August 28th, 2005

09:37 pm

General

elspethdixon 2005-08-27: A Love that is Pure and True...: “Why,” I suddenly asked myself, “is sexualising relationships necessarily bad?” // Why do we—we meaning western culture, not just we in fandom—have this pervasive sense that sex, regardless of how hot it is, regardless of whether the people involved love each other, regardless of whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual, is something dirty and impure? That sexual desire is something base and animalistic and innately selfish, that cheapens the people involved? That once desire is introduced into the equation, love is no longer phillia, but eros and eros only? // I’ve got a theory.

damned_colonial 2005-08-28: My introduction to vidding: There are many excellent and worthwhile introductions to vidding (making fanvids) around the place. This is not one of them. This is just a write-up of my personal and extremely subjective experience, offered because people have said it might be interesting.

permetaform 2005-08-27: Vid Question!: 'kay, color me curious, but what do ya'll consider a 'shipper vid? Or a relationship vid?

petulantgod 2005-08-27: Fandom Discussion: Theme in Fanfic: Theme can connect a reader and author in a way that little else can, giving them a mental and intellectual touchstone. However, in fanfic, this might seem a bit much to ask of writers, and irrelevant or offputting to readers. I'm curious about how you lot feel about it. [POLL]

st_crispins 2005-08-28: Women Like Us: Moving to a general observation, however, it did make me realize something: that in terms of female characters, gen and slash writers employ opposing strategies to accomplish very different goals. ... In both cases, the women characters are not the sort we, ourselves, socialize with and count as friends in our everyday lives.

cereta 2005-08-27: On being a fangirl: Geek chic aside, the huge popularity of Harry Potter aside, there's still this vague sense in our culture that being emotionally invested in anything fictional is a little odd and that possibly we should be keeping an eye on you. // But man, I really didn't expect to see that attitude in fandom.

reenka 2005-08-28: passive consumer vs. passionate participant: reader, writer,: The whole idea of writing the author directly to give one's con-crit misses the point entirely, because there's a large difference between positive/negative/mixed feedback (intended for the author) and a positive/negative/mixed review (intended for other readers). The assumption that all discussion on a story has to basically double as direct feedback sort of... bothers me. A lot.

rahirah 2005-08-28: In which I rant: There is a huge gap between "I don't like it," and "It's wrong and you shouldn't do it." I don't like ultra-sub, ultra-femme Spike. I also don't like ultra-dom, ultra-macho Spike. I don't like Spike as a race car driver, I don't like Spike as a Lithuanian goatherder. I like Spike as a conflicted, contradictory vampire. People who do like stories about Lithuanian goatherder Spike are perfectly welcome to read and write those stories, and more power to 'em. But I'm getting increasingly cranky hearing about how not liking Lithuanian goatherder stories makes me a pussy who can't handle the truth, er, the dark.

goseaward 2005-08-27: On Experiencing a Work as a Fan, and What Makes a Good Basis for a Fandom: All of this makes me think about the nature of fandom. Fans dissect the show, of course, discuss the latest episodes, perform acts of criticism that would make their English teachers weep with joy. But (to my knowledge) the fandoms with the most bustling business are the ones that spawn fanfic, and fanfic writers are, in my experience, much more interested in what goes on outside the screen or off the page. Fans, like weeds, grow in those little nooks you thought were too small to care about. Fans take the details, the unfinished scenes, the hints, throw them in the great blender of group discussion, and come up with new things that are simultaneously exactly suited to the show and entirely new. And this, I think, is why material that has multiple creators (television shows, for example) are such rich sources of fandoms.

Specific( cut for possible spoilers )