Gathering Of Geeks

New York Comic Con. One of the largest gatherings of geeks in the country. Filled to the brim in the freezing October air with greasy comic book fans, reporters, booths selling absolutely necessary trinkets of one sort or another, squealing nervous middle schoolers there for the first time dressed in ill fitting store bought sailor girl uniforms, and the more experienced fans in beautifully accurate costumes. The air of companionship is palpable. Nobody is rude, except maybe that one parent who was dragged here by his too-young-to-go-alone kids. Random strangers ask for your picture and hugs, and even though you're all slightly sweaty and tired and jittery it’s a wonderful experience.

From the outside, going to cons is a “loser” thing to do. It’s geeky, weird, and why oh why would anyone want to spend so much time and money on a costume? These people don't quite understand the nature of fandom.

Fandom is like family. It’s huge, and every fandom has that part that’s so horrible that nobody speaks of it. They all have those people who are the loudest, meanest, and give the whole thing a bad name. And then there are the amazing people. The people who you know only through the bright laptop screen, the bruised and broken people who you wish you could see and hug and comfort but they live a thousand miles away. The people you have skype sleepovers with. There are the people who turn these things into more than just a book, a film, a TV show. The people who analyze and add layers of meaning to whatever it is and notice the tiny patterns that maybe even the writers don’t even notice are there. There is crying, laughing, squealing. Those not in fandom would never comprehend the unbridled joy at an update, or the hysterical sobbing alone in your room at four in the morning just because somebody posted a photoset about your favourite character that ripped your heart out.

Fandom is creative and brilliant. We fall in love with these characters. We find something we like and we latch onto it, giving a thousand new lives to the creations of other authors through art and our own writing. We are obsessive and possessive and a little insane. We spend hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours making costumes accurate even down to the type of polish used on the shoes. Fandom teaches you how to feel, at least for others. You know you’ve got empathy when the mere mention of a character’s name can send you into hysterics. You live and breathe with these characters; so much so that you could swear they actually were alive. You have headcanons, ships, OTPs. You have pterodactyl noises, table flips, and Universal Stares of Heterosexual Longing. You have fanon and canon, fanfiction, fanart, OCs and OOC. Het, slash, yaoi, IRL, and those people you just want to shake some sense into because you love them so much but they’re just so dumb. There’s cosplay, roleplay, and post-con depression. It’s a worldwide society of total losers who have their own language of barely punctuated exclamations separated by paragraphs of beautifully constructed sentences.

This is why I’m in fandom. It’s a place to escape from the stresses of reality. I have a family there, a family spread from Sweden to Australia, a family bound together only by a glowing screen and a shared obsession with the BBC. It’s an outlet for creativity, a place to develop writing and reading and art. It’s a place where wonderfully intelligent people gather to put their skills of deduction to good use- socially inept people who may be having the hardest time in the real world but online can find the medium to express their genius. It’s beautiful, it really is. And if you ever go to one of these cons, even if you don’t think you’ll fit in, you're welcomed and exclaimed over and it’s like you’ve supposed to have been there your whole life. I think that I am one of those people. I think without fandom, I would be much less stable, much less creative, much less happy. You might think that fandom isn't for everyone, but it can be. You've just gotta find the right people to talk to.

Comic Con was actually my first con experience. It was too crowded, hot, and badly planned, but I loved it. I was recognized from my blog, I took lots of pictures, and I met some wonderful people. I think I'll go back next year. 

     

Pictures: Here, here, here, here, here