General Fandom Meta

almostnever - selling pretty pictures vs. pretty words - why is it generally seen as okay to sell fanart, but not fan fiction?

wolfling - You are not entitled. - There's been people asking for money to finish fanfic wips, people hotlinking vids and pictures without permission, and people stealing clips from vids. In each case, when confronted and asked to stop, the reaction has not been apologetic or contrite. No, the reactions have ranged from ignoring the request and merrily continuing to steal, to trying to guilt those who asked them to stop, to pretty much throwing a public temper tantrum and calling everybody meeeen and leaving fandom. All three of these situations have the same thing in common -- a sense of entitlement. That because they want something, fandom should supply it to them -- a sense of entitlement that continues even after they're caught as they refuse to admit that what they were doing was wrong and that maybe they should apologise.

elynross - [untitled] [Link to an interesting off-lj discussion of the cousinjean affair]

azdak - [untitled] - Reading through some of the entries (and comments to those entries)on metafandom, I can't avoid the impression that the reason why *so* many people are *so* pissed off with cousinjean is because at some deep level they feel she's claiming she's better than they are - because she thinks her fanfic is so good that people will actually pay her lots of money to write it.

nihilistic_kid - Oh cousinjean don't go! - The actual chance-taking in this society comes not from member of a privileged strata (and anyone who counts student loans and the class expectation to save for a marriage ceremony among their woes is privileged) asking for a few thousand $25 donations to take a year off, but from those who actually risk ridicule (do-gooder, Pollyanna, bleeding heart!) and pain (double shifts in the ER, firing or manhandling by Pinkertons at the factory gates, diving head first into flaming buildings) to create a society where people can actually help one another.

projectjulie in virgule - doppelganger slash - I think what attracts me about doppelganger stories is the questions they raise about the boundaries of identity. the self is never whole or transparent, we're always "beside ourselves" in a sense, and doppelgangers literalize that and offer an opportunity to explore it.

rolandx - Superheroes! - For all that I often despair at humanity's general mendacity, it speaks well to us as a people that the incarnations of our greatest aspirations are avatars of nobility, generosity, sacrifice and wonder. Supers explore the fantastic and unknown, rescue innocents from disaster (regardless of gratitude level, in most cases) and battle all tyranny against the mind and body of man alike.

ingrid_m - Young Girl, Get Out In the Sun - In a recent flamewar, in some other fandom, one of the "great comebacks" consisted of a rant a young woman in her twenties made mocking the other side of the war for being, gasp, forty years old and on the Internet, involved in flame wars. [...] Sitting around having flame wars on the Internet is pathetic no matter what age you are. But being young and wasting your time like that while you can still walk without a hitch in your hip? Sorry, you lose -- at life and Teh Internets..

Fandom-Specific Meta

sophia_helix - right place, wrong kerfluffle - What I keep tripping up on with the HP debate are a couple of things: 1) Who the hell allows an author's creations to upset their lives to this degree? [...] 2) What the hell are we, casual readers? WRITE THE FANFIC THE WAY YOU WANT IT. [HP]

idlerat - Aw. - The politics are what it's all about for me- that's where the science fiction comes in, and what always excites me most about sci fi. And I have been pleasantly surprised by a lot of elements in the political story. [BSG]

kkglinka - Why I Think Catwoman is the Coolest - Put the Bat and the Cat side by side and you get a great example of nature vs nurture... but only if you're familiar with the non-white-washed version of Catwoman. [DC Comics]

kindkit - now, *Bob* likes being in the closet, but . . - In the last month or so I've been reading a lot of due South fic as I explore my shiny new fandom. And I've noticed a trend in slash stories that both puzzles and dismays me. There are a remarkable number of stories that either assume or accept that Fraser and Ray (either Ray) will simply stay in the closet and keep their relationship secret. Not every story does this, of course, but there are quite a few. [Due South]

fantasyenabler - Why I Prefer the "Hero" to the "Geek" - McKay is the character the audience is supposed to relate to; Sheppard is the one they don't relate to, but are left wanting to figure out. McKay is the accessible one; Sheppard is the inscrutable one, and while the audience knows exactly how they are supposed to react to the one, they're somewhat confounded by how they are supposed to react to the other one. [SGA]

kantayra - Was Fandom Emotionally Traumatized by S6 Spuffy? - the whole story line did cause me emotional stress, even emotional stress that persisted beyond the show and has continued to leave me emotionally impaired (or at least fragile) in other similar situations. [...] It actually sort of reminds me of the emotional trauma induced by many organized religions, and - like these - I think the BtVS writers were equally oblivious to the highly negative effect they were having on people. [BtVS]

sisabet - [untitled] - If you were emotionally traumatized by Season Six Spuffy then I think you need to go back and rethink what the words emotionally traumatized mean. [BtVS]

bakashoujiki - In which I get all hot and bothered about things no one else cares about - Now that I think about it, there is no good word to describe American comics that are heavily influenced by Japanese comics and popular culture. [...] Why not go with the discretion of the speaker? I mean, all available terms are inaccurate, negative, or fucking terrible. So really. There is no correct answer. Call the damn things whatever term you feel like, and stop trying to dictate what anyone else goes by.

Reading/Writing/Creating

sstar_luna - Clash of culture and writing - When I write HP, I write it in Brit-speak to put it bluntly. I use 'colour' instead of 'color' and 'arse' instead of 'ass'. I do it because Harry Potter is a British book and based in Britain. If I write original fiction, I would write it in British-English again because I'm British. [...] If I choose to write ... say Stargate, Star Trek, House M.D., CSI or any other American-based show which I am interested in, does that mean I should write the fanfiction in American-English?

stella_belli - Because I hate NC-17 or something - One of the books I have about writing says that a story makes a promise, and an unsatisfying story doesn't follow through on that promise. Maybe that's what I don't like about gratuitous sex, especially as a resolution. I'm not talking about stories that call themselves PWP or anything like that. With those, I know what I'm in for right away. But, when a story feigns a plot, then is only about sex, I'm disappointed.

minisinoo - Poll on NC-17 & a meme - issues of visual codes imposed on literary mediums aside, at least one reason I avoid ratings has to do with some common assumptions I've run into in fanfic about what the ratings mean. I discuss that, too, in the article, but I'd like to put up a poll on the matter. [Poll]

neverneverfic - [untitled] - very beta i've ever had has had a slightly different sense of what it is to beta, and every person i've beta'd for has wanted/been comfortable with different things. [...] when you send something off to be beta'd what are you expecting to get back? do you always get it? when you beta for someone what do you do?

thetreacletart - Inquiring Minds Want To Know... - So you’ve just written a fic and posted it. At what point do you consider it successful?