whynot | and at some point i also have to finish my yuletide fic

Current Mood: ficcer/canon/fic OT3

Entry tags:

and at some point i also have to finish my yuletide fic

So my anthropology final is going to be about fanfiction as a platform for the expression of subaltern rhetoric (specifically, pro-LGBT and pro-women rhetoric), and I'll be using Merlin and Narnia fandoms as case studies. Basically, my essay is about: YOU GUYS. I have a 4-page outline for 20-ish (15-ish?) pages and it's due on Tuesday omg.

It was such a trip making this outline. I was writing about The Last Battle, and my gut instinct was to warn for spoilers. Spoilers! Warning for spoilers in an academic essay: I WON'T DO IT, but it feels wrong not to anyway! I'm probably going to compile stats & figures from LJ comms, fic archives, and

kinkme_merlin (OMG I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT KINKME_MERLIN IN AN ACADEMIC PAPER) to support my claim that, what, people are into slash. Maybe I'll even make a table of it and put it in the appendix?!? MAYBE I'LL MAKE PIE CHARTS D: D: (XD)

There are peer-reviewed journals and published books about this stuff, but this paper doesn't feel like a grad-level anthro final. It feels like a "what I did over my summer vacation" essay, or an especially self-indulgent LJ post.

I've some interview questions for you guys, 'cos it's not everyday that the subject of my paper topic is but a flist away! Answer one, some, or all; I'd be happy with whatever.

1) Activism within fandom: is it effective? What are examples? I'm talking about when fandom bands together and does something concrete-ish in terms of fund- and awareness-raising. Like, what was that thing not so long ago where ppl were like, "Donate money to this pro-LGBT cause and I'll produce a fanwork for you!"? Or what about the Strikethrough migration, what the hell was up with that? This question is asked in context of why we choose fantasy fiction as a valid battleground for identity politics.

2) Why DO you write fanfiction? What are the relationships between ficcer, fic, and canon to you? (I'm especially interested in the opinions of those who porn, because I do not tend to porn and feel like I'm missing out on a huge subsection of fandom because of it.)

3) How tangible is the fannish community? Do you chat with these people everyday? Do you email them often, or about non-fannish things? Do you meet them IRL? What is the value of your interactions with fellow fans?

4) Small fandom (e.g. Narnia) vs. large fandom (e.g. Merlin): do you have a preference? Why?

5) "Fanfiction is the act of taking something that doesn’t represent you and transforming it into something that does." Discuss.

Non-interviewy questions--

a) What is that article about Merlin when it was new, in which Colin and Bradley were surprised/chuffed that the show was so embraced by the gay community?
b) Do you guys have links to the Merlin producers/publicists blatantly shipping Bradley/Colin, even if just for the slash fans' benefit? Like, that time when Bradley was playing charity soccer and Julian Jones or wtfe was like yeah, Colin's gonna be there with a sponge and bucket to wipe him down.
c) Not for my essay, but: are Katie McGrath's eyes green or blue? THEY'RE GREEN DAMMIT, but I've seen a lot of blue in fics. (GREEN.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I am still kind of in awe of the fact that you can write your final paper on fandom! :)

Also, talking about

kinkme_merlin in an academic paper? THAT IS AWESOME.

And as for the interview questions...

1) Hmm, honestly I haven't seen that much activism within fandoms. The one I remember the most was the one with the graphic of the green thumb and it had to do with the ballots for a democratic election in...Iran, was it? being rigged or something. I can't remember specifically, but I know you posted the graphic, and Betsy too. /unhelpful

2) I started out writing fanfiction because I read so much and had a bunch of story ideas ~~back when I was like in seventh grade and sadly prone to cliches~~. Then I started getting into the fandoms with more depth and it became a lot about psychological analysis of the character, getting into their heads and finding out little moments. And after that I wanted to work on my problem with narration ~~which developed from writing too many snippets~~, but still with the screwed up characters (Though they have reason to be screwed up! I didn't screw them up for the sake of the fic. Well, maybe a little.). ALso, I don't porn as far as fic goes, I did with my NaNo, but that was mostly for the sake of wordcount, so I don't really have much to say for that. Also, to me, ficcers start out being really attached to canon because that's their original jumping-off point and they're unsure with how far they can stretch their wings before people go, "Hey, that's too crazy!" and this also makes you fic your little baby that you don't want anyone to hurt ~~which is where we get some bad!fic writers refusing to change things D:~~. But then as you get more confident you also get more open to criticism and you embrace fanon more because you've embraced the fandom community so canon is kind of your foundation but you've built up your own ideas and such so that it's not really the actual canon anymore. And then your fic becomes more your own and less the generic fic of the fandom.

