I've never seen anyone articulate this before. I call myself a 'serial fandom monogamist' because it really is like having an overwhelming crush on someone new while you are already in a relationship. And immediately (for me at least) the spark goes out of The Thing I've been pouring my heart into for months, sometimes years. There's a tremendous sense of loss, and I always, always leave more writing (once complete obsessions!) unfinished than I ever succeed in posting before the shine wears off. Often I find that I won't seek out new media because I am afraid that watching it will pull me into a New Thing before I'm ready, and that always means a loss of monomaniacal love in the Current Thing.
I think you're right though that each Thing is an opportunity for creative growth, sometimes in ways we don't anticipate. For example: I've found that I really enjoy and value the research I do for fandoms into the strange and varied areas that a canon reaches-- this culture or that, this time period, this technology or city or whatever that I have to learn about just to write convincingly. I don't know if my writing has improved from fandom obsession to fandom obsession as a whole, but I have learned a lot-- some things about writing / characterization / craft etc., and a LOT of things about (for example) computer science, the united states marine corps, 12th century germany, firearms, outer space, human anatomy, and ice hockey. That's such a small, tangential thing but like... it's not nothing. It's cool to learn stuff; one of those things I managed to turn into a career (ironically, my job now makes finding time to write difficult....).
I love the saying 'when the student is ready, the master appears'. This has been the case for me in my personal and professional life, but I think in a weird way it applies to fandom as well. We fall in love with the things we are ready to fall in love with. And so what if they are only love affairs? Unlike relationships with real people, to whom we have moral responsibilities and who can be harmed by our fickleness, an idea, or a book, or a film, or a tv show, is completely at our disposal. Nothing dies when we fall out of love with it. We only gain and grow from loving one thing after another.
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I think you're right though that each Thing is an opportunity for creative growth, sometimes in ways we don't anticipate. For example: I've found that I really enjoy and value the research I do for fandoms into the strange and varied areas that a canon reaches-- this culture or that, this time period, this technology or city or whatever that I have to learn about just to write convincingly. I don't know if my writing has improved from fandom obsession to fandom obsession as a whole, but I have learned a lot-- some things about writing / characterization / craft etc., and a LOT of things about (for example) computer science, the united states marine corps, 12th century germany, firearms, outer space, human anatomy, and ice hockey. That's such a small, tangential thing but like... it's not nothing. It's cool to learn stuff; one of those things I managed to turn into a career (ironically, my job now makes finding time to write difficult....).
I love the saying 'when the student is ready, the master appears'. This has been the case for me in my personal and professional life, but I think in a weird way it applies to fandom as well. We fall in love with the things we are ready to fall in love with. And so what if they are only love affairs? Unlike relationships with real people, to whom we have moral responsibilities and who can be harmed by our fickleness, an idea, or a book, or a film, or a tv show, is completely at our disposal. Nothing dies when we fall out of love with it. We only gain and grow from loving one thing after another.