fandom & muses

idly wondering …

if the reason that fandom tends to be a lot more personal for folks these days than one would assume (ie, rather than just something fun to watch/consume) - is … because it’s subconsciously taken the place of what muses were for classical artists?

aka that thing that keeps you writing/drawing - I don’t mean the club of people in fandom, but that ~*one*~ character or ship or abstract vibe that’s the thing that makes you put your pen on paper, every time.

(hell …OTP’s, anyone?) 

been digging into the topic of muses lately after a string of lightbulb moments … and, well -  there’s a fantastic talk [ here ] on how they were actually really goddamn useful for the ancients to separate creative anxieties and keep them at bay, (practicality! I like!) - and honestly the talk is so genuinely warmly funny and perfectly tongue in cheek -

The ancient artist was protected from certain things, for example, too much narcissism, right? If your work was brilliant, you couldn’t take all the credit for it, everybody knew that you had this disembodied genius who had helped you. If your work bombed, not entirely your fault, you know? Everyone knew your genius was kind of lame. [laughter]

And this is how people thought about creativity in the West for a really long time. And then the Renaissance came and everything changed, and we had this big idea, and the big idea was, let’s put the individual human being at the center of the universe above all gods and mysteries, and there’s no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine.

[…] and I got to tell you, I think that was a huge error. You know, I think that allowing somebody, one mere person to believe that he or she is the vessel, you know, the font and the essence and the source of all divine, creative, unknowable, eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile, human psyche. It’s like asking somebody to swallow the sun.  

- and the worst thing is, these days with the internet, you’re not even judged by a small community for the highs and lows of your work -  you’re throwing your deeply intimate creations straight into the eyeballs of the entire fucking world instantaneously without even a shield for the sheer volume of responses.

it’s … stressful.  no goddamn wonder that’s become a hot topic lately.

but idek - I think there’s a fascinating squishy set of topics between (a) the nature of fanworks (stretching all the way back to Dante’s work) and the interesting coincidence of glomming on other folks’ creations for emotional support since the idea of muses has gone away (b) how to handle all of that in a sensible and healthy way (because there has got to be a healthier way than where we’re headed right now) © giving artists and writers back that power if they want it, and -

hnn

again, this may be just me, but given the current creative climate right now - having that confirmed someone else … is a weird relief, frankly.