3) I have never met fandom people IRL, and I actually don't chat with most people every day, except maybe some crazy comment threads that go on and on and commenting on their entries whenever they post them ~~I'm also very bad about getting on AIM and stuff, so that may be part of the problem~~. I really like interacting with other fans and a lot of times it brightens my day, but I feel as if you need to have to actually talk-talk to some people on your flist for that to work sometimes, because not everyone puts that much effort into being friends with everyone, so, yeah. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

4) There is a point where I can't stand small fandoms, this is generally when they are small and underdeveloped and the fanwork is largely way below average, but I do like the closer feeling of the small, but well-developed Narnia fandom. And Merlin fandom is fun beccause it's so crazy and there is such a large pool for crazy fanwork. I'm not really sure which one I prefer.

5) SO TRUE. You start out with this show or movie or book or whatever and it has its themes, which are generally large and grandiose, and even when they're not, you don't expect them to apply to your life. And then you have fic, where they take these themes and suddenly they're yours because they're about you.

And then non-interviewy:

a) No idea. D:
b) I think this was from the Expo? The one before soccer six, there's a transcript online...somewhere. /unhelpful
c) GREEN!

I actually didn't post the green thumb graphic, but fair enough. XD

I remember sometimes people would donate to charities, particularly pro-queer ones, on behalf of fandom activity, but I can't recall any event specifically. I think someone below addresses this specifically?

The first time I went out looking for fic, it was for sure because I wanted to see a romantic story between the leads. This was years ago. I mean, this is still a lot of the reason why I do fic now XD. What do you mean 'less the generic fic of the fandom'? Your fic is less generic because it's embraced fanon? Eh?

You didn't?

Well basically you're more creative because you've embraced the fandom spirit of crazy AUs and cracky ideas and not stuck to the generic cliches of fics.

SO I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT I HAD THIS MASSIVE COMMENT AND IT GOT DELETED. I AM SAD. D:

1) The only activism I really remember was that green thumb graphic you and Betsy posted, about the voting ballots in Iran, I think. I can't remember properly, but I remember seeing it on several people's journals. I feel like it raises awareness especially when it shows up on your flist multiple times, but then again I can't remember it properly, so I don't know how effective it was.

2) I write fic to understand characters, because many times they're not developed to my satisfaction. Also, I like post-(insert even here) kind of things, where you get to mess with the emotional baggage of the character ~~I like emotional baggage fandoms, if you can't tell~~. And as far as the ficcer-fic-canon relationship, I feel like people start out highly attached to canon because it's their starting point, but then it kind of falls away in a sense after a while when they become immersed in fandom and exposed to fanon and in that way it deepens their fic, which started out as generic fandom fic.

3) I don't chat/email people every day, partly because I'm really bad about getting on AIM and stuff like that, but I feel like it is tangible enough in that sometimes I refer to fandom people IRL. And then people get confused.

4) I have no preference, because they both have their good points (small: closer, large: more people & more fanworks).

5) SO TRUE. Because you start out with canon, which is usually larger than life in some sense or another and so you can't really fit it to your life because it's so much larger with all its grandiose themes and whatnot. And then you get fanfiction, where you can take what isn't yours and make it yours. ♥

For the not-so-interviewy:

a) Not sure. D:
b) Um I feel like he said that at the London Expo. There is a transcript...somewhere. /unhelpful
c) GREEN!

Um, so now my comments both work? Uhhhh, sorry for spamming you, then. D:

Haha, don't worry about it :). This mysterious comment peekaboo has happened to me too, it's very strange.

Okay, I'll probably come back and answer the more serious questions, but I feel the need to answer c) - GREY. JUST TO BE CONTRARY.

1) I think fandom is great for awareness and dialogue activism but when it come to money I'm unlikely to spend it, but this is about the same as I react irl. The Strikethrough migration was crazy, I didn't get involved in that. I think in these cases of activism the arena of fantasy fiction isn't so relevant, but the community that forms. Odd, I think fandom actually got me involved in a pro-LGBT community.

