but don't make him lose his cool, if he hollers better let him go y'all
I find it unspeakably ironic that many of the very same people who screamed "it's only fanfic! don't take it so seriously!" in response to backlash against fics that contain privileged fail are now comparing fanfic to classic works of literature -- in order to put forth the asinine argument that pointing out/denouncing privileged fail in fic is equivalent to censorship.
Newsflash, assholes: if it's "only fanfic", you do not fucking get to be comparing yours to historically significant, important works of literary art, not with a straight face, not without destroying any chance of being seen as something other than a pathetic jack-off with more self-importance than substance. And if it's not your own fic you're thus comparing, sorry, readers, but the test of literary greatness and relevance is time, not the reading lenses of the (comparatively) few, so you're just as off-base (but at least you don't look like a douchebag for it).
And if it's not, in fact, "only fanfic", if we dismiss my above statements and allow that fanfic can be great enough to be compared to classics in parallel, you still lose the argument by default, because your life and liberty are in no way endangered by people on the internet telling you that you did a bad thing. Censorship is not a fucking buzzword for you to use whenever you feel a little uncomfortable. In the 70s, my mother and a few mates were threatened by authority figures because they had read and shared a book of poems deemed inappropriate by the Soviet state. That's censorship. A random stranger commenting on your slash porn and telling you you have committed cultural fail is not even remotely similar, you pretentious fucking windbags. D:
Anyway, I am unbelievably pissed off today for reasons other than the above, so I am taking a mental-health break from work and doing some memes that I have been putting off for months. Only I am not continuing them (as I really do not have the time, sorry); I am just going to post my responses to them. /o\
reddwarfer picked five of my icons and asked me to talk about them.
kate is not kate by iconseeyou
Obligatory Lost Icon that doesn't really make sense any more because there will never be any more Lost on Tuesdays. :( But actually it's more like my Obligatory Kate Icon, because I loved Kate's character on Lost, from the first time she appeared until the very end. One of the reasons I avoid Lost fandom spaces is that the amounts of Kate hate are staggering. I mean, she's not a perfect person, and her portrayal itself would have been handled better by feminist writers, but all the "OMG SLUT!111" insults aimed at her are tiresome and irritating.
this is not sparta by theburntcereal
This is my "I have no idea wtf is going on" icon but also kind of my OTP icon with elizardbits because I only usually remember to use it when talking to her -- I found it through her in the first place, and it always reminds me of her! :D Like, if the two of us were to go someplace together thinking it was Sparta (but it wasn't, obviously), we would totally pull such faces and lament that this is not Sparta, and lo, we are lost. IDEFK. >.>
shinji by polyesters
This is an icon of Hirako Shinji! He is one of my favourite Bleach characters (which in itself isn't saying much, because I have enough fingers on one hand for my least favourite characters in that series). When he first showed up in the manga, I didn't really like him much because his creepy grinning unsettled me, but then his personality was fleshed out really well during the Vizard training arc, and the Turn Back the Pendulum arc explained how he became an outcast, and I was totally won over. ♥
dynamite by me (art by Amano Akira)
This was my first Reborn icon; it shows the hand of Gokudera Hayato holding a stick of dynamite (his weapons of choice). I fangirl his character far less now than I did in the beginning of the series, because I feel like his portrayal in the last 100 or so chapters is more a caricature than anything else. My personal theory is that the creator watched the anime too much and started basing his character arc on that rather than her original conception -- which is a real shame, because the original story arc was interesting and tragic and relatable, and while there are still glimpses of that occasionally (particularly in the last chapter, and mostly through the art), he's kind of boring and predictable now. :\ This icon says everything about him as-he-was.
what is this idek by evilsource
That is one of those "you had to be there" icons, and it depicts a marijuana plant. :D It was created years ago when a bunch of us from hogwarts_elite Slytherin (and some friends) were bored in chat and started yet another club (we used to start a lot of mini-clubs due to boredom-in-chat -- drugs, pirates, a fake religion, etc), wherein everyone decided to be a certain drug. I don't actually remember how that conversation came about (and the logs are now buried somewhere in the depths of my backup HD), but, yeah. >.> So there were various drug icons made, and some of them are still running around LJ somewhere, I'm pretty sure. xD
From danbi given to me in MARCH (lol I fail at memes, ok) five words that reminded her of me.
