BYU Cosmere Club

[Newan he/him]

I have a question:

 

If a Brandon Sanderson Club were to be founded at BYU, would anyone be interested in joining?

 

We could meet every couple of weeks to discuss the books, throw theories around, show off fan art, and, most importantly, make chouta.  Yum.  We could plan awesome events and invent cosmere-themed games and stuff.

 

Who's with me?

[dants he/him]

I don't go to BYU yet, but I will in a few years! If I were there, I would totally be in. If you make this club, can I be informed of your theorizing?

[Newan he/him]

Yes.  Except it doesn't look like there's enough interest to create this club.  Dang it, I really want some chouta.

[BreathTaker he/him]

You know chouta soundls like either a Gyro or a Carne Asada Burrito... Dangit now I'm hungry.

[Newan he/him]

Yeah, when my brother read it, he thought of it as a burrito.  When I read it, I thought of it as shawarma.  Either way, it sounds really good.  There's a word of Brandon that says Chouta is kind of like a mix between Latin American and Italian food, like sopapilla with meatballs.  I've never had sopapilla before, but now I really want it. 

[BreathTaker he/him]

I'm not a big fan of Sopapillas but Meat empanadas are storming awesome. It's basically a  home made hot-pocket. I think the best think to do is get some beef or other meat, fry it, make gravy out of the grease and pour it on a pita. Also put brown rice on it.

Edited October 31, 2014 by BreathTaker

[Kobold King he/him]

I'm not a big fan of Sopapillas but Meat empanadas are storming awesome. It's basically a  home made hot-pocket. I think the best think to do is get some beef or other meat, fry it, make gravy out of the grease and pour it on a pita. Also put brown rice on it.

 

...

 

Of all the threads on the forum, I didn't expect this one would make my mouth water.

[BreathTaker he/him]

LET IT BE KNOWN!!! I'M MAKING THIS ON MONDAY OR TUESDAY!

[Left he/him]

Chouta Chueseday?

[BreathTaker he/him]

Probably, I just posted this Idea again on the "You know you're a Sandfan" thread.

[luckat she/her]

To the OP, I'm at BYU and would be interested in joining a Brandon Sanderson Club. I guess if there's no one else interested it wouldn't work out though.

[RawToast225 he/him]

I would love to join. I don't go to BYU, but I live in the area. If you met on campus, but opened the group up to anyone willing to come, I would absolutely love to do it.

[Newan he/him]

To the OP, I'm at BYU and would be interested in joining a Brandon Sanderson Club. I guess if there's no one else interested it wouldn't work out though.

 

Yay!  Hmm... How many people do you think we should have interested before attempting to form a club?  I have three friends who love Brandon's writing but aren't members of this forum.  

 

And Jabberwocky, I think that would be completely ok.  There are other clubs at BYU who do that.  

 

 

I think the best thing for now is to keep talking about it and getting people interested.  I know that there are plenty of Sanderfans in the area.  They just need to have faith that this can work, and that it will be fun.

[RawToast225 he/him]

I know I would love to come, and I know I have a friend who would want to come. That's two, then counting yourself it's three. Then your three friends make six. Good enough to start something?

[luckat she/her]

Six plus me is seven. That might be enough to start something. And it should be possible to find more people. There could even be some more people on this forum who'd be interested but just never come to this section.

[Newan he/him]

I'd say it's at least good enough for us to start brainstorming what we will do when we meet.

 

Here are some of my ideas.

 

Games

Sanderson Elimination LIVE: It's a simple RPG like Mafia or Werewolf, except with rules tweaked to fit into a Sanderson world. Tons of fun.

Trivia

 

Panels or round-table discussions

Have a few people (who are at least slightly prepared) discuss something Sanderson-related.  They could talk about anything from how his writing is changing the genre to their expectations for the future of the cosmere.  Obviously if we did something like this, there would be lots of audience participation.  

