Snowflake - Days 1 & 4
Hooray! It's time for the Fandom Snowflake Challenge! And it can be for you too, even if you haven't done any of it yet. We are on Day 4 right now, but you can always go back/catch up/join up late, like I'm doing right now.
I have just adored seeing Snowflake posts from the people in my flist who are participating, and I am excited to see more as the challenge continues.
Day 1
In your own space, talk about why you are doing the Fandom Snowflake Challenge? What drew you to it as a participant? What do you hope to accomplish by doing these challenges? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I'm joining because I did some tiny bits of the challenge last year (just like I imagine I'll only do bits this year) and it was really, really fun for me. I found some new friends for my flist, I heard some new voices, and I was reminded of what a supportive and accepting place fandom can be. I love the relaxed attitude of the challenge and the fact that, for every single day, the mods reiterate that this is a flexible and relaxed challenge that can really be shaped by what you want to do and what you are able to offer at the time.
By doing the challenge, I hope to stretch to put myself out there more in fandom. In fandom, as in my life at large, I tend to be isolated, to feel isolated, and to isolate myself by force of habit--by not sharing and by not asking people for help--and doing the challenge is kind of a contradiction to that. I also do really well with structure (albeit a really gentle and flexible structure), so having a plan of challenges that encourage me to do things is way better than me trying to do things on my own.
...and...
Day 4
In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I love the description of what counts as a fanwork in this day's challenge. So, in that vein, I have a bit of meta for you.
Blood Purity: Always a Little Icky
I grew up reading fantasy, and I adore it. It always seems to have an element of destiny. The main character becomes involved in this hero's journey, but usually it turns out along the way that, in fact, they were destined to become part of this thing, because they are related to someone, they are part of thus and such's family (think Luke and Leia in Star Wars--surprise! you have the Force because your father was Anakin Skywalker). Or maybe they always knew that they had a certain destiny, because of their family, or sometimes because of their race, and had to bring it about in some way, even if it took some time (think Aragorn in Lord of the Rings--no one else was going to be the king that returned except him, right? and everyone knew that).
In some modern youth fantasy, like the dystopian youth novels that are popping up everywhere now, there's a bit different take on it--instead of being selected on the basis of their bloodline or family, the central character, the person with the destiny, has been selected for some completely arbitrary reason instead. In the Hunger Games, Katniss was selected by a lottery (or, she volunteers herself in to a process that would have otherwise been completely random). And with no bloodline or family reason for this young person to have access to big important characters, you end up with incongruent scenes like this one, described in Dystopian YA Novel on Twitter.
So ultimately, there still has to be a reason, whether well or poorly constructed, persuasive or unpersuasive, that projects a character out of "normal life" and into a heroic story arc--and fantasy often chooses to do that based on someone's (known or unknown) familial connections. In a world that often has kings and queens and such, it can seem to fit.
But I'm starting to struggle with that justification in stories. My husband, K, brought this up when we were watching the LotR movies for the first time. He was so irritated with the story, because of all its blood privilege stuff. I had honestly never thought of it that way before and he really woke me up to those themes. (He is one of the most defensively populist people that I know, and I love it.)
Right now, I'm struggling with the blood privilege themes in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I feel like most people roundly denounced the prequels because of, among a multitude of other things, all the silly things they did with the Force: it came from midichlorians, which was suddenly all sciencey, and there was also this new Chosen One, which sort of put the Force out of the reach of other people. Both of those things had kind of an icky flavor, whether from the pure science side or the woo woo religion side. Both of those things take one's strength in the Force out of the hands of an individual's own practice or intention, and puts it in the hands of something else.
And I think it's wise to be leery of those things. The idea of a Chosen One reminds me of child emperors who have been picked out by someone else (not unlike Anakin in the first movie). And the idea of using sciencey science to determine who has what skills or merits reeks of eugenics. Both of these, I feel like, are at least as realistic a path to General Hux and Space Nazism than, as the movie claimed, a "desire for order."
But when we take a step back, the Star Wars story overall doesn't seem to be moving as far from those themes as I wish it would. Luke is still the quintessential Jedi, and why? Because he's Anakin's son. The son of the Chosen One. Why is Kylo Ren as powerful and pivotal a character as he is? Because of his strength in the Force, and why? Because he's Leia's son, grandson of the Chosen One. And then there's Rey. She's also strong in the Force. This is great (for me, rooting for common people over Chosen Ones) because she seems like she's just someone who had certain proclivities that let her enter and have a role in this heroic world that she's discovered. But of course, there's all this speculation about WHO SHE IS REALLY. Our conditioned story expectations tell us that she can't just be some ordinary person and have these powers--she must be connected somehow, to the families that have power. She must be Luke's daughter, or Leia's daughter somehow. And I have as much conditioned desire as anyone to see that happen too. It seems satisfying, at a story level, to have Rey's abilities and identity tied up neatly in that way. But I have to say, it's much more satisfying to me on an intellectual level--when I stop to think about it--to imagine that she is just some person, who, because of her talents and her identity, has chosen her own way into this heroic journey, and who choices will come from who she is as a person, not because of her bloodlines and who she's related to.
I have just adored seeing Snowflake posts from the people in my flist who are participating, and I am excited to see more as the challenge continues.
