When the psychedelic lights of the concert of your idols turn into those of a hospital room, then yes, you are probably their number one fan.
This week’s #SaturdaySnap 📸 is this great selfie the guys took during a live performance! pic.twitter.com/zC3dlMG4Nb
— One Direction (@onedirection) January 28, 2017
Thus, a Texan sixteen-year-old has earned the spotlight and an article in the Journal of Emergency Medicine: at the One Direction concert, this little girl has given all of herself, including her lungs. Arriving at the Emergency Room, literally breathless, but without chest pain, the doctors felt a creep, crepitus subcutaneous, which occurs when there is air in the tissue. Screaming at her favourite songs was so strong to open, for the first time, a small congenital hole: a passion that was almost fatal!
When the topic is teen idols, crazy things are on the agenda. When you are passionate about something, usually you also want to share it (more or less!). That’s how fandoms are born, that is, a set of people who share and follow with interest the same piece of work, the same band etc… So far, everything is normal. However then comes the negative side, the plague, the Achilles heel, the black sheep. In this case, as in any field of life, the worst evil is extremism.
It must be said that some “extremisms” lead to realising your own dreams, like a certain Anna Todd, who has seen her love story, fictitious and disillusioned, with a member of One Direction, transformed in a young adult novel which was read by teenagers all over the world. I don’t see anything wrong with fantasising, writing fanfiction, drawing fan art, but when this world of evasion becomes a real hell for those who take refuge in it, then you have to be honest. Like a proper virus, these sick passions have to be eradicated: for example who insults an actor by exchanging it for the character he acts as or even scraps with a simple fan with an opinion different from his own.
These grinches of the virtual world believe in being the auctoritas about a given topic, and therefore superior to anyone. They feel they have a special tie with the actor, the singer, or the character they always talk about. Keep calm guys, this is fiction! To emphasise this theory, this is a scene from one the best TV series of all time, Friends. For those who do not know it, an extreme binge watching is due, because it takes 10 seasons. For those who already know it, I will refresh your memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK4-5RzTws4
I introduce you to Erika, the stalker: not Joey’s one (the group’s actor) but Drake Remoray’s, the doctor he plays in what she thinks is a reality show instead of the worst soap opera ever. Joey, as a perfect Don Juan, takes the ball in the lead, a ball that will turn out to be a crazy bludger when Erika’s crazy nature is revealed.
If we talk about extremism, I must mention another recent fact, about the cartoon of Rick and Morty.
The Adult Swim series, a brilliant parody of Back To The Future, has conquered not only the public but also the big brands! McDonald’s is mentioned in the first episode of the third season, where Szechuan Sauce, a 1998 limited edition condiment for the release of the Mulan movie, is referenced. The audience became obsessed with it, as was Emmet Brown’s animated alter ego, who traveled in the past only to enjoy it for the last time.
Photo Credit: Twitter.com/fawich
McDonald’s took the unfortunate decision to resell the sauce for a single day, not knowing that all 7.5 billion of the world’s population would line up outside the door. Some of the fast food stores were even stocked with only 20 servings. However, the following reaction was unexpected. Totally out of proportion. Fans occupied the restaurants, triggering police intervention. These are fandoms that spoil the success of the series itself and hinder the quiet living of people who do not have these problems. These are exaggerated passions, and for that reason sometimes it should be used more sense and less sensibility.
Here is the evil of entertainment, someone who threatens the death of an author for the departure of his favourite character. Who thinks he owns the work even more than the one who conceives it, who feels they have a right to have a voice in their life choices. Someone like Annie Wilkes in Misery by Stephen King, in which she imprisons and tortures her favourite writer to force him to resurrect the heroine of his latest novel.
If you sound like Annie, if you want to convince Harry Styles to go back to the fold by locking him in bed, if you want to segregate Shonda Rhimes while waiting for Derek to wake up from death with a state-of-the-art operation, then it’s necessary, perhaps, to focus on what your priorities really are.
Cover photo: Twitter.com/onedirection
Related articles and info:
Archive: Social Media’s One Direction
Archive: The Other Kind Of Ships
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