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Vidding Masterpost
Dec. 19th, 2037 12:17 amIn Chronological Order:
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I've spent the past few months rediscovering my love of my very first ship: Spuffy
But lately I'm starting to feel like every author in the AO3 tag is a racist SWERF.
I had a particularly traumatic experience yesterday with a WIP I'd been following.
I've liked some of the author's other stories. I thought this one had a particularly interesting premise: what if Riley got turned after he started visiting the suckhouse?
The author seemed like they were really trying, in the beginning, to be conscientious about representation of marginalized people.
The author wrote a scene in which Buffy has a nightmare about her awful soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Riley cutting off pieces of her body to “make her fit in a box.” That scene was accompanied by a very long author’s note explaining that the author by no means believes that people who are born with missing limbs are less whole or less fully human and that the scene is my no means meant to perpetuate ableist beliefs.
Yesterday, the author posted the chapter in which Riley gets turned into a vampire. Riley is turned against his will, by a vampire sex worker. The scene is written as a sexual assault. The author, again, put very conscientious warnings on the chapter to protect people from being triggered by this sexual assault scene.
Meanwhile, the same chapter introduces an “exotic, foreign” dark-skinned vampire prostitute OC, and then promptly has said OC murdered at the hands of the story’s romantic lead.
Apparently the author thought the best way to establish that the story’s romantic male lead was 1) bisexual and 2) faithful devoted to the female lead (whom he is not actually dating yet) was to have him “resist the temptation” to fuck a “dirty brown foreign whore” and then kill said “dirty brown foreign whore” in his “pure white” Buffy’s honor.
The author didn’t even try to make it seem like Spike was killing the vampire prostitute for murdering humans. Spike instead has an entire mental rant about how prostitutes are worthless and pathetic and deserve death no matter how much he might want to fuck this particular one.
This is the same author who was so worried about offending the disabled and triggering sexual assault victims that they wrote entire paragraphs worth of author’s notes angsting about the importance of good, conscientious representation. But they saw nothing amiss with this horrifically offensive racist caricature of an OC they invented.
Not a moment of consideration for how non-white Spuffy fans might feel reading a scene like that. I suppose the author thought we’d be “flattered” by the dehumanizing sexual exotification of the dark skinned foreign other. I’m sure this all seemed really romantic in the author’s head.
I left a comment expressing how, well, blindsided I felt about the latest narrative turn.
I think the author responded, but I don't really want to read their response, because I suspect it will only make me angrier.
The author posted another chapter today.
The more the story gets into the dark underworld of vampire prostitution and "bite addicts" the more it feels like the author is using this fictional environment as "safe outlet" to express their very real contempt for real life sex workers and real life addicts.
The further the story goes along the more I get the impression that the author really does think that real life sex workers and drug addicts are less than human and better off dead and need to be punished for their very existence.
This isn't the first time I've been reading a Spuffy fic that started to feel like vitriolic SWERF propaganda halfway through. However, this is the first time the author used the death of an invented "exotically beautiful foreign dark-skinned duplicitous queer slut" OC to make their point.
I've been leaving encouraging comments on pretty much every chapter up to this point. I don't imagine I'll ever leave another comment on any of this author's fic ever again.
This experience is leaving a very bitter taste in my mouth.
How many more of the Spuffy WIP's I'm following are going to betray me like this?
On the one hand I want to find new fanfic to cleanse my palate. On the other, I'm not really feeling resilient enough to get emotionally invested in new fic.
I feel like I need a brand new fandom, but nothing new has caught my interest in ages.
Ugh.
Perhaps I should just go back to working on that original novel I started prior to the beginning of the pandemic.
But lately I'm starting to feel like every author in the AO3 tag is a racist SWERF.
I had a particularly traumatic experience yesterday with a WIP I'd been following.
I've liked some of the author's other stories. I thought this one had a particularly interesting premise: what if Riley got turned after he started visiting the suckhouse?
The author seemed like they were really trying, in the beginning, to be conscientious about representation of marginalized people.
The author wrote a scene in which Buffy has a nightmare about her awful soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Riley cutting off pieces of her body to “make her fit in a box.” That scene was accompanied by a very long author’s note explaining that the author by no means believes that people who are born with missing limbs are less whole or less fully human and that the scene is my no means meant to perpetuate ableist beliefs.
Yesterday, the author posted the chapter in which Riley gets turned into a vampire. Riley is turned against his will, by a vampire sex worker. The scene is written as a sexual assault. The author, again, put very conscientious warnings on the chapter to protect people from being triggered by this sexual assault scene.
Meanwhile, the same chapter introduces an “exotic, foreign” dark-skinned vampire prostitute OC, and then promptly has said OC murdered at the hands of the story’s romantic lead.
