lunabee34

cupidsbow made a really interesting post about vidding that got me to thinking about the fannish injunction to "be the change you want to see."

I'm curious if that's ever worked for anyone who tried.

Did you write the fic or make the art or vid the vid you wanted to see and others followed suit? If they did, was that sustained? Did it create a longterm surge of what you wanted in your fandom? If not, was creating it yourself enough? Did reading your own fic or looking at your own art scratch the itch? Did it inspire you to make a sustained effort to create Thing? Or did it leave you feeling more annoyed than before when you were just wishing for Thing?

I've never actually attempted to be the change, so I don't have any stories to contribute here, but I'm intensely curious about the rest of you.

Finishing 2014's December Talking Meme before December 2015 rolls around is probably a good idea.

executrix asked: What's the line between being "fannish" about something and "watching/reading/listening" to it?

Age.

IDK

The older I get, the less likely I am to become fannish about a new movie or show or book and start writing fic. I think the last time I did that was Live Free or Die Hard, and that was 2007 (nearly ten years ago!).

I post episode reviews of shows I'm watching sometimes. I even go look up fic to read sometimes; I did this most recently with Penny Dreadful, Ancillary Justice, Uprooted, and The Big Bang Theory. But I don't feel the urge to write fic very often anymore.

Ten years ago, I got fic inspiration the same way I used to get inspiration for writing poetry. I'd be walking along, doing my every day thing, and suddenly a line of poetry would appear in my head and I'd have to write it down; then a poem would take shape, usually rather quickly around that one line. In a similar fashion, I'd be watching a show or a movie (sometimes reading, but almost always watching something), and a line or a scenario or what happens next would pop into my head, and I'd write it down, and then a fic would take shape, usually rather quickly. This is why I spent the five hour drive from Oxford to Hattiesburg writing snippets of a fic on a napkin I was holding in the middle of the steering wheel; I just couldn't get the idea of Sam caught in a ghost-loop out of my head. I also ugly-cried the whole way, endangering the structural integrity of my napkins with my tears. This is why I also spent my lunch break at Security Check feverishly writing down thousands of words of Vala backstory instead of eating my lunch on the sidewalk like God intended people who don't deserve break rooms to eat.

That . . . just doesn't happen anymore. Every fic I've written in the last, oh I don't know how many years, has been the result of me signing up for a fest or a ficathon or as a thank you to someone (oh, endeni, don't worry; that thank you is still plugging along)--scenarios I've deliberately constructed in order to make myself write. (Well, I suppose the exception to that is the handful of fics I wrote when I first got into perfume fandom two Aprils ago; those came to me much in the same way I used to be inspired to write fic.)

(As an aside, I don't write poetry anymore at all. I think the last poem I wrote was in the last year of undergrad. I loved writing poetry and wrote poems extensively until I entered grad school. I think if I tried hard enough I could probably tease out why I stopped writing poems, but it was a craft I was very serious about honing until I just dropped it abruptly and entirely and now I never even think of writing poetry.)

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I measure my own level of fannishness by whether I'm writing fic, and I don't seem to be doing much of that anymore, especially not for new media. I am, however, still faithfully reading Harry Potter fic every chance I get, so there's that.

1. My BPAL order shipped! Holy vetiver, mother of all that is yummy, I cannot wait to try these out!

2. I am about halfway done with my Yuletide fic. Great prompt as ever. The Yuletide gods smile upon me, my friends. I don't know what I have done to ingratiate myself to them, but I hope it lasts forever. :)

3. Finally got around to making Christmas cards with Shutterfly (seventy five free photo cards courtesy of Pampers rewards; it pays to singlehandedly keep the diaper industry solvent!), and they are criminally adorable.

On to the meme!

the_rck asked: One fandom you didn't expect to love but did (or one you expected to love and didn't. Your choice).

I'll answer both. I did not expect to like Harry Potter at all. I read the first book my first year in grad school. MLA was in New Orleans that year, and I read the first book in the hotel bathtub while Josh was staying out way past his bedtime on Bourbon Street. I did not like it at all. I'd had four years of hype to listen to, and I just didn't care for the book at all and assumed that would be the end of it.

I caught the first two movies on TV later and loved them. I saw the third and subsequent movies in theater. I think I didn't actually read the books, though, until right before the last book came out, and in the lead in to the release, I read them all from the beginning. My first HP rec post is dated 2007 which substantiates this recollection.

