Recursive enthusiasm
Nov 01
So I totally get how people can get obsessed with a TV show, or a series of novels, or just an artist whose work consistently thrills you. And I'm right there with how exciting it is when you find out that there's MORE coming from that person, or that fantasy world, or whatever. I think this is a well-understood piece of mammal psychology; I mean, it's pretty much Pavlovian conditioning, where the subject salivates at the anticipation of a reward that they can predict because they've experienced before.
But in this case (you'll need to watch at least the first minute to understand what the hell I'm talking about), the superfans in question just straight-up blow my mind.
Because what's in the video is just that Pavlovian thing. But think about what's OUTSIDE that video.
When Firefly geeks watch that video, IN WHICH Firefly geeks see the Serenity trailer for the first time, they're excited because they're anticipating how excited with anticipation the in-the-video-geeks are going to be, in the past, when they finally get to see the trailer for the movie that came out three years ago.
Consider how complex that sequence of events is.
Apart from blistering my mind with its meta-recursive fannishness, I think it's interesting what it says about the human brain. We can derive joy from seeing something joyful happen to someone else; we enjoy it almost as much as if we were the ones experiencing it ourselves.
I guess that's why art works.