I'm hesitant on this idea because I'm afraid it might end up like the Shardcast.  Because the people who do Shardcast know each other so well, they almost always end up going off on tangents.  But if we did this with a clear idea of what we were going to talk about, it could turn out well.  

 

Art

FILKING: Filking is when a group of people sings fantasy-themed folk songs together.  I've only done it once.  At first I felt really out of place because I didn't know any of the tunes, but then I realized that nobody cared how my voice sounded.  Once I got into it, it was a ton of fun.  I don't know if there are very many Sanderson-related songs yet, but there are a few.  And we could make more.  

Fan art: If anybody has done any fan art, they should bring it and show it off.  This includes cosplay!

 

Other ideas

Chouta:  I don't know how to make chouta.  I will ask Breathtaker if his version turned out well.  But it would be awesome if we made chouta.  

 

 

Do you guys like these ideas?  Do you have any more ideas to add?

[RawToast225 he/him]

I like the ideas a lot, particularly the singing and round table ones. Discussions in-depth on specific topics are some of my favourite. Good suggestions for sure, New One.

[Newan he/him]

Thanks!

 

Ok I can submit a form online to make it an official club at BYU.  Though we will have non-cougars in the club, it will still be beneficial to have it as an official club, because then we can reserve a room to meet in.  

 

This means we have to choose a name.  Here are some ideas:

 

Fans of Brandon Sanderson.  This is my current favorite, because it has a pronouncable acronym.  FOBS.  The biggest problem I can see with this one is that if someone is looking through an alphabetical list of clubs, it will be under "F" rather than "B".  I really don't think this is a very big problem though, because if someone is actually looking for our club, they will probably just use a search engine.  

 

Brandon Sanderson Fan Club.  Straightforward and descriptive, but kind of boring.  

 

Cosmere Club.  Sounds cool, and has an alliteration, but most people don't know what the cosmere is.  

 

Sanderfan Club.  This is probably a bad idea.  I don't think the term "Sanderfan" is known outside of the forums.  

[RawToast225 he/him]

What about Cosmere Philosophers?

[Newan he/him]

That one sounds really cool, but it runs into the same problem, that most people who know about Brandon Sanderson still don't know what the cosmere is.  If we put Cosmere Philosophers on a flyer, people won't see that and think "epic fantasy literature".  

[RawToast225 he/him]

That's true, but it will get people asking questions. If someone sees that and thinks "this sounds cool and I have nothing to do this weekend," they will come. When they come, we can welcome them into our group and give them a reading assignment or whatever. The key would be to make them feel welcome. If they feel welcome they will want to come back, maybe bring a couple friends. I think it's a name that can bring this kind of intregue. That's just me.

[Newan he/him]

Yeah I like the idea, but it does sound like it would be an astronomy club.  And we want everybody who likes Brandon Sanderson to know about it.  

 

I think I am going to set it as Fans of Brandon Sanderson for now, so I can get the registration process started, and then if we want to, we can change it later.  

[RawToast225 he/him]

Alright, that sounds good!

More names to kick around:

Sanderson's Cosmere Philosophers

Philosophers of the Sanderverse (Not my favorite)

Bridge Four Philosophers (Raises a similar concern as before)

Sanderson Crewleaders

Sanderson Worldsingers (I like this one in particular because I think I am clever)

There you go. Those are some ideas off the top of my head.

[luckat she/her]

I like the ideas for what to do, especially the discussions and the games. Discussions might be less likely to go off topic with a live audience, especially if the "audience" can participate a lot. What kind of discussions would work and how involved everyone is in them would depend on the number of people.

 

And I can't really think of any other good ideas right now, except for maybe some discussion topics.

 

I like the name Fans of Brandon Sanderson. It's simple and gets the point across, and the acronym gives it a point in its favor. Something cooler-sounding could be good, but not something too obscure or ambiguous.

[RawToast225 he/him]

If we are Fans of Brandon Sanderson, then we are FoBs. Just so you know.

If we did Cosmere Philosophers, we could put directly underneath it "A Brandon Sanderson Fanclub." That would make it less ambiguous instantly.