General Fandom Meta

michaelhinman - Whoever told me to go here .... - Wow ... someone starts a LiveJournal community, and they think they are a god. And no, I'm not just being dramatic and exaggerating something ... they really think they are a god.

sharz - Immaturity in fandom - Now I hate plagiarism. It's stealing other peoples ideas and passing them off as your own the the thoughts, the analysis did not originate from yourself but you are taking the praise and credit anyway. So I can understand why the authors would be annoyed. However that's no reason to loose your wits. What was plagiarised was a FANFIC...that's right, those things we write in our spare time about fictional characters. It's done in fun and as a hobby. Lets not forget that.

thawrecka - [untitled] - But I don't think LJ is that great when it comes to finding the fannish discussion. Other people love how it's got all that personal stuff mixed in with the fannish stuff and, you know, that's great when I want to read someone's journal but when I just want to read fannish essays? I'm really a lot more likely to just look up the fandom essay websites or type something into google and hope it hits the subject I'm looking for.

penknife - In defense of fluff - As strange as that may seem give my attraction to pairings that inevitably end in tears, I actually like fluff. I don't like stories where the characters are out of character or stories where so little happens that I feel I'm reading the characters' grocery lists for no apparent reason. I don't like huge amounts of unrelieved fluff; one bite of sugary sweetness is good, but a whole meal of the stuff is nauseating. // But I like short stories that are basically charming anecdotes, and I like short stories that are about the ways that people are good to each other rather than the ways they hurt each other.

painless_j - Fanfic vs literature, why I love fanfic, and blah-blah-blah - What I like best about fanfiction is that it conventionally speaks the plain language of mass literature. But as fanfic writers aren't limited with contracts and the need to cover the costs, they have plenty of freedom to do as they want, so a lot of fics turn out to be better than your average paperback. Unlike Literature, fanfiction doesn't have to be intelligent at any cost, but as many a fanfiction writer is an intelligent person, it often is.

janecarnall - Arcana, Tiptree, and some neo who'd never read an Mpreg - Just a guess, but I bet that whoever it was who nominated "Arcana" to the longlist for the Tiptree awards wasn't a slash fan, didn't ever read much fanfiction, and had never encountered an Mpreg slash story before.

dar_jeeling - The Special Hell. No, not that one. Not that one either. The other one. - On what do writers of RPF base their stories? What's considered canon? How exactly can you tell if it's bad characterization? There's behind the scenes footage, there are bloopers and interviews, but how much does that tell you? How do you prevent the actors' roles from bleeding into them? Do authors have to work harder to make it plausible? Or do they have more liberties?

nishatalitha - On Epic Fiction - I've been thinking on the nature of epics all day, and have come up with this stuff. Mash and the various commentators seemed to be arguing that most rpgs don't tend to be epics for various reasons. I think I'm arguing that various games can be epics, but that it depends on far more than just the feel of the world and the system.

thelana - What to do with bad fic? - And the ever popular question arises, what to do with bad fic? Say something? Say nothing? Wait for it to disappear on its own?

lunacy - [romance = so predictable -.-] - So basically I think I care more about the emotions than the characters in romance. If they can feel things a lot, I'm happy

On Reading/Writing/Creating

kindkit - are there any novels that don't suck? - Ten Things I Do Not Like In Novels

fabu - Schrodinger's Manuscript? - Sometimes, when I particularly love the world of a book, I'll deliberately slow down my reading to stretch it out and keep it from ending [...] And as a writer, I think I sometimes do something similar - stretch out the period in which I'm writing the story, to keep it burbling along in my head, and also to avoid committing to one set of choices.

ingrid_m - Not Enough Coffee for this much thought ... - Is there an invisible sign hanging over our more intense efforts that says "I PUT A DAMNED LOT OF WORK INTO THIS, PLEASE TAKE NOTICE!" versus the carefree attitude of the dashed-off pieces that might relax the reader versus intimidate them?

Miscellany

mamadeb - Slash Fandom Poll - I'm working on an essay about second fandoms. I need some data points. [Poll]

gaiaanarchy - Me but not you - The social scientist in me is curious about the boundries we set for ourselves for each of our chosen identities. [Poll]

linaerys - Here's Your Pamphlet - Everytime I watch House I want to hand Wilson a pamphlet entitled "So . . . You're In An Abusive Relationship With Your Best Friend (On Whom You Have A Crush). How To Assert Yourself And Get What You Really Want." That got me thinking how many other people need pamphlets [Humor]

penknife - I'm not even going to ask about all the citrus fruit. - Is yaoi the same thing as slash? [Poll]