Attn: Fools! Jesters! Mockers!
Jun. 26th, 2004 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI like being disagreed with-- it's a challenge, it's energizing and so on. I don't like being mocked or discounted as a person, because like, I'm sensitive like that, but again, I only really care if I care about you. I also tend to care a bit about the opinion of anyone I consider intelligent or funny or talented. I draw a line between mocking my personality or appearance (in a mean-spirited rather than teasing way) and mocking my beliefs or statements or actions (or fic! don't forget you're free to mock my fics!)-- you can go ahead and mock those. I'll mock them first, anyway. I believe self-mockery is essential for mental health, actually, ahahah. I mean, they used to call it "humility", but what it really is is self-mockery.
I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, you're really in trouble, 'cause odds are other people are laughing at you anyway, and it hurts more that way.
I keep seeing people talk about the problems with a culture of agreement-- the Cult of Nice-- and then seeing the myriad problems that arise from the Cult of Mock. Both have their deep issues-- in that the nicey-nice people are basically often dishonest (if not blatantly hypocritical) and possibly unhelpful to one's possibilities of progress as a writer (in the case of fanfic crit, anyway), while the mockety-mock people are soooo obsessed with everything being superficially 'funny' that they wear it like a mask over their humanity the same way the nicey-nice people wear their niceness. So really, the hypocrisy cuts both ways, which a lot of the mockers realize, but that's not enough. If you realize you're basically bullshitting, that doesn't actually excuse you from it. There's the rub.
I think the reason so many people are leery of mass mockery is because it's too easy for human beings to get out of control. People forget why they do what they do-- they just do it by force of habit, and then random people join in because it's the 'Cool Now Thing', and then all hell breaks loose 'cause people think they have a free ticket to piss off whoever's closest. People in general are often vicious beasts when uncontrolled by their higher brains-- i.e., when they're not thinking. So a lot of people would rather the unthinking masses in question just nodded along and played nicely-- it's much easier to go along with one's business that way, isn't it?
It's funny because in the beginning, small, rebellious bands of people mock 'The Establishment' or whatever and it's a 'statement'-- and then the statement becomes too successful and edges into its own (stagnant & unquestioned) dogma and its own Establishment: witness the elite split-off faction of Fandom Wank, itself a former split-off faction of livejournal. Being popular is every intelligentsia's downfall.
I believe very strongly in the ideals behind intelligent disagreement-- whether it takes the form of debate, discussion or outright mockery. I believe it's kind of a process of sloughing off the dead meme-cells in your brain-- you end up cleaner and healthier with the mental scrubbing. But! When people hide behind the mockery (as I keep seeing anytime a little fandom culture of it puts down a few roots), they forget the 'intelligent' part of the mockery. If you're being 100% obsessed with 'Teh Funneh' to the point where you think -everything- is 'Teh Funneh' (as in the usual Fandom Wank refrain of "fandom is fucking funny"), you obliterate the actual intelligence (and the balls) involved in judging what's actually -worthy- of mockery.
I mean, if you mock things just because they're there, then what kind of idiot are -you-, basically? How are you different from the idiots that -worship- and accept things "just because it's there"??
It seems that most(?) people think that self-mockery and The Mockery Of The Stupid in general is basically a fun thing to do, no real emotion involved-- like a gesture you make, but it doesn't really mean anything. You can act like you're self-deprecating, but really you just keep on doing what you're doing (because it's easiest to shut up when among your own clique) and being a yes-man to whatever messed up conspiracy your Feared Leader springs up today. (And of course there's no "Feared Leader" of the Elite Wankers or whoever-- it's yet another 'funny little joke'). What I object to is not the unfunniness of this (as far as I can tell), but the sheer fakery involved.
And please, don't think I'm picking on some stupid recent example in particular-- there are so many vague examples of people who take the Cult of Mockery too seriously (in that they become utterly fake), in fandom and in the mass media in the US anyway.
