This article was written for my blog: http://cagedcinema.tumblr.com/
Can you imagine people seeing Nicolas Cage as their one and only idol? Or even their one true god? How unlikely it may be for some; Nicolas Cage has a vast group of fans,  who worship and cultivate the actor online. Still there is opposition. Haters can attack and criticize the star just as easily as fans adore him. In a twofold of articles I’ll be studying fandom and “fantagonism” around Nicolas Cage. This article revolves around the Cage Craze: the many passionate fans of Nicolas Cage.

Since his debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, Nicolas Cage has played in more than seventy films, with even new films still coming out on a regular basis. He’s played quirky, romantic, crazy, badass and restricted roles in films of varying quality. It may seem unlikely that an actor which such an variety in quantitative and qualitative roles has garnered a huge involving fan base online, all without an official Twitter or Facebook account. How did Nicolas Cage get so many fans online?

Fandom. For many it’s regarded as something teenage girls do. It’s kissing your bedroom posters goodnight and writing personal, sexually exploring fan fiction; it’s beliebing and fainting at a pop concert; it’s buying every item with your idol’s face or body on it. In short: It’s immature obsession. Critics might say “fans are simply incapable of recognizing that the culture they enjoy is actually being used to dupe and exploit them. (…). They are always juveniles, waiting to grow up, and still enjoying the irresponsibility of their fandom.”  And yes, in some cases, this is true.

Still, being a ‘fan’ is much more than kissing your idol’s posters goodnight. Fiske (1992) defines fandom as “a collective strategy, a communal effort to form interpretative communities that in their subcultural cohesion evaded the preferred and intended meaning of the power bloc”. Baym (2007) argues that fandom involves a  “collective of people organized socially and their shared appreciation of pop culture object or objects”. While both definitions are workable and approachable I prefer the notion of Grossberg. He states that fans are a group, “who actively appropriate the text of specific cultures, and give them new and original significance.”

Grossberg’s notion underlines the fact that fans nowadays are no “passive consumers”, who are “duped and exploited by popular media texts”. Instead, fans can be seen as curators and editors in exchanging goods and pieces of information. Ideally, they are a community, sharing and caring their passions.

Establishing a community of fans in the pre-internet era used to be quite difficult and risky. The means to getting in touch with likeminded fans, were few. You could start your own club, but then you’d have to have friends that would share your passion, or you could attend a festival or convention - if one would even be held - with the risk of people close to you discovering your passion., I came around an interesting quote of a Keanu Reeves fan in a research on fandom around Keanu Reeves:

“I’ve been having some doubts about going to KeanuFest [a festival for Keanu Reeves fans] and my fascination with Keanu because of my age and position in life. I’ve wondered what my family and friends would think of my if they knew about this very private side of me.”

Maybe, then, it was best to keep your passion to yourself.

Now, with not only the coming of internet, but also with its quick development in the so-called realm of “Web 2.0”, being a fan is much easier. Forums, (micro)blogs, social networks and fan sites can now facilitate fans in forming a digital community. For fans this means they only have to google their idol and voila: fan- sites, -blogs and –groups are at their service.

 I’ve also searched for blogs, forums and pages about Nicolas Cage. Not only out of self-interest, but also for the sake of research and marketing for my blog. During my search I – also with the help of others– came across some very interesting places. The most notable, perhaps, is a subpage on popular website Reddit, called “One True God”. For those unfamiliar with Reddit, Wikipedia explains it as following:

A social news and entertainment website where registered users submit content in the form of either a link or a text (“self”) post. Other users then vote the submission “up” or “down”, which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site’s pages and front page. Content entries are organized by areas of interest called “subreddits”.

The One True God subreddit is fully dedicated to the worshipping of Nicolas Cage. The subreddit is explained by moderator ArcWinter, “High Priest of the Cage”, as:

Our place of devotion to the one true god, Nicolas Cage. His light guides us away from the temptation of John Travolta, and saves us from our bees.

