Signal Boost
I'm still getting caught up on the epic fail of a J2 fic using the Haiti tragedy as background.
I want to say smart things, like detailing the many ways in which it is unfortunate or the many ways in which I'm super-proud of fandom and its reaction for once, but everything I could possibly say has already been said better than I could do it. Everything else I can even think of to say would involve taking some amount of academic distance from what's happened to discuss it dispassionately, and- does this count as ironically?- I feel like it's too soon. So this is just a signal boost, because everyone SHOULD know about this, and it SHOULD be discussed.
I've previously discussed the idea of fan fiction as a type of textual engagement: the fusion of literary criticism and fiction-writing. Whether you want to call it lit crit or not, being in fandom is all about questioning the text. It's finding things that aren't in the source text and putting them there, or making big things smaller and small things bigger, or looking at how the text IS and figuring out how the text SHOULD BE. If you are in fandom, I can almost guarantee that you have routinely confronted those questions. You've asked "Why aren't these characters in a relationship?" or "Why aren't these characters getting more screentime?" or "Why don't we have a definitive answer for what would happen if the apocalypse hit at four AM while these characters were in Wal-Mart buying Oreos?"
Being fannish means some level of critical engagement isn't optional. And that critical engagement with our own output is part of it.
Cross-posted at http://fox1013.dreamwidth.org/5349.html. Comment wherever you feel more comfortable.
I want to say smart things, like detailing the many ways in which it is unfortunate or the many ways in which I'm super-proud of fandom and its reaction for once, but everything I could possibly say has already been said better than I could do it. Everything else I can even think of to say would involve taking some amount of academic distance from what's happened to discuss it dispassionately, and- does this count as ironically?- I feel like it's too soon. So this is just a signal boost, because everyone SHOULD know about this, and it SHOULD be discussed.
I've previously discussed the idea of fan fiction as a type of textual engagement: the fusion of literary criticism and fiction-writing. Whether you want to call it lit crit or not, being in fandom is all about questioning the text. It's finding things that aren't in the source text and putting them there, or making big things smaller and small things bigger, or looking at how the text IS and figuring out how the text SHOULD BE. If you are in fandom, I can almost guarantee that you have routinely confronted those questions. You've asked "Why aren't these characters in a relationship?" or "Why aren't these characters getting more screentime?" or "Why don't we have a definitive answer for what would happen if the apocalypse hit at four AM while these characters were in Wal-Mart buying Oreos?"
Being fannish means some level of critical engagement isn't optional. And that critical engagement with our own output is part of it.
Cross-posted at http://fox1013.dreamwidth.org/5349.html. Comment wherever you feel more comfortable.