2) I write because I'm interested in the processes of writing and deconstructing, and in characterization, and also because sometimes I just want some characters to get together. I guess I take the text - yeah, text, I'm being postmodern about it - as something that I can play with regardless of the author's ideas about the text. Fan works and the original text seem to stand very independent of each other to me; fanworks shouldn't affect the original, like fans shouldn't affect the work (it really bugs me when writers cater to fan requests, or I guess when fans perceive that :/) I'm not sure what it is about a work that makes me want to write fanfic for it - I have to love it, see, otherwise I don't care. And it has to present big questions of humanity in a compelling way, that is, have literary value. No work is sacred, though - everything can and must be ficced. Sometimes if a work feels incomplete, you want to fic it. Or if it takes life inside your head, that's something too. I don't get how to fic Avatar yet, honestly. Maybe I'm losing it.
I don't write porn but I read it, and I wish I wrote it so I could participate more in that circle of goings on, but I get incredibly flustered when I even imply sex so it is not quite gonna work out XD

3) The fannish community isn't as tangible for me; I don't end up meeting people irl after meeting them online, and when I do meet fans irl it's the other way around, just by chance really. I email but mostly lj-comment about fannish and nonfannish things; I don't call on the phone because phones make me nervous. I really really love my fandom friends, but when it comes to time management I would probably end up withdrawing from fandom before withdrawing from an rl social life (mostly because sometimes I don't have one, and sometimes I have one and it is very fleeting and precious). But I do consider my internet-friends to be as valuable friends as rl friends.

4. Narnia didn't feel small to me but I guess I joined in its heyday. Basically, the bigger the better, because you get more variety, more material to read, more thought exchange, and fanon gains more strength to its legs and fans get a bigger sense of creating the text themselves. I love that. Harry Potter, though, that got too big, because some social circles were so distant that fanon varied between them and they'd never encounter each other, and that's just disorienting.

5. WOW. Okay, I like this. I think this is also true in the act of reading, not critical-objective reading obviously, but internalized sincere reading, which is sometimes where I think fandom goes wrong. It gets too meta and irritated with the source material when really you've just been given a playground to play in, if you really don't like it that much then build your own. Fanfiction is more a personal act than a critical act to me. It's expressing the sort of thing this work inspires in you. The original work might not represent you in that you didn't write it but that doesn't mean you have to view it as an alien thing, does it? Or is that separation necessary to feel like you can write fanfic?

Yeah, $$$-related fannish activism is rare that I've seen, and how can you prove there was follow-through anyway?

Odd, I think fandom actually got me involved in a pro-LGBT community.
Fandom totally got me thinking about all sorts of srs bsns issues about gender and sexuality and cultural appropriation. Where would my opinions be without it?! Which sounds like it should be a sad question, but it isn't really?!

I rarely get attracted to writing fic for a canon that I think is good per se. Like, it leaves no holes for me to play in. lol and I know what you mean about porn. If ever I skim through past NC17s that I've written, I'm always a little bit D: even if I didn't feel as such during the time of writing. Like sometimes I wish I had left Character Motivation at an R-rating, I just went with the NC17 because it started on the Porn Battle.

lol ya, the irritation at source material. Just like the irritation at the Merlin show! I can't get myself worked up about how terrible the show is because I'm usually on lulz mode on the watching of it.

Or is that separation necessary to feel like you can write fanfic?
Not necessary! 'Cos if it is a thing that isn't alien to you, maybe you can talk about it better? Well, maybe not, but maybe it inspires you to tell the story more, or something.

Yeah, I'm mostly aware of this sort of thing through fandom wank and when it's on there there's plenty of fraud involved. I have no idea of the success rate, I just know I'm very unlikely to donate money myself.

Fandom never got me thinking about cultural appropriation, but I think I definitely brought it to fandom once I found out about it. You were talking about it too, I think you've shown me a lot about it even just by keeping your finger on the pulse of some things. And you've brought your own experience to it too, so don't feel like fandom has given it all to you!

