Grumpy Flails
I am very tired and should probably just go to bed and try again tomorrow, but that's what sane people do. So:
1) I've decided this will be The Year that I try to get into the Book and Paper Intensive, which is an epic eight-day book arts workshop where they do different classes every year. So for half of it you do a basic course in the morning and then another in the afternoon, and in the second half you do a hardcore all-day workshop. Everyone I know who has ever been has flailed and sung its praises. And they have a scholarship, and the scholarship application period is December 1-31, and they only sent out info about it yesterday.
So to apply I have to put together a portfolio of ten things to basically show-off my skill level and interests. And write a statement. So today I scanned a bunch of stuff and started to think, "Hey, this doesn't look bad. There's a nice variety of papers here, handmade and marbled. That one broadside that has a poem I wrote looks decent. Those two artist books, um, don't look awful. Etc. So I waffle. And then the statement. It only has to be 200 words, but still. "I want to learn to make more things. Also better. Better and prettier than I make things now. You show me how? Please?" Yeah, needs work.
2) Also working on a side research project with a friend of mine, and something I've been trying to figure out for ages is when the shift of meaning occurred with "fanfiction." Originally back in the 1930s-1950s, it just meant fiction written by fans, not derivative or transformative works, which came later. Well lo and behold the OED has an entry, and mentions the 1944 Fancyclopedia as documenting the first meaning, and Jacqueline Lichtenberg writing in the 1975 anthology Star Trek Lives! about the latter. Now I suspect this latter citation is because it appeared in a mass-market book, so obviously it was in usage before then, but when? And so there's a Fan History group on Facebook and I thought I'd be bright and pose it to them.
WELL. A bunch of cranky old dudes. "What are you talking about?" "Fanfiction has always just meant amateur writing." "Where are you getting this from?" ... Uh, the OED? Also, have you read anything in the mainstream media in the past fifteen years, or hell, the last three? JUST CURIOUS.
Anyway. That's been my day. Well, no, I got other things done, and other things need to get done but still. I'm tired. So.
1) I've decided this will be The Year that I try to get into the Book and Paper Intensive, which is an epic eight-day book arts workshop where they do different classes every year. So for half of it you do a basic course in the morning and then another in the afternoon, and in the second half you do a hardcore all-day workshop. Everyone I know who has ever been has flailed and sung its praises. And they have a scholarship, and the scholarship application period is December 1-31, and they only sent out info about it yesterday.
So to apply I have to put together a portfolio of ten things to basically show-off my skill level and interests. And write a statement. So today I scanned a bunch of stuff and started to think, "Hey, this doesn't look bad. There's a nice variety of papers here, handmade and marbled. That one broadside that has a poem I wrote looks decent. Those two artist books, um, don't look awful. Etc. So I waffle. And then the statement. It only has to be 200 words, but still. "I want to learn to make more things. Also better. Better and prettier than I make things now. You show me how? Please?" Yeah, needs work.
2) Also working on a side research project with a friend of mine, and something I've been trying to figure out for ages is when the shift of meaning occurred with "fanfiction." Originally back in the 1930s-1950s, it just meant fiction written by fans, not derivative or transformative works, which came later. Well lo and behold the OED has an entry, and mentions the 1944 Fancyclopedia as documenting the first meaning, and Jacqueline Lichtenberg writing in the 1975 anthology Star Trek Lives! about the latter. Now I suspect this latter citation is because it appeared in a mass-market book, so obviously it was in usage before then, but when? And so there's a Fan History group on Facebook and I thought I'd be bright and pose it to them.
WELL. A bunch of cranky old dudes. "What are you talking about?" "Fanfiction has always just meant amateur writing." "Where are you getting this from?" ... Uh, the OED? Also, have you read anything in the mainstream media in the past fifteen years, or hell, the last three? JUST CURIOUS.
Anyway. That's been my day. Well, no, I got other things done, and other things need to get done but still. I'm tired. So.