Apparently the author thought the best way to establish that the story’s romantic male lead was 1) bisexual and 2) faithful devoted to the female lead (whom he is not actually dating yet) was to have him “resist the temptation” to fuck a “dirty brown foreign whore” and then kill said “dirty brown foreign whore” in his “pure white” Buffy’s honor.
The author didn’t even try to make it seem like Spike was killing the vampire prostitute for murdering humans. Spike instead has an entire mental rant about how prostitutes are worthless and pathetic and deserve death no matter how much he might want to fuck this particular one.
This is the same author who was so worried about offending the disabled and triggering sexual assault victims that they wrote entire paragraphs worth of author’s notes angsting about the importance of good, conscientious representation. But they saw nothing amiss with this horrifically offensive racist caricature of an OC they invented.
Not a moment of consideration for how non-white Spuffy fans might feel reading a scene like that. I suppose the author thought we’d be “flattered” by the dehumanizing sexual exotification of the dark skinned foreign other. I’m sure this all seemed really romantic in the author’s head.
I left a comment expressing how, well, blindsided I felt about the latest narrative turn.
I think the author responded, but I don't really want to read their response, because I suspect it will only make me angrier.
The author posted another chapter today.
The more the story gets into the dark underworld of vampire prostitution and "bite addicts" the more it feels like the author is using this fictional environment as "safe outlet" to express their very real contempt for real life sex workers and real life addicts.
The further the story goes along the more I get the impression that the author really does think that real life sex workers and drug addicts are less than human and better off dead and need to be punished for their very existence.
This isn't the first time I've been reading a Spuffy fic that started to feel like vitriolic SWERF propaganda halfway through. However, this is the first time the author used the death of an invented "exotically beautiful foreign dark-skinned duplicitous queer slut" OC to make their point.
I've been leaving encouraging comments on pretty much every chapter up to this point. I don't imagine I'll ever leave another comment on any of this author's fic ever again.
This experience is leaving a very bitter taste in my mouth.
How many more of the Spuffy WIP's I'm following are going to betray me like this?
On the one hand I want to find new fanfic to cleanse my palate. On the other, I'm not really feeling resilient enough to get emotionally invested in new fic.
I feel like I need a brand new fandom, but nothing new has caught my interest in ages.
Ugh.
Perhaps I should just go back to working on that original novel I started prior to the beginning of the pandemic.
BtVS Thoughts
Jan. 24th, 2022 03:59 pm(reposted from my tumblr)
Lately I've been in a nostalgic mood, reading a ton of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy/Spike fanfic, my very first fandom ship.
And I will say, the thing I loved most about BtVS fandom?
We were all in it for the monsterfucking.
Buffy was attracted to a demon. None of the fanfic writers tried to argue that Buffy would be happier if that demon were transmogrified into an ordinary human with no unnatural powers and perverse urges.
In fact all the fanfic was about showing how much happier, more true to herself, and more fulfilled she was with a creature of the night than some whitebread bootlicker.
If there's one fanfic trope I can't stand, it's "the eldritch monster receives the ultimate reward of becoming a mediocre white man and living an pleasant suburban picket fence life."
Lately I've been in a nostalgic mood, reading a ton of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy/Spike fanfic, my very first fandom ship.
And I will say, the thing I loved most about BtVS fandom?
We were all in it for the monsterfucking.
Buffy was attracted to a demon. None of the fanfic writers tried to argue that Buffy would be happier if that demon were transmogrified into an ordinary human with no unnatural powers and perverse urges.
In fact all the fanfic was about showing how much happier, more true to herself, and more fulfilled she was with a creature of the night than some whitebread bootlicker.
If there's one fanfic trope I can't stand, it's "the eldritch monster receives the ultimate reward of becoming a mediocre white man and living an pleasant suburban picket fence life."
New Fanfic!
Oct. 18th, 2021 11:45 pmTitle: Trashmouth Presents: ▮▮ ▮▮▮ ▮▮ ▮▮▮▮▮
Fandom: It Chapter Two (2019), Stephen King's It
Relationship: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Characters: Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Stanley Uris
Additional Tags: Richie Tozier's Stand Up Act, Everybody Lives, except Henry Bowers, Fix-It, Morbid Humor, vulgarity
Status: WIP [2/3]
Summary:
Fandom: It Chapter Two (2019), Stephen King's It
Relationship: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Characters: Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon, Bill Denbrough, Beverly Marsh, Stanley Uris
Additional Tags: Richie Tozier's Stand Up Act, Everybody Lives, except Henry Bowers, Fix-It, Morbid Humor, vulgarity
Status: WIP [2/3]
Summary:
[Read it on AO3]Obligatory post-film Netflix stand-up comedy special, with a twist.
