Passive and Active Fandom
After sleeping and thinking on it throughout the day, I think I might be onto why last night's Franzdom conversation rubbed me the wrong way. There is the aspect of feeling like my space was invaded, yes, but I think part of it is also a difference in perspective in how art and fandom should be taken in. That is, whether one should be passive or active.
Perhaps I'm projecting, but it seems like the don't fangirl (or don't fangirl "too much") perspective is one of passivity. Just sit, take the song/film/book in, enjoy, and then leave it at that. I say that because I get the sense that my question of "What’s the point of being in a fandom if you’re not going to gush, over-analyze, or make things?" was misunderstood. (Though, obviously, some of that lies on the way I chose to phrase the question.) There are plenty of things I'm a fan of, but don't interact in any substantial or meaningful way with said things' overarching fandom communities. There's nothing inherently wrong with that passivity. It's okay to sit on the sidelines and, depending on the fandom in question, that might be preferable.
I guess a better way to have phrased my question might be, can you really have fandom without the gushing, in depth analysis, fan-made creations, etc.? Does one exist? Art is generally solitary and often self-indulgent, but it needs an audience to mean anything and to live on. Fandom, by and large, is about interaction, community. It's a conversation. Now, is every person in or associated with a fandom required to engage in that conversation in any sort of way? Or in the exact same way all the time, across the board? Certainly not and that's okay.
The thing is, though, that passivity doesn't keep a fandom (and, really, art itself) alive. You need people actively engaging in that conversation in some way for a fandom and a work to endure. Without active and new participants, you risk stagnation or maybe even complete disappearance. Do you think Disney would be making a new trilogy of Star Wars movies if people weren't still engaging in conversation about it decades later? Bands like the Beatles gain new fans decades after disbanding, because of others sharing them and those new fans push the conversation forward, whether old elitist jerks like it or not.
Sometimes the conversation is petty bitching. Sometimes it's in depth, academic analysis. Sometimes it's no more than "tee-hee, this song sounds like it might be about blowjobs." It's serious and silly and sometimes annoying, but if it goes completely quiet, what then?
Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass after spending most of the day with a fever, so take this for whatever it's worth.