Mythmoot Presentation: "Transformative Works as a Means to Develop Critical Perspectives ..."

[dawn_felagund]

I had to let the video upload on YouTube run overnight because of my current Internet situation but--at last!--the video of my presentation on Saturday at Mythmoot is finally ready. The full title (which is too long to fit in the title field) is "Transformative Works as a Means to Develop Critical Perspectives in the Tolkien Fan Community." The

Comments

[engarian]

I'm running tight on time now, so I'll listen to more than the first five minutes within the next 24 hours. However, after listening to what I have thus far, I have a few observations that I hope may help you when you are next called upon to present a similar paper

[dawn_felagund]

That actually is me talking slow. I'm like an unholy mashup of Miriel Serinde and Feanor: I talk fast and loud! :D (Well, I have a very projecting voice, which--in a woman--gets interpreted as "loud." You won't piss me off by telling me I talk too fast--I do know that, and it is something I am working on--but I do get quite irate when people tell me quiet down. ;)

I don't know where you read that Mythmoot attendees would not be literate in Tolkien? It started as a Tolkien studies conference. This is the first year that they've really branched out to include texts from speculative fiction more broadly. (Last year, there was a single paper track that was essentially "non-Tolkien." This year, there were several.) Still, most of the conference focused on Tolkien, so a high level of familiarity with his works can be assumed.

[engarian]

Loud can be excellent!

You know, I'm totally unsure where I got the impressing this was a conference that was not Tolkien oriented. My bad. In that case, you're probably fine with different character, location, and buzz words.

Yes - slow down would be good. I actually trained myself to do that by using a metronome when I was in college speech class. There's probably an app for that - LOL.

*hugs*

- Erulisse (one L)

[engarian]

OK, I had a chance to listen to the presentation and I have to say, I loved it. You pulled a large amount of information into a relatively short talk and your handout was excellent, readable and easy to pick out the pertinent statistics quickly. The only question I had on the handout was on page 8. I believe that Pande had mentioned the difficulty of the yellow text, and I have to agree with her. You've got an 87% agree response but I can't read the question that prompted the 3rd highest response

[dreamflower02]

Awesome! I'm off next to check out your handout! You did a really good job, especially since you were stuck with a 20 minute time limit. I wish you'd had more time--I know you had a lot more cool stuff to share.

Do you mind if I link this? I think a lot of people will be interested.

[dawn_felagund]

I would love if you want to share it! :) Everything is under a Creative Commons license because I do want people to share it, use it, and build on it if they want to.

Twenty minutes is rough! It seems okay when you think about it; it's about 5 typed pages (single-spaced, 10-pt font) for me, which ain't a lot. I had to do a lot of cutting, including of things that I liked. A lot of things ended up relegated to the handout. (I was also told that I wouldn't have AV access--and then ended up by chance in the one room that did--which is like trying to fly with clipped wings for me. A visual learner myself, I have a hard time just talking at people for twenty minutes. I want to show them stuff too! :)

[dreamflower02]

I've also just read your handout! I love the quotes and the color--it made it really appealing as opposed to just b&w text. The data was fascinating!

(I'm old enough to remember when handouts were mimeo'd and were purple and white, and the first ones printed smelled of the printing gel, while the later ones got fainter and fainter...)

(Oh, and I read all of your CC explanation as well: very funny!)

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! The prettification of the handout was pretty much the result of last week's unexpected snow day! :D Also, it seemed keeping with the idea that, in fandom, things must be both functional and beautiful.

I remember those mimeographed copies from when I was in elementary school. I remember when we'd get the rare photocopied handout, it was special because it was in black-and-white and not violet-and-white.

I always feel like CC licenses need translation. If I encountered one and didn't know what it was, it would make zero sense, and I doubt I'd be motivated to look it up. And I really do want people to feel free to share and do things with my work, so I always include a short translation. This time, I had a bit more fun with it. ;)

[rhapsody11]

lmao!

Finally, the one thing you can't do with this? Make money off of it or anything you make with it. That's the "NonCommercial" part. Not that I have a fancy legal team behind me, but I am buddies with a few sons of Fëanor, and we all know how they get when they feel possessive over something. Did you read this far? Thank you! Email me with your favorite character, and I'll write at least a drabble for you about
him or her. Thanks for your interest in my work. See you in Middle-earth.]

OMG Dawn, my screen, my poor screen *is off to get a towel to clean it*

[dawn_felagund]

Yep, I had a bit of fun with this one ... ;)

[rhapsody11]

Hehehe, I am curious though why you did ask for pairing/gender writing like femslash.

[dawn_felagund]

I asked for a lot of data that I didn't use for this particular presentation. I was thinking long-term and future papers/projects after I get my MA; it didn't make sense to do the behind-the-scenes work for prepare a survey just for Mythmoot and then do it again in a year's time. (Also, doing it all now lets me run the survey for a year and get the most respondents as I can.)

I did plan to talk about genres but just ended up not having time, and I didn't want to include terms like "slash" and "femslash" in the handout without the opportunity to define them in my talk and discuss them somewhat (since they tend to be misunderstood for people new to fanfic). However, since it was in my original plan, I did crunch the numbers on this! Sadly, it does not look good for femslash from the writer's side. (I've done almost nothing from the reader's side; I decided to focus on the writers for this presentation, since I didn't have much time.)

I identify myself as a genfic writer. (n = 434

[lindahoyland]

THank you for sharing the handout- fascinating. Will watch later.

[dawn_felagund]

You're very welcome! :) And I've only just scratched the surface of the data. I expect there will be many more interesting things to discover as I continue to work with it more.

[indy1776]

I read the handout first, including the legalese, which made me laugh. Does this mean I get a drabble now? :P

I really enjoyed your talk!

[dawn_felagund]

Thank you! :D And yes--absolutely! Just tell me your characters. :)

[indy1776]

What, really?! How about Maglor, then?

[dawn_felagund]

Maglor it is then! :)