Hmm. Well, so far as the history of the phandom things goes, I know I would love to see a history of fandom (and fanfic) in general. I gather that a hundred years ago, fans of the Bronte sisters were holding teas dressed up as their favourite characters, but I have no idea where it all started, or how fandom in general has changed over the years.
Specifically for Phantom, it might be interesting to look at how the phandom has changed with changing technology. This March marks my own 20th anniversary of being in the phandom. I started when someone copied a cassette tape of the OLC for me; found out about the book when I looked up "Paris Opera House" in the school encyclopedia, and ordered a copy in at my local bookstore (the library not having a copy). I then somewhere along the line ran into the letterzine (remember those?) Phantom Notes and got a couple of issues of that (even have a poem in one!).
Back then, finding any other fans of anything was extremely difficult. I remember being approached by a fan of a certain author's work at something like 2am at the local coffee shop, because I was reading something of his myself. She had no idea that he'd ever written anything else other than the one she'd read!
Nowadays, there's almost too much info out there. Back when, it was pretty easy, in a way, to know pretty much everything (or so it felt) about a fandom or a subject, because there was so little info out there. The hard part was just tracking it down and laying hands to it. But these days, punch in "Phantom of the Opera" into Google, and something like 99% (my guess lol) of the hits have to do with the movie. To find out that it was based on a book, let alone anything about it or other incarnations, takes quite a bit of digging, not to mention search skills and some kind of a clue that there was any other versions out there in the first place to go looking for.
no subject
Specifically for Phantom, it might be interesting to look at how the phandom has changed with changing technology. This March marks my own 20th anniversary of being in the phandom. I started when someone copied a cassette tape of the OLC for me; found out about the book when I looked up "Paris Opera House" in the school encyclopedia, and ordered a copy in at my local bookstore (the library not having a copy). I then somewhere along the line ran into the letterzine (remember those?) Phantom Notes and got a couple of issues of that (even have a poem in one!).
Back then, finding any other fans of anything was extremely difficult. I remember being approached by a fan of a certain author's work at something like 2am at the local coffee shop, because I was reading something of his myself. She had no idea that he'd ever written anything else other than the one she'd read!
Nowadays, there's almost too much info out there. Back when, it was pretty easy, in a way, to know pretty much everything (or so it felt) about a fandom or a subject, because there was so little info out there. The hard part was just tracking it down and laying hands to it. But these days, punch in "Phantom of the Opera" into Google, and something like 99% (my guess lol) of the hits have to do with the movie. To find out that it was based on a book, let alone anything about it or other incarnations, takes quite a bit of digging, not to mention search skills and some kind of a clue that there was any other versions out there in the first place to go looking for.