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reenkaWhile I'll get to writing about some of the things suggested (hee! there's much to say about sushi... mmm), I just wanted to say that having seen several [professional] comic & book writers reply to lj-comments about their work, it keeps on inspiring this deep sense of wrongness in me, like I'm seeing something that should not happen. Like... it's -wrong-. Brrrr-kinda wrong. I dunno, most things don't strike me that way-- I mean, usually something seems crazy or illogical or annoying, but generally not -wrong-, like it shouldn't happen like that. But yeah.
I think it's something about the power-differential. Like, there's already so much wank in fandom-- when we're all supposedly equal: the fan-readers and the fan-writers, like the yin-yang of fannishness. Even then, when a writer acquires 'Big Name' power in some cases, you can just see people shutting up, and sometimes the writer getting an entitlement complex like 'how DARE you lowly creature'... but the fandom tends to observe its own boundaries, more or less. It's one system.
Now, when you have creators from 'on high' [even newbie professionals] talking/interacting with us little-fish fans outside a structured QnA session like JKR's interviews, the entitlement and fen deference gets totally out of proportion. It just makes me wince to watch. I mean, in an independent magazine, a reviewer gets away with pretty much anything because it's their 'professional right', but on lj... it's ego vs. ego, except one ego has 'official validation', the weight of being published to back them up. And if they don't have a sense of humor about themselves [and you betcha their fans won't], it's just like an avalanche. The prospects for balanced discussion are virtually nil.
Partly, of course, I tend to feel uncomfortable sharing immediate blogspace with public figures (well, professional writers/artists) I know of [let alone fangirl] in general; especially since lj is a communal space rather than 'just a blog'. On their website is one thing-- but on lj, where they promote themselves and talk about their work & get fangirled? That is extremely uncomfortable to watch. Reading their lj at all makes me feel like I've crossed the line from fangirl to groupie; because while you can all be 'fellow fangirls', creators and readers merging into one group (which is what's so great!), you cannot have any basis for unity or a common language as long as you -are- 'a groupie'. And I'm not saying that there's no place on lj for whatever group, because there's a place for anybody & everybody on lj; the point is that lots of professional creators are increasingly interacting/using fandom without the first clue of what the normal dynamic-- it's quite a bit like being colonized... or gentrified... or something.
It's like... not joining a community but using a community [for promotion & attention alone]; it's like a middle schooler coming to sit on a kindergarten playground & selling cookies. I mean, the kiddies love the cookies, but the weirdness of that big person sitting in your sandbox is still quite disconcerting and even disturbing, it seems to me.
PS: Oh, and there's the weirdness of knowing the foibles/personality quirks of person behind the story, too, which isn't there in fandom but seems to confuse 'normal' types of reading. It's like, I don't want to wonder if such-and-such is why such-a-character acted like so-and-so or whatever. Just reading interviews or even biographies isn't the same as seeing everyday interactions in terms of... giving an immediate [too immediate] impression. Like... I don't think I'll be able to read Peg Kerr's books [which are normally just up my alley] until I've totally half-forgotten my impressions of her on lj. Even though they were pretty much neutral impressions. I just feel like... I know too much, and also the heavy pushing by fellow fangirls [peer-pressure] seriously turns me off. This is just me, though.
~~
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5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
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...Okay, now I can start packing to move to bloody Seattle *___*
I think it's something about the power-differential. Like, there's already so much wank in fandom-- when we're all supposedly equal: the fan-readers and the fan-writers, like the yin-yang of fannishness. Even then, when a writer acquires 'Big Name' power in some cases, you can just see people shutting up, and sometimes the writer getting an entitlement complex like 'how DARE you lowly creature'... but the fandom tends to observe its own boundaries, more or less. It's one system.
Now, when you have creators from 'on high' [even newbie professionals] talking/interacting with us little-fish fans outside a structured QnA session like JKR's interviews, the entitlement and fen deference gets totally out of proportion. It just makes me wince to watch. I mean, in an independent magazine, a reviewer gets away with pretty much anything because it's their 'professional right', but on lj... it's ego vs. ego, except one ego has 'official validation', the weight of being published to back them up. And if they don't have a sense of humor about themselves [and you betcha their fans won't], it's just like an avalanche. The prospects for balanced discussion are virtually nil.
Partly, of course, I tend to feel uncomfortable sharing immediate blogspace with public figures (well, professional writers/artists) I know of [let alone fangirl] in general; especially since lj is a communal space rather than 'just a blog'. On their website is one thing-- but on lj, where they promote themselves and talk about their work & get fangirled? That is extremely uncomfortable to watch. Reading their lj at all makes me feel like I've crossed the line from fangirl to groupie; because while you can all be 'fellow fangirls', creators and readers merging into one group (which is what's so great!), you cannot have any basis for unity or a common language as long as you -are- 'a groupie'. And I'm not saying that there's no place on lj for whatever group, because there's a place for anybody & everybody on lj; the point is that lots of professional creators are increasingly interacting/using fandom without the first clue of what the normal dynamic-- it's quite a bit like being colonized... or gentrified... or something.
It's like... not joining a community but using a community [for promotion & attention alone]; it's like a middle schooler coming to sit on a kindergarten playground & selling cookies. I mean, the kiddies love the cookies, but the weirdness of that big person sitting in your sandbox is still quite disconcerting and even disturbing, it seems to me.
PS: Oh, and there's the weirdness of knowing the foibles/personality quirks of person behind the story, too, which isn't there in fandom but seems to confuse 'normal' types of reading. It's like, I don't want to wonder if such-and-such is why such-a-character acted like so-and-so or whatever. Just reading interviews or even biographies isn't the same as seeing everyday interactions in terms of... giving an immediate [too immediate] impression. Like... I don't think I'll be able to read Peg Kerr's books [which are normally just up my alley] until I've totally half-forgotten my impressions of her on lj. Even though they were pretty much neutral impressions. I just feel like... I know too much, and also the heavy pushing by fellow fangirls [peer-pressure] seriously turns me off. This is just me, though.
~~
If you comment on this post:
[meme brought to you by
ishuca & the Letter C]1. I’ll respond with something random about you.
2. I’ll challenge you to try something.
3. I’ll pick a color that I associate with you.
4. I’ll tell you something I like about you.
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I’ll ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours.
~~
...Okay, now I can start packing to move to bloody Seattle *___*
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Date: 2006-09-21 12:57 am (UTC)to crush on: er, evil characters. smart, potentially conflicted, power-hungry evil characters. without fail. bonus points for godlike power.
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Date: 2006-09-21 01:13 am (UTC)...'Power-hungry' makes me mad at people, good, evil or neutral-- unless they're seriously SERIOUSLY intelligent+conflicted+interesting. I generally give people -50 points in intelligence/appeal for being power-hungry, so they'd better be really up there in other points if they're gonna be sexy to me :))
Oh! But it just occurred to me that two manga characters I find super-uber sexy [Red King from Basara & Shion from PSME] are quite power-hungry. I think in that case, I find them so interesting, the extreme issue I have with their need for control becomes part of the appeal, to the point where my greatest attraction and repelling point in people is probably the need for control~:)) Which I want to utterly DESTROY, but...