Hm, I did think Harry Potter canon was good, though. Just incomplete. Plenty of space for missing scenes, plenty of pairings people wanted. A tight story has little room for fandom. Maybe it has more to do with the structure of a story, then, rather than just the quality.

lol, I suspect that writing porn takes a lot of reading it and practice too. I can picture things happening, I just can't manage to put it into words. Maybe I've got porn-block (HAHA is that cockblock? is my writing cockblocked?). Your NC-17 actually worked with Character Motivation, at least. And I think the story would also work if you wanted to take that out.

everything is better on lulz mode! if it is compelling you can make it out of lulz mode but if not you can just lounge there, giggling. I like that. Merlin, I had to get used to watching that, but going in with low expectations helps XD

you're right! identifying with the story is very important too, otherwise you wouldn't care enough to write fic. otherwise you would be writing criticism. fic is a personal act but it's not merely a response to the original, it's like a... a dialectic :D well, you know. bringing you and the material together to make something bigger. yay.

THIS IS AWESOME. Personally I feel that warning for spoilers in a book 50 years old is probably unnecessary.

1) Activism within fandom: is it effective? What are examples? I'm talking about when fandom bands together and does something concrete-ish in terms of fund- and awareness-raising. Like, what was that thing not so long ago where ppl were like, "Donate money to this pro-LGBT cause and I'll produce a fanwork for you!"? Or what about the Strikethrough migration, what the hell was up with that? This question is asked in context of why we choose fantasy fiction as a valid battleground for identity politics.
Hrm. I'm usually not involved in this stuff although I think it's been helpful in the past? They raised a lot of money in that auction thing, IIRC. I think more of the activism is meta and stuff--Racefail I would consider activism, for example. And I think that's really effective, getting stuff out there. And if you can change the stories you can change people's views, you know? Like I learned 99% of what I knew about it being okay to be queer from reading gltq fiction/fics.

2) Why DO you write fanfiction? What are the relationships between ficcer, fic, and canon to you?
Hm. Sometimes I have Things To Say about the canon--things that bug me, or that I want to explore, or want more of. Sometimes these things are easier to get out in story form than essay form, and more people want to read the stories. Also I see queer women everywhere in fiction but there are very few of them canonically; I want to see more queer characters, I guess, so I write them in (I mean, I always see them as queer before I write them; it's not like I sit at a computer and go "Now I will write lesbians into Narnia" or whatever). And I'm interested in relationships women have with each other, which also tend not to be in canon.

Also, it's just really fun. People read fic! And then they comment on it! And then you get to talk to people about stuff you like to read/watch! And that's fun too.

3) How tangible is the fannish community? Do you chat with these people everyday? Do you email them often, or about non-fannish things? Do you meet them IRL? What is the value of your interactions with fellow fans?
I talk to a lot of fandom people about other stuff, I guess; I know some of them irl and we're good friends--my primary beta is one of my best friends from junior high. And fandom people are usually a lot like me in terms of dissecting/critiquing things. I mean, when I watch a movie with my roommate, I'll say "Damn, that's fail, why is everyone white except for the villains? And why is this plot silly?" and my roomie is usually like "Shut up and watch the movie!" but that's just not how I engage with things. So it's great to have fandom friends who also have these thoughts.

4) Small fandom (e.g. Narnia) vs. large fandom (e.g. Merlin): do you have a preference? Why?
I started out in HP so everything seems small. :) But actually I prefer that--I feel like I read a lot more Narnia fic because I can keep an eye on most of it, whereas wading through all the stuff in a bigger fandom is just...hard. There's a lot of crap out there, so while there's more good stuff it's harder to find and I wind up either going to rec lists only or not reading fic at all. Narnia is definitely more manageable, and I feel like I get to know authors better.

5) "Fanfiction is the act of taking something that doesn’t represent you and transforming it into something that does." Discuss.
I think it can be. I don't think it always is (I mean, except as much as your writing represents you by definition). But I think a lot of times we look at the stories that didn't get told--the ones that are about us--and then we write them. Where *are* the queer people? The conversations between Morgana and Gwen, or Gwen and...anyone? Where are the non-evil women in Narnia? I think stories that are complete I never try to write fic for, and sometimes stories aren't complete because they leave so many groups of people out.

4) ALSO I think I prefer bigger fandoms usually, actually, come to think of it, but only when I have time. So if I could go back to when I had time it would be bigger fandoms all the way. Now I follow a couple communities for Narnia/Merlin/HP and a couple rec lists and that's basically it, who has time for more? So: in theory, the bigger the better! In practice, if it's big I don't have time to look for stuff.

