Comments | bookshop: a note about authorship & emotional maturity

bookshop

a note about authorship & emotional maturity

May 14, 2010 11:47

again, this is one of those posts that it feels kind of ridiculous making, because it seems so obvious to me. and yet people are behaving in ways that indicate that maybe it isn't all that obvious, so here goes.

Actually, scratch that. I had written up this summary of my part in a conversation thread on

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Comments 31

yeats May 14 2010, 15:53:21 UTC

i love it when you make art.
my favorite part is that the author has hands, but the fans do not. ARE YOU SAYING THAT FANS DO NOT ALSO HAVE AGENCY, SYMBOLIZED BY HANDSLESSNESS?

bookshop May 14 2010, 15:54:50 UTC

YES, THAT IS IN FACT EXACTLY WHAT I AM SAYING! I MADE A POINT TO GIVE THE AUTHOR FRIENDLY, LIKABLE HANDS! BUT FANS HAVE EACH OTHER, SO WE DON'T NEED THEM!

yeats May 14 2010, 16:07:42 UTC

ON THE INTERNET, NO ONE CAN SEE WHERE YOUR HANDS ARE.

wcg May 14 2010, 15:58:24 UTC

I like your cartoon.

Also, if you'd be up for a cup of coffee (or tea) while in DC, and a short visit, please let me know. It'd be nice to see you in person after reading you all these years.

bookshop May 14 2010, 16:02:41 UTC

I'm not sure what our schedule is like this weekend--I think they have a whole itinerary planned--but i'm sure i'll be heading up to DC over the summer so I'll let you know in advance! Also I want to apologize for not getting your message about being in VA a few weekends ago. LJ hasn't been giving me notifications for my inbox so i logged in last week and had about 15 unread messages.

wcg May 14 2010, 16:05:43 UTC

Ah! That answers that mystery.

OK, I shall look forward to visiting with you sometime during the summer. Have fun!

laura_iskra May 14 2010, 15:59:53 UTC

love the flow chart, but I'm still appalled that this is so difficult to understand for a lot of people..

(and I just wish my scientific papers had fans and were cited multiple times :p)

eevilalice May 14 2010, 16:02:15 UTC

OMG flow chart! I totally made something like this for my composition students when I was trying to help them write their reflective essays and the relationship between writers, their texts, and readers.

Which is WHY I'm working on a project in which I argue that fan writing and fanfic communities can serve as a model and parallel for the composing process useful in teaching comp. Would you mind if I incorporated this post and those linked as part of my research (with due credit, of course)? I'm not sure what I'd end up using, if anything, but this is right in line with my work. I'm presenting it at an academic conference in the fall.

tofty May 14 2010, 16:02:19 UTC

I completely agree. I mean, how could I not, as a fanfic writer, but even if I weren't one, I feel very strongly that an author's/artist's attempt to remain in control of an audience reaction is futile at best and stupid at worst. Once it publicly available, it's up to the audience to interpret the work, for better or for worse. An author can guide from within the work itself, but can't direct from outside. That's just the way it goes. We audiences, we bring our own ideas and experiences to their works, and authors can't change that.

Honestly, I really don't understand why an author'd want to change that. I think it makes the entire experience so much richer and more varied.