Hey look, an end-of-year meme.
Dec. 21st, 2011 12:07 amVia ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likeadeuce, ( fannish year in review )
likeadeuce, ( fannish year in review )
Fun with Yuletide fandoms!
Nov. 15th, 2011 10:48 pmI have now completed my annual "snarking about yuletide fandoms" ritual. I enjoy that a lot, I think it might be one of my favorite parts of the challenge. It is just so cathartic.
Except normally I do it privately on chat witholiviacirce. And this year instead I spammed my twitter feed with it. Sorry guys! I... hit the hourly usage limit two hours consecutively. And learned that that doesn't actually keep me from tweeting. It just keeps me from viewing new updates on the page!
Anyway, the annual Hilariously Large Fandoms That Slipped Through The Cracks Due to Clever Tag Usage:
Presumably most of these will get cleaned up in the next couple of days, but I am just so fascinated by what the net result of moving from the old qualitative process to the new quantitative process has been. The old method didn't scale, obviously, but the new method has some fascinating loopholes.
Also: BEST FANDOM NEW I DISCOVERED WHILE TRAWLING THROUGH THE LIST? Michael Fassbender With Pugs (tumblr). That link is to the tumblr. Which is AMAZING.
(OMG I JUST ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED THE BROWSE TAGS BUTTON ON THE BETA DREAMWIDTH UPDATE PAGE. BEST.)
Except normally I do it privately on chat with
oliviacirce. And this year instead I spammed my twitter feed with it. Sorry guys! I... hit the hourly usage limit two hours consecutively. And learned that that doesn't actually keep me from tweeting. It just keeps me from viewing new updates on the page!Anyway, the annual Hilariously Large Fandoms That Slipped Through The Cracks Due to Clever Tag Usage:
- Captain America (2011) - 183 stories on the AO3
- The Avengers (2012) - in the last day, up to 215 stories on the AO3. (Let's ignore the fandoms Marvel (Movies) - more than 1000 stories; Marvel Avengers Movies Universe - more than 1000 stories. They're separate fandoms, although presumably with a lot of overlap)
- The Social Network RPF - 68 stories on the AO3. So... I take it they're an LJ fandom?
- X-Men: First Class (2011) RPF. 53 stories on the AO3. Ditto?
- Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album) - 115 stories on the AO3. Presumably most people are tagging their Killjoys fic only with My Chemical Romance and not including the album listing?
Presumably most of these will get cleaned up in the next couple of days, but I am just so fascinated by what the net result of moving from the old qualitative process to the new quantitative process has been. The old method didn't scale, obviously, but the new method has some fascinating loopholes.
Also: BEST FANDOM NEW I DISCOVERED WHILE TRAWLING THROUGH THE LIST? Michael Fassbender With Pugs (tumblr). That link is to the tumblr. Which is AMAZING.
(OMG I JUST ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED THE BROWSE TAGS BUTTON ON THE BETA DREAMWIDTH UPDATE PAGE. BEST.)
Meme time!
Jul. 30th, 2011 02:54 pmOk, it's Saturday and I don't actually want to spend my afternoon writing unit tests like I planned, so MEME! (Via fifteendozentimes, lalejandra, and others.)
The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms (crossover fandoms count as "a fandom", or feel free to just choose pairings) you know I write AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc) or another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would AU in that era.
Completed:
Clark/Lex Rockstar AU
Ryan Ross: Faily Revolutionary Poet
fifteendozentimes, lalejandra, and others.)The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms (crossover fandoms count as "a fandom", or feel free to just choose pairings) you know I write AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, etc) or another time period (Ancient Rome, Regency England, etc). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would AU in that era.
Completed:
Clark/Lex Rockstar AU
Ryan Ross: Faily Revolutionary Poet
TFV's post on "no heterosexual explanation" moments, where it is hard to come up with an in-canon explanation for a certain character's behavior unless it's them being in love with another character, got me thinking about another kind of moment I experience periodically.
It's the moment where my own tendency to read queer subtext in everything blinds me to the fact that there is really obvious textual queerness going on. I am so used to thinking of the way I read queerness into everything that sometimes I just don't realize that it's not just me.
Case in point: the blowjob scene in Nico and Dani. I thought it was just an awkward film about two teenage boys who were maybe getting each other off a little bit, no homo here unless you're a slasher! And then... blowjobs! (Honestly, I still sort of think that my university's Spanish department selected its films with an intent to troll the firsties. Poor little bb!epershand was like "Did you just fade to black and keep the screen black for like a minute while keeping the blowjob noises on? European film, you... you confuse me.")
Dumbledore's "outing" was another one of those moments for me. Because... of course I'd been slashing Dumbledore/Grindlewald, GAY OLDER MENTORS is my favorite trope. But finding out that JKR also slashed them came at me out of nowhere.
Editing this to add one more example: in Farthing it took me way too long to figure out that all those intense conversations about what kind of tea people drank that sounded like obscure euphemisms for homosexuality? Were obscure euphemisms for homosexuality. ("Do you like INDIA tea or CHINA tea? Personally, I like China tea... with lemon. You look like a man who... also likes lemon in his tea.")
So, what are your "being a slasher made me not notice obvious canon queer characters" moments? What are the texts that you only belatedly realized didn't need queering?
It's the moment where my own tendency to read queer subtext in everything blinds me to the fact that there is really obvious textual queerness going on. I am so used to thinking of the way I read queerness into everything that sometimes I just don't realize that it's not just me.
Case in point: the blowjob scene in Nico and Dani. I thought it was just an awkward film about two teenage boys who were maybe getting each other off a little bit, no homo here unless you're a slasher! And then... blowjobs! (Honestly, I still sort of think that my university's Spanish department selected its films with an intent to troll the firsties. Poor little bb!epershand was like "Did you just fade to black and keep the screen black for like a minute while keeping the blowjob noises on? European film, you... you confuse me.")
Dumbledore's "outing" was another one of those moments for me. Because... of course I'd been slashing Dumbledore/Grindlewald, GAY OLDER MENTORS is my favorite trope. But finding out that JKR also slashed them came at me out of nowhere.
Editing this to add one more example: in Farthing it took me way too long to figure out that all those intense conversations about what kind of tea people drank that sounded like obscure euphemisms for homosexuality? Were obscure euphemisms for homosexuality. ("Do you like INDIA tea or CHINA tea? Personally, I like China tea... with lemon. You look like a man who... also likes lemon in his tea.")
So, what are your "being a slasher made me not notice obvious canon queer characters" moments? What are the texts that you only belatedly realized didn't need queering?
Things I love about my life
Apr. 10th, 2011 11:18 pmI'm feeling extraordinarily lucky today. I was walking to the BART with J this afternoon after a FOGcon concom meeting (FOGcon2! OMG!) and she commented that she really loves having a situation in her life where being hetero and monogamous makes her the odd one out, and it made me think a little bit about the things I take for granted in my life and how incredibly lucky I am to have them. So, a partial list:
I have a birth family who love the parts of me that I choose to show them, and a chosen family that loves all of me. The time and place that I live in means that the parts of me that I can show my birth family include the relationship with the woman who has been the most important thing in my life for the majority of the last decade, even if they think that relationship is monogamous.
The entire time I have been out (which is to say, my entire adult life) I've been able to live in places where being queer is relatively mainstream.
My employer respects and honors my queer identity. My employer is actively doing work to help its queer employees internationally, even (especially) in countries where being queer is still illegal. Not only does my employer participate in gay pride marches around the world, but it takes decisive action in the world on behalf of its queer employees. For example, if I were in the legal status my home State affords me in lieu of marriage, my employer would rectify the taxation injustice done by the Federal government. On a lesser note, my employer is ok with my having pink hair.
In a very large subset of my social circle being queer is an unmarked category. In a smaller but still strikingly large, all things considered, subset of my social circle, being poly is an unmarked category.
And being *fannish* is an unmarked category.
I live in a time, and I live a privileged enough life, that my friendships and loves aren't constrained by geography. I can be in love (and in lust. and in limerence. and in friendship.) with people in multiple states, and even multiple *countries* without that breaking me. Most of my closest relationships are conducted almost entirely over the internet and the telephone, and I don't even *notice* that fact until someone else reminds me.
I have a community where I can discuss my sexuality, and my relationships, without being thought of as a freak. And where I can choose *not* to discuss my sexuality or my relationships without fear of them being invisible.