Auction? What auction?

Like I learned 99% of what I knew about it being okay to be queer from reading gltq fiction/fics.
OMG yes me too. Participating in fandom is like Women's Studies 101, there should be credit. Cultural appropriation, gender multiplicities, etc. And I learn more because I'm invested in a different way!

Ahaha, I totally feel you on stories vs. meta. I write fics 'cos I'm too lazy to write meta.

the stories that didn't get told--the ones that are about us
The similarity of these two phrases :(((

wading through all the stuff in a bigger fandom is just...hard.
Yaaaa. I used to mine the shit out of Narnia fandom for Peter/Susan fics and be like, "OH WELL I guess it's adequately unterrible for me to bookmark." But with Merlin fandom, I'm taking a much more haphazard approach.

I...I think there was an auction to raise money for marriage equality? I am not entirely sure; I had classes or exams or something. But I think it was like you bid on items and then paid the money to a group, or something.

Yesss, we are invested differently, it makes it easier to learn this stuff. And also, also, who wants to read meta really? (Well I do. But like, if you were like "Hey Wyrm here's a meta essay and here's a fic, which do you want more?" I would be like OMG FIC.)

Yeah, it makes it easier to find good stuff on the one hand, but you have to look through so much of it!

Ya and sometimes you end up learning interesting things during the writing/reading of fic too anyway.

1. ...shit, I know this stuff, hang on. I know

ontd_ai did something fairly recently, but since I'm not actually in the fandom, my knowledge is very scanty. The thing where people bid on fanworks to raise money for charities is Sweet Charity (http://www.sweet-charity.net/). I know of individual fen who will do fundraisers for things;

synecdochic has done so (http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/tag/any+soldier), and I'm pretty sure

miss_porcupine has. Although I think those two are less fanworks-fandom related and more fandom-fandom (the community) related. It's a vehicle to tell a story.

2. I write fic because there's a story I want to tell that isn't told within the context of the original work. Maybe background, or aftermath, or in-between scenes -- all the things that are hinted at and promised but not actually there. My concept of canon is...fluid, I suppose. *clears throat* I started out in HP fandom before the movies had really taken hold; there was One True Canon. People who wrote using movie canon were mercilessly mocked. (This is why I had major, major issues (http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/240305.html) coming into Narnia fandom writing movie canon, I kid you not. I am still slightly shocked I managed to get over those.) I am not really sure how my rigid canon turned into what I consider fairly fluid canon; with Narnia, at least, I pick and choose my canon between books and movies, which I think may come from the fact that for a while there, I was reading (not writing) on the edges of various comics fandom -- especially with the ones that have ten trillion incarnations (Batman, Fantastic Four, Superman/Smallville), you really can pick and choose your canons, or even what pieces you want from the canons. With fic...don't even get me started on fic, I don't think I can handle talking about it right now. *kicks Dust* (And when it comes to porn, I mostly write it because...uh, well, I want to. I don't know. I have no interest whatsoever right now in writing PWP fic; I have the original for that.) Okay, wait, I think I have to add something here. In my own fandom, the fandom that I'm writing in? I'm generally a selfish fan. I don't like to read in the fandom I'm writing in. I don't like disagreeing with people; I don't like reading fic or watching vids or reading meta that disagrees with my vision of the world and the characters. I can do that in fandoms I'm not deeply invested in; I have problems doing it in fandoms that I am. I get into a writing fandom because I see the source material and want to do something with it; I have very clear ideas about what that might be. And I'll read early on, but later? Later, I can't, or at least it becomes a lot harder for me to do so. I don't recognize the people or the places that are being written about, not anymore. This is why I don't read Narnia fic, I don't watch Narnia vids, I don't read Narnia meta -- although the meta I can generally handle a lot more easily than fic or vids. But then again, I don't go looking for it, and if I do find any of it, it's generally from that circle of people that agree with me. (Holy shit, I sound closed-minded.)

