Category Archives: fan cultures

Fantasy and Science Fiction Conventions as Transformational Festivals

October 2nd, 2011 | Posted in conventions, Dragon*Con, fan cultures

I feel some level of justification as to my intuitions on aspects of science fiction and fantasy conventions and their subcultures. I recently came across a post at The Wild Hunt blog which referenced a lecture by Jeet-Kei Leung on transformational festivals like Burning Man. Jason Pitzl-Waters of The Wild Hunt mentioned that a similar […]

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Fan Culture Exploration – MTV’s True Life: “I’m a Fanboy”

May 20th, 2011 | Posted in fan cultures, geek cultures

  Tags: True Life, MTV Shows In my ongoing research on fantastic fan cultures I came across this episode of MTV’s True Life that focuses on the phenomenon titled “I’m a Fanboy.” Although the program seems to include and reinforce some stereotypes of “fanboys,” no doubt basted upon MTV’s selection process in fan submissions rather […]

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Fan Culture Documentaries: Back to Space-Con, and Four Days at Dragon*Con

April 25th, 2011 | Posted in conventions, documentary, Dragon*Con, fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, liminality, science fiction, science fiction convention, Space-Con, Star Trek

This weekend I had the opportunity to watch two documentaries, Back to Space-Con, produced and directed by Tom Wyrsch of Garfield Lane Productions, and Four Days at Dragon*Con, produced and directed by Jack Walsh of Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. Taken together, these films tell the story of the development of science fiction and fantasy conventions, […]

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PBS Documentary: Four Days at Dragon*Con

March 26th, 2011 | Posted in conventions, Dragon*Con, fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, science fiction

Thanks to the email list for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts I learned about a documentary that will be broadcast courtesy of American Public Television. The documentary is titled Four Days at Dragon*Con. From The APT website: Every Labor Day weekend, tens of thousands descend upon Atlanta for the largest convention […]

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Field Study in Fan Culture at Comic-Con 2011

December 3rd, 2010 | Posted in comics, fan cultures

This is a great time for scholars, or scholars in training, to be involved in studies in various aspects of popular culture. Here’s a recent educational opportunity I came across that involves field study at Comic-Con. This is my kind of study program: Earn academic credit while studying the dynamics of marketing and fan culture at […]

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My Best Friend is a Wookie: One Boy’s Journey to Find His Place in the Galaxy

November 14th, 2010 | Posted in fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, Star Wars

Being a person on a lifelong journey with the fantastic I am always interested in the similar journeys of others. One day while following the book promotion of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf I was pleased to hear of another writer who chronicled a similar journey. Tony Pacitti describes his story in […]

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James Cameron Interview: Avatar Canon, Pandora Depression, and “Geek Cred”

September 14th, 2010 | Posted in Avatar, fan cultures, geek cultures, James Cameron, religion

There was an interview with James Cameron in August in Entertainment Weekly that just came to my attention. I found three items in the piece of interest. First, an interesting question is asked about what may be referred to as the “cinematic canon.” The interviewer, Benjamin Svetkey, asked about the new version of Avatar with […]

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Christopher Knowles: Gods and Geeks in American Pop Culture

August 29th, 2010 | Posted in comics, fan cultures, geek cultures, myths, Paganism, pop culture, superheroes

Patheos is a website that presents information on a variety of religious traditions. Over the course of the summer months the site has been looking at what the future holds for these religions, and in a recent focus on Paganism an essay was included that dovetails with the focus of TheoFantastique. Christopher Knowles wrote a […]

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WIRED: Is Being a Geek a Personality Trait or a Way of Life?

August 9th, 2010 | Posted in fan cultures, fantasy, geek cultures, science fiction

There is an interesting post that came to my attention today while checking my daily Google searches for topics related to the fantastic. The source for the post is in the WIRED blog “GeekDad.” The article is by Curtis Silver is titled “Is Being a Geek a Personality Trait or a Way of Life?”. In […]

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Review and Commentary: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks

March 7th, 2010 | Posted in Dungeons & Dragons, fan cultures, fantasy, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, fantasy role playing games, geek cultures

Not long ago while I was reflecting on the layers of significance underlying Avatar and its connection to fantasy, I first became aware, through Cinefantastique Online, of an article by Ethan Gilsdorf touching on these topics which he had written for Psychology Today. I was intrigued by the insights that Gilsdorf brought to the subject […]

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