Logan, looking at all them angry fans.
Fans nowadays are angry. Oh, are they angry. And James Mangold is worried about the effect it will have on the culture industry.
Taking to Twitter, Mangold (who always has interesting, if not uncontroversial, thoughts on pop culture media) shared his thoughts about the direction fandom has taken in 2018 and what the results of that will be.
In a series of tweets, Mangold outlines his concern that fandom outrage, and the fear of upsetting an eager mob of commenters, Tweeters, YouTubers, and other variations of online fan, will drive smart, creative people out of wanting anything to do with big franchises. He likens it to a religious fervor: say or do the wrong thing, and you might be seen as a blasphemer.
At the point when work writing & directing big franchises has become the emotionally loaded equivalent of writing a new chapter of The Bible (w/ the probable danger of being stoned & called a blasphemer), then a lot of bolder minds r gonna leave these films 2 hacks & corp boards.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
If you feel that is the case, if u feel the film makers are just corporate tools and powerless, then why bitch at us? In the case of @rianjohnson and @chrismcquarrie, i assure you these cats are not “owned”. They actually fight your battles behind the scenes.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
The fervor of some attacks has an evangelical ferocity. Now, I get it cause for many folk, including me, the SW saga holds tremendous spiritual power, similar to a religious text. But we must remember to try to handle our disappointments the way Yoda might, as opposed to Darth.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 5, 2018
At io9, we’ve already talked about how fandom can have a detrimental effect on the industry when it gets nasty. Loving something is fine and good, but when it turns into trolling and harassment it does real material harm to the people involved in creating those things. And Mangold is right: people will leave. And people most vulnerable to this sort of treatment, women and people of colour and marginalized folk of all sorts, are going to be the ones who are driven out most quickly and easily.
It’s refreshing to see a prominent creator point out this fact, which a lot of people in lower rungs in the culture industry are already well aware of. If we want a world of genre fiction that’s diverse, exciting, and relevant, it’s important to oppose and stamp out hateful, harassing behaviour. And we need creators like Mangold to help.
[Twitter, via Slash Film]