The Derry police found Bowers' body. Richie Tozier was prosecuted for 2nd degree murder, and subsequently exonerated. The week long trial made national news. Now, after nearly six months of radio silence, the comedian has announced a comeback tour. It's the most anticipated comedy event of the decade.
The entertainment world won't know what hit it.
(no subject)
May. 27th, 2021 10:43 pm After a year and a half glutting myself on Chinese dramas, I've decided I need a break from all the pretty young things.
These past couple months I've been all about the midlife crisis ships. Cobra Kai, Supernatural, and IT Chapter Two. I got my first gray pubic hair several weeks ago, so I guess this is me having my own midlife crisis vicariously via fictional characters.
I'm actually 6000 words deep into writing an It Chapter Two fic.
One of the characters is a stand-up comedian. Several people have attempted to write said character's post-film gay coming out stand-up act. I feel like the fanfic I've read kind of played it safe, avoiding humor that was too raunchy or too dark. I'm doing my own, edgier take.
I mean I think being a gay comedian and getting nearly impaled by an eldritch creature that feeds on your internalized homophobia entitles you to at least one monsterfucking joke, right?
I've actually been watching a ton of stand-up comedy on Netflix for inspiration. Usually watching tv does nothing to help me write, but I think it's actually helped a lot this time. Comedy writing is weird. Usually I'm worried about, like, maximizing the emotional impact of an intense moment, and trying to make the reader feel like they're in the moment, living it.
Here, I'm doing the opposite. I'm trying to turn horror into comedy, so I'm purposely going off on distracting tangents to *minimize* the intensity of the subject matter. I'm building up a protective layer of fluff, actively trying to prevent the audience from getting sucked in to the experience, so that the audience can laugh at the surrealism of the situation from a distance, instead of getting caught up in the trauma and the terror.
These past couple months I've been all about the midlife crisis ships. Cobra Kai, Supernatural, and IT Chapter Two. I got my first gray pubic hair several weeks ago, so I guess this is me having my own midlife crisis vicariously via fictional characters.
I'm actually 6000 words deep into writing an It Chapter Two fic.
One of the characters is a stand-up comedian. Several people have attempted to write said character's post-film gay coming out stand-up act. I feel like the fanfic I've read kind of played it safe, avoiding humor that was too raunchy or too dark. I'm doing my own, edgier take.
I mean I think being a gay comedian and getting nearly impaled by an eldritch creature that feeds on your internalized homophobia entitles you to at least one monsterfucking joke, right?
I've actually been watching a ton of stand-up comedy on Netflix for inspiration. Usually watching tv does nothing to help me write, but I think it's actually helped a lot this time. Comedy writing is weird. Usually I'm worried about, like, maximizing the emotional impact of an intense moment, and trying to make the reader feel like they're in the moment, living it.
Here, I'm doing the opposite. I'm trying to turn horror into comedy, so I'm purposely going off on distracting tangents to *minimize* the intensity of the subject matter. I'm building up a protective layer of fluff, actively trying to prevent the audience from getting sucked in to the experience, so that the audience can laugh at the surrealism of the situation from a distance, instead of getting caught up in the trauma and the terror.
Fannish Life Update
May. 27th, 2020 10:14 amMy new fannish obsession is the Untamed/陈情令. It's been wildly different from my usual fandom experiences.
Typically a new fannish obsession means I'm inhaling fic like air. But it turns out I'm very strongly opposed to this fandom's romantic fanon, to the point that the only fanfic I've liked has been gen. I've never been this emotionally invested in a fandom and simultaneously so uninvested in reading its fanfiction.
I've watched the show on three different streaming platforms, each with different subtitle translations, and that inspired me to start learning Chinese on duolingo. Suzvoy told me last week that lots of her Untamed twitter mutuals are doing this as well. I guess covid-19 quarantine is the perfect opportunity to both marathon a new show and to start learning a new language.
I've always meant to learn some Chinese. Both of my parents are part Chinese. Neither of them speak Hakkanese, which is the dialect their Chinese predecessors spoke, so the only part of my Chinese heritage that really got passed down was the food. I'm learning Mandarin, because I don't even know how I'd go about learning an obscure dialect like Hakkanese without spending money, and also because a big part of what's motivating me to learn is my desire to watch Chinese and Taiwanese gay romances without subtitles and understand the nuances that get lost in translation.
I've been getting lots of songvid ideas,
but getting vid ideas is different since I got a music degree. Now whenever I find a "great vid song" my first inclination is to make a cover version of the song, rather than vid the song directly, because I can't stop thinking of all the ways I could re-orchestrate the song so it's more stylistically suited to the show I want to vid.
