Fandom is an odd thing.

Each fandom has its own little rules and traditions. Some are more passive, some more outgoing, some tend more toward the obvious and others toward things that are hidden.

But in every large fandom, there are people who don't follow the unspoken rules of fandom. And sometimes this turns out for the best and sometimes it seems to make things harder for the rest of the fandom.

Every fandom has its own feel, its own texture. And each fandom hits people in different ways. Some people prefer one kind of way and others prefer another.

But overall, fandom is odd. And we can't really understand another person's fandom. We can sympathize but their fandom is not our own and in the end, we only get what we get and there's nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, I just sent off a postcard to UPN about Firefly.

Fandom is odd. Fandom inspired me to save money to go off to New York to take in a Broadway show. Fandom inspired a friend to send me tapes of all 66 episodes of due South. Fandom has made me several good friends.

It's an odd creature and a glorious one.

Lord of the Rings

So, I've gotten into the books backward. I wasn't able to finish reading Fellowship until after I'd seen the movie and I wasn't able to pick up Two Towers until I'd seen the movie.

It's been an odd experience for me because I'm used to being the bookish kind.

LotR is the only major fantasty series that my brother has read and I haven't.

He only read the first Dune book, I devoured all of them. I've eagerly read every book in the Wheel of Time series. I love fantasy, love putting myeself into these huge and amazing worlds.

And I couldn't do it with LotR and my brother could. And that truly bugged me.

There's a... distance in the books. I can't lose myself in them. I have read The Hobbit and enjoyed it, but I never got lost in it.

Watching the movies, I have been totally lost for the period of three hours that they take. The movies spark me in a way that the books don't. The emotion reaches out and grabs me by the throat.

I'm starting to enjoy Two Towers, or at least stopped wanting to claw my eyes out after too long reading it, but it doesn't grab me.