General Fandom Meta

tyellas - A Multi-Layered Spectacle of Authorial Wierdness - I don’t know if anyone else who reads both slash and queer lit has been following the evolution of the author JT Leroy’s identity. JT Leroy’s ostensible real-life story sounds like over-the-top bad yaoi hurt/comfort; sad, frail, beautiful young boy is coerced by a bad parent into becoming a cross-dressing prostitute, escapes this life and is sheltered by loving couple and mentored by older gay authors. But is it true? Is the spectacularly flaky JT Leroy not just one woman, but two women?

milady22 - How do you reconcile fandom with your work/studies/private life? - So how are you doing this? What are your little tricks? How do you find time for non-obligatory (fandom or academic) reading, watching movies, going out with friends, writing publications? Because my day really should last at least 48 hours.

eolianbeck - The representative problem - The whole Brokeback Mountain furor and folderol (“but not all gay relationships end in tragedy!” “But why can’t we have a realistic, modern portrayal!” “That is realistic, you philistine!”) has made me smile from the very beginning, not just because I like conflict but also because, well, it’s just so damn familiar. // The title character of House is a person with a disability. I didn’t actually know this the first time I viewed the show – it was an episode from mid-season 1, and it was not immediately apparent to me that he walks with a cane. But then, when I started at the beginning with the pilot and there was dialogue on this subject, my entire viewpoint on the show changed. Well crap, I thought, here we go again.

sprat - I'm not writing, and so I poll... - So you know how there are some stories you'll go back to and re-read even if they aren't very well-written, just because they push your buttons? And you might never fess up to liking these stories in public because you don't want the world at large to think you're the giant mushy girl/boy/person (or the weirdo kinky freak) that you really, in your heart of hearts, are? You know those stories--the ones people point out in anonymous comments if somebody looks for them in a fic finding community; the ones that probably get a lot of hits but never ever get rec'ed? // I'm interested to know what makes a story draw you in this way.

fox1013 - fandom (i'll take you there) - Basically, the way that the creator --> fans response started around the end of Buffy is a bad, bad thing that's made fandom more annoying than ever, and I think that's exacerbated (not caused by) LJ and the notion of the fandom that I choose, not a centralized fandom that then splits naturally. There is also the really big problem that one thing breeds another, and thus the way that Joss Whedon's a slut for compliments leads to Rob Thomas is a crack-addicted whore who will sell his soul and his children for TWOP approval, and LIKE IT. And with BSG? Well, Ron Moore is a fan-manipulator of the first degree who graduated from Crazy-Ass Creator School with a dual degree in Roswell and Star Trek, and he's eating this like goddamned candy, so there's been very little sanity-check on the creator side.

gershwhen - Forced Bonding, the jouney to slavery - There are certain types of stories that seem to be more prevalent in one or two fandoms, rather than others. One that comes to mind is the "forced bonding" genre. I first saw this type repetitively appear in The Sentinel fandom. It tends to appear every so often in Harry Potter -- which has led me to this post. And the more I look at these stories, the more I don't understand the interest in the genre. It may just be a kink and therefore not really "explainable", but I keep thinking there has to be more to this interest. I guess it comes down to how can a reader (or a writer) find slavery of a primary character attractive?

Fandom-Specific Meta ( Cut for possible spoilers in the following: HP, Brokeback Mountain, Firefly/Serenity )

On Writing/Vidding/Creating

obsessive24 in vidding - vidding to drum machine tracks - Currently I'm trying to storyboard a vid using a trip-hop song, and I'm finding the beats hard. Drum machine tracks are usually quite distinctive and interesting within, say, a 4-beat structure, but the downside seems to be that structure would often stay the same through the song, making the overall effect monotonous. I am aware of the pitfalls of doing the same pattern of cutting all through a vid, which can get very boring very quickly, but I don't know how I can avoid it precisely because the beats are so distinctive and it's likely to look odd if you only adhere to the rhythm pattern half the time. Does anyone else have this problem with drum machine tracks, and how would you go about varying it up?

guede_mazaka - Meta-Flash - I have no intellectual problem with people claiming that they read fanfiction as original fiction, i. e. coming to the material with little-to-no background in the source matter. [...] Frankly, I think somebody commenting that they've come to a piece of fanfiction as if it was original fiction and that they were perfectly all right despite their lack of knowledge is one of the highest compliments that a fanfic writer can receive. // However, this possibility of reading like original fiction does not, in my mind, constitute a necessity on the part of fanficcers to write as if they were working in original fiction.

tigertrapped - On writing - Mid-way through last year, I had an attack of guilt about spending so much time writing fanfiction. My snobbery inclined me to think little of my efforts in any field other than original fiction. The fact that so much of what I was writing was porn, didn't help. I felt I'd let myself down, as a serious writer. // What bollocks. I reiterate: // Fanfiction taught me how to plot. Fanfiction taught me how to finish what I'd started. // Without those two skills, I'd likely spend the rest of my life gazing at my navel and wondering why inspiration was giving me a wide berth.

Miscellany

vidder_weekly - brings you weekly news from the vidding community, with current focus on new music videos, new meta, and a meta/video spotlight.