I think I fall somewhere in the interstices between these two groups because I believe very strongly in the transformative practices that you're talking about--remixes and concrit and reviews etc--but also find myself valuing very highly the community (for whatever value of community you wanna put there; I guess I'd say my friend's list and a slightly wider circle of fans I know through my flist) I find in fandom. And so, for example, while I don't think fans need to ask other fans' permission to critique or comment critically on their work (much in the same way I don't need Joss Whedon to tell me it's okay to comment on his work), I always asked author permission for club_joss and sga_talk because I wanted to maintain positive relationships between the comm (and myself, if I'm being honest) and fandom at large
( ... )
I tend to think that invoking community the way you do (and others have done) is problematic because it distorts the nature of the dichotomy: it's not a question of valuing us as a community versus valuing something else, but rather a question of two visions of community, two ways of understanding who we are and what we value as a community. So I don't think the implicit equivalence of "not asking permission to remix" with "not valuing the community" actually works when all is said and done. Our community is going to have norms and values no matter what we do--transformativity is not anarchy--but we have the communal power to act to determine what those norms will be.
I mean, part of me totally wants to argue against you, but I don't think I can. That is the implicit underpinning of what I'm saying (what I've *done*) and it's not what I *mean* at all. If that makes any sense.
I don't know if it's the Southern mores coming into play or if it's just that it's hard for me to disregard people's wishes that don't seem failtastic or hurty to other people, but part of me wants to find a way to value both that sort of invocation of community AND what you're calling transformative. I also want Sam and Dean to kiss onscreen and Castiel to be my boyfriend so MMV.
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*sigh*
That's what I thought.
I mean, part of me totally wants to argue against you, but I don't think I can. That is the implicit underpinning of what I'm saying (what I've *done*) and it's not what I *mean* at all. If that makes any sense.
I don't know if it's the Southern mores coming into play or if it's just that it's hard for me to disregard people's wishes that don't seem failtastic or hurty to other people, but part of me wants to find a way to value both that sort of invocation of community AND what you're calling transformative. I also want Sam and Dean to kiss onscreen and Castiel to be my boyfriend so MMV.
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