Should we be afraid of Bloody Mary? Occult aesthetics and pop knowledge in a Russian fan community
Everyday on Runet (Russian-language internet), members of the fan community tv-supernatural.ru log on, pool their readings and share confidences with regard to the otherworldly visuals and narratives foregrounded in the American cult series ‘Supernatural.’ This paper has as its focus the manner in which members of this online fan community collaboratively negotiate a mode of engagement with the show that involves evaluating ‘Supernatural’ as horror entertainment, but also using it as a springboard for interrogating dominant epistemic classifications of truth and myth, reality and unreality. Situated theoretically in the interstices of fandom studies and cultural studies, this paper is part of a larger exploration of multiple Runet sites where media texts intersect with popular knowledges such as conspiracy theories, UFO sightings and occult narratives.