Yeah, I guess this is my Social Network icon now
Man, I think that this fandom is going to drive me nuts, because the range of acceptable characterizations for MZuck are so small for me it's actually kind of making my head explode. Well, and I have all these FEELINGS about what sort of stories I want in this fandom.
(Note: this is 100% my own opinion on the matter. I'm just hyperbolizing and I don't feel like qualifying each individual statement)
- Mark is not a woobie. About 80-90% of the shit that happens to him is his own damn fault.
- Mark is also not a robot, a sociopath, or someone who has an autism spectrum disorder. He's an asshole. You guys know assholes who don't have any of those other qualities, right? Right?
- Mark isn't a l33t h4xx0r. He's not a guy who enjoys breaking things. He's a guy who enjoys building shit. That stuff in the early 'hacking' scene? Mostly, he's doing the security equivalent of downloading gifs off tumblr, except he's doing it more quickly by using scripts and not doing each one of them by hand. (When he refers to hacking, he's referring to it in the old school programming way, not in the 'I broke into the Pentagon' way. He hires interns to do all of his security shit for him.)
- Mark went to Phillips Exeter, which is a boarding school designed to funnel people into places like Harvard. The movie plays up the whole class war thing, but seriously, Mark was never exactly impoverished. (And the Exeter thing is totally movie canon since Mark is wearing that Exeter t-shirt in that one scene.)
- While we're at it, can we have more fic where Eduardo's kind of a petty asshole, too? Obviously, nowhere near the same scale, but freezing the Facebook account wasn't exactly the most mature thing to do in that sort of situation. I really kind of have a hard time shipping them if Eduardo's all angelic and pining and Mark basically steamrolls him with his assholishness. That really doesn't work in my head, man. I need to believe that Eduardo is capable of pushing back in order to believe in ~*how true their love is*~.
- I have a really strong negative reaction to meet-cute AU stories that basically turns Mark into a slightly more socially awkward version of Rodney McKay. I think that's mostly because I like my Social Network fic tragic and angsty. And also because, I dunno, I kind of like watching Mark and Eduardo's relationship go down in a flaming wreck, or at least, I like when Mark and Eduardo are put in a place where they both have to work to get over past shittiness. Or just a place where their relationship isn't sunshine and flowers and mature adult behavior. I get that some people aren't into RPF, but man, Jesse/Andrew is where I go for the butterflies and rainbows. Mark/Edurado is for the angst and the assholery.
(I usually end up reading the meet-cute AU stories anyway, because they're generally well-written and plotty and I am running out of things to read. But then I kind of hate myself afterwards. I think it's a fair tradeoff.)
- I am half-tempted to offer myself up as a tech beta in like, a public place. I don't know, man. That's like commitment and shit. And knowing stuff about Facebook's infrastructure. And considering how I am Judgey McJudgerson about every other aspect of this fandom that exists, um, yeah. Probably not the best idea ever.
- Also, code-as-dirty-talk is like one of the least sexy things ever. Like, I find it actively repulsive. The visual structure of code is a huge part of how I process it, and a lot of programmers I know have a really hard time even writing code out by hand, much less speaking it out loud. And this is all on top of the fact that most code is approximately 50% ridiculous-sounding punctuation marks anyway.
- Did I mention that I was being Judgey McJudgerson?
- No, really. Have I mentioned that lately?
This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/490138.html. You can comment there using OpenID or you can comment here if you prefer. :)
comments there
(Note: this is 100% my own opinion on the matter. I'm just hyperbolizing and I don't feel like qualifying each individual statement)
- Mark is not a woobie. About 80-90% of the shit that happens to him is his own damn fault.
- Mark is also not a robot, a sociopath, or someone who has an autism spectrum disorder. He's an asshole. You guys know assholes who don't have any of those other qualities, right? Right?
- Mark isn't a l33t h4xx0r. He's not a guy who enjoys breaking things. He's a guy who enjoys building shit. That stuff in the early 'hacking' scene? Mostly, he's doing the security equivalent of downloading gifs off tumblr, except he's doing it more quickly by using scripts and not doing each one of them by hand. (When he refers to hacking, he's referring to it in the old school programming way, not in the 'I broke into the Pentagon' way. He hires interns to do all of his security shit for him.)
- Mark went to Phillips Exeter, which is a boarding school designed to funnel people into places like Harvard. The movie plays up the whole class war thing, but seriously, Mark was never exactly impoverished. (And the Exeter thing is totally movie canon since Mark is wearing that Exeter t-shirt in that one scene.)
- While we're at it, can we have more fic where Eduardo's kind of a petty asshole, too? Obviously, nowhere near the same scale, but freezing the Facebook account wasn't exactly the most mature thing to do in that sort of situation. I really kind of have a hard time shipping them if Eduardo's all angelic and pining and Mark basically steamrolls him with his assholishness. That really doesn't work in my head, man. I need to believe that Eduardo is capable of pushing back in order to believe in ~*how true their love is*~.
- I have a really strong negative reaction to meet-cute AU stories that basically turns Mark into a slightly more socially awkward version of Rodney McKay. I think that's mostly because I like my Social Network fic tragic and angsty. And also because, I dunno, I kind of like watching Mark and Eduardo's relationship go down in a flaming wreck, or at least, I like when Mark and Eduardo are put in a place where they both have to work to get over past shittiness. Or just a place where their relationship isn't sunshine and flowers and mature adult behavior. I get that some people aren't into RPF, but man, Jesse/Andrew is where I go for the butterflies and rainbows. Mark/Edurado is for the angst and the assholery.
(I usually end up reading the meet-cute AU stories anyway, because they're generally well-written and plotty and I am running out of things to read. But then I kind of hate myself afterwards. I think it's a fair tradeoff.)
- I am half-tempted to offer myself up as a tech beta in like, a public place. I don't know, man. That's like commitment and shit. And knowing stuff about Facebook's infrastructure. And considering how I am Judgey McJudgerson about every other aspect of this fandom that exists, um, yeah. Probably not the best idea ever.
- Also, code-as-dirty-talk is like one of the least sexy things ever. Like, I find it actively repulsive. The visual structure of code is a huge part of how I process it, and a lot of programmers I know have a really hard time even writing code out by hand, much less speaking it out loud. And this is all on top of the fact that most code is approximately 50% ridiculous-sounding punctuation marks anyway.
- Did I mention that I was being Judgey McJudgerson?
- No, really. Have I mentioned that lately?
This entry was originally posted at http://thedeadparrot.dreamwidth.org/490138.html. You can comment there using OpenID or you can comment here if you prefer. :)
comments there