Snowflake challenge, days 2-4

[hamsterwoman]

Back from our trip (good critters, good traffic, sad lack of zebras, a surfeit of little boys), and catching up on the last couple of days of Snowflake:

Day 2: In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or

Comments

[timprov]

I keep writing Kragar fanfic but whenever I go to post it somewhere I can't find it.

[hamsterwoman]

Haha, that's a good one! :D

[perpetual]

This was the amazing period of time where the first movie was so close we could almost taste it -- release coming up in less than six months -- but before any movie canon had actually come out, so before any real disagreements could crop up about how well certain things were done, before any disappointments.

Not that I was in the online fandom, but I remember this period clearly and it really was a magical time. Not just because LotR was finally going to be a movie, but because we weren't yet accustomed to everything having a movie/TV adaptation and in some ways weren't even used to beautiful special effects. It was the dawn of the Age of Geeks.

[hamsterwoman]

but because we weren't yet accustomed to everything having a movie/TV adaptation and in some ways weren't even used to beautiful special effects. It was the dawn of the Age of Geeks.That is an excellent point I'd never considered, since for me it was the Dawn of LotR Movie Fandom (which, on the one hand, brought all kinds of awesome movie tie-in swag I wouldn't have been able to dream of before that -- T-shirts and Pez dispensers and board games with beautiful art -- but on the other hand brought on that curse of successful movie-adaptation fandoms where images from the movie basically took over fandom, and it became really, really hard to find fanart of Legolas NOT looking like Orland Bloom or Boromir like Sean Bean, and so on. Which is an acceptable price to pay, and I do love the movies -- but I do think I loved the POTENTIAL of the movies and the building excitement around them even more

[perpetual]

Yeah, the movies gave us a lot but also took something away. And I wouldn't trade it back, it just makes me feel a little wistful that what we got is what we got and we won't get it again, except in potential distant future remakes which won't have anything of the same glow about them.

[hamsterwoman]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't trade it back either, but it was sort of a moment of... collapsing the possibilities, almost. And it's iconic enough, and so much WORK that I doubt we'll see another version any time soon...

[aome]

Welcome back!

I've found the same thing - I can't read a book in the car, but I can read my Kindle (or the Kindle app on my phone). I have no idea what the difference is.

The Jean/Locke fic was great. I don't know what the "xeno" tag is used for, though - humans turning into creatures? Does it specifically mean "tentacles"? Something else? I mean, I know what the prefix means - foreign - but not how it's used in fic.

[hamsterwoman]

Thank you! :) (Now I need to catch up on a bunch of posts I missed or wasn't able to comment on, including yours.)

L reported, about a year ago, that she can no longer read a printed book in the car, but can read on her phone/Kindle. Kindle with the eInk screen is iffy for me -- too much like paper, I guess, but I gave the Kindle app on my phone a shot, and that seems to work just fine. The backlighting does something? IDK...

"Xeno" tag on fanfic, in my experience, generally indicate non-human(s) involved in romantic/sexual situations. But in this case I guess it's just non-human bits :P (I'm more used to seeing it in human/alien pairings, or human/mythical creature ones, given the fandoms I read, but tentacles would definitely also qualify.)

[cyanshadow]

I'm awwwing at your message board experience. :D

And it reminded me of arguably my own first fandom friend, who I remember was from Alabama or Georgia, a few years older than me, and studying criminal justice -- we started chatting because she always left really nice comments on one of my stories, I think, and at some point exchanged email addresses and kept up a lively (and long-winded :'D) correspondence for ... months, I think, maybe even a year or two?

I was even playing with the idea of going to visit her someday, although the whole "but what if she's an ax murderer" anxiety thing put a damper on planning, and ultimately nothing came of it. And then she got busy, or maybe I did, and we kind of lost contact and never picked it back up.

I've always slightly regretted that -- and also slightly regretted never getting involved in any forums, or LJ as it was in the early years. (I posted fanfic and lurked, and that was about it. XD) OTOH, I'm sure I missed out on a lot of drama that way, so maybe it's just as well. :'D

[hamsterwoman]

Aww, sad that you lost touch with your first fandom friend. (I suppose it's possible you'll reconnect somehow in the vast reaches of the internet... There are several people from the days of LJ's prime whom I'm really sad to have lost touch with, and always hope they'll magically reappear on another platform, or come back...)

Though obviously, I'm very glad you stuck around fandom and I eventually dove in (via Tumblr), since that's indirectly how we met. :D <3

<333 (It's all the magical power of K Konnektions :) But, yeah, I trace my presence on LJ pretty directly to TOR.n, both logistically and, like, thematically.

Maybe this year will be the year I read the rest of the omnibus you gave me. :'D

Whenever you feel like it! Or the Taltos volume you found, since that can be read right after Jhereg with no issues whatsoever, being chronologically first. If and when, I definitely hope you liveblog/text at me as you go along! :D

Because it just ... needs to exist. :DRight?? In retrospect, given that Yuletide had quite a few

[cyanshadow]

I admit, now that I've actually remembered her existence, I'm kind of tempted to toss an email her way someday, just to see if anything happens. :D ... Though that would mean I'd have to start actually checking that particular email, which I currently do maybe once every six months. XD

I definitely hope you liveblog/text at me as you go along! :D

Of course! That's part of the fun. :DD

Guess the universe is just waiting for you to do it :)

XDD We'll see. :D

And I suspect that the two are tonally different enough that there might be a relative minority of people who've read and become fannish about both? (Especially given ah... the content that seems to be the primary draw for at least half of the Hexarchate writers. XD)

Oh, speaking of Hexarchate fics -- have you read my gift yet? My Yuletide author pulled off a really nicely done Cheris/Alaia, that managed to be simultaneously sweet and Shuos-y. :D

[hamsterwoman]

Though that would mean I'd have to start actually checking that particular email, which I currently do maybe once every six months. XD

I do know this pain/dilemma, haha! (Could you set up a forwarding rule or something?)

(Especially given ah... the content that seems to be the primary draw for at least half of the Hexarchate writers. XD)

LOL, OK, yeah, fair point! The tonal mismatch is definitely there... I do know a lot of people who've READ both, but you could well be right about feeling fannish about them.

Oh, speaking of Hexarchate fics -- have you read my gift yet? I have! :) (I'm not fully caught up on Machineries fic from Yuletide -- still somewhere in the middle of K's Miki fix, but have read a couple of the shorter ones, including that one). I enjoyed the Shuos family times and games -- and you're right, it's definitely both sweet and Shuos-y