I still like the first book the least, but HP has grown to be my go-to fandom. If I decide to read fanfic, I am more likely to read HP than any other fandom.

As far as the second question goes, I thought I was going to be head over heels into Guardians of the Galaxy fandom, and for whatever reason--inertia, busyness, etc.--I have only read like two GotG stories period. Nothing is keeping me from the fandom. I haven't disliked anything I've read or seen. IDK why I'm not more actively pursuing participating given how much I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. :(

1. I got linked to on an academic blog! As lunabee34 so it can't go on my vita, but yayness. Here's the link: Writing Sandcastles Versus Playing in Sandboxes: The Writing Life in the Twenty-First Century by Alex Jenkins.

2. Sitting at 52 pages right now on the current chapter of the dissertation. I didn't write last week because I had to write a conference paper and an article for publication. Nose to the grindstone again tomorrow.

3. Even though I went to school at Ole Miss, I'd never read much Barry Hannah. A colleague who considered him a close friend and mentor gave me a couple short stories. I read one of them, and while I didn't care for it all that much, I am considering changing the title of this journal to "Hoisting the nipplements of my wayout enhooterment" as a consequence. Thoughts?

Who wants to talk about

a. last night's Game of Thrones
b. Inuyasha
c. Friedman's Magister series (still in the middle of the first book)
d. what anime we should watch next with Emma once Inuyasha is over
e. Bridesmaids (watched and kinda went meh)
f. 21 Jump Street
g. the best you read this week
h. other stuff

?

And, scene.

It's a lazy, rainy night, and I'm thinking about BtVS. I'm thinking about the Buffyverse because some kind soul recced one of my stories from last year in buffyversetop5, and that got me to thinking about maleslashminis and how much I really enjoyed participating in that comm last year. I also happened to catch a few episodes of the show on LOGO this week--events all conspiring to make me very nostalgic for my first fandom.

One of the things I liked so much about maleslashminis was that it forced me to be really creative and think about canon in new and interesting ways. I'd never have written Ben/Xander on my own or Giles/Jayne or even Graham/Riley. I liked the uncertain nature of the request, the fact that I never knew exactly what my recipient was going to want from a story. I miss that comm. *sniffle*

I met most of you guys in Buffy fandom, and most of you have mostly moved on, I think. We all occasionally foray back into the old stomping grounds, but I think most of us concentrate most of our fannish efforts in other places at this point.

So, I'm wondering--if you're ever nostalgic like me, what's the Buffyverse story that got away? The one you always meant to write but didn't? The one you always wanted to write but didn't think you could? The one you think that time and distance makes nearly impossible to write now? The story you always wanted to read but never found?

I suppose I am asking for writing prompts in a way, but even more than that, I am endlessly fascinated by the stories that we hold close to our hearts but never quite manage to commit to paper. Also, bored now, and talking good. :)

Based on conversations I've been having with you guys after Writercon, I wonder if it might be useful to separate out the question of definitions from some of the other things we've been talking about. I'd be interested to see the range of definitions for these terms laid out clearly.

So, pretend this is Twitter. In 140 characters or less for each, Tweet me your definitions of bob, gen, gron, het, and slash (and any other words you regularly use to label your stories according to sexual or romantic content).

I'm back from Writercon wehre I had a fantastic time. Thanks for all the well-wishes for Josh. He's doing a lot better; it's still unclear if he has any nerve damage, but he's mobile and the pain is getting more manageable. (As a side note, somebody please write the story about realistic levels of pain for wounds. Sheppard does not just go and go and go after getting shot several times. Just saying.)

I will eventually make a more personal and namedroppy post about the social aspects of Writercon, but I wanted to start with a post about some of the panels I went to before I forget them.

IS FANDOM GONNA HAVE TO CHOKE A BITHC? LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN FANFICTION
Moderator: mosca
Panelists: enigmaticblues, Kristina Busse, denny_dc

This was a really good panel, and as all good weighty discussions should be, one that raised more questions for me than it answered. The panel initially proposed to talk about the language used in the source texts we fan, our own fics, and our fannish socializing and infrastructure. Unfortunately because of time constraints, the last talking point wasn't really covered. I would have loved a conversation on the implications of the language we use when we squee, when we post to comms, when we communicate outside of what our fics have to say. One of the thing things that I have noticed in my fannish interactions is a real shift toward the use of and the awareness of gender neutral pronouns, which I appreciate. Although many of us are women, I have a kneejerk negative reaction to the default assumption that fandom is a wholly feminine space because it feels very exclusionary to me. This does not mean that I do not recognize and celebrate that fandom is a place where women have created power and agency for themselves; it does mean that I am uncomfortable with the narrow definition of fandom as a community that is by, for, and about women.

