![\"PaperCuts-web\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/PaperCuts-web.jpg?resize=468%2C60\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(EDITOR’S NOTE:\u00a0Adam wanted to tell you that he’s just released a brand-spankin’-new book, The Con Season<\/a><\/em>, but was afraid to increase his already out-of-control word count, so I told him I would tell you. We now return you to this month’s edition of\u00a0Paper Cuts.<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n Twitter is a lot of things. It can be a place to get your news, try out your comedy chops or keep tabs on your friends. <\/span><\/p>\n As a tool for mass communication the social network is powerful enough to overthrow governments, but its uses can be as simple as some R&R spent hurling anonymous insults to let the world know how terrified you are of women.<\/span><\/p>\n But I digress. We talk about movies. And books and games and comics and all the other media we enjoy. Or, maybe \u201cenjoy\u201d is no longer the right word for what <\/span>we<\/span><\/i> do, what<\/span> I<\/span><\/i> feel the pressure to do. <\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s because many of us freebase our media with a rapidity that would have been <\/span>impossible<\/b> ten years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently I logged into Twitter, read down my feed, and found that the typical \u201cwhat\u2019s new and good?\u201d water-cooler chatter had begun to make me feel… anxious?<\/span><\/p>\n Anxious both because there\u2019s too much worthwhile content being released and the conversations surrounding that content are becoming more blink-and-you-missed-it. <\/span><\/p>\n And, yes, I realize that I\u2019m exaggerating, but that\u2019s what it <\/span>feels like<\/span><\/i>, to me, with the diverse spread of enthusiastic people I choose to follow. <\/span><\/p>\n And I\u2019m not claiming that these feelings are universal. And I know they aren\u2019t because I\u2019m aware that I\u2019m an obsessive who finds himself prone to massive attacks of FOMO.* I also don\u2019t mean \u201canxiety\u201d like I\u2019m blaming anyone for \u201ctriggering me\u201d or mean to compare my mild agitation to anyone\u2019s legitimate metal problems. No, what I\u2019m trying to get at is: being a fan is supposed to be FUN. By definition, our hobbies or leisure activities should give us pleasure, and I was getting to the point where keeping up with the ongoing fan dialogue was beginning to feel like a chore.<\/span><\/p>\n So here are the two problems facing \u201cplugged-in\u201d fandom, as I see them. They contribute to that anxiety I feel, but aren\u2019t the be all and end all of it. Then at the end of this piece I\u2019m going to share the three-pronged plan I\u2019ve made for myself to reduce that anxiety and make my own fandom fun again.<\/span><\/p>\n I Want It Now!<\/b><\/p>\n Try as we might to deny it, fandom has a strong history of \u201cbig companies trying to tribalize your love of their product and then profit off of that devotion.\u201d And these days—now that \u201cgeek culture\u201d is the dominant entertainment culture—that tribalization has become the only way this stuff functions on both a fan and corporate level.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s no denying it. When we pull on our black t-shirts (or our more colorful superhero ones) we all become corporate shills to one degree or another. Even us horror fans who tend to worship at the altar of \u201clow budget\u201d fare: lower budgets simply mean bigger profits for the bosses, comrade. <\/span><\/p>\n But if you want to take a more optimistic look at the landscape, there are some people working for those corporations working to make true art, even if they have to smuggle it in. And that\u2019s what I believe, and I also believe that by voting with one’s dollars for the good art, you can make the production of good material economically rewarding for the money men. <\/span><\/p>\n So, yes, none of that mono-culture stuff bothers me on a philosophical level. If I enjoy myself, I\u2019m cool with diverting entertainment dollars back to the big studios; but there\u2019s one part of this equation that contributes to my fandom anxiety: marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s a necessary evil. Believe me, as someone who needs to pimp my own work on the reg (EDITOR’S NOTE: Maybe I should have added the link to Adam’s new book, The Con Season<\/em><\/a>, here instead…)<\/strong>, I understand <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> marketing exists. But as we enter a more connected world and traditional media becomes more and more outmoded, marketing has been forced to evolve into something more loud and obnoxious.