rayvyn2k | Snowflake Challenge Day 5 (Reply)

Day 5: In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity?

First, I don't have a 'fannish' alias. My alias, rayvyn2k, has been my internet identity ever since I bought my first computer in 1999. Wait, first it was rayvyn^^, but when I tried to use the '^^' for email or signing up on websites, I usually got the 'can't use special characters' error message, so changed the wings to '2k'.

90% of the time, if you see 'rayvyn2k' somewhere, it's probably me. :)

My very first fandom was The Partridge Family, and I wrote some very bad, very Mary Sue-ish fan fic when I was in 6th and 7th grade. My best friend at the time loved Bobby Sherman, but I was a David Cassidy fan all the way. (OMG The Partridge Family was one of my favorite shows, I recorded all the episodes when it first came on Nickelodeon in the early 90s, and those tapes are still in my possession.) David's hot bod, which my 12 year old self drooled (not to mention masturbated) over, and his long, shaggy hair sealed the deal for me. And he could sing. Whew. I still love long hair on men, and I trace it back to my David Cassidy crush.

Anyway, our stories were always self-insert, usually contained some sort of magic to get us together with David and Bobby (Cinderella isn't my favorite fairy tale for nothing, you know. Fairy Godmothers are quite handy to a lonely tween girl with a huge imagination), and the hottest thing that happened was kisses. I still have part of one of those stories squirreled away with my teen journals.

Oh, I've also been a Sherlock Holmes fan for years--although my friends and I didn't write anything, we acted out the original Conan Doyle stories for hours during the summers when I was around 10-ish years old.

Shit, I'm going to have to put this next bit behind an LJ cut. It got rather long.

The next real fandom I found was Star Trek (The Original). I vaguely recall watching the series on TV with my dad during its original run...I would have been 8 years old during its first season...but I didn't really get into the show in an obsessive way until it went into syndication. In those days, if you admitted you liked Star Trek, you were not greeted with glad tidings. The term 'Trekkie' was derogatory and used that way.

(I still proudly call my self a Trekkie. There was a brief fling where folks tried to change it to 'Trekker', which I'm sure they thought sounded cooler, but I never liked that term, myself.)

I was so into Star Trek that if my family wanted me somewhere (I had my own place by then) they knew if the event interfered with watching Star Trek, I wouldn't show up until after the show. I am one of those annoying people who try to guess the title of the show by the teaser alone. An even more annoyingly, I get it right nearly all the time.

My favorite episode is The City on the Edge of Forever, (even though Harlan Ellison is still being a dick about it), with The Devil in the Dark and Balance of Terror being two more favorites. Of course, everyone loves The Trouble with Tribbles, but I like A Piece of the Action even better.

Let's face it, aside from the awful Spock's Brain, the cringe-inducing Who Mourns for Adonais and the Halloween-y Catspaw, I really love them all. (It just took me 30 minutes to decide which 3 were my least favorite. I'm still wibbling about "Catspaw".)

Unlike many other Trek fans, my favorite of the TOS movies is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Yes, it beats you over the head about saving the whales, but that movie highlighted everything I love about Star Trek. The friendships, the humor ("Everybody remember where we parked." "One little mistake." "Nuclear wessels."), Kirk, Spock & company saving the world (again). I also like #2 & 3 (the first two of the Khan series).

Moving on (before I name every TOS episode and movie), I also enjoyed The Next Generation series (the ones with Q and/or the holodeck are particular favorites) and their movies, especially "First Contact" which I thought was fantastic.

I HATE Generations with the hate of a thousand flaming suns and will never voluntarily watch that movie ever again. The way they killed Kirk offended me so badly that I can't even talk about it without going into a rage. Just reviewing the link I set in here made my blood pressure go up. Captain James Tiberius Fucking Kirk does not die by falling off a bridge! GOD! If he has to die (and of course he does, he is human) it should be in a blaze of glory while saving the universe. It might be argued that he did save the universe in that movie, but his death seemed to me to be a weak throwback to Spock's death in ST: The Wrath of Khan.

I have watched and enjoyed the other ST spinoffs except for the last one, "Enterprise". They lost me during the first episode when Archer threatened the female Vulcan with physical violence. I know that she could wipe the floor with him, but that doesn't matter. It was way too triggering for me and I just never gave it another chance.

I like (overall) the movie re-boot with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, the first better than the second. I thought they could have done better with the Khan story in #2, so I was a bit dissatisfied and felt Benedict was wasted in the part. If the rumors about Star Trek 3 are true, I'm sure I won't be able to resist seeing it.

And then there is I thought I had written about my HP fandom origin here before, but my crazy random tags don't give me any clues, so I'll tell the story (again).

In September 1999, I went to the local bookstore and took my son along. He was 16 at the time. While I was browsing, he went off on his own and soon came back with Sorcerer's Stone in his hand and asked me to buy it for him.

A bit of backstory: my son was functionally illiterate at the time, in spite of being a sophomore in high school. Florida had a policy (not sure if they still do) at the time called "social promotion" meaning they promoted kids, whether they deserved it or not, to the next grade. I'm sure it was done because the schools there were (and still are) extremely overcrowded. In spite of the fact that I begged his teachers to hold him back, my son was socially promoted every year even though he could barely read.

Back to the bookstore.

Anytime I'd take my kids to the bookstore, I would usually buy them a book as well. Even though I knew my son just wanted me to buy something for him, I still did it, hoping that he would actually read whatever I bought.

I always found the books I bought for him under his bed, unread.

When he approached me with the Sorcerer's Stone hardcover, I told him I wouldn't buy him any books because he never read them. I had never heard of Harry Potter at that point--Prisoner of Azkaban had just been published. There was a prominent display in the store touting the series.

He begged me to buy him the HP book. I noticed that it was out in paperback. As a compromise, I told him I'd buy him the paperback instead. He tried to convince me to buy the hardcover and I said:

"I'll make a deal with you. I will buy you the paperback today. You read it and tell me what it's about. Then, I'll read it. If I am convinced you've actually read the book, not only will I take you to the store and buy you the hardcover of the 3 that are already out and all of the hardcovers of all the future books, as well."

He agreed.

And that is how my son and I both became HP fans and how we wound up with first editions of books 4-7.

And my son READS! He has read the HP books, the Percy Jackson books and many others. He reads all the time, now.

I am forever indebted to JK Rowling. If she had never written the Harry Potter books, my son would have never discovered the joy of reading. And I would never have found so many fantastic friends online, nor written some of my best work as fanfic.

(I also love Star Wars (only 4-6 so far), Dr. Who, Monty Python, Red Dwarf, Black Adder and the Marvel Cinematic Universe among others, but I've only written stories in those fandoms mentioned above.)