Day 1
In your own space, talk about why you are doing the Fandom Snowflake Challenge? What drew you to it as a participant? What do you hope to accomplish by doing these challenges? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I'm joining because I did some tiny bits of the challenge last year (just like I imagine I'll only do bits this year) and it was really, really fun for me. I found some new friends for my flist, I heard some new voices, and I was reminded of what a supportive and accepting place fandom can be. I love the relaxed attitude of the challenge and the fact that, for every single day, the mods reiterate that this is a flexible and relaxed challenge that can really be shaped by what you want to do and what you are able to offer at the time.
By doing the challenge, I hope to stretch to put myself out there more in fandom. In fandom, as in my life at large, I tend to be isolated, to feel isolated, and to isolate myself by force of habit--by not sharing and by not asking people for help--and doing the challenge is kind of a contradiction to that. I also do really well with structure (albeit a really gentle and flexible structure), so having a plan of challenges that encourage me to do things is way better than me trying to do things on my own.
...and...
Day 4
In your own space, create a fanwork. Make a drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. Arts and crafts. Draft a critical essay about a particular media. Put together a picspam or a fanmix. Write a review of a Broadway show, a movie, a concert, a poetry reading, a museum trip, a you-should-be-listening-to-this-band essay. Compose some limericks, haikus, free-form poetry, 5-word stories. Document a particular bit of real person canon. Take some pictures. Draw a stick-figure comic. Create something. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.
I love the description of what counts as a fanwork in this day's challenge. So, in that vein, I have a bit of meta for you.
Blood Purity: Always a Little Icky
I grew up reading fantasy, and I adore it. It always seems to have an element of destiny. The main character becomes involved in this hero's journey, but usually it turns out along the way that, in fact, they were destined to become part of this thing, because they are related to someone, they are part of thus and such's family (think Luke and Leia in Star Wars--surprise! you have the Force because your father was Anakin Skywalker). Or maybe they always knew that they had a certain destiny, because of their family, or sometimes because of their race, and had to bring it about in some way, even if it took some time (think Aragorn in Lord of the Rings--no one else was going to be the king that returned except him, right? and everyone knew that).
In some modern youth fantasy, like the dystopian youth novels that are popping up everywhere now, there's a bit different take on it--instead of being selected on the basis of their bloodline or family, the central character, the person with the destiny, has been selected for some completely arbitrary reason instead. In the Hunger Games, Katniss was selected by a lottery (or, she volunteers herself in to a process that would have otherwise been completely random). And with no bloodline or family reason for this young person to have access to big important characters, you end up with incongruent scenes like this one, described in Dystopian YA Novel on Twitter.
So ultimately, there still has to be a reason, whether well or poorly constructed, persuasive or unpersuasive, that projects a character out of "normal life" and into a heroic story arc--and fantasy often chooses to do that based on someone's (known or unknown) familial connections. In a world that often has kings and queens and such, it can seem to fit.
But I'm starting to struggle with that justification in stories. My husband, K, brought this up when we were watching the LotR movies for the first time. He was so irritated with the story, because of all its blood privilege stuff. I had honestly never thought of it that way before and he really woke me up to those themes. (He is one of the most defensively populist people that I know, and I love it.)
Right now, I'm struggling with the blood privilege themes in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I feel like most people roundly denounced the prequels because of, among a multitude of other things, all the silly things they did with the Force: it came from midichlorians, which was suddenly all sciencey, and there was also this new Chosen One, which sort of put the Force out of the reach of other people. Both of those things had kind of an icky flavor, whether from the pure science side or the woo woo religion side. Both of those things take one's strength in the Force out of the hands of an individual's own practice or intention, and puts it in the hands of something else.
And I think it's wise to be leery of those things. The idea of a Chosen One reminds me of child emperors who have been picked out by someone else (not unlike Anakin in the first movie). And the idea of using sciencey science to determine who has what skills or merits reeks of eugenics. Both of these, I feel like, are at least as realistic a path to General Hux and Space Nazism than, as the movie claimed, a "desire for order."
But when we take a step back, the Star Wars story overall doesn't seem to be moving as far from those themes as I wish it would. Luke is still the quintessential Jedi, and why? Because he's Anakin's son. The son of the Chosen One. Why is Kylo Ren as powerful and pivotal a character as he is? Because of his strength in the Force, and why? Because he's Leia's son, grandson of the Chosen One. And then there's Rey. She's also strong in the Force. This is great (for me, rooting for common people over Chosen Ones) because she seems like she's just someone who had certain proclivities that let her enter and have a role in this heroic world that she's discovered. But of course, there's all this speculation about WHO SHE IS REALLY. Our conditioned story expectations tell us that she can't just be some ordinary person and have these powers--she must be connected somehow, to the families that have power. She must be Luke's daughter, or Leia's daughter somehow. And I have as much conditioned desire as anyone to see that happen too. It seems satisfying, at a story level, to have Rey's abilities and identity tied up neatly in that way. But I have to say, it's much more satisfying to me on an intellectual level--when I stop to think about it--to imagine that she is just some person, who, because of her talents and her identity, has chosen her own way into this heroic journey, and who choices will come from who she is as a person, not because of her bloodlines and who she's related to.