ISM Presents: Joe Zieja "Ye Shall Be As Gods"

This talk explores how modern fandom mirrors religious devotion through ritual, mythmaking, and parasocial attachment—especially within the voice acting industry. Blending personal experience with mythological insight, this talk examines how voice actors become both worshipped and harassed, invisible yet intimately known.

The relatively unknown microcosm of voice acting presents a unique opportunity to study the role of fandom in re-mythologizing society, and filling gaps presented by western society's current lack of ritual and myth. Joe will bring his own personal experiences as well as the experiences of many other voice actors he knows, and do his best to break down the interactions from a mythological perspective and explore what fandom really is from a psychological perspective.

Joe will cover both uplifting and deeply uncomfortable real situations that arise from the blending between reality and mythology happening in real time, where voice actors are often confused with the actual characters they…