Elfscribe's Den

I haven't seen it yet, but I want to. I get the bad sense that there's not enough to relate to the fans of today (but oh, it would be more than worth the buy if it was thorough enough to mention the enormous wanks like that of Victoria Bitter and Turimel - I would love to see an interview by either of them!). I am still, however, very interested in how the fandom metamorphasized since the 60s; our roots are so very interesting, as long as their development is properly illustrated (I once took it upon myself to write the history of the A/L pairing, although that hasn't seen the light of day yet).

I have to say, though, that I have heard the term 'Ringers' before plenty of times, although I've always gotten the impression that that was an artifical term coined by the more popular fansites once the movies hit the scene. That's not a term I would expect everyone to be conversant with, although enough people have heard it simply because these website have pushed it. Who the hell actually calls his or herself a 'Ringer', though?

Nobody.

I'm almost 100% positive that TORN, theonering.net (the premiere LotR fansite since the movies debuted), coined the term 'Ringers'. If they didn't coin it themselves, they were certainly the ones to have made it known, although it never caught on in popular usage.

It's no coincidence either that "Ringers" was entirely a production of theonering.net. Just the fact that TORN = 'Ringers' should tell you something. ;)

I hope that was interesting for you; I just can't help rambling about fandom matters when I find these things interesting myself :)

Ah, thanks, hon *g* It's not really quite as grand as it sounds though because it's only one section in a larger A/L ship manifesto that (*gulps*) I wrote last year and haven't been able to finish, and it's the briefest section at that. I really want to, though; it's just one of those things where the section that has me stumped is so intimidating that I'm blocked. When I do finish it, though, I will be posting links to the manifesto all over :p If you want, I can send you the section on the history, which has a lot to do with the early online slash fandom as well. It's still a work in progress, though; I want to do some more hunting around on FF.net and see just how many (if any A/L's) there were there before the earliest fic I could find on the Yahoo groups. I also want to pad it a bit more with info on early popular writers.

I have a feeling you'll be disappointed as is, but I can send it to you if you like. ~MH

I don't have too much to add, I think you and miladyhawke nailed some of my thoughts also. Bought it the first day it was out (had to go to FIVE places to find it - anything to feed my LOTR addiction), and actually I was a little disappointed. I too had heard it compared to Trekkies, which I thought boded well, but it didn't have the tongue-in-cheek humor of that one. I did think, like you it dwelt on the 60s-70s overmuch and the production values were the same. And to my eye, way too TORN intensive, though they did make it after all. I did think the reference to Library of Moria was kind of funny given the site's current, shall we say kindly, "downtime." - Thought it might inspire them to fix the server problem in that it was "publicity" for them. But alas, not true. And I would NEVER call myself or any other serious Tolkien geek a "Ringer." It is very much a TORN appilation (sic - is that a word?), and I think its advent is only since the movies. Too be honest, after the first viewing I did not feel compelled to watch again. So, that's my 2 cents! Cheers! Ennorwen

I'd like to see it, but I don't want to cough up the $17.95 that Wal-Mart wants for it. I really loved the Trekkies 1 & 2 films, though. I agree with you on the 'Ringers' term... I've never referred to myself (or wanted to refer to myself) as a Ringer LOL (I'll admit to being a Trekkie, though.) *geeks out*

I was wondering if it would mention slash or not. I'd be really interested to see what they have to say about that! LOL I remember they very, very briefly mentioned Kirk/Spock in one of the Trekkie volumes.