General Fandom Meta

nakeisha - Commenting on LJ Stories - I promised that I'd do a poll to see whether people commented on stories they liked/disliked and their main reason for doing so, or not doing so as the case may be. [Poll]

rahirah - Plot vs Character, Film at 11 - Very few stories are all one or the other, though some genres tend to favor plot over character and vice versa. Personally, I find stories which are a mix of the two approaches most satisfying, and this is what I usually shoot for in my own writing. It's also one of the most difficult things to get right; very often I've discovered, half-way through a story, that one of the major characters really doesn't have any internal motivation to speak of. This is one of the major causes, to me, of a story feeling flat and unsatisfying, so much so that if I can't come up with an interior journey for a character, even just a teeny weeny one, I'm reluctant to write at all.

sailormac in fanthropology - The Language of Fandoms - I'm seeing more and more words that used to be associated with one group of fans being used by the other. Some anime fans are calling their stories slash, and I've seen Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fans labeling their fics "yaoi." "Smut" is starting to be interchangeable with "lemon" in anime fandoms.

lannamichaels - [Meta] The RPS Post - If you have an RPS squick, hey, that's okay. If it just gives you a big red "WRONG" sign every time you think about it, that's okay, too. But if it's not an uncontrolled reaction, if it's something you've thought long and hard about, I want to know why. Why is RPS wrong? Who does it hurt? And, most of all, where can I find Olivier/Guinness slash?

jamalov29 - On awards - I have the feeling that , being only a reader , my opinion doesn't have much value in the writer's playground. Sometimes I feel like an outsider in the sense that I am not aware of what is it to create a story and/or artwork and wait for the reactions.

soundingsea - recognition, recommendations, and a poll - As a fanfic writer, my favorite kind of recognition, beyond feedback, is... [Poll]

wickedwords - Remix: Exercises in Style - For me, I am all about the puzzle. That's part of my joy in fandom, getting the pieces to fit together even if the canon hasn't given me everything, or if the pieces have been cut out so badly that nothing's going to fit together ever. [...] // And that's how I approach remixes as well, as both a reader and a writer. I want to see the original, and see what the original pile of pieces looked like, then I want to see how the writer swapped things around with what they had in their toolkit to make something new. That's just cool to me, because puzzles are fun.

fabu - Not "the noble writer plugging away in his lonely garret" again - Why are artists expected to do their work "for love" while it's perfectly acceptible for other professionals and amateurs to want something in return for their work? Try asking your doctor to do your check-up for free -- after all, if he truly loved his job, he wouldn't need to make a living at it. The satisfaction of a job well done would be enough. Of course, fanfic writers are amateurs, not working for money, but why in the world would you think that they wouldn't want some appreciation and acknowledgement of their work? Does the high school football team play in an empty stadium? What? You mean they don't play for the love of the game?!

Fandom-Specific Meta

inlovewithnight - Feminist-philosophical theory, imposed on Firefly as a text - Indeed, the uterine element is almost completely absent from the women of Serenity; there are no mothers, no children. Zoe and Inara occasionally show maternal behavior toward Kaylee and River, but it's definitely subordinate to the "warrior woman" and "hetaira" aspects of their characters. [Firefly, May contain Serenity spoilers]

executrix - Lawyers, Guns and Honeys: Prostitution in the Firefly 'Verse - After all, in a world where Christianity exists but as minor and marginalized, attitudes toward sex-for-money probably *would* be different. And I suspect that the difference between a Companion and a whore is precisely the designer label (knock-off knocking shops?), and much of the customer's satisfaction comes from being the kind of person who can afford a Companion. [Firefly]

executrix - Firefly: As They Like It - It's an interesting question whether people who have more than one fandom choose them for complementarity or diversity. I certainly think of Firefly as, in many ways, Blakes7 by other means (although in one case when bits fall off the scenery you're supposed to notice and in the other you're supposed to tactfully ignore it), and I wouldn't write so many crossovers if I didn't think the "color temperature" of the two shows is similar. [Firefly]

nuhiep - Biology Geek Alert - Now the real question is how this ATA gene works. Is there a “threshold” of cells that need to have the ATA gene? I believe so, or else the gene therapy would have worked on everyone. The threshold idea works like this: Say that to operate Ancient technology, the tech has to sense the ATA gene in at least 60% of your cells. The threshold has to be high enough to discourage tampering with the system, but not 100% or else Rodney would never have been able to activate that little personal shield in “Hide and Seek.” [SGA]


PSA Update

bradfitz in lj_dev - Google Blog Search -- relax, yo - [Post of the message from Google confirming that Google Blogsearch's indexing of no-index livejournals was "entirely unintentional, and a fix should go live within the next day or two"]