Reviews

Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth by Camille Bacon-Smith

theheroichydrangea's review against another edition

4.0

I’ve seen a few reviews from the time that critique bacon-smiths discussion of hurt/comfort- specifically that it’s not as central to fan fiction in general as she makes it out to be (while praising her unpacking of the Mary Sue story) which is so odd considering in the year of our lord 2022 Mary Sue has almost disappeared from the Internet vocabulary and hurt/comfort fic is still alive and kicking. Anyway who am I to say if this book is good but I’ve been thinking about it nonstop since I read it

luanndie's review against another edition

4.0

Enterprising Women es una de las obras fundacionales de los estudios de fans y tras haberla leído entiendo porque. Al igual que Jenkins en [b:Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture|219853|Textual Poachers Television Fans and Participatory Culture|Henry Jenkins|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331413162s/219853.jpg|212868], Baco-Smith hace un trabajo increíble en intentar explicar y teorizar sobre un fenómeno que era totalmente desconocido por la academia. Obviamente, desde su publicación muchas cosas han cambiado y el texto se encuentra en muchas partes desfasado, pero al mismo tiempo permite contextualizar corrientes actuales y ver que las modas en el fandom tienen una relación más profunda de lo que parece.

Mi única pega es el enfoque etnográfico, o más bien, el intentar adornar este enfoque con cierto aire de objetividad y distancia con el objeto de estudio cuando la propia autora reconoce que paso 8 años de su vida interaccionando con esta gente. No creo que esta cercanía haga menos válido todo lo que aporta la autora, pero hubiera agradecido que se reconociera la "subjetividad" de una forma más clara en el texto. Pese a todo, una gran obra.

roxanamalinachirila's review against another edition

4.0

One of the first books on fandom (and one of the first), focusing on fandoms such as Star Wars and Blake's 7. While one can tell that Bacon-Smith is an outsider who doesn't really become one of the fans herself, her "snapshots" of fan realities back in the day are quite precious, especially to someone who became a fan in the age of the internet (like, say, me).

bookcrazylady45's review against another edition

4.0

Very similar in structure and content to Textual Poachers. Also published in 1992 and therefore contains no information on the X-Files Internet fandom phenomenon. This one was also full of underlining from my previous reading and again I underlined a bit more. I only had three fandoms X-Files, Starsky & Hutch and The Professionals. I have read some Star Trek and like TP, this book is mainly about Trek fandom. Excellent source book about a subject with few well researched histories. I did a little research recently about which fandoms have the most posted stories. Currently, there are only two archives and none of these four fandoms is represented in the top 30 or 40. I remember all of those archives on Geocities, Tripod, Angel etc. that vanished with stories. All of those personal websites and host websites that disappeared overnight. I have on my computer 7000 X-Files stories...every one Mulder/Krycek and I know I don't have every one ever written. That totally excludes all the Mulder/Scully shipper fic, all the Mulder/Skinner, all the noromo, all the het fic, all the case fic, all the canon fic. 90% of all X-Files fic has not been transferred. I have 6000 Pros stories on my computer...there are 2700 on A03. So much has been lost but the phenomenon continues and is still growing.

akagingerk's review

3.0

A snapshot of tv fandom from when physical mailing lists were still the order of the day. Some of her theories into the culture of female fandom are insightful and interesting and others miss the mark, but either way they're worth reading.