3. Well, I'm writing a novel with someone I met online (

aella_irene), and I swear that sometimes I spend more time interacting with her via the intarwebs than I do with the people I live with. We're on with each other on a daily basis -- not on chat, because I don't do that, but via e-mail and googledocs and occasionally LJ. I've gotten Christmas cards from fen I've never met in the flesh (and have to send a few back, uh, whoops), I've gotten packages from fen I've never met in the flesh, I've sent packages (both non-fannish); there are a number of people I interact with both on LJ/DW, via e-mail, and Twitter. Sometimes it is fandom-related. Sometimes it is not. A few people I know RL names; most people I do not. At some point in time,

redangel618 and I will actually manage to meet up in RL, given the fact that we both live in the same city in the same general area. (We tried to meet up during Mardi Gras last year, but that kind of failed.) And, as we have established, I have kind of been making study-abroad choices on where the greatest number of fen are in any given area in order to have a ready-made community available. So. *shrug* I've been in fandom for eight years now, coming up on nine, and fandom's a living, breathing entity. It's a community that's as real to me as any one I've ever been in. It's not just something you can turn on or turn off; I think in fandom now, in ships and OTPs and YMMVs and fannish talk. I've probably learned more in fandom than I have in school. (And dude, if I could have just substituted eight years of fandom for my Intro to Gender and Sexuality Studies class, I'm pretty sure I could have still passed the final.)

4. The bigger the fandom, the more segmented it is. It's a lot easier to find your niche in a big fandom, and in a big fandom, you don't interact with people outside that niche. Small fandoms don't have that luxury as much. There's about the same percentage of crap in large and small fandoms, only in big fandoms, there's a lot more good stuff just by the laws of percentages. (Uh. Pretend that makes sense.) But -- big fandoms can be kind of lonely, sometimes. It's hard to get to know people. Of course, if you try and get to know people in small fandoms and you're writing stuff people hate, it's much less likely you'll find people who like it. So it's all relative. That boils down to -- considering I literally do not interact with my current fandom outside of my own journal and only occasionally in ficathons, I have no opinion on the subject at the moment.

5. Um. I don't...think so? Maybe for other people, but I don't think of fic that way. It's not about me (except of course it's about me, I'm the one writing it); it's about the story and the universe and what feels right. Thinking about fic as a representation of yourself seems...selfish, somehow, I guess.

ETA: On second thought, my concept of a fluid canon doesn't come so much from comics fandom, which I've never been active in (I read a lot in Smallville, some in Batman, but otherwise it's very little, and I've never written there), but from Star Wars fandom, which has layers of canon: movies take priority (but then there are the different versions of the movies, now), but then there are comics, books, deleted scenes, TV series, interviews, etc. I know that SW fandom has a very elaborate system of what takes priority in what order, mostly based on how involved George Lucas was. Fic writers could pick and choose from the different layers of canon (some of which, you know, contradicted each other, because the SW universe was, ah, very, very large). (I should probably able that I was involved on the very, very tail-end of the prequel trilogy fandom, about a year after RotS came out but before the Clone Wars series started airing. I'm old school, but not so old school as to be talking about the original trilogy.)

Also -- for me, writing fic is something of performance art. I don't generally write unless I think there's going to be an audience. Not always, but sometimes. (Possibly more often than not? I'm not entirely certain on this point, because...it's been a while.) Or at least when I'm initially getting into a fandom.

Edited 2009-12-19 07:48 (UTC)

I've probably learned more in fandom than I have in school. (And dude, if I could have just substituted eight years of fandom for my Intro to Gender and Sexuality Studies class, I'm pretty sure I could have still passed the final.)
Oh man, do I feel similarly. Fandom has become prevalent in my life and how I think about things, so the RL/fandom divide is coming apart almost of its own volition.

SW fandom has a very elaborate system of what takes priority in what order, mostly based on how involved George Lucas was.
O_O Wow...

FIC AS PERFORMANCE ART. That is a really interesting way to put it, and I relate to it a lot. I get bitten by Ocean Girl (or whatever) plot bunnies, but I never follow through on those because I don't want to put in all this work if no one's gonna pay attention. And then I guess I'm into the audience participation too, because there are those round-robin commentfics.

Yeah, and just -- I grew up with fandom, you know? It was probably just as big a part of my life as middle school and high school. Fandom is -- its own culture, and its own community, and we have our own bloody language (and sometimes food, too).