This reminds me that the "intelligentsia" were always like this: sitting there and laughing like hyenas at the stupidity and decay of whatever society they're within, their anger ultimately ineffectual-- or rather, an affectation. "It was all a joke" is basically the credo of bored (often rich) Clubs Of Mock in boarding schools everywhere, I'm sure. It's a tradition! In fact, the Marauders, I think, are just sort of a smart-boy-group stereotype in this respect-- rich kids with passions and ideals with no real outlet, so they just pick on whatever's the easiest target to feel all Elite and Superior. And in the case of the Marauders, the irony is that their target grows up to out-mock the mockers as a lifestyle, even while the originals did get a clue, it seems. The cycle continues.
Mind you, I'm picking on the perpetually disaffected (in the case of Fandom Wank, I'd say 'dramatically disaffected') 'Mocking Intelligentsia' bit of the mini-society of 'Fandom' because for all intents and purposes? I'm part of it. I don't usually make a sport (so British!) of The Mock, though-- that's the only difference. Because goddammit, real mockery does in fact stem from real emotion-- from a real frustration at things, a hatred of stupid, a zeal for quality or whatever-- there's some sort of thwarted idealism there at heart, and I know it because I feel it. I'm one of 'Them' or 'You' or whatever you want to call it.
The nicey-nice masses of the Politically Correct, 'respect'-obsessed society -want- to be able to point fingers at the 'mocking fringe' and say, 'look! Look! They're fools! That's all they are! They eat their own young and they have nothing important to say; they don't have bloody -feelings-!' It makes it all right to revel in all their self-righteous back-patting and 'there there' cooing and all the rest of it! So we sit there and laugh because what do they know, but they're on to something! They may not see their own fakery, but they can see -ours-! And that's not funny!
Heyo, watch me take myself too seriously; the vital element, though, is that I'm just being sincere, so to mock me with insincerity would be to mock yourself. If you mock me, all I want is that you mock me and you mean it. If you do something that messes with people's feelings? You should mean it, that's all.
But then, I never cared much for sport of any kind, physical or intellectual-- perhaps that's it. I laugh, I write, I read and I play-- but 'sport' implies a sort of forced lightness that bothers me. It's premeditated-- and in terms of mockery, it's inherently wanky. Basically, if you consciously sit there and view the world through the Glasses of Mock, then you become a little bit like Kai, from The Snow Queen, with a tiny bit of the Magic Mirror of hatred and discontent and lies wedged in your eyes.
What I'm saying is, Jaded is a form of Stupid.
If you're not laughing at things with some center of you still grounded in actual understanding of the problem you're making light of, your mockery has no real validity, for one cannot truly speak of things one doesn't understand.
In the end, I believe that mockery shouldn't always have to be a superficial thing, forcibly divorced from empathy and higher feelings. I believe that the job of a Fool (or Jester) in society at large-- or in a mini-society like fandom-- is deeply essential. I respect people who can truly find a workable, intelligent balance between sharp, biting humor and compassion probably more than I respect any other quality in a human being. It just upsets me to see this ideal be completely missing in the Culture of Mock I see at large. It speaks of the same lack of intelligence the people are supposedly meant to mock. And that's all I have to say about that.
P.S. I wasn't -trying- to make this post funny, btw. Ahahaha, BUT I COULD IF I WANTED TO :P
/immature
P.P.S. Aaaack!!1 ZS' Ronfic, aaaaaaack, the Ronlove, am dead <33333333333333333 (I seriously think I'm starting to resent H/D fluff or something, which is like resenting fluffy kittens-- which I -love-, btw-- but there you have it.... Can't seem to get away from the 'inner rage', heh. Good H/D angst, man. It's what's for dinner.)
I mean, if you can't laugh at yourself, you're really in trouble, 'cause odds are other people are laughing at you anyway, and it hurts more that way.
I keep seeing people talk about the problems with a culture of agreement-- the Cult of Nice-- and then seeing the myriad problems that arise from the Cult of Mock. Both have their deep issues-- in that the nicey-nice people are basically often dishonest (if not blatantly hypocritical) and possibly unhelpful to one's possibilities of progress as a writer (in the case of fanfic crit, anyway), while the mockety-mock people are soooo obsessed with everything being superficially 'funny' that they wear it like a mask over their humanity the same way the nicey-nice people wear their niceness. So really, the hypocrisy cuts both ways, which a lot of the mockers realize, but that's not enough. If you realize you're basically bullshitting, that doesn't actually excuse you from it. There's the rub.
