Going throught the RSS Feed: Dinosaur Metaphysics and Serial Storytelling

[alixtii]

At least I'm not the only one struggling with these philosophical questions.Seriously, I seem to not be able to decide whether I want to be a pragmatist or not. Foundationalism has always struck me as anti-feminist, but relativism can't support feminism either. Ideally pragmatism provides a way out of the dilemma, with feminism being more or less

Comments

[cathexys]

but i'm not sure whether her first example owes as much to episodic storytelling as it does to excessive worldbuilding, i.e., we have huge universes in which our characters live (drawn from the source text and the fantext) and that's why there's more of an emotional charge...and that happens regardless of WiPs...

(Though I'd argue that the entirety of the fantext is a WiP with every new story adding yet another layer of meaning and characterization and...)

Nothing to say on the second quote except that I've realized lately i not only hate WiPs in fic but also in other mediums...I'm waiting to start temeraire until I have the 3rd book next week; I still have 6 or 7 eps of VM waiting to be watched, b/c I do the waiting till I have several and then do it all in one sittt6ing kind of thing...And I lovelovelove shows on DVD...

[alixtii]

Well, I think she's arguing that only in a serial medium is that level of "excessive worldbuilding" possible. And that's why I said her arguments apply to fanfiction more so and better than they do television, because of the way that the fantext (although I remain skeptical on the subject, because my favorite fanfics relate primarily to the source text with few or superficial relations to other fantexts) can function as a WiP

[cathexys]

i agree with your brother but love my control :D

re fantext: the point is not that the story needs to reference other stories that came before (though i'd argue that many of them do, even if they pretend not to, b/c unless the author hasn't read any stories, (s)he's gonna respond to it one way or another, even if only by avoiding fanon cliches!!!) but that you as reader have these stories in your memory, that you have these multitudes of buffys or whatever in your mind...

so i'd argue that unless you have a virginal writer and a virginal reader, you'll have fantext interaction...does that make sense???

[alixtii]

i agree with your brother but love my control :D

As do I. My stance on seriality is intellectual; in the heat of the moment, I can get as frustrated with the WiP as anyone else, even if I know in my head that it is good for me, like awfull-tasting medecine.

so i'd argue that unless you have a virginal writer and a virginal reader, you'll have fantext interaction...does that make sense???

Well, I think part of what is going on is that the more virginal a writer is able to act, the more their story is likely to satisfy the requirements of mainstream aesthetics?

And what you say makes sense and is of course true, but I guess I'm unconvinced of its significance. Does the fantext play a role in fanfiction that is somehow different than the equivalent (meta)texts in other social endeavors?

[glossing]

Serialized print storytelling is alive and well in comics. *ponders*

Also, heh. I used to be acquainted with Arnold Zwicky on Usenet. WEIRD.

This is a pointless comment and a roundabout way of apologizing for not geting back (yet!) to yesterday's conversation with you.