SW fandom is psychocakes. I think the order goes OT, PT, the current Clone Wars TV series (maybe?), certain comics, certain books, etc... But that's an old school fandom that's been around for decades and is still getting new material, so it's kind of an interesting example. Even though comics fandoms might have, say, a lot of canon, I've never heard that it has those layers of canon that SW does.

Food? What kind of food is fandom food?

Oh yeah, I vaguely remember 14 Valentines. Hmm. Never really kept up with it when it was going on. Maybe I should.

I don't know if there's really a specific fandom food, I was just kind of vaguely thinking about when people come up with recipes that are inspired by some kind of food that a canon will mention. So I'm not sure how related that is; since it's not a group activity, it may not qualify as -- as fandom-related as, say, a fic or a wallpaper. (Then again, there are Harry Potter- and Battlestar Galactica- and Red Dwarf- and Bones- inspired knitting patterns, too, so -- I'm not sure how much that sort of thing qualifies as a fandom activity, rather than something that's purely done "by fans." Those are just the patterns I could think of off the top of my head, BTW, not to say that knitters who are fans don't do other fandoms.)

I have been looking back at the 2009 14 Valentines round-ups all afternoon and am fascinated. Not by the fic, since I'm not really reading at the moment, but by the icons and the music and the essays, and -- well, it's me, the recipes and the knitting.

A-HA! Things like Sweet Charity were exactly the kind of examples I'm doing for. How is fandom-fandom related charitable activity a vehicle to tell the story?

Even before I came to Narnia movieverse canon, I was all up in X-Men movieverse canon. I only have minimal knowledge of the comics. I too like to pick and choose according to what is most convenient for the story I'm currently writing.

(Holy shit, I sound closed-minded.)
lol, you're not the only person who expresses this sentiment. Whether or not fans mean to, hanging out with people who agree with them just... happens. Also, if you have chosen an arena other than fic to pursue being well-rounded, uh, that's fine XD. I say that if you're participating in fandom in a way that gets you down (and not just butthurt-down), well, then you're doing it wrong. So what I'm saying is either 1) more power to you!, and/or 2) whatever, fandom.

There's also -- hmm, damn, I wish I'd remembered this before --

14valentines, which was women's awareness, and I'm not sure if it's been run the past couple years, but the year before there was some controversy, because a lot of the fic that's posted is slash, and some people disapproved of trying to raise awareness for women's issues by writing about "two guys getting it on." (14 Valentines is really cool, by the way; there's a lot of awesome non-fic stuff that goes through there, like music and icons and art and essays.)

why we choose fantasy fiction as a valid battleground for identity politics.

identity politics is part of my everyday, because (my) identity is always political, i almost always have to fight for it. wherever i am is a 'valid' place for identity politics. fandom is (often) where i am.

(then again, like with all political struggles, there are so many ways of doing activism and approaching activism and thinking about activism . . . and so sometimes i am not sure about the ways fandom 'does' it (hee), like i am not sure about the ways lots of activism is 'done'!)

What sort of fandom activism are you referring to when you're not sure about how done it is?

ok, it's more internet activism in general. like, sometimes someone will say something out of ignorance, and 4783027 people pile on telling them what was wrong with what they said, but also (inevitably, whether the people who originally commented wanted this or not) that they're a horrible person, that they deserve to be mocked, etc. i mean, i get it, i feel it, i understand why people do it, i've done it myself. but i'm not sure that does anything apart from getting the OP to go underground or disappear or resent fandom, or decide that they were right and the rest of fandom really is ridiculous. that said, i think that fandom often does do education really well in these situations - even if it's not the OP, the people watching and hearing about it learn.

another thing would be that i simply don't feel the same about issues such as same-sex marriage. i don't think marriage should exist as a legal institution, so i don't really care about getting another few people into it (and before someone reads this and starts a pile-up as per my first paragraph, yes i am in a same-sex relationship and have been for 7 years, so we could almost be the poster children for the cause). i'd be interested in working to make marriage purely religious, or in making the legal benefits tied to marriage into a common-law contract available to next-of-kin, multiple partners, caregivers and co dependent couples . . . but i have no interest in, say, donating money or time to a cause that i don't care about (and more specifically to an organisation that has done/will do fuck all for me as a trans person).

just woke up, so i'm sure i'm missing something here. oh well! hope this helps!