I've taken that to another level with this fandom. I'm not only orchestrating cover versions of vid songs, but I've also been translating songs into Mandarin Chinese.
Here's a WIP of my cover of "I Think We're Alone Now": [google drive mp3 link] [vocal arrangement pdf].
I'm also working on a cover of "Freaks" by Timmy Trumpet & Savage (the song from the When Mom's not Home meme). More of a filk than a straightforward cover. I changed the lyrics to fit the Untamed series narrative, and my arrangement uses Chinese instruments.
I commissioned tumblr acquaintance @hunxi-guilai to assist with the translations.
Typically a new fannish obsession means I'm inhaling fic like air. But it turns out I'm very strongly opposed to this fandom's romantic fanon, to the point that the only fanfic I've liked has been gen. I've never been this emotionally invested in a fandom and simultaneously so uninvested in reading its fanfiction.
I've watched the show on three different streaming platforms, each with different subtitle translations, and that inspired me to start learning Chinese on duolingo. Suzvoy told me last week that lots of her Untamed twitter mutuals are doing this as well. I guess covid-19 quarantine is the perfect opportunity to both marathon a new show and to start learning a new language.
I've always meant to learn some Chinese. Both of my parents are part Chinese. Neither of them speak Hakkanese, which is the dialect their Chinese predecessors spoke, so the only part of my Chinese heritage that really got passed down was the food. I'm learning Mandarin, because I don't even know how I'd go about learning an obscure dialect like Hakkanese without spending money, and also because a big part of what's motivating me to learn is my desire to watch Chinese and Taiwanese gay romances without subtitles and understand the nuances that get lost in translation.
I've been getting lots of songvid ideas,
but getting vid ideas is different since I got a music degree. Now whenever I find a "great vid song" my first inclination is to make a cover version of the song, rather than vid the song directly, because I can't stop thinking of all the ways I could re-orchestrate the song so it's more stylistically suited to the show I want to vid.
I've taken that to another level with this fandom. I'm not only orchestrating cover versions of vid songs, but I've also been translating songs into Mandarin Chinese.
Here's a WIP of my cover of "I Think We're Alone Now": [google drive mp3 link] [vocal arrangement pdf].
I'm also working on a cover of "Freaks" by Timmy Trumpet & Savage (the song from the When Mom's not Home meme). More of a filk than a straightforward cover. I changed the lyrics to fit the Untamed series narrative, and my arrangement uses Chinese instruments.
I commissioned tumblr acquaintance @hunxi-guilai to assist with the translations.
Life Update
Mar. 27th, 2020 04:36 pmSo I'm fairly sure I have a mild case of Covid-19. I'm going to go ahead and journal my symptoms as best I can recall them, for posterity:
( Medical Log )
( Medical Log )
Note: I have been checking my temperature regularly (2-3 times a day) and I’ve had no sign of a fever whatsoever. I want to say my appetite’s been normal, but actually I take medication that decreases my appetite and drinking coffee decreases my appetite, so there’s no way for me to tell if the virus is impacting my appetite.
I've been self quarantining since the 2nd week of the month, although it wasn't really intentional the initial week -- I just happened to have that week off, and then my friends cancelled all our plans, so I stayed in and watched Chinese soap opersas. Work sent me an e-mail saying "we're shut down, your paychecks will be mailed" on the 14th, and that's when I for real started self-quarantining.
I'm still getting paid for all the shifts I booked through the end of April. My shifts are booked 2 months in advance, and I'm guaranteed pay for those shifts once they're booked, unless I'm the one to cancel them. After April, hopefully work can re-open, or the government figures out the whole basic income thing because this is not a job that can be done remotely.
I desperately need to do laundry, but I’m delaying the trip to the laundromat until the washable face masks I ordered arrive on Monday. I've been washing panties in the sink and getting groceries delivered.
I do have a small work-from-home film scoring gig that I've been procrastinating on, in addition to my day job.
Besides watching television (I've become utterly obsessed with The Untamed) I've been learning Mandarin on Duolingo and I've started an herb garden in my bedroom window. I have about 40% of an Untamed fanfic written, and 8 million vid ideas that will have to wait until after I finish scoring this short film.
I lost my phone yesterday. I'm pretty sure I lost it in the lyft that drove me to the airport. The driver said he can't find it though, so who knows. Maybe another passenger took it. Maybe it slipped onto the curb as I was getting out of the car.
Then I missed my flight.
Of course the next thing I tried to do was e-mail my family on my laptop to let them know about the flight change, but somehow when I installed my VPN, it did something weird having to do with the DNS server IP that made it impossible for me to log on to unsecured public wifi. And even uninstalling my vpn software didn't fix the wifi issue.
Then my laptop died.