Eminem One of my favourite lyrical artists currently alive. He is controversial and unapologetically offensive, often about things that hurt and harm me, but his work has helped me through some pretty heavy shit regardless, and I am grateful for that.
Russian This is my dominant culture; I am largely trapped in a not-so-current iteration of it because I've been outside of it for over a decade, but it has a huge influence on me at all times. I carry many superstitions from it; despite intellectual agnosticism, I still instinctively believe in the magic presupposed by dual faith, where, besides God, there are forces of nature that can help or harm you depending on what kind of person you are and how you behave. I throw salt over my shoulder and light candles to remember the dead; I count the number of times a cuckoo calls if I hear one before breakfast and ascribe mythical personalities to rivers and mountains from back home. Russian is my first language; it's the one I default to when emotions (bad or good) spike.
Bleach My favourite manga series, no exceptions. I have never met a cast of characters more compelling and interesting and relatable, and the art is sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. Every time a new chapter is released it makes my day brighter. I will be really fucking sad and pathetic when it ends, because I already know that nothing will replace it -- there are still other stories I love and always will, but Bleach is special to me.
Harry/Draco My original slash OTP! Not sure what else to say about it -- I have no interest in the current fandom around them because it takes them places I don't care about, so I work intermittently on my own stories whenever I find time but that's about it.
Cosplay I never expected to get into it as much as I have in the past couple of years, but I am glad that I did, because it's become one of my favourite hobbies ever. For me, the "play" part is less relevant -- playing dress-up is fun, ngl, but my love for cosplay has more to do with why I love fan fiction; whereas fan fiction lets me play in the fictional world I love and don't yet want to leave, cosplay lets me bring a little bit of the fictional world I love into the real world, and I like looking at cosplayers just as much as I enjoy participating in cosplay.
I'm not very concerned with physically making every last bit of a costume and don't understand cosplayers who are snotty about that sort of thing. I figure if someone has already perfectly replicated a fictional item, why would I spend valuable time doing it myself if I am able to afford to pay the other person for their work? Reinventing the wheel is not my style, especially if the cosplay item is licenced/official. BUT I am very much concerned with accuracy, so if someone has created a costume or prop that's not exactly like it is in the source, I'd never pay for it and would make it myself. Striving for accuracy in this appeases my inner perfectionist like nothing else ever has.
Newsflash, assholes: if it's "only fanfic", you do not fucking get to be comparing yours to historically significant, important works of literary art, not with a straight face, not without destroying any chance of being seen as something other than a pathetic jack-off with more self-importance than substance. And if it's not your own fic you're thus comparing, sorry, readers, but the test of literary greatness and relevance is time, not the reading lenses of the (comparatively) few, so you're just as off-base (but at least you don't look like a douchebag for it).
And if it's not, in fact, "only fanfic", if we dismiss my above statements and allow that fanfic can be great enough to be compared to classics in parallel, you still lose the argument by default, because your life and liberty are in no way endangered by people on the internet telling you that you did a bad thing. Censorship is not a fucking buzzword for you to use whenever you feel a little uncomfortable. In the 70s, my mother and a few mates were threatened by authority figures because they had read and shared a book of poems deemed inappropriate by the Soviet state. That's censorship. A random stranger commenting on your slash porn and telling you you have committed cultural fail is not even remotely similar, you pretentious fucking windbags. D:
Anyway, I am unbelievably pissed off today for reasons other than the above, so I am taking a mental-health break from work and doing some memes that I have been putting off for months. Only I am not continuing them (as I really do not have the time, sorry); I am just going to post my responses to them. /o\
reddwarfer picked five of my icons and asked me to talk about them.
kate is not kate by iconseeyou
Obligatory Lost Icon that doesn't really make sense any more because there will never be any more Lost on Tuesdays. :( But actually it's more like my Obligatory Kate Icon, because I loved Kate's character on Lost, from the first time she appeared until the very end. One of the reasons I avoid Lost fandom spaces is that the amounts of Kate hate are staggering. I mean, she's not a perfect person, and her portrayal itself would have been handled better by feminist writers, but all the "OMG SLUT!111" insults aimed at her are tiresome and irritating.