Haha, I can see that. The people that win most being the lurkers. Those who actually say something are more likely to be taken down hard, like the dialogue and understanding fandom fosters is stoked not by patience but by smackdowns.

the dialogue and understanding fandom fosters is stoked not by patience but by smackdowns

QUOTED FOR TRUTH!

though i *do* see patience as well, i have to see.

I wrote a monster of a response so rather than fiddling with character restrictions I posted it on my own journal. :)
http://lazaefair.livejournal.com/38369.html

1) Activism I'm not personally involved with really, though I have seen some, and I know that people tend to talk about issues they're passionate about (I helped pass along information about the situation in Iran back in June). As for identity politics - when you are writing fiction, you are able to write about situations that would never actually happen to you, stripping things down. I think people identify the most with what they recognize, and you recognize yourself the most. I tend to write Susan and Edmund the most in Chronicles of Narnia because I see myself in them a lot. Since I'm writing about people similar to myself, it ends up turning into identity politics - how I view myself, how I view the world - we write what we know, and what I know or want to know is what I am, so that's what I write. Somebody showed me a quote recently by a writer who said that writing can be about what we know or what we don't know that we know, or an exploration of what we don't know. I think that's really true - I mean, if you look at what I write, about 75% of it is spiritual/emotional rehabilitation fic, which is something that I've been working on for myself for the past year.

2) I write fanfiction because I love the canon but feel that it's missing something, or I love the potential of the canon but wish it was written better/with more exploration of something (Narnia!), or because I love the characters so much I just want to keep writing about them later in life, and what happens next. Canon fluidity depends on the fandom - in Narnia, I follow only the bare structures of the books and follow the movies much more closely. In Harry Potter, I follow canon closely up until the end of Book 7, unless it regards characterization, which I sometimes feel is done too broadly. Something I think is true - if you don't at least love the potential in a story, why are you writing about it?

3) My communication with fandom occurs almost entirely on LJ, but I do have the emails of a few friends, and my LJ includes non-fannish things. I would love to meet fandom friends, but at the moment am restricted by age and parents and my own decision not to try that until I'm a little older. I consider the value of my fandom interaction really highly - in RL my family moves in a very conservative, kind of prejudiced circle that I have a lot of trouble getting along with, and being able to talk to people who have completely different viewpoints from what is the norm around me has opened my horizons and broadened my interests.

4) I'm... not much of a fandom person, actually? I mean, I write, and I do icons when I have the tools, and I talk the movies/books/shows with my friends, but I'm not actively involved in any fandom. My involvement tends to center around my friends. I guess I like larger fandoms more? That way when I do get involved there's a lot more options, and if I want to find a specific type of fic the odds are it's going to be around somewhere.

5) "Fanfiction is the act of taking something that doesn’t represent you and transforming it into something that does." Discuss. yes yes yes aghksldhgldksgj. YES. like I said up further! we take things and make them about us, because that's simply what people do. The canon that we take was not made to represent us, but we write bits and pieces and transform parts and turn it into something that is a representation of us - of our identity and our decisions and our beliefs. You write what you know, yeah? Or what you don't know that you know.

I write fanfiction because I love the canon but feel that it's missing something, or I love the potential of the canon but wish it was written better/with more exploration of something (Narnia!), or because I love the characters so much I just want to keep writing about them later in life, and what happens next
Way to say everything I meant way better than I did! This x a million. <3333

I always stick really close to canon (bookverse all the way!) because I don't really feel the point otherwise? I dunno, I feel like part of the fun is taking what I see and trying to add in around it, and it feels like cheating not to play with what I'm given, somehow.

Totally. Working within close boundaries can give birth to the most creative solutions :)

An exploration of what we don't know! I really like that. It rings true. I like also what you said about stripping things down. It reminds me of Japanese bunraku theater or the xkcd comics, where people are able to relate to the stories and characters a lot because the characters are archetypal, universal, and basic. By being faceless, or generically faced, you superimpose your face onto them. By being nothing, they are become legion.

Oh Harry Potter. My impression of Book 5 and onwards are: "LOTS OF STUFF HAPPENS."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

and at some point i also have to finish my yuletide fic

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 1/2)

hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 2/2)

Re: hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 2/2)

Re: hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 2/2)

Re: hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 2/2)

Re: hi, this is bedlam and your daily dose of sounding completely crazy (part, uh, 2/2)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject