On friends of friends
shiv5468 posted today to say that snapes_angel has passed away. I did not know snapes_angel personally and she wasn't on my flist. I only knew her from her comments on other people's LJs as we had several friends in common.
It's funny about friend's friends. In real life we all encounter these people. We see them at our friend's weddings and parties and perhaps other casual encounters. Sometimes we become friends with them ourselves. But oftentimes they are just people we recognize and smile and say hello to when our paths cross. We don't really know them and so when we hear of their passing from your mutual friend its sad in theory, but not something we personally feel.
It can be different on the internet. Here, friends of our friends can be people we know. And know well. Even if we never interact with them ourselves. Here we see the words they write. We can know their thoughts on things. And we see how they treat others. So I didn't know snapes_angel personally but I knew her from her posts on other people's journals.
shiv5468 made a lovely comment in talking about her. She wrote:
"Fandom has its loud voices, the ones that shout and stand in the light. But we should value the quiet, kind voices more."
For years, snapes_angel's was one of those quiet voices that didn't stand out to me. In the height of Harry Potter fandom, there were a lot of people on LJ with Snape related user names and icons. It was hard to distinguish between then. But it was her longevity in fandom on live journal and her enthusiastic commenting that did make her eventually stand out to me.
I'll always remember when one day I recognized her in comments on peadarog's journal. Talk about fandoms colliding! How could there be someone else who was from my flist's HP Snape community who was also friends with someone from the BWB community? What a small world! And with this in mind, we interacted more frequently in the comments of our mutual friend's journals but we never got around to friending one another.
I hope I don't come across as one of those people who claims false friendship after a person has died in order to get false sympathy. It's not my intention. I do not need or want any sympathy on this. I just wanted to offer up a remembrance to someone who I enjoyed interacting with. I am sorry I didn't know her better. The live journal community is poorer for her loss.
It's funny about friend's friends. In real life we all encounter these people. We see them at our friend's weddings and parties and perhaps other casual encounters. Sometimes we become friends with them ourselves. But oftentimes they are just people we recognize and smile and say hello to when our paths cross. We don't really know them and so when we hear of their passing from your mutual friend its sad in theory, but not something we personally feel.
It can be different on the internet. Here, friends of our friends can be people we know. And know well. Even if we never interact with them ourselves. Here we see the words they write. We can know their thoughts on things. And we see how they treat others. So I didn't know snapes_angel personally but I knew her from her posts on other people's journals.
shiv5468 made a lovely comment in talking about her. She wrote:
"Fandom has its loud voices, the ones that shout and stand in the light. But we should value the quiet, kind voices more."
For years, snapes_angel's was one of those quiet voices that didn't stand out to me. In the height of Harry Potter fandom, there were a lot of people on LJ with Snape related user names and icons. It was hard to distinguish between then. But it was her longevity in fandom on live journal and her enthusiastic commenting that did make her eventually stand out to me.
I'll always remember when one day I recognized her in comments on peadarog's journal. Talk about fandoms colliding! How could there be someone else who was from my flist's HP Snape community who was also friends with someone from the BWB community? What a small world! And with this in mind, we interacted more frequently in the comments of our mutual friend's journals but we never got around to friending one another.
I hope I don't come across as one of those people who claims false friendship after a person has died in order to get false sympathy. It's not my intention. I do not need or want any sympathy on this. I just wanted to offer up a remembrance to someone who I enjoyed interacting with. I am sorry I didn't know her better. The live journal community is poorer for her loss.