So I had wait until my layover in Phoenix to recharge my laptop and perform a factory reset -- reinstall the OS and everything (I still have all my files, but I'll have to reinstall all the software apps) -- just so I could access public wifi to e-mail my family about the flight change.
Which had the unexpected side effect that I can no longer log in to my bank account or my tumblr, both of which require 2 factor authentication when logging in from an "unfamiliar device" (and apparently the factory reset has rendered my laptop "unfamiliar"). And of course the 2nd factor in the 2 factor authentication is them texting a code to my (missing) cell phone.
My bank account I can still access via phonecall, but I guess I'm having a tumblr free holiday.
Then I missed my flight.
Of course the next thing I tried to do was e-mail my family on my laptop to let them know about the flight change, but somehow when I installed my VPN, it did something weird having to do with the DNS server IP that made it impossible for me to log on to unsecured public wifi. And even uninstalling my vpn software didn't fix the wifi issue.
Then my laptop died.
So I had wait until my layover in Phoenix to recharge my laptop and perform a factory reset -- reinstall the OS and everything (I still have all my files, but I'll have to reinstall all the software apps) -- just so I could access public wifi to e-mail my family about the flight change.
Which had the unexpected side effect that I can no longer log in to my bank account or my tumblr, both of which require 2 factor authentication when logging in from an "unfamiliar device" (and apparently the factory reset has rendered my laptop "unfamiliar"). And of course the 2nd factor in the 2 factor authentication is them texting a code to my (missing) cell phone.
My bank account I can still access via phonecall, but I guess I'm having a tumblr free holiday.
AO3 Needs Blocking Functions, Desperately
Dec. 1st, 2019 04:06 pmI agree with everything @theshmaylor has said [here]. And while that post does address both the need to block serial harrassers from comments and the need to block serial bad authors from search results, I'd like to talk a little more in depth about the issues with AO3's search function.
The search filtering options are SHIT when it comes to protecting people from triggering content. And blithely telling people “it’s your job to curate your experience” without acknowledging that the site oftentimes makes it nearly impossible to do so is a real asshole move.
.
Fact: Blocking individual tags quickly becomes unreasonably, absurdly tedious if you’re doing multiple searches and have over 5 tags you want to block.
And anyone who has been in fandom as long as I have has at least 10 tags they wanna permablock just counting NOTPs alone -- not even including triggers & squicks.
Overshare time!
In 2011 the Captain America kink meme was born and I developed a fondness for "tiny!Steve is tiny everywhere" fic, which later expanded into a general micropenis porn kink. In 2016, AO3's micropenis tag got flooded with Donald Trump porn.
Lemme tell you, nothing kills the mood like having to physically type the name Donald Trump into an AO3 search form to exclude it from your current porn search. That's the kinda thing you want to be able to block once and then never have to think about ever, ever again.
.
Fact: The most triggering stories are always untagged.
The most offensive stories are written by people who lack the self-awareness to recognize their own racism/biphobia/misogyny/etc. Often it's not the trigger itself that is the issue, but rather how it is handled, and whether or not you were able to mentally prepare for it.
People who tag racism are actually more likely to write fic that handles racial issues respectfully. It's the people who don't tag who tend to write the cringiest, most offensive, most stereotyped representations of POC.
Blocking tags, in this case, is useless. The best way to avoid stories like this is to avoid the authors who write them.
It should be much easier to permanently exclude authors and/or specific stories from search results.
.
Fact: The human brain forgets traumatic experiences.
Meaning, when I read a story that I hate, or that triggers me, I forget what it is called. I forget who wrote it. I forget what it’s about.
Until I accidentally re-read it.
And that happens OFTEN. And it shouldn’t happen at all. And it wouldn’t, if I could just permanently exclude specific stories and/or authors from search results.
There’s nothing worse than to start reading a fic and think “Wait, I’ve read this before. Why don’t I remember how it ends??” and then get 30 pages in and realize, “Oh ... that’s why. Fuck this author. Fuck this story.”
.
Fact: Happy people don't kill their husbands.
We talk about how AO3 was created to be a safe haven for fanfiction authors, and not a safe haven for triggered readers.
But it can be both!
This is one circumstance where protecting readers will actually protect authors at the same time!
Allowing readers to permablock authors and tags reduces the likelyhood that readers will stumble upon a story that triggers them, which in turn shields authors from hostile audiences -- after all, you can't get at mad at a story that didn't show up in your fic search in the first place.
To borrow and re-contextualize an Elle Woods quote, creating a better user experience will make users less likely to lash out.
Block features will also make it easier for the volunteer staff to differentiate between readers who are genuinely malicious, and readers who are just fed up of being blindsided by the same triggering content every time they do a casual fic search.