I think the reason so many people are leery of mass mockery is because it's too easy for human beings to get out of control. People forget why they do what they do-- they just do it by force of habit, and then random people join in because it's the 'Cool Now Thing', and then all hell breaks loose 'cause people think they have a free ticket to piss off whoever's closest. People in general are often vicious beasts when uncontrolled by their higher brains-- i.e., when they're not thinking. So a lot of people would rather the unthinking masses in question just nodded along and played nicely-- it's much easier to go along with one's business that way, isn't it?
It's funny because in the beginning, small, rebellious bands of people mock 'The Establishment' or whatever and it's a 'statement'-- and then the statement becomes too successful and edges into its own (stagnant & unquestioned) dogma and its own Establishment: witness the elite split-off faction of Fandom Wank, itself a former split-off faction of livejournal. Being popular is every intelligentsia's downfall.
I believe very strongly in the ideals behind intelligent disagreement-- whether it takes the form of debate, discussion or outright mockery. I believe it's kind of a process of sloughing off the dead meme-cells in your brain-- you end up cleaner and healthier with the mental scrubbing. But! When people hide behind the mockery (as I keep seeing anytime a little fandom culture of it puts down a few roots), they forget the 'intelligent' part of the mockery. If you're being 100% obsessed with 'Teh Funneh' to the point where you think -everything- is 'Teh Funneh' (as in the usual Fandom Wank refrain of "fandom is fucking funny"), you obliterate the actual intelligence (and the balls) involved in judging what's actually -worthy- of mockery.
I mean, if you mock things just because they're there, then what kind of idiot are -you-, basically? How are you different from the idiots that -worship- and accept things "just because it's there"??
It seems that most(?) people think that self-mockery and The Mockery Of The Stupid in general is basically a fun thing to do, no real emotion involved-- like a gesture you make, but it doesn't really mean anything. You can act like you're self-deprecating, but really you just keep on doing what you're doing (because it's easiest to shut up when among your own clique) and being a yes-man to whatever messed up conspiracy your Feared Leader springs up today. (And of course there's no "Feared Leader" of the Elite Wankers or whoever-- it's yet another 'funny little joke'). What I object to is not the unfunniness of this (as far as I can tell), but the sheer fakery involved.
And please, don't think I'm picking on some stupid recent example in particular-- there are so many vague examples of people who take the Cult of Mockery too seriously (in that they become utterly fake), in fandom and in the mass media in the US anyway.
This reminds me that the "intelligentsia" were always like this: sitting there and laughing like hyenas at the stupidity and decay of whatever society they're within, their anger ultimately ineffectual-- or rather, an affectation. "It was all a joke" is basically the credo of bored (often rich) Clubs Of Mock in boarding schools everywhere, I'm sure. It's a tradition! In fact, the Marauders, I think, are just sort of a smart-boy-group stereotype in this respect-- rich kids with passions and ideals with no real outlet, so they just pick on whatever's the easiest target to feel all Elite and Superior. And in the case of the Marauders, the irony is that their target grows up to out-mock the mockers as a lifestyle, even while the originals did get a clue, it seems. The cycle continues.
Mind you, I'm picking on the perpetually disaffected (in the case of Fandom Wank, I'd say 'dramatically disaffected') 'Mocking Intelligentsia' bit of the mini-society of 'Fandom' because for all intents and purposes? I'm part of it. I don't usually make a sport (so British!) of The Mock, though-- that's the only difference. Because goddammit, real mockery does in fact stem from real emotion-- from a real frustration at things, a hatred of stupid, a zeal for quality or whatever-- there's some sort of thwarted idealism there at heart, and I know it because I feel it. I'm one of 'Them' or 'You' or whatever you want to call it.
The nicey-nice masses of the Politically Correct, 'respect'-obsessed society -want- to be able to point fingers at the 'mocking fringe' and say, 'look! Look! They're fools! That's all they are! They eat their own young and they have nothing important to say; they don't have bloody -feelings-!' It makes it all right to revel in all their self-righteous back-patting and 'there there' cooing and all the rest of it! So we sit there and laugh because what do they know, but they're on to something! They may not see their own fakery, but they can see -ours-! And that's not funny!
