire from the ground up, and clearly not when Katya reached for her as a powerplay in her marriage to Goncharov. It was right person, the wrong life.

Perhaps, in another, they could have finally made it out together. In this one, Sofia knew Katya was going to die, so she left. The last thing she could do for her sun, is to live.

[krishahahaha]

while part of me is excited for the Gonchorov remake a larger part of me thinks they are just going to totally fuck it up. remakes rarely ever live up to the originals anyway. the perfect queercoded-ness of goncharey?! katya's thirst for revenge! the tenacity of ice pick joe??? idk man if the filmmakers pull this off it'd be the greatest remake of history

[shortsightedmoon]

I love Sofia. I know the movie was made in the 70s and she was meant to be the very picture of the problematic lesbian character, seducing katya away from her heterosexual marriage and converting her to a life of sin, but I also believe that as much as she embodies this stereotype, she also subverts it by having her impact on katya be a positive one overall.

Goncharov and katyas marriage is shown to be a struggling one— I don’t think it’s loveless but circumstances have certainly had their effect on their relationship. Where Katya is tied down—by her marriage and by her involvement with the mafia and by her rigid adherence to societal norms, Sofia to her embodies freedom, and Sofia shows her that freedom by showing her that traditional values aren’t the only way. There’s always another option.

This is demonstrated in the scene where she asks katya to run away with her, showing again that there will always be another option, that she’s not limited to the frame that society has put her in. And to connect with someone so deeply, and to have them show you new meaning to life that you never thought possible— it’s everything. With Sofia, katya is no longer boxed in by her preconceived notions on what she thought life was and instead finds new richness in life with her.

And in the end, even after Sofia’s died, she’s still what gives katya the strength to go through with their plans and fake her own death, taking her life and death into her own hands and choosing freedom over all else.

it ties into the cyclical nature of the film and the film's whole thing about patterns/cycles and breaking them. goncharov tries (and ultimately fails) to break the cycle of violence but katya is such an interesting opposition to that bc through sofia she actually manages to get out of the life she's living. the idea of sofia as someone who was introduced as a throwaway side character, who was never meant to have such a big impact but instead ended up being the literal representation of the way out means so much to me

[ghost-type-dan]

Gonch posting (@danlirosi-art)

I plan to make a tongues and teeth (the crane wives) Katya X Sofia comic tomorrow, if I have time

[sssfrs]

Katya