.
Speaking as someone who lived through multiple LiveJournal racewanks -- I read a lot of racist fic LJ without confronting any fanfic author directly, until one day I just fucking snapped and typed up a whole ass diatribe in someone's story comments and suddenly I was on fandom wank. And honestly her story wasn't even close to the most racist fanfic I'd read. It was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Obviously racism must be addressed.
Less obvious is how. I used to think the only way to address racism in fandom was by writing angry diatribes in the comment sections of individual racist fanfic. I do still think individual callouts have a role in addressing racism. But I no longer think that’s the only, or even one of the better ways of addressing fandom racism.
Systemic fandom racism needs to be addressed at the community level, with infrastructure.
Providing nonwhite fans with the tools to avoid triggering racist content and protect themselves from racist harassment will do way more for POC in fandom than targeting individual racist commenters, or individual racist stories.
TL&DR:
What do we want? Blocking and blacklisting functions! When do we want them? NOW!
The New Fanart Wank
Nov. 24th, 2019 09:41 amSo there's this a kerfuffle in tumblr's art community right now. And by art community I mean digital fanart community. Art posts get way more likes than reblogs. A lot of tumblr artists are really pissed off about this, because "if you really liked my art you'd promote it." To me, these numbers just reflect the stark reality of how feedback works on the internet -- you always get more views than likes. You always get more likes than comments. You always get more comments than promotions (except on tumblr, where it's actually easier to promote a post than it is to comment on it).
To the tumblr art community, however, these numbers represent a "toxic culture" of selfish consumerism. I saw a post literally telling people who like art posts without reblogging them that "you're the reason this website is dying."
Arrogant and delusional. I've written about my thoughts on the subject at length [here, here].
In this post, I just want to talk here about my general takeaways re: this kerfuffle.
Tumblr visual artists view fandom as a market. They view tumblr fandom as a place for content creators to find potential customers and clients. I assume money is the end goal, or they wouldn't be so upset at the lack of promotion. There's a general attitude of "if you don't pay us fairly we'll strike."
This is so diametrically opposed to my understanding of how fandom works, and why I choose to participate in it. I do art professionally. Fandom is my escape from the art market. Fandom is my vacation away from customers and clients. Over the years my main contributions to fandom have been 1) vidding and 2) meta writing and to a lesser extent 3) fanfiction and in my mind, the purpose of the first two especially is to instigate conversations. In my mind, the purpose of good art in general is to instigate conversations -- to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
I think, whether you write meta, or you talk about your headcanons, or write fic, put together recommendation posts, or make fanart, or whatever -- we're all participating in the same conversation. We're all contributors to that conversation. Lurkers are just people who haven't found a voice yet. No one is a customer or a client. No one is a selfish consumer. Fandom is not a market.
Fandom is a town meeting.
I think this particular kerfuffle is the first thing that's really made me feel like I don't belong on tumblr, moreso even than the porn ban or any of the other tumblr wanks I've been involved in. It makes me want to unfollow every fanartist I follow on tumblr and blacklist the fanart tag. I look at these people who supposedly share my interests, who are in the same fandom communities I am in, and their reasons for being here are anathema to me.
They're not here to have conversations. They're here to become influencers. They think I'm morally obligated to help them become influencers. They want to talk at me, instead of to me. I find this attitude grotesque.
I think this larger conflict also ties in to the whole "Why won't you let us link our patreons on AO3" mini-kerfuffle which I've also talked about (here)
To the tumblr art community, however, these numbers represent a "toxic culture" of selfish consumerism. I saw a post literally telling people who like art posts without reblogging them that "you're the reason this website is dying."
Arrogant and delusional. I've written about my thoughts on the subject at length [here, here].
In this post, I just want to talk here about my general takeaways re: this kerfuffle.
Tumblr visual artists view fandom as a market. They view tumblr fandom as a place for content creators to find potential customers and clients. I assume money is the end goal, or they wouldn't be so upset at the lack of promotion. There's a general attitude of "if you don't pay us fairly we'll strike."
This is so diametrically opposed to my understanding of how fandom works, and why I choose to participate in it. I do art professionally. Fandom is my escape from the art market. Fandom is my vacation away from customers and clients. Over the years my main contributions to fandom have been 1) vidding and 2) meta writing and to a lesser extent 3) fanfiction and in my mind, the purpose of the first two especially is to instigate conversations. In my mind, the purpose of good art in general is to instigate conversations -- to spark new ideas and ways of thinking.
I think, whether you write meta, or you talk about your headcanons, or write fic, put together recommendation posts, or make fanart, or whatever -- we're all participating in the same conversation. We're all contributors to that conversation. Lurkers are just people who haven't found a voice yet. No one is a customer or a client. No one is a selfish consumer. Fandom is not a market.