<\/span><\/p>\n We no longer have trailers and TV spots bombarding us. No, now we have countdowns to trailer teasers (trailers <\/span>for <\/span><\/i>trailers!), and we have viral marketing stunts that have to look <\/span>just enough<\/span><\/i> like original content so that fan sites will pick them up and run them like they\u2019re news, not commercials. We have red band trailers that promise to show you \u201call the good stuff\u201d (isn\u2019t that\u2019s what the movie\u2019s for?). We have targeted Facebook ads, promoted Tweets, Snapchat filters that turn you into Jared Leto (Kafka couldn\u2019t have imagined a worse fate).<\/span><\/p>\n Now. I know that I\u2019m no expert, but all of this achieves, what, exactly? For the casual fan, I imagine this new marketing does its job, makes them aware of a product they may not have known was coming out. But for the people who\u2019re already diehards? At worst the oversaturation annoys them, or they seek out every trailer, international trailer, and clip, and it shows them enough of your product that there\u2019s no novelty left and they no longer want to buy it. And at worst the oversaturation drives these diehards to Veruca Salt-levels of entitlement, where they\u2019re <\/span>starting fan petitions to quell the \u201cbiased\u201d media<\/span><\/a> (no comment on the quality of the movie, but is this really a case of \u201cno such thing as bad publicity?\u201d because it seems pretty bad) or simply so enthusiastic <\/span>that they\u2019ll steal and disseminate<\/span><\/a> a bootleg version your movie if given half a chance. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As I touched on in my last column<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0I\u2019m a big believer in word-of-mouth and critical consensus when picking the stuff I want to Late last month I attended a preview screening of Fede Alvarez\u2019s <\/span>Don\u2019t Breathe<\/span><\/i>. It was before I\u2019d seen any of the trailers or TV spots and I had a great time. Now, half a month later, as an experiment, I\u2019ve been watching every trailer and clip the studio releases. They\u2019ve spoiled the entire movie! People will still probably like the film when they go check it out at the end of this month, but if they were picking up all the breadcrumbs the studio\u2019s been dropping, trying to lead them to the theater, then by the time the credits roll they\u2019re going to feel unfulfilled. And is that the audience member you want to release back out into the world? What are they going to tell their friends? \u201cEh, it was fine, wait until Netflix, though.\u201d **<\/span><\/p>\n Gotta Catch \u2018Em All!<\/b><\/p>\n I mentioned that I follow a ton of fun, witty people on Twitter. And I also mention that it\u2019s a diverse bunch, not merely diverse in what their avatar thumbnails look like, but diverse in their tastes and interests. <\/span><\/p>\n The people I like to hear talk are predominately horror fans, but I also like to think that I contain multitudes, thus I\u2019m also following people who are into foreign film, Broadway shows, sf & fantasy lit, TV, indie publishing (and big NY publishing), stand-up comedy, anime, and video games (fans of those last two can be…problematic, but there are some genuinely non-terrible folks who Tweet about this stuff, too). <\/span><\/p>\n And, yes, this is my choice to be following all of these different (and sometimes conflicting) fan dialogues, but remember what I said about my propensity towards FOMO?<\/span><\/p>\n Back say, even 16 years ago (a tiny period of time, comparatively, and one where the Internet existed), it took <\/span>effort<\/span><\/i> to track down these groups. And even more effort to get your hands on the media they were discussing. If you wanted to be checking out the newest indie films that all the magazines (yes, there were magazines and those magazines had utility) were talking about, you better get on a plane or train and get to a festival. If you wanted a certain out-of-print book by an obscure author, you better get those money orders ready (and wait for pre-Amazon Prime shipping) or be willing to sift through ten used book stores. <\/span><\/p>\n Now? You can have nearly anything you want, legally, beamed into your eyeballs in seconds. And this isn\u2019t me getting crotchety old man on you (don\u2019t you hate those \u201cShare if you remember\u201d memes on Facebook? What does that prove?). Having access to this stuff is incredible. But, <\/span>for me<\/span><\/i>, being almost competitive in my fandom, seeing an opportunity to fill gaps in my knowledge as a challenge, this access to every kind of media is <\/span>exhausting<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n And there\u2019s no rational reason for this compulsion. I should not be overcome with a \u201cgotta catch ’em all\u201d mentality when faced with the opportunity to watch 4k transfers of movies that I hadn\u2019t even heard of that morning. And they shouldn\u2019t be on my Amazon wishlist. And yet… here we are, and I\u2019ve just clicked away from writing this column, done a Wikipedia deep-dive on the novels of Wilfreda Fakename and it turns out all her novels have been digitized and are only a couple bucks on Kindle! <\/span><\/p>\n So What? You Still Like This Stuff, Right?