Heyo, watch me take myself too seriously; the vital element, though, is that I'm just being sincere, so to mock me with insincerity would be to mock yourself. If you mock me, all I want is that you mock me and you mean it. If you do something that messes with people's feelings? You should mean it, that's all.
But then, I never cared much for sport of any kind, physical or intellectual-- perhaps that's it. I laugh, I write, I read and I play-- but 'sport' implies a sort of forced lightness that bothers me. It's premeditated-- and in terms of mockery, it's inherently wanky. Basically, if you consciously sit there and view the world through the Glasses of Mock, then you become a little bit like Kai, from The Snow Queen, with a tiny bit of the Magic Mirror of hatred and discontent and lies wedged in your eyes.
What I'm saying is, Jaded is a form of Stupid.
If you're not laughing at things with some center of you still grounded in actual understanding of the problem you're making light of, your mockery has no real validity, for one cannot truly speak of things one doesn't understand.
In the end, I believe that mockery shouldn't always have to be a superficial thing, forcibly divorced from empathy and higher feelings. I believe that the job of a Fool (or Jester) in society at large-- or in a mini-society like fandom-- is deeply essential. I respect people who can truly find a workable, intelligent balance between sharp, biting humor and compassion probably more than I respect any other quality in a human being. It just upsets me to see this ideal be completely missing in the Culture of Mock I see at large. It speaks of the same lack of intelligence the people are supposedly meant to mock. And that's all I have to say about that.
P.S. I wasn't -trying- to make this post funny, btw. Ahahaha, BUT I COULD IF I WANTED TO :P
/immature
P.P.S. Aaaack!!1 ZS' Ronfic, aaaaaaack, the Ronlove, am dead <33333333333333333 (I seriously think I'm starting to resent H/D fluff or something, which is like resenting fluffy kittens-- which I -love-, btw-- but there you have it.... Can't seem to get away from the 'inner rage', heh. Good H/D angst, man. It's what's for dinner.)
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 12:42 am (UTC)But it's all okay now, because I made you a picture (http://xanadu-dreams.com/drawings/nolosers.jpg), and am fairly certain at this point that there are no pictures of rapiers out there that I haven't seen yet. *grins* Think of it as a concept piece for the animation, because that's what the last frame will probably be. Er, except maybe with a bit less blood. Yeah. Or possibly more. ;)
Okay, and sleeping now. Mmm.
...oh, and for mentioning Kai? I love you forever and a day. *hugs reference like a teddy bear as she falls asleep*
!!!!!
Date: 2004-06-28 12:50 am (UTC)nolikereallytherearenowords ack!!1 *gerkles and dies. again.*
THE PRETTY SWORD!! WITH THE SWIRLIES!!
AND THOSE EV0L EYEBROWS OF DOOM AGAIN!!
AND THE BLOOOOOOOoooooooD!!1 *pants*
*cries*
...it's just so...... beautiful. wah. OMG TEH BLEEDING FROM TEH MOUTH HOLY COW o_0
*pets them*
they are so pretty when they bleed. *tear*
<33333333333333333333 YOU ARE TOO COOL FOR MORTAL BEINGS, HAVE I EVER TOLD YOU THAT?? BECAUSE YOU ARE. oh man!!1!!11!
THE UP-TILTED HEAD!! AND THAT SMIRK!! Just.
kink like whoah o_0
Re: !!!!!
Date: 2004-06-28 03:22 pm (UTC)Rrr. Capricious livejournal, not sending me a notification... Rrr.
*moves on*
I'm so glad that you like it! Isn't Draco's sword pretty? There's a snake on it, if you look closely... *cuddles* Harry's sword too, for that matter - the lion's head on the bottom is both symbolic *and* handy for bashing Draco on the head! Who could aks for more? They're going to be a pain to animate, but what the heck. *grins*
Draco's eyebrows are now becoming a permanent feature, since I like your name for them just so so much. Hee. And the blood, as always, makes me happy. For reasons I choose not to examine too closely. Yes. (Also, kink? No kink here, man. Just a good old fashion fight to the death... and if I spent a good half hour trying to put a smudge of blood on Draco's mouth to match the one on Harry's, nobody has to know that. ;)
*bounces* So pleased that you like it.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 01:41 am (UTC)...Not that I wouldn't/don't want it animated, BECAUSE I DO, but it would still be fun, no?
