Two slightly related things have made me a bit thinky about what we mean when we like/love/enjoy a book/film/television show/character/etc.

The first is this fascinating post by
( Read more... )

Yesterday I participated in a discussion about what this whole fanfic thing is all about, anyway. Yesterday and today I participated in two different discussions about female characters. I propose that there are some similar principles underlying both sets of discussions.

( cut for somewhat inexcusable length--sorry! )

Yesterday I had an exchange with daybreak777 about fannish histories and habits, and in it, I referred to Farscape as my One True Show. This reference (combined with Daybreak's reply) got me thinking about what exactly I mean by that and also got me curious about whether other people feel similarly (about Farscape or about any show ( Read more... )

I BOUGHT A BIKE ( Read more... )

So yesterday, in two different conversations ( this one with daybreak777, vagueish spoilers for the extended Adama/Roslin scene from "Unfinished Business", and this one with dm_lunsford about Daniel/Janet) I found myself pondering what exactly it is we mean when we talk about "shipping" characters. So I thought I'd open it up for general discussion because I'm curious ( Read more... )

Character has been coming up a lot lately in the various fannish playgrounds I've been hanging out in. Discussions of female characters at gabolange's (flocked, or I'd link) and surrealis's ( here), discussions of characters of color at sugargroupie's (most relevant bits flocked), a chat with some RL friends about J. K. Rowling's efforts to control the interpretation of her ( Read more... )

Last night Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker won Oscars for playing real people. As did Reese Witherspoon and Philip Seymour Hoffman last year. Apparently the Academy voters particularly value the ability to convincingly inhabit and portray a character for whom we have an outside reference, and it seems that at least in North America, people and the ( Read more... )