Back to the panel: Who gets to use sexist language? Can women, in real life interactions and in fic, reclaim sexist language much in the same way that minorities and queer people have reclaimed words used to hurt them? And in mad props to alixtii for the best question asked at a panel I attended: at one point would language stop being reclamation or an accurate representation of the way a certain character acts or thinks and become mere perpetuation of the problem?

Nina talked about genderfuck stories and said some really interesting things about them.
1. They don't reflect trans reality and aren't really intended to, although that is changing.
2. If a woman is writing, they are often a form of venting about aspects of our lives that we don't like.
3. She read a quote for which I did not catch attribution and couldn't write fast enough to get all down, but essentially, the idea was that womanhood is a thing to be performed, a masquerade, and one of the draws of genderfuck is to transfer desire and expectation onto the male body (the "unmarked body"). Maybe one of y'all can link me to the actual quote used?
4. Nina also discussed the homophobia, misogyny, and heteronormativity that are often part and parcel of slash, particularly Old Skool Slash.

There was also a brief mention of We're Not Gay, and I just want to take a moment to reiterate how much I hate that trope. LOL I know it's an old stand-by for slash, but I just hate it. I think if you experience same-sex attraction and sexual activity then you are at least bisexual and possibly gay. I get that the trope is supposed to make the OTP special--what could be more special than changing one's sexual orientation, right? It's supposed to prove that they are so inevitable and magical that nothing can stand in the way of their epic LOVE, but mostly it seems to me to be a way to get two guys to have sex without acknowledging homosexuality at all. Although I have read it before and enjoyed, that enjoyment is usually despite the WNG trope rather than because of it.

denny_dc started her portion of the panel with a list of insulting terms, some of which I already knew like using "gay" as a perjorative. I had not realized that dreadlocks actually is a term originally used by colonizers of Caribbean peoples to describe their hair (dreadful locks).

ENOUGH KISSING, GET ON WITH THE MAIMING! GEN-FIC
Moderator: redeem147
Panelists: Debra Doyle (who I actually think was not there), general_jinjur, bastardsnow

This panel really made me want to read House of Leaves as SPN. Like really, really, really, really bad. Really bad.

There was a discussion of bob and gron and porny gen and I brought up queerly_gen on Dreamwidth (which only Jinjur seemed to have heard of) and essentially I thought the entire discussion was hampered by a lack of consensus about what gen really means and what its conventions are.

One of the panelists used the phrase "slash minus one" to describe stories that have slashy elements but seem very light on them or don't include sex and I think Dasha's "Salt of the Earth" was cited as an example. I think this story falls neatly into slash according to my personal definition (full discussion in comments). I also have never heard the phrase "slash minus one" and was tempted to ask during the discussion if anyone would ever use "het minus one" as a descriptor. My feeling is no. I suspect that were a story to contain a Buffy and a Spike who pined for each other and yet never consummated their relationship, that story would be called het.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME: HOW THE INTERNET BUILDS COMMUNITIES AROUND FANFIC
Moderator: scarlettgirl
Panelists: Kristina Busse, shaddyr, kalichan, and versaphile

scarlettgirl was an excellent moderator. I mean, really really good. There was a plan and a structure and I was impressed with the way this panel worked in terms of each panelist's contribution building on the one that came before. shaddyr started out with an excellent discussion of pre-internet fandom, versaphile told us all about the vagaries of archiving (and OMG, y'all, the amount of work that goes into making fandom an accessible place for us all is astonishing), kalichan talked about reccing, the lovely mod discussed newsletters and what goes into maintaining a successful one (again with all the work!), and Nina finished with a discussion of OTW and how it is addressing a lot of the issues brought up in the other panelists' talks.

I've got one more panel to discuss but I think I'm calling it quits for the night. Sister-in-law is here and SHE IS AWESOME! I just introduced her to SPN and I think there's more of that on the plate for tonight. She's being too heavily influenced by Josh's opinion that Sam has cro-magnon forehead. Off to remedy that!

I've been thinking lately about fandom milestones, war wounds as it were, the kind that you're not so secretly proud of because they're evidence that you accomplished Something Awesome. And probably Porny.