*evil cackling*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 03:32 pm (UTC)That said, why the heck not? *grins* You write that ficlet in script form, with appropriate stage directions, and I'll do my best. *rubs hands together with anticipation*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 01:18 am (UTC)I dunno if I can write it in script form to start with. I think we'd have to collaborate on turning it into a script 'cause I've never actually written a script before, either. *coughs* :D :D!!!1 *GLEE*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 12:01 pm (UTC)But yay for poses, and lighting, and you're right - I like the story elements, which is also why my animations have been getting longer and longer. This will ultimately be solved by the music video, I hope, but this comic could be a fun median step along the way, eh? *grins*
Ah, good then. Ficlet and collaboration and... oh, this is going to be *so much fun*. And I have written scripts before, so I have at least an idea of how to start. How do you want to do it? Fic -> script -> comic? Or straight to script? Or we could just do it one page at a time, because, er, it will probably be more than one page. Because I like drawing swords. (...)
Of course, I still want to do at least a small animation, if only for icon usage. *grins*
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 12:30 am (UTC)I'll write the ficlet & then we can somehow hammer into into a script (OMG WOW ACK) and. Yeah. Of course it will be more than one page, so there could be a page of like, frottage. THERE HAS TO BE FROTTAGE I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT.
Yes. When I finish this damn Azkaban!Draco fic, eheheh. And possibly while I write my Remusfic. Though now I'm semi-wibbly 'cause OMG WOW MY FICS SUCK but I'll soldier on because I DON'T CARE IF YOU'LL DRAW SWORDS FOR THEM >:D
*has perspective*
Mmm, there has to be a scene where they're just silhouettes, swords drawn and clashing. In like, a corridor. Or outside?? Backlit. Harry would be all... GROWL! Intense, focused look!! And Draco would be all, SNEER! Sneer, my little pointy-faced menace, SNEER!!
..........at some point, they probably like, get turned on or something. SO THERE WOULD BE BULGES. GAH. *sputters*
no subject
Date: 2004-07-01 09:05 pm (UTC)Why are you wibbly about your fics, silly girl? *pets* Don't be, well, a silly girl. And I'll draw swords all over the place, man. Swords for all!
...*looks at scene*
... Yeah. There has to be that.
Guh.
In the meantime, enjoy another icon of one of the things that was lost to me forever in the Great Crash of Ought Four. Now, it only lives on in icon form, but I love it still. *sighes and cuddles icon close* (Missing is the beginning, when Harry is punching Draco. Because I'm nothing if not predictable. ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-07-01 10:19 pm (UTC)And Harry blinking!! And omg, their faces, like, turning and like. ack. *WANTS CLOSEUP WITH TONGUES AND STUFF* >:O
(it is never enough. ACK HIS HAND MOVES <3) And like, I love Harry's coy-type inquisitive eyelash-batting thing ahahahaha. They must kiss forever and ever, amen. *siiiigh* oh yes :D
Well, Aja said my fics sucked in a thread above, and. stuff. and. um. yah, it's pretty much that -.-
no subject
Date: 2004-07-02 01:45 pm (UTC)... well, I checked out that thread. Pretty rough stuff happening there, doll. *pets* But it sounded more like she was saying that you come across as believing that you are superior, rather than that you are just sucky. And considering that it was all tied in with your views on other fics and the way you express yourself and so on, I really wouldn't take it the same as if she'd just made that comment in a vacuum. And I would definitely not let it affect your writing.
(And by that, I literally mean that *I* will not let it affect your writing. Don't make me draw you into submission, Reenka. *shakes fist*)
no subject
Date: 2004-07-02 08:24 pm (UTC)It's just. Um. Well. It bothers me that someone could've lied(?) to me about liking my stuff for so long, or whatever-- it's that dollop of paranoia that's so difficult to get rid of once one's aware of it. Like, what if other people hate it? What if they're just pretending to like it? WAH. What if... What if... etcetc
But I'll get over it, 'cause like... it's not as if I'm conscious in the normal way when I write, anyway :>