this is not sparta by theburntcereal
This is my "I have no idea wtf is going on" icon but also kind of my OTP icon with elizardbits because I only usually remember to use it when talking to her -- I found it through her in the first place, and it always reminds me of her! :D Like, if the two of us were to go someplace together thinking it was Sparta (but it wasn't, obviously), we would totally pull such faces and lament that this is not Sparta, and lo, we are lost. IDEFK. >.>
shinji by polyesters
This is an icon of Hirako Shinji! He is one of my favourite Bleach characters (which in itself isn't saying much, because I have enough fingers on one hand for my least favourite characters in that series). When he first showed up in the manga, I didn't really like him much because his creepy grinning unsettled me, but then his personality was fleshed out really well during the Vizard training arc, and the Turn Back the Pendulum arc explained how he became an outcast, and I was totally won over. ♥
dynamite by me (art by Amano Akira)
This was my first Reborn icon; it shows the hand of Gokudera Hayato holding a stick of dynamite (his weapons of choice). I fangirl his character far less now than I did in the beginning of the series, because I feel like his portrayal in the last 100 or so chapters is more a caricature than anything else. My personal theory is that the creator watched the anime too much and started basing his character arc on that rather than her original conception -- which is a real shame, because the original story arc was interesting and tragic and relatable, and while there are still glimpses of that occasionally (particularly in the last chapter, and mostly through the art), he's kind of boring and predictable now. :\ This icon says everything about him as-he-was.
what is this idek by evilsource
That is one of those "you had to be there" icons, and it depicts a marijuana plant. :D It was created years ago when a bunch of us from hogwarts_elite Slytherin (and some friends) were bored in chat and started yet another club (we used to start a lot of mini-clubs due to boredom-in-chat -- drugs, pirates, a fake religion, etc), wherein everyone decided to be a certain drug. I don't actually remember how that conversation came about (and the logs are now buried somewhere in the depths of my backup HD), but, yeah. >.> So there were various drug icons made, and some of them are still running around LJ somewhere, I'm pretty sure. xD
From danbi given to me in MARCH (lol I fail at memes, ok) five words that reminded her of me.
Eminem One of my favourite lyrical artists currently alive. He is controversial and unapologetically offensive, often about things that hurt and harm me, but his work has helped me through some pretty heavy shit regardless, and I am grateful for that.
Russian This is my dominant culture; I am largely trapped in a not-so-current iteration of it because I've been outside of it for over a decade, but it has a huge influence on me at all times. I carry many superstitions from it; despite intellectual agnosticism, I still instinctively believe in the magic presupposed by dual faith, where, besides God, there are forces of nature that can help or harm you depending on what kind of person you are and how you behave. I throw salt over my shoulder and light candles to remember the dead; I count the number of times a cuckoo calls if I hear one before breakfast and ascribe mythical personalities to rivers and mountains from back home. Russian is my first language; it's the one I default to when emotions (bad or good) spike.
Bleach My favourite manga series, no exceptions. I have never met a cast of characters more compelling and interesting and relatable, and the art is sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. Every time a new chapter is released it makes my day brighter. I will be really fucking sad and pathetic when it ends, because I already know that nothing will replace it -- there are still other stories I love and always will, but Bleach is special to me.
Harry/Draco My original slash OTP! Not sure what else to say about it -- I have no interest in the current fandom around them because it takes them places I don't care about, so I work intermittently on my own stories whenever I find time but that's about it.
Cosplay I never expected to get into it as much as I have in the past couple of years, but I am glad that I did, because it's become one of my favourite hobbies ever. For me, the "play" part is less relevant -- playing dress-up is fun, ngl, but my love for cosplay has more to do with why I love fan fiction; whereas fan fiction lets me play in the fictional world I love and don't yet want to leave, cosplay lets me bring a little bit of the fictional world I love into the real world, and I like looking at cosplayers just as much as I enjoy participating in cosplay.
I'm not very concerned with physically making every last bit of a costume and don't understand cosplayers who are snotty about that sort of thing. I figure if someone has already perfectly replicated a fictional item, why would I spend valuable time doing it myself if I am able to afford to pay the other person for their work? Reinventing the wheel is not my style, especially if the cosplay item is licenced/official. BUT I am very much concerned with accuracy, so if someone has created a costume or prop that's not exactly like it is in the source, I'd never pay for it and would make it myself. Striving for accuracy in this appeases my inner perfectionist like nothing else ever has.