This seems to be an airplane book--I read mine on my way to New Orleans in April. ^^
As you know, SandyBob, I am a volunteer for and a member of the Organization for Transformative Works, and I definitely read this book with an eye to how and whether Azuma's ideas could be applied to fandom outside Japan and to female fans in particular. I think I wound up concluding that Azuma does a very good job of laying out what could become part of the foundations of a unified theory of fandom (because, seriously, if fanfiction doesn't fit his ideas about databases, there is nothing that does), but that it doesn't go anywhere near far enough. To his credit, he doe say at one point in the book that he's not really talking about female fans, but that's also a major detriment. On the other hand, I put about as much stock in the Lacan/Kojève model of desire as I do in a three-dollar bill. I do think that the idea of "becoming-animal" is a good one to have around, but in a completely different formulation than Kojève--I tend to think about the idea of becoming-animal in things like Oshii's movies, in which the text is clearly wrestling with the grounds and terms of posthumanism and/or posthumanity. I don't think we're going to arrive at a coherent theory of fandom, or fujoshi, without posthumanism coming in to play in a much bigger way than I've seen anyone yet acknowledge.
I said other, slightly differently emphasized things in my review here.
no subject
As you know, SandyBob, I am a volunteer for and a member of the Organization for Transformative Works, and I definitely read this book with an eye to how and whether Azuma's ideas could be applied to fandom outside Japan and to female fans in particular. I think I wound up concluding that Azuma does a very good job of laying out what could become part of the foundations of a unified theory of fandom (because, seriously, if fanfiction doesn't fit his ideas about databases, there is nothing that does), but that it doesn't go anywhere near far enough. To his credit, he doe say at one point in the book that he's not really talking about female fans, but that's also a major detriment. On the other hand, I put about as much stock in the Lacan/Kojève model of desire as I do in a three-dollar bill. I do think that the idea of "becoming-animal" is a good one to have around, but in a completely different formulation than Kojève--I tend to think about the idea of becoming-animal in things like Oshii's movies, in which the text is clearly wrestling with the grounds and terms of posthumanism and/or posthumanity. I don't think we're going to arrive at a coherent theory of fandom, or fujoshi, without posthumanism coming in to play in a much bigger way than I've seen anyone yet acknowledge.
I said other, slightly differently emphasized things in my review here.