Fandom is a town meeting.
I think this particular kerfuffle is the first thing that's really made me feel like I don't belong on tumblr, moreso even than the porn ban or any of the other tumblr wanks I've been involved in. It makes me want to unfollow every fanartist I follow on tumblr and blacklist the fanart tag. I look at these people who supposedly share my interests, who are in the same fandom communities I am in, and their reasons for being here are anathema to me.
They're not here to have conversations. They're here to become influencers. They think I'm morally obligated to help them become influencers. They want to talk at me, instead of to me. I find this attitude grotesque.
I think this larger conflict also ties in to the whole "Why won't you let us link our patreons on AO3" mini-kerfuffle which I've also talked about (here)
Writing Resource
Aug. 1st, 2019 11:57 pm I can't remember if I ever mentioned this here, but I've been working on an epic fantasy/sci-fi/romance novel.
I'm still in the planning stages. A couple weeks ago I started looking for good apps that would help me keep track of my story's timeline -- a lot of my major plot points are dependent on part of one character's backstory being revealed to another character at a key moment and basically I was having trouble keeping track of who knew what about who when.
I did not find an app that did what I wanted
I did, however, figure out how to make a spreadsheet do what I wanted:
Events in chronological order, on the top header row. If you hover over a box a description pops up. Dividers to separate out major story milestones. Symbols and colors so I can get a quick overview of who is where at any given point in the timeline.
As you go down to the you see that each row represents a scene, and there's a checkmark for the event actively taking place plus other symbols for past events that are being referenced (like when a piece of backstory is revealed in dialogue).
I uploaded the template + thorough guide explaining how it's organized my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F9g3DcpA-iQPkAUUZuqAmgWeCeb0_4Dn
Feel free to use the template. You can download it and put in your own story content using your native spreadsheet app, or edit it in google drive. Note that the link I've provided is not editable -- if you want to edit the template on google drive, you have to download it as an xlsx file, and then re-upload it to your own google drive and save it as a new google spreadsheet.
I'm still in the planning stages. A couple weeks ago I started looking for good apps that would help me keep track of my story's timeline -- a lot of my major plot points are dependent on part of one character's backstory being revealed to another character at a key moment and basically I was having trouble keeping track of who knew what about who when.
I did not find an app that did what I wanted
I did, however, figure out how to make a spreadsheet do what I wanted:
Events in chronological order, on the top header row. If you hover over a box a description pops up. Dividers to separate out major story milestones. Symbols and colors so I can get a quick overview of who is where at any given point in the timeline.
As you go down to the you see that each row represents a scene, and there's a checkmark for the event actively taking place plus other symbols for past events that are being referenced (like when a piece of backstory is revealed in dialogue).
I uploaded the template + thorough guide explaining how it's organized my google drive:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F9g3DcpA-iQPkAUUZuqAmgWeCeb0_4Dn
Feel free to use the template. You can download it and put in your own story content using your native spreadsheet app, or edit it in google drive. Note that the link I've provided is not editable -- if you want to edit the template on google drive, you have to download it as an xlsx file, and then re-upload it to your own google drive and save it as a new google spreadsheet.
So several things.
1) I'm writing a sci-fi mystery novel. Which is to say, I am writing a novel that uses science fiction to justify the existence of mythological/fantasy creatures. So it is also a fantasy novel. And also a romance novel featuring a queer poly triad between a human woman and two genderfluid hermaphrodites.
2) I mentioned in my previous post that I started a woodcarving craft blog. As soon as I finish my current piece, I'm starting a homoerotic relief carving of an angel and a demon "battling" in the nude. In honor of Good Omens, which I've just recently watched and found delightful.
3) All the Good Omens content on tumblr has reignited my interest in Michael Sheen, and specifically in the character Michael Sheen played in the Underworld movie franchise. I re-watched the first 3 films in the franchise and had an EPIPHANY about "What's Wrong with the First Underworld Movie."
I wrote a [ whole meta post ] on it.
TL&DR
The entire movie would make a million times more sense if the werewolf antihero had been the male love interest, and the male love interest had been a child.
1) I'm writing a sci-fi mystery novel. Which is to say, I am writing a novel that uses science fiction to justify the existence of mythological/fantasy creatures. So it is also a fantasy novel. And also a romance novel featuring a queer poly triad between a human woman and two genderfluid hermaphrodites.
2) I mentioned in my previous post that I started a woodcarving craft blog. As soon as I finish my current piece, I'm starting a homoerotic relief carving of an angel and a demon "battling" in the nude. In honor of Good Omens, which I've just recently watched and found delightful.
