The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media

Rating:
Summary: ALMOST completely adoring 'The Adoring Audience'
Review: 'The Adoring Audience' is a collection of essays by academics,journalists and other writers about fans, 'fandom' and fan behaviour. All articles shed light in one way or another on the phenomenon of fandom from a number of different persepctives: John Fiske writes about 'The Cultural Economy of Fandom'; Cheryl Cline looks at female rock 'n' roll fans; Lisa Lewis examines fan stories on film; and Joli Jensen alerts us to the dangers of dismissing ardent fans as 'pathological.' Both Elvis fans and 'Beatlemania' come under the microscope too. The articles are presented without apology or explanation or with any idea that there should be a cohesion of position across the entire volume (unless of course it is that 'fandom' is interesting!). As a result, a chapter which clearly 'pathologises' fans follows on from an article which states that it is unhelpful to do precisely that. There are many contradictions in the ideas in this book. I liked that. It really made you examine the arguments put forward more rigorously. I think I am only rating it a four star book because I don't really feel it is the 'last word' on this subject. It was a great place to start to think about fans and fandom, but at the end of it I did not feel as though the experience of being a fan and the taboos associated with fandom in society had been emptied of charge and meaning and mystery. I think perhaps my favourite chapter was Fred and Judy Vermorel's 'A Glimpse of the Fan Factory' - a collection of extracts from fan letters to celebrities like Kate Bush and David Bowie, excerpts from radio and television shows too - in which fans unguardedly write and speak their minds about their fan objects. Although some of the writers are clearly deeply disturbed and 'unusual' - and some bizarrely unselfconscious and naive - some of these letters have a curious beauty and power which is difficult to describe . . . little pieces of people's hearts and lives, sent out to the adored they will never meet. Amazing reading.