Framing the Fictional Making sense of Tumblr media fandom in everyday life ResMA thesis to obtain the degree of MA at the University of Groningen Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies By Welmoed Fenna Wagenaar S2559900 August 2018 First supervisor: Dr. Kim Knibbe Second supervisor: Dr. Leonie Bosveld-de Smet CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 Chapter 1. Introduction: studying online fandom from a lived religion perspective 4 1.1 Making meaning from fiction 4 1.1.1 Case study: Tumblr 6 1.2 A lived ‘religion’ perspective 7 1.3 Methodology 9 1.3.1 Data collection: participant observation 9 1.3.2 Data collection: semi-structured interviews 11 1.3.3 Coding and analysis 12 1.4 How this thesis is structured 13 Chapter 2. Other worlds and multiple realities: a theoretical framework on media, ritual and play 15 2.1 Millennial fan culture and digital worlds 15 2.1.1 Transformative work and collective authorship 16 2.1.2 A culture of ‘feels’ 17 2.1.3 Transgressing binaries? 18 2.2 Virtual worlds from a ritual studies perspective 19 2.2.1 Some definitional issues: religion and popular culture 19 2.2.2 (Trans)media, world-building and the magic circle 21 2.2.3 Virtual worlds and real life 25 2.2.4 Negotiating boundaries: ritual vs. game? 31 2.3 Dynamic framings and everyday life 32 2.3.1 Ritual framing, revisited 32 2.3.2 Skilfully navigating realities 34 2.4 Conclusion 35 Chapter 3. Tumblr’s material structures and technological affordances 37 3.1 The dashboard 37 3.1.1 Performing from home base 37 3.1.2 Collective performance and the discourse of professionalism 40 3.2 The many uses of hashtags 44 3.2.1 Structuring Tumblr 44 3.2.2 Affective performativity 46 3.3 Tumblr mobile 48 - 1 - 3.3.1 The Tumblr app 48 3.3.2 Differences between devices 50 3.4 Conclusion 51 Chapter 4. Dimensions of ritual and play: Tumblr as liminoid sphere 53 4.1 Tumblr’s cultural and social structures 53 4.1.1 From fan culture to fandoms 53 4.1.2 To share and to support: networks, friendships and community 58 4.2 A place apart 60 4.2.1 Descriptions of otherworldliness 60 4.2.2 The freedom ‘from’ 61 4.3 On the threshold: exploring (other) worlds 64 4.3.1 Media fandom and the freedom to play 64 4.3.2 The performance of meaning and creation of values 67 4.4 Conclusion 70 Chapter 5. Dynamic framings and the navigation between realities 71 5.1 Framing Tumblr dynamically 71 5.1.1 Tumblr’s streaming nature 71 5.1.2 Drawing lines in the sand 73 5.2 Perceptions of fan practice and fiction 76 5.2.1 ‘Drama’ as a starting point 76 5.2.2 The drama in detail 78 5.2.3 Negotiating boundaries: Tumblr as ritual-game-story thing 82 5.3 Conclusion 85 Chapter 6. Conclusion: what the offline can tell us 87 6.1 Material matters 88 6.2 Liminoid spheres: freedom and the potential for change 88 6.3 Framing the virtual/fictional 90 6.4 The cultural power of fictional worlds 91 6.5 Improvements and future research 92 Bibliography 95 Appendices 99 Appendix A - Tumblr media fandom practices 99 Appendix B - Typology of the interviewees 111 Appendix C - Interview scheme (in Dutch) 115 - 2 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As the end of my master’s (finally) draws near, there are a few people I would like to thank for helping me to successfully complete this thesis. First, I would like to thank my supervisors, dr. Kim Knibbe and dr. Leonie Bosveld-de Smet, for their guidance in a project about a topic they were both unfamiliar with. Thank you, Leonie, for your openness and willingness to supervise a student from a discipline so different from your own. Kim, your knowledge on studying lived experiences (and the messiness of doing fieldwork), as well as your support during the writing process have been invaluable. It is a true gift to be able to motivate students with such apparent ease, and I am grateful you possess it. In line with the above, I would also like to thank dr. Peter Berger. He will probably never read this, but his inspiring feedback on a range of essays I wrote as part of one of my traineeships—essays in which I tentatively started to explore some of the links between fandom and ritual—gave me the confidence to pursue this topic further, without any regrets. Closer to home, I would like to thank Tekla and Iris for the fact that over the course of this project, I never had to feel alone. Furthermore, I would like to say thank you to Popke and Josée for letting me stay at their holiday home for a while to make sense of the research data without distraction. Lastly, a special thanks to my partner Stefan for the many brainstorm sessions we had, for his infinite patience, and for the fact that he is always supportive