3) All the Good Omens content on tumblr has reignited my interest in Michael Sheen, and specifically in the character Michael Sheen played in the Underworld movie franchise. I re-watched the first 3 films in the franchise and had an EPIPHANY about "What's Wrong with the First Underworld Movie."
I wrote a [ whole meta post ] on it.
TL&DR
The entire movie would make a million times more sense if the werewolf antihero had been the male love interest, and the male love interest had been a child.
I have a new craft hobby
Jun. 8th, 2019 12:41 amPeople might remember that many years ago I studied sculpture fairly extensively at art school.
Well I decided to get back into it. I've been doing woodcarving. I started an art blog on tumblr: @laciseleusefortune
I eventually plan to have an instagram, etsy and patreon under the same handle, but for now it's just the tumblog.
Well I decided to get back into it. I've been doing woodcarving. I started an art blog on tumblr: @laciseleusefortune
I eventually plan to have an instagram, etsy and patreon under the same handle, but for now it's just the tumblog.
Some happy fandom news!
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. I pretty much thought every new episode was more compelling than the one that came before it. I thought it did a great job of combining soap opera melodrama, sci-fi pseudoscience, suspense, humor, and incisive political commentary about xenophobia and imperialism. I didn't like most of the show's music choices (look I don't have anything against 90's music, or cover versions of 90's music, but the show's music supervisor picked the worst covers) but eh. Can't have everything.
I've been enjoying the show and mostly ignoring what the fandom is doing because the audience for this show skews young, I think, and there's a lot of shipwar nonsense. I don't actually have a shipping preference -- Michael Guerin has two hands! I'm just happy to see a show validating a bisexual character and giving his male and female love interests (both of whom are POC!) equal importance.
My favorite thing about the show, honestly, is all that Highly Relatable Millennial Content™. Liz Ortecho bitterly gritting out "I have three degrees" under her breath while serving diner food to rude customers gives me life.
Thoughts about the season 1 finale:
( Spoilers ahoy )
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. I pretty much thought every new episode was more compelling than the one that came before it. I thought it did a great job of combining soap opera melodrama, sci-fi pseudoscience, suspense, humor, and incisive political commentary about xenophobia and imperialism. I didn't like most of the show's music choices (look I don't have anything against 90's music, or cover versions of 90's music, but the show's music supervisor picked the worst covers) but eh. Can't have everything.
I've been enjoying the show and mostly ignoring what the fandom is doing because the audience for this show skews young, I think, and there's a lot of shipwar nonsense. I don't actually have a shipping preference -- Michael Guerin has two hands! I'm just happy to see a show validating a bisexual character and giving his male and female love interests (both of whom are POC!) equal importance.
My favorite thing about the show, honestly, is all that Highly Relatable Millennial Content™. Liz Ortecho bitterly gritting out "I have three degrees" under her breath while serving diner food to rude customers gives me life.
Thoughts about the season 1 finale:
( Spoilers ahoy )
So the thing that makes me ABSOLUTELY INCANDESCENT WITH RAGE is this line from Hollywood Reporter’s interview with the magicians creative team [x]:
( Read more... )(no subject)
Apr. 3rd, 2019 12:19 amSo I thirst watched TNT’s Will (the William Shakespeare thing) which is, like, not great, but the dude playing Will is like, so very specifically my type it is uncanny and he weeps so prettily with his giant doll eyes (I have a weakness, okay, a frailty even, for doll eyed slender pretty men with longish hair and stubble in tight fitting leather period leggings did I mention how SPECIFIC this show was to my interests? unsettlingly).
And while I found the het romance very ueurgh (cheating+Catholic guilt+a bunch of other bad het trope bs) I did very much like all of the scenes where Shakespeare gets in real close to Kit Marlowe and tries to glare at him but then keeps glancing down at Marlowe’s mouth like he can’t help himself.
And while I found the het romance very ueurgh (cheating+Catholic guilt+a bunch of other bad het trope bs) I did very much like all of the scenes where Shakespeare gets in real close to Kit Marlowe and tries to glare at him but then keeps glancing down at Marlowe’s mouth like he can’t help himself.
(no subject)
Mar. 4th, 2019 10:15 pmSo I did some ... consulting? As a favor to a friend with a band. I went to her band's practice session and gave them some advice on improving their vocal harmony arrangements and helped the lead singer fix her performance for this one song where she was just the tiniest bit flat . Everyone thought the songs sounded better with my suggestions implemented, so that was edifying.
I've never had someone thank me for telling them they were singing off-key before.
Also I'm writing fan fiction for the first time since teen wolf. Magicians' got me fucked up.
I've never had someone thank me for telling them they were singing off-key before.
Also I'm writing fan fiction for the first time since teen wolf. Magicians' got me fucked up.