The worshipping of Nicolas Cage is being performed on an exceptional high level: Nicolas Cage is referred to as “The Lord” or “Savior” and there is even a fourfold of gospels on “The words, teachings, and histories of the Cage”. Here is one of their passages to give you an impression of the content of the gospels:

Nicolas Cage blinked, and eons passed. The Holy Stardust collected through His gravitational will, forming great space seas of dust and light. He breathed, and Galactic Oceans condensed, forming a multitude of suns and stones. And with one stroke of His Mighty Boner, the Universe slowed down and cooled.

Although the One True God subreddit seems like a very strict community of worshippers, it’s still very accessible for outsiders.  No registration is required to lurk around  its pages. Also, it sometimes feels like the subreddit is used more for funny Photoshop’s or other funny exploitables of Nicolas Cage, then for truly establishing a community.

For those in search of a more intrinsic Nicolas Cage community, the Cage-a lot forum is of better use. It is a forum fully dedicated to Nicolas Cage and his films. It’s a place for fans to discuss all that is Nicolas Cage and  to get to know each other. Besides the usual discussions, relating to film news, reviews and interviews, there’s also room for fan art, fan fiction and other creative outputs. The history of Cagealot is explained on the website’s ‘about’ page:

Cagealot Castle began it’s life as a fan page on Twitter and in August 2010, we created the Cagealot Castle Forum, for all fans to celebrate and honour the work of their favourite actor in a space larger than 140 characters (who can truly Nic out in so few words). Our aim is to bring the latest and the most inspirational movie news, interviews, pictures, videos and general fan schmooze, to Nicolas Cage fans across the world!

The forum also includes a section where various Nicolas Cage dedicated blog’s are discussed. I’ve also promoted my blog on the forum, for many of its visitors will probably (and hopefully) enjoy my blog as well.

Although I feel like my blog is quite unique in its kind, there are many more Nicolas Cage blogs to find on Tumblr. Some are ridiculous, some are serious; some repost a lot of stuff created on the One True God subreddit and some have very original content. One of my personal favorites is the blog Am I Nicolas Cage Yet ?  The owner of the blog explains the blogs goal as following:

Every day I’ll look in the mirror and see if I am Nicolas Cage yet, I will post my findings here.

Tragically though, he’s never become Nicolas Cage yet. To give you an impression of his pervasiveness,  he recently had the first anniversary of one year on his blog. One day, perhaps, he will become Nicolas Cage though.

Many celebrities also make use of online services like twitter, tumblr and facebook to reach out to their audience. Nicolas Cage, however, doesn’t own an official facebook-, tumblr- or twitter page. This means that most online (non-news) content involving Nicolas Cage is fanmade and this is exactly the appeal of Nicolas Cage’s fanbase. The fanbase of Nicolas Cage is thus enticed to “actively appropriate the text of specific cultures, and give them new and original significance.” They edit, curate and create new content by photoshopping, remixing and recontextualizing existing Nicolas Cage content.

The beauty of this is that fans of Nicolas Cage have struck the jackpot of content, all waiting to be exploited and reinvigorated on the internet. Films like The Wicker Man or his older films like Vampire’s kiss and Zandalee are pure internet gold. Many montage’s, photoshops and other references are spurred out and appreciated; not only by Nicolas Cage fan’s, but also by “mainstream” viewers. The images of Nicolas Cage as various Disney princesses, for instance, went viral very quick after their publication. Stuff like this is thus not only for the hardcore fans; it has a wider appeal.

Still, some of this content is quite strange and disturbing, and I used to wonder whether Nicolas Cage has ever seen some of it. It’d require a certain form of self-awareness to handle so much weird content made about you. Luckily Cage recently explained in an interview in The Guardian that he “was in on the joke”. It seems like he can handle it.

This, I guess, is what makes Nicolas Cage such a wonderful persona and his fans such a wonderful community. They both are self-aware; they make crazy stuff, but they know people will appreciate it. Although some fans can lose themselves to much in their obsession, you’ve got to acknowledge: they make some pretty funny stuff indeed.