If you do n’t worship Star Trek , then you must hero-worship the Force . But possibly you ’re a vampire maven , or a extremity of the Batman congregating ? sports fan ’ faith in their franchises get as intense and bloody as partisan ’ faith in religion .
The Ancient Books
Like all great religions , the franchises have mystical chronicle , preserve in decaying books and isolated pamphlets . The thread that unites all of them is an overarching tale of social outcasts who find holy books that show them the light , and lead them to secret congregations where mystical debate and opinions are exchanged .
Almost hundred - old pulp magazine magazines like Weird Tales and Amazing Stories brought the faith to tiny town via drugstore video display and dreary bookshop . Comic books with stories of the Superman and the Batman converted the close four generations ago . floor of Conan , John Carter of Mars , and Flash Gordon were fall around and taught the agnostic about a world where science triumphed , the star anticipate endless unexampled earth to explore , and plainfaced secretaries could transform into superpowered , beautiful Amazons out to save the humanity .
commute by these ancient Quran , the early fans begin to work up the franchises that would translate their visions of other world into the pillars of new impression organization .
The Crusades
Now , how could these faithful convert the masses ? Surely not with gymnastic horse and swords . This crusade would use the tool of soda pop and raw media . And by new metier , I mean movies and television . The Hero and monsters who commence life on the page of tatty magazines became the technicolor astronauts of motion picture serials like Flash Gordon , Universal ’s freak picture , and afterward of mind - deform fifties scifi movies like Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still .
Popular author like Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov infix a newfangled adaptation of the holy writ , but congregations expanded after vulnerability to the jumbo shiny spectacle of starship and automaton on screen . No motive to dispatch or ostracize the non - believers . By the 1960s , all you ’d want to do was hand them a Marvel comic or show them an instalment of Twilight Zone and they ’d come around .
A Vast Congregation Breaks Into Sects
The church of dealership reached mega - church dimensions in the 1970s , with the rising slope of Star Trek , Star Wars , and Doctor Who fandoms . For the first meter , the scifi and pulp world start to fragment into sect . Where once fan had all met at the same conventions to share the same stories , now factionalism had begun . People go to Star Trek conventions , and called themselves Trekkers alternatively of just fans .
Apocrypha and Idol Worship
ineluctably , as factionalism increased , apocryphal books and graven image adoration go rearing . No longer were fan quenched with the stories given to them from on high . Instead they had to publish their own . Slash fiction have the amatory adventures of Kirk and Spock spread like blasphemy through the saturated eye of fandom . And then came the Doctor Who novels and radio adventures .
fan began to speak in term of canon . There were the basic texts of yore , and then the non - canonical fanfic tales and paintings and videos that flooded conventions with stories that Stan Lee and Gene Roddenberry never intend .
In the years Of The Web , this situation has reached a fever pitch with Harry Potter shippers and fanfic writers taking the ancient tome into their own hand and making them into whatever they like . Harry Potter having sexuality with Draco ? The Supernatural boys having sex with Captain Jack ? Me have sexual practice with Doctor Who ? Anything give way . Fandom becomes Babylon .
Holy Wars
Of course the Sodom and Gomorrah of fandom today must be flush , must be forced to recognise the canyon for what it is – and to recognize their true gods once again . That ’s why big content owners like Paramount , LucasArts , Marvel , and others must scourge the fan with sound threats when they publish blasphemous devotee art and floor . No longer is fandom what the fans create ! You may only have the truly authorize Holy Scripture and stories from science fable if you pay for them , just as you compensate tithe , or crush out for indulgences , or compose a check to your favorite televangelist .
Some sports fan have begin to renegade against the superpower of this novel Hollywood Christian church , fighting legal threats and keep main cartoon strip . Others fight down among themselves , diffident where to turn . Thus we saw the corking Twilight Rebellion of Comic - Con 2009 , where dissenter held signs that read “ Twilight Ruined Comic - Con , ” the way Christians once hold banners that read “ The End is Nigh . ”
religious belief As Franchise
Those who run enfranchisement today are savvy enough to sleep with that they ’re contend with faith from the starting signal . display like Supernatural , Battlestar Galactica , Buffy , and Star Trek have all dealt head - on with organized religion . And their congregations have only grown . Meanwhile , the Jedi Religion is one of the quickest - grow in the world(at least according to nose count reports ) .
In the final stage , religious fervour is good for the pocketbook of the culture industry . The more we worship , the more we are willing to pay up for action figures , for DVD box circle , for expensive reprint and signed first editions . These things are trinkets for our shrine , outward-bound signs of our devotion . And like all religious object they are dosed with a symbolical meaning that goes way beyond their unbroken plastic seals . They guard off what hurts us in the humanity . They assure good thing to come .
Star Wars loft viaeyeSPIVE .
conflict droid action figure viamonsterbrick .
Harry Potter shrine viaBoogersHondoFido .
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