Just a Goddamn Hobby

[inamac]

I haven’t been posting much here (and linking to LJ) because I’ve been using my other DW account to blog yarn-wrangling stuff and haven’t wanted to keep switching accounts (and passwords). But I have been watching the latest manifestation of mundane invasion into fanfic space with interest.

The main link is waldorph tumblr

Comments

[kellychambliss]

Thank you for this link, Ina! What a fascinating and necessary discussion. I spent the entire afternoon reading all the posts (when I should have been grading papers). It's essential to talk about the ethics of fannish interaction, especially since fandom and fanfic are no longer flying under the radar of mainstream media and academic scrutiny.

I have to disagree a bit, though, about the discussion being "very civilized." To be sure, there are many helpful, thoughtful posts on the "Delilah" thread that do a good job of explaining to the student-teachers just why their class requirements were inappropriate and even potentially harmful. Yes, the teachers were wrong, and they needed to learn just why. But they were also (apparently) well-meaning, naive young women (20? 22? -- college undergrads, at any rate) who simply made a mistake. They needed education, not public shaming and sneering.

I thought too many of the AO3 posts took a scolding, finger-wagging tone along the lines of "WTF were you thinking, you ignorant, worthless losers? How could you have been so stupid and so effing clueless that you didn't see that you were doing wrong?" Well, that's the point -- they didn't see it. They needed to be shown, not shamed.

I love fandom, but one of the things I don't like about it is this tendency some people have, when they scent blood in the water, of rushing in to add their dash of self-righteous vitriol to the already-roiling flood. The power of wrathful fandom can be a fearsome thing, and sometimes I think that power is abused (the anonymity doesn't help).

This current discussion is not nearly as bad as some I've seen, but still I thought there was a lot more beating-up of the student-teachers than necessary. Once a point (like "it was a bad idea to tell your students to offer unsolicited concrit") has been made a couple dozen times, it's probably not necessary to make it again, especially not in "now it's my turn to tell you how fucking stupid you are" terms.

[inamac]

Yes, things have got a bit frenzied as the signal widens - which is why I posted here.

Though the students now have the makings of a very different, and possibly more valuable project. 'Fannish clusterfucks, and how they happen.'