<\/b><\/p>\n Yeah, of course, but over the past few months I\u2019ve tried a number of things to help me enjoy the things I consume a little more. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve become a horror movie and fiction sommelier, wafting that carnage in through my nose and enjoying it in tiny, grateful sips, then carefully presenting the way I talk about that material publicly. And here\u2019s the thing: I consume just as many movies and books, maybe even more because of all the time I save hemming and hawing about what I should be focusing on (you know the feeling: you get stuck on that Netflix carousel and watch posters and descriptions fly by, never actually settling on one).<\/span><\/p>\n But the thing is: I\u2019m not required, none of us are. Neither do I need to tell the world about the 40 minutes of that VOD horror movie I just watched and how it was <\/span>the worst<\/span><\/i>. And neither do I need to share everything I consume; some opinions can just be for myself or the people who are in the room with me, having a more intimate experience. I\u2019ve especially gotten this way with my reading. I know so many authors personally that when I have nice things to say, I share them, but otherwise my reading time is sacred and personal and at its best when it\u2019s a book by an author who\u2019s dead or I haven\u2019t ever been in the same room with.<\/span><\/p>\n This seems like common sense, <\/span>but as someone who\u2019s recently begun filming themselves talking about movies and books<\/span><\/a> (please subscribe, oh God what have I become!?), I\u2019ve realized that I need to draw this line. Public opinions are great, but you\u2019re never going to boil down all of your subjective, quirky, nuanced views into 140 characters or a 10 minute unrehearsed YouTube ramble. And trying stresses me out, so I no longer try. I just post what I want when the fancy strikes and I feel a lot better about it.<\/span><\/p>\n Again not limiting the discussion to WHAT\u2019S HOT RIGHT THIS INSTANT, seems like common sense but it wasn\u2019t common sense to my uncommonly neurotic senses, so maybe me articulating it in print (whoa, 2,500 words of print, the editor\u2019s going to be pissed)(EDITOR’S NOTE: I prefer “peeved” over “pissed”)<\/strong>, we can all help each other enjoy our hobbies more.<\/span><\/p>\n Look, I\u2019m not really sure if the above article is going to apply to all of you, or even the majority of you. And I also get that it\u2019s only tangentially \u201chorror\u201d related. Next month will be a fun, explicitly horror listicle: I promise. <\/span><\/p>\n But, also: I don\u2019t see your name on the banner, buddy. \ud83d\ude42 <\/span><\/p>\n Have a good one,<\/span><\/p>\n Adam<\/span><\/p>\n * The fear of missing out, something we didn\u2019t even have a term for last year. So next time you\u2019re slagging off millennials: at least they came up with that acronym. What have you done, old man?<\/strong><\/p>\n ** Or worse, either through enthusiasm or apathy they decide to steal this product they\u2019ve gone full-Veruca over. And no, I don\u2019t say \u201ctorrent\u201d because \u201csteal\u201d is the more precise word.<\/strong><\/p>\n Adam Cesare is a New Yorker who lives in Philadelphia. He studied English and film at Boston University. His books include <\/em>Mercy House,\u00a0Video Night, The Summer Job,\u00a0and <\/em>Tribesmen.\u00a0He has an oft-neglected\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0and tweets as @Adam_Cesare.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n<\/span>For me, and a lot of my other nerd friends, acquaintances, and strangers who I randomly follow: Twitter is a place to talk about movies. And because that\u2019s mostly all I like to do, so is Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"the-shallows-poster\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/the-shallows-poster-203x300.jpg?resize=203%2C300\")
Didn\u2019t see <\/span>The Shallows<\/span><\/i> last week? Too bad, we\u2019re done! We all agree that the shark is big and Blake Lively is pretty. Didn\u2019t get a digital ARC of the latest Joe Hill book? Better use an Audible credit on that ish and listen to it at double-speed so you can catch the hell up before we spoil it for you!<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Veruca\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Veruca.gif?resize=245%2C164\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/dont-breathe-poster-1-192x300.jpg?resize=192%2C300\")
spend time\/money on. I\u2019m the kind of guy who will plug his ears and hum during the coming attractions, if it\u2019s for a movie I\u2019ve already \u201cbought in\u201d for. Getting targeted marketing for a movie a month before its release kind of sours me on the experience of going in fresh. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
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