Fandom, history, fanfiction et al
Hi
I came here via hearing of the Blyton Society's absolutely appalling behaviour. I had hoped for a place on LJ to discuss Blyton but the Enid Blyton community here on LJ seems to be moribund.
I don't blame Blyton - as Kannaophelia said in response to the EBS, she wasn't writing out of spite but in unthinking response to the hateful attitudes of her time.
As an historian, it irritates me when people say "Oh I wouldn't have acted that way or believed those things had i lived back then!" when in fact they probably would have, particularly when it came to religion. There was a famous article (not by me) that pointed out that in 1930s Australia, the overwhelming majority of white Australians attended church on Sundays most weeks but that by 1974, that number had dropped to less than ten percent.
I see something similar in Malory Towers/St Clares fandom - in the books, the girls are religious, probably Anglican, attend church services on Sundays and probably shared 1940s Christian views on homosexual or bisexual attractions. You won't see much of that in fanfiction - in most fanfiction, the girls might as well have no religion, have modern attitudes about gay relationships - "coming out" as gay only dates to around 1970 - before that you would have been admitting to practising an illegal sexual perversion and the social consequences for such an admission would have been even worse than the legal consequences.
I came here via hearing of the Blyton Society's absolutely appalling behaviour. I had hoped for a place on LJ to discuss Blyton but the Enid Blyton community here on LJ seems to be moribund.
I don't blame Blyton - as Kannaophelia said in response to the EBS, she wasn't writing out of spite but in unthinking response to the hateful attitudes of her time.
As an historian, it irritates me when people say "Oh I wouldn't have acted that way or believed those things had i lived back then!" when in fact they probably would have, particularly when it came to religion. There was a famous article (not by me) that pointed out that in 1930s Australia, the overwhelming majority of white Australians attended church on Sundays most weeks but that by 1974, that number had dropped to less than ten percent.
I see something similar in Malory Towers/St Clares fandom - in the books, the girls are religious, probably Anglican, attend church services on Sundays and probably shared 1940s Christian views on homosexual or bisexual attractions. You won't see much of that in fanfiction - in most fanfiction, the girls might as well have no religion, have modern attitudes about gay relationships - "coming out" as gay only dates to around 1970 - before that you would have been admitting to practising an illegal sexual perversion and the social consequences for such an admission would have been even worse than the legal consequences.
chipper
tired