A lot of things aren't perfect. A lot of things aren't great, or even good. But I am so lucky I don't even know how to deal with it.
I have a birth family who love the parts of me that I choose to show them, and a chosen family that loves all of me. The time and place that I live in means that the parts of me that I can show my birth family include the relationship with the woman who has been the most important thing in my life for the majority of the last decade, even if they think that relationship is monogamous.
The entire time I have been out (which is to say, my entire adult life) I've been able to live in places where being queer is relatively mainstream.
My employer respects and honors my queer identity. My employer is actively doing work to help its queer employees internationally, even (especially) in countries where being queer is still illegal. Not only does my employer participate in gay pride marches around the world, but it takes decisive action in the world on behalf of its queer employees. For example, if I were in the legal status my home State affords me in lieu of marriage, my employer would rectify the taxation injustice done by the Federal government. On a lesser note, my employer is ok with my having pink hair.
In a very large subset of my social circle being queer is an unmarked category. In a smaller but still strikingly large, all things considered, subset of my social circle, being poly is an unmarked category.
And being *fannish* is an unmarked category.
I live in a time, and I live a privileged enough life, that my friendships and loves aren't constrained by geography. I can be in love (and in lust. and in limerence. and in friendship.) with people in multiple states, and even multiple *countries* without that breaking me. Most of my closest relationships are conducted almost entirely over the internet and the telephone, and I don't even *notice* that fact until someone else reminds me.
I have a community where I can discuss my sexuality, and my relationships, without being thought of as a freak. And where I can choose *not* to discuss my sexuality or my relationships without fear of them being invisible.
A lot of things aren't perfect. A lot of things aren't great, or even good. But I am so lucky I don't even know how to deal with it.
This is not a con report.
May. 31st, 2010 10:35 pmI'm beginning to come down from my WisCon high. I definitely had more of a lobby con than a going to panels con, but it was absolutely the weekend I needed to have.
( Things About WisCon )
( Things About WisCon )
Can has squee
Mar. 7th, 2010 12:19 pmI didn't really interact with the internet except at work this week. It was one of those weeks. But it was also a week full of splee.
( cut for excessive giddiness )
( cut for excessive giddiness )
"Suck it, shippers"?
Sep. 15th, 2009 11:05 amSo, today's Questionable Content. Did not make me ship Hannelore/Marigold any less. It just made me saw aww, how cute, they're in adorable denial. Even in that comic they had so much cute UST.
But I'm fascinated that Jeph Jacques felt the need to make the characters say "No we are not going to 'lez out'" and titled the comic "Suck it, shippers." Does cutting off a popular area of speculation really enhance the comic?
Ironically it came just a couple days after Henry Jenkin's fascinating post about trans-media storytelling and how it builds out a world for further speculation by fans.
Jeph is one of the people I think has been really successful at transmedia storytelling, with separate, equally complex story arcs going on for the characters on his comic and on the twitter personas he's created for them.
But perhaps he is overly concerned about being the sole provider of all QC-related fiction? In most cases where there are twitter personas for characters in other media, it's fans larping, but Jacques has created his own, perhaps to forstall that.
This is, of course, all speculation, but I think that on the basis of this comic, I'm going to be a whole lot more critical of QC, in particular of Jeph's ways of relating to his fans of the transformative variety.
But I'm fascinated that Jeph Jacques felt the need to make the characters say "No we are not going to 'lez out'" and titled the comic "Suck it, shippers." Does cutting off a popular area of speculation really enhance the comic?
Ironically it came just a couple days after Henry Jenkin's fascinating post about trans-media storytelling and how it builds out a world for further speculation by fans.
That said, most good transmedia artists know that there are certain gaps which should not be filled if they want to maintain interest in the series as a whole. There are certainly reasons to create ambiguities and uncertanties. We may offer more clues through other media, but we certainly don't want to destroy the mystery which makes such characters and worlds compelling in the first place. Fans resent the addition of information simply to close down avenues for speculation -- take, for example, the closing chapter of the last Harry Potter novel which amounted to J.K. Rowling spraying her territory telling us who married who and what they named their children even though most of that information had limited narrative impact and simply felt like she was trying to foreclose certain strands of fan expansion. In some cases, authors are better off allowing fans to create their own narratives, since the community will generate multiple explanations, much as critics will offer multiple accounts of what motivates Hamlet or Travis Bickle to do what they do.
