I think you've totally nailed one aspect I didn't really touch on much here, which is the deep ingrained influence of late stage capitalism and how fandom intersecting so much more with non-fandom spaces amplifies that allure and pressure around hustling. If you can profit, why shouldn't you? Fanartists have shops, why don't fic authors charge for their content too? But there's so much tangled up there. Maybe my idea of fandom as a space where we can resist hustle is privileged in itself.

I really appreciate you sharing all of this, and I love what you said about being audience enough yourself. Maybe if we treasure ourselves too as people who deserve to find joy in our creations, the road ahead won't feel quite so fraught. I think a lot about what it means to hold my own hand through the hard parts. It feels like something of a gift to connect that to fandom too.

<3