So, in ascending order

1. Post fic to Yahoo listserv
2. Misunderstand how Yahoo listserv works; think no one likes your fic until you actually, oh, check your Yahoo mail
2. Get coerced into using Livejournal/Dreamwidth/Insanejournal/Fanfiction.net
3. The one-shot fic
4. The multi-chaptered, serially posted fic
5. The multi-chaptered fic posted all at once
6. Participating in your friend's ficathon
7. Participating in a stranger's ficathon and not getting a story in return
8. Running your own ficathon because, dude, exchanges are cool but also kinda sucky
9. I made a comm! I made a comm!
10. People are joining! People are joining!
11. Yuletide!
12. Maintaining a huge recs list
13. Remix
14. The Big Bang

I make this list because Big Bang is very much on my mind right now and it seems to be the pinnacle of the fannish milestone, the sort of "no really, my fingers were BLEEDING. THEY BLED. MY KEYBOARD DOES NOT WORK NOW" kind of moment we've all been waiting for. The second fic I ever wrote qualifies in length for Big Bang, if you know, I'd posted it all at once and the Buffyverse had had Big Bang. ariadne83 and I are writing this epic SGA fic right now that's at about 19000 words and will probably be twice as long by the time we're done and part of me keeps wondering, in an abstracted and rather facetious way, how we will post it because damn it! I want the war wound, but I think Big Bang (in SGA at least) has all these inexplicable rules about pairings rather than just being the free-for-all that SPN Big Bang appears to be (Good job, SPN!). I can't help thinking of Big Bang as the last established fannish thing that I have yet to do.

So, what are your fannish milestones? What did I leave out? Can I achieve top fannish street cred if I don't ever write a Big Bang fic? LOL Talk amongst yourselves.

Vids

Kittens Inspired by Kittens by blakekelly0
A friend sent me this vid because it reminds her of my daughter Emma. Heeeeee. This is not fannish but rather about the joys of kittens. And precocious children.

Kingdom by absentsouls; SPN; Sam/Ruby
I love the red filter on this. I love the way that Ruby looks like a gd badass in this. I love the way the lyrics of the song and canon interact, particularly the different kinds of love the chorus explores given the images.

Like a Boss by winterevanesce; SPN
Another Lonely Island Parody!!!! Double fifyfive thousand gagillion points of yay! I cannot stop singing this song. The original is pretty awesome too.

Genealogy of Vidding with Francesca Coppa
Ever wonder who made the first vid? How vids are made? West Coast vs. East Coast (teeeeheeeee; I feel like I'm back in high school rocking out to Dr. Dre with that one)? This is informative and interesting and features a lot of vids that I bet you haven't seen before. It's a time investment--about an hour--but this is about US and it's interesting.

Us by Lim; multifannish
You know, the first time I saw this vid I didn't think I liked it. It is probaby the most unique fanvid I've ever seen and I confess that I didn't get it to begin with. Three Millers in (see icon), this vid makes me go, "Huh?" But watched in the cold light of day, this vid is such wonderful meta commentary on what it is that we do as fandom. *loves*

Fic

The Cheese Stands Alone by ijemanja; SGA; Gen; Vala-centric
Vala is for some inexplicable reason stranded on Atlantis without her team. This is what she does to pass the time. *guffaws*

Okay, so I know that there's a cyle to posting about everything in fandom and that this question has probably already been asked ad nauseum, but based on some comments to my post HERE, I'm curious about your definitions of a BNF.

In my estimation, BNF-itude is based on three factors: size of flist, number of people apparently reading fic (or watching vids or gakking icons or responding to meta or using recs) based on recs and comments, and propensity of people to engage in conversation no matter the topic (like washing dishes or kitty cat antics). I think several qualities are related to the BNF-ness: being first (in a fandom, in a trope, in a pairing), being around a long ass time, being witty, writing well, being online a lot so that commentary on new developments is instantaneous-ish.

As I said in my previous post: I mean, I know that the value of BNF changes given whichever circle you are in so that the same people are never universally recognized as BNF by all subsets of fandom. It's a thing that is often very difficult to quantifiably measure. But I do think it exists and I think it depends on perspective. For instance, I have a very different picture of who the BNFs are than I did as newbie and that picture was based on wholly different criteria. Nonetheless, at each stage of my fannishness, I've been able to identify a group of fans that have more clout and influence [and recognition] than I do.

So here's my question to you: Who do you think is a BNF and why?

[Anonymous posting always enabled and IP addresses never logged. It's my settings.]