Page 121 - Cultural Change and Ordinary Life

112 Cultural change and ordinary life

respect, as with other considerations of the mass media in this book, the texts
and processes of fandom are placeless. The same episode of a TV series can be
watched in very different spaces and places around the world. Likewise, they
are also in many respects relatively timeless. By recording episodes or purchas-
ing/hiring a boxed set, TV can be viewed at different times. These points are
well worn. However, what is perhaps increasingly significant is how these
practices are placed. As Sandvoss says:
Places of fandom thus take on a dual meaning. On the one hand, they
incorporate tendencies to placelessness for their other-directedness with
respect to the fan text; on the other, they are transformed into the
territorial focus of the individual and group identities.
(Sandvoss 2005: 66)
Sandvoss argues that physical spaces become important for fans, in that
as the literature shows fans want to visit the places where series are made (or
shot on location) or the places that are of particular significance with respect
to the star. However, it is important to note that these practices can be differen-
tiated with respect to the distinction between fan, cultist and enthusiast and
the importance of the place to the object of attention. Thus, someone might
be fanlike with respect to The X-Files in that they have watched every episode,
but have no desire to visit Vancouver, where much of the show was filmed.
Likewise, there may be little spatial referent that makes sense in relation to a
particular star. Thus, for example, Rodman (1996) shows very well that
Graceland as a particular site for Elvis cultists/enthusiasts to visit is dependent
on the fact that Elvis chose to live in this one place for the best part of 20 years
of his life; that it is accessible and a visible (rather than hidden) place; and that
a tourist industry has developed around it. In this sense, placeness is reinforced
rather than played down. Other stars, as Rodman argues are much less
connected with specific places. They may be associated with a city, if they are
pop stars, but may be reclusive if they are Hollywood actors and so on.
Sandvoss argues that this sort of placing of fandom (or what I call in
broad terms, enthusing) contributes to the production of a sense of home.
This sort of argument, which elaborates in some respects on those mounted
by Silverstone (1994) and Morley (2000), is very suggestive. However, in my
view it can be best theorized through the idea of scenic elective belonging that
I have deployed in other parts of this book. There are several reasons for this.
First, these ideas retain a focus on place, but allow the introduction and con-
sideration of a number of social and cultural processes that produce the effect
of belonging. Second, it emphasizes the action of people in producing the
sense of belonging. The danger with some versions of home, in my view, is
that they retain aspects of a simple version of belonging as dependent solely
on period of residence. Third, the idea of scene, as has been argued earlier,
facilitates consideration of the way that media enter into processes of per-
forming and audiencing. These ideas, again as has been suggested at many
points in my analysis so far, also facilitate considerations of the processes of
identity constitution and reconstitution. The literature on fandom, as I have
already introduced in this chapter, also has important things to say on this
topic.