I understand the sentiment you've described very well. While I love how much fantasy is available right now (even if a lot of it is just terrible), I miss the feeling of being part of something magical that the "mundanes" were clueless about. I think it made for greater camaraderie -- there were fewer of us, so we had to stick together. These days, I don't know if there's any niche that isn't already heavily populated online, where you can feel like an intrepid explorer in an unknown land, instead of just consuming ideas and knowledge that has been regurgitated endlessly for the content marketplace.
You are so right. It's the "consuming" and "endless" "regurgitating" that puts me off. I am not defending gatekeeping as I don't think that makes for a healthy fandom either, but the sheer amount of "content" (what a word) that is out there is simply too much. Obviously, I can simply ignore it, which I do for the most part, but that removes me even further from fan cultures and communities. I'm not too broken up about it, if I'm being honest, but it's strange to go from badly wanting to find my people and community (which was my situation as a young person) to being rather ambivalent to the whole scene.
Am I just describing what it's like to become an adult? LOL!
I understand the sentiment you've described very well. While I love how much fantasy is available right now (even if a lot of it is just terrible), I miss the feeling of being part of something magical that the "mundanes" were clueless about. I think it made for greater camaraderie -- there were fewer of us, so we had to stick together. These days, I don't know if there's any niche that isn't already heavily populated online, where you can feel like an intrepid explorer in an unknown land, instead of just consuming ideas and knowledge that has been regurgitated endlessly for the content marketplace.
You are so right. It's the "consuming" and "endless" "regurgitating" that puts me off. I am not defending gatekeeping as I don't think that makes for a healthy fandom either, but the sheer amount of "content" (what a word) that is out there is simply too much. Obviously, I can simply ignore it, which I do for the most part, but that removes me even further from fan cultures and communities. I'm not too broken up about it, if I'm being honest, but it's strange to go from badly wanting to find my people and community (which was my situation as a young person) to being rather ambivalent to the whole scene.
Am I just describing what it's like to become an adult? LOL!