Jeph is one of the people I think has been really successful at transmedia storytelling, with separate, equally complex story arcs going on for the characters on his comic and on the twitter personas he's created for them.
But perhaps he is overly concerned about being the sole provider of all QC-related fiction? In most cases where there are twitter personas for characters in other media, it's fans larping, but Jacques has created his own, perhaps to forstall that.
This is, of course, all speculation, but I think that on the basis of this comic, I'm going to be a whole lot more critical of QC, in particular of Jeph's ways of relating to his fans of the transformative variety.
Ships meme
May. 27th, 2009 01:29 pmSo, I've actually got a long meaty post in the works, but for now, here's a meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
killerbeautiful. My patterns, they are... strong.
Name your 10 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms.
killerbeautiful. My patterns, they are... strong.Name your 10 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms.
- Elim Garak/Julian Bashir: Star Trek: DS9
- Ethan Raine/Rupert Giles: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Clark Kent/Lex Luthor: Smallville and also Superman comics in general
- Dick Grayson/Tim Drake: Batman comics
- Remus Lupin/Sirius Black: Harry Potter
- Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr: XMen movieverse
- The Doctor/The Master: Doctor Who
- Sam Beckett/Al Calavicci: Quantum Leap
- Herman Melville/Nathaniel Hawthorne: history
- AE Housman/Moses Jackson: The Invention of Love
I am, and shall always be...
May. 16th, 2009 04:52 pm"I have written," oliviacirce said, "an epic internal reflection on my relationship with Star Trek. I do not have a Star Trek icon to post it with, though."
"Well, that seems obvious given your relationship with Star Trek."
"Uh, yeah."
"When I complete my epic internal reflection on my relationship with Star Trek, it will include the fact that there is a signature in my 7th grade year book addressed to 'star trak[sic] girl.' Yours is somewhat different."
So, movie aside, I have been spiraling down into Star Trek fandom again. Star Trek was my first serious fandom (I spent several middle-school summers doing nothing but watching Trek and writing Mary Sue fanfic) but I left it behind rather drastically sometime my freshman year of high school, as season 7 of DS9 was wrapping up.
That being said, in the last two or three weeks, I've re-watched much of DS9 season 3 (and a smattering of episodes across seasons 2, 4 and 5), read Mike Ford's astoundingly awesome How Much for Just the Planet?, and well, hello, long-lost reaches of trek fic, here I am digging for you.
And also there was the movie, which I saw first at a grotty little London cinema and then again in (fake) IMAX with the younger sibling when I got back to San Francisco. And, um, also Countdown, the spin-off prequel comic for the movie. And the whole Yosemite sequence from Star Trek V, to showoliviacirce the Kirk+Spock+McCoy dynamic in full swing.
( here there be emotions, and vague spoilers )
oliviacirce said, "an epic internal reflection on my relationship with Star Trek. I do not have a Star Trek icon to post it with, though.""Well, that seems obvious given your relationship with Star Trek."
"Uh, yeah."
"When I complete my epic internal reflection on my relationship with Star Trek, it will include the fact that there is a signature in my 7th grade year book addressed to 'star trak[sic] girl.' Yours is somewhat different."
So, movie aside, I have been spiraling down into Star Trek fandom again. Star Trek was my first serious fandom (I spent several middle-school summers doing nothing but watching Trek and writing Mary Sue fanfic) but I left it behind rather drastically sometime my freshman year of high school, as season 7 of DS9 was wrapping up.
That being said, in the last two or three weeks, I've re-watched much of DS9 season 3 (and a smattering of episodes across seasons 2, 4 and 5), read Mike Ford's astoundingly awesome How Much for Just the Planet?, and well, hello, long-lost reaches of trek fic, here I am digging for you.
And also there was the movie, which I saw first at a grotty little London cinema and then again in (fake) IMAX with the younger sibling when I got back to San Francisco. And, um, also Countdown, the spin-off prequel comic for the movie. And the whole Yosemite sequence from Star Trek V, to show
oliviacirce the Kirk+Spock+McCoy dynamic in full swing.( here there be emotions, and vague spoilers )