of me and what I’m doing. Thank you, it really means a lot. Last but certainly not least, a word of gratitude to my participants. A huge thanks to all of you, especially my interviewees, for letting me be your Tumblr follower for a while, for answering my questions, for welcoming me into your homes, and for sharing your thoughts and feelings so openly. Without you, this research simply would not have been possible. (Picture a reaction GIF expressing my gratitude right here.) - Welmoed Wagenaar, Groningen 2018 - 3 - CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: STUDYING ONLINE FANDOM FROM A LIVED RELIGION PERSPECTIVE 1.1 MAKING MEANING FROM FICTION In today’s society, the number of fictional worlds presented to us via books, films, television and video games is overwhelming. Through contemporary (trans)media1 we encounter countless fantasy worlds, intergalactic realms, alternative universes and secret societies that, although explicitly marked as not referring to the ‘real’ world2, have their own stories to tell and their own heroes and antagonists to identify with or learn from. The daily consumption of such media texts3 has been accepted as an integral aspect of modern life and many fictional worlds have become part of a shared popular culture. In addition, fannish engagement with fictional worlds has steadily become more and more visible in and influential to our mainstream media culture.4 Online technologies and social media platforms take centre stage in these developments as the spaces where people can come together to discuss, explore and elaborate fictional worlds. Where once the letter pages in fiction magazines formed spaces that fans could inhabit and share, nowadays the communal imagination largely takes place via technologically mediated interfaces that provide users with a plethora of sensory stimuli through which virtual and fictional worlds can come to life.5 In a society where the engagement with fictional worlds and stories has become a common pastime, it comes as no surprise that scholars from a wide range of fields have asked questions about the ways in which fictional worlds relate to the lived reality of their authors and audiences. For example, anthropologists have traced how media are integrated into the everyday lives of producers and 1 The phenomenon ‘transmedia’ refers to mediated stories that are spread across multiple media platforms in a complementary way. Famous examples are Harry Potter, The Matrix, and Halo. Rachel Wagner, Godwired: Religion, Ritual and Virtual Reality (London/New York: Routledge, 2012), 212. 2 To be precise, I understand a fictional world to be a world that is build or presented in a narrative that is not intended by its author(s) to refer to the ‘real’ world—it is explicitly marked as fictional. This definition is based on Markus Davidsen’s definition of fiction (which in turn represents the accepted technical meaning of the term in literary studies): ‘any literary narrative which is not intended by its author to refer to events which have taken place in the actual world prior to being entextualised.’ Markus Altena Davidsen, “Fiction-based Religion: Conceptualising a New Category Against History-based Religion and Fandom,” Culture and Religion 14(4) (2013): 384. The concept of ‘fictional world’ (as I use it) is largely synonymous with for example J.R.R. Tolkien’s (1947) notion of ‘Secondary World’ (as opposed to our ‘Primary World’) and Michael Saler’s ‘imaginary world’ (as opposed to ‘the real’). As Saler points out, fictional worlds are not necessarily completely built by the author; they can also be constructed around fictional characters, as is the case with for example the London of Sherlock Holmes. Michael T. Saler. As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 29. 3 In the field of media studies, the term ‘text’ is used to refer to the content of media; hence a ‘media text’ is a particular film, book, television series, etc. 4 See e.g. Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington, “Introduction: Why Study Fans?”, in Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, eds. Idem (New York: New York University Press, 2007), 1-16; Dan Hassler-Forest, Transmedia: Verhalen Vertellen in het Digitale Tijdperk, (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2013), 14. 5 Saler, As If, 17-18, 28. - 4 - consumers, and cultural studies and religious studies scholars have examined how media messages are received, understood and potentially used in different spheres of social and cultural life. In this context, fictional worlds have often been praised as safe playgrounds to confront and explore other perspectives and possibilities.