Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Said Scarlett

Is it really bad that I want to write an essay comparing and contrasting Mercedes Lackey's writing and Stephanie Meyers'?

I've long joked that everything Stephanie Meyer has done (plot and character type wise), Mercedes Lackey did it first in the fantasy genre. This was mainly just a humorous reference to Mercedes Lackey's heavy handed, often stiff and forced romance plots and her penchant for sparkly elves. But! If you go deeper, there are a hell of a lot of similarities. From women's issues to racial appropriation issues to victimization issues. Oh, and of course, sexual identity/relationship issues.

Now, Mercedes Lackey is nowhere near as well known, obviously. But she was quite the leading lady in the fantasy genre for a very long time, especially among teenage girls. Hell, maybe she still is, I'm not quite the follower of the genre that I once was.

There's only one flaw here. I'd have to do a lot of reading. And I don't own the Twilight books, nor do I know where my Herald Mage books are - that would be the Lackey series I'd like to draw most of my comparisons from. That and The Halfblood Chronicles, mainly the second book where Lackey's particular brand of plot and romance development hold center stage - plus, you know, The Iron People.

And before anyone gets on my case, I am not saying anything bad about either of these authors. It's no secret that I enjoy Mercedes Lackey books. Yes, they're crunchy, silly, terribly plotted escapism. But that's okay. As a friend was just talking about on my Flist, it's okay to enjoy things you know have issues. Mercedes Lackey's racial and women's issues? Piss me the hell off. Same with the issues regarding the treatment of women in the Silent Hill series. But I still enjoy the stories and the characters and the world. And I acknowledge the issues and don't shy away from pointing them out or discussing them.

The simple fact of the matter is that both of these authors (one of which I'm terribly fond of myself) have some serious, serious issues in their works. And I'm very curious to see just how deep these similarities run.

In other news! hbc_fic! The tiniest fandom on the internet has a community! And there's already a piece of absolutely gorgeous fic posted. See, when I get really into something that has no fandom, I just force and pester that fandom into existence.

I completely forgot I had to go grocery shopping this morning, and stayed up too late watching Venture Bros with nijawial. And I need to talk to summoneddestiny and enigmablade about a photoshoot this week.

The weather is beautiful, my plants are doing well, and I've got some fic to work on. Man, I could stare at my new default user-pic for hours. Guh, Bert is hot.

Lost internet last night. O.o It was very bizarre.

Alright, I debated heavily about posting this, but.... I've got some things I've got to get off my chest. Mainly about fandom, our investment in it, how fandom actions have real life consequences, and a variety of other commentary that most of my Flist probably doesn't want to hear.

Yes, this relates in a way back to Boobgate/Boobwank/whatever you want to call it.

The thing that's been bothering recently is the dismissal of peer pressure and social expectations in fannish settings. The idea that 'wanting to fit it' or 'not wanting to be left out' or 'giving in to undercurrents of peer pressure' is a stupid notion, and no one out of high school should ever fall prey to any of that.

Bullshit. Fannish settings are still social settings. And in any social setting, there will be dynamics of power and pressure. And some people are above it and don't care. But plenty of people do care. I've cared. I've been there. And I'm not weak willed or damaged or stupid by any means.

It is a natural human reaction to want to be part of a group, to want group acceptance. And there are plenty of times it comes up in fannish settings. I'll use my own fannish history as examples. For me, it's mostly been in RPG settings. I can't count the number of times I've gone along with things I wasn't comfortable with because I didn't want to be the spoilsport, or I didn't want to cause a fuss, or I didn't want the nice, well-loved BNF (and her fans) to hate me. Everything from just RPing a pairing I wasn't comfortable with to joining a game I didn't particularly like. Why did I go along with things if I didn't want to?

Because I'd learned my lesson already that saying 'no' or expressing my discomfort would earn me nothing but problems, cold shoulders, trolling and wank. So when faced with those choices, yeah, I kept my mouth shut and went along with it. And then I remember I was in a game with people I thought were my friends, and who I thought would understand if I didn't want to be part of a particular plotline or whatever. And a plotline came up that I was seriously, seriously uncomfortable with due to real life triggers. And I said so, mentioning I didn't want to be a part of it, and just asking that they label any threads involving this particular plot so I could avoid. And I was attacked. I was made to feel like my issues and my comfort didn't matter in the face of this group of people wanting to have their fun. And it made me feel like crap, and I gave in, and the entire ordeal left me a mess. I was crying. I was sick. And I tried to express this but again, I was dismissed. I was told it shouldn't matter, and it was stupid that it had such an effect on me because it was 'just a game'.

If it was 'just a game' I wondered, why was it such a big deal for these people to make me feel worthless in order to play out their plot? Couldn't they have done it without me easily enough? And just marked their logs? Since it was 'just a game'.

Needless to say, I'm not 'friends' with any of those people anymore. (And I'll say right now that if you're on my Flist now and reading this, you've most likely never been involved in any of the above.)

And I'll readily admit I have been cracking under this fannish social pressure as recently as just a couple of years ago. With RP, it's only since damned that I honestly feel comfortable enough to speak up if something bothers me, or if I don't want to RP a particular something. And it's not because I'm a moderator - I've been in the above situations plenty of times as a moderator - it's because for once I really don't feel much pressure. In other fannish situations? Well, it's still kind of there. Sure, in little stupid things - joining a particular comm because other people are, doing certain memes because I don't want to be the odd one out, etc - but it's still just evidence of fannish social pressure. And I know the same things have happened to friends of mine. I've seen it happen and been able to do nothing other than offer them a shoulder to cry on. Because otherwise we'd be causing trouble and stirring up wank.

So to me, the idea that there is no peer pressure or social bullying in fandom is ludicrous. Of course there is. Fannish folks are still people, and those dynamics exist wherever there are people. Fandom isn't some magical happy place where everyone respects and understands everyone else. It'd be wonderful if it were, but it's just a huge group of real people with real people brains and real people instinct and real people hang ups all coming together. Good god, I've seen fannish groups that operate like cults, with a charismatic leader and a bevy of devoted, close-knit fans who will go after anyone who dares say anything against their 'leader'.

And I like to think I've never inadvertently pressured anyone into anything, but I can't say for sure I haven't. Maybe I have. Sometimes we don't realize we're doing it. And for me there is a difference between inadvertent pressure and active pressure. They both suck, but the former is usually much easier to do away with and get straightened out.

But I think sometimes we all need to remember that everyone we interact with in fandom is a real person. They aren't a faceless computer entity, they aren't famous, they aren't more than a regular person. They don't have any particular power over us except for the power we give them. And above all, no one, be they mod or admin or webmaster or archivist or BNF or whatever, has the right to coerce and manipulate us into doing things we don't want to, or make us feel like any less of a person for our own choices within fandom.

But that doesn't change the reality that they'll try. :/

Because I do have things to talk about today! Purely fandom things, but still.

It's always interesting comparing fandoms. At the moment, I mainly write for Death Note and Silent Hill. (And HBC, but I'm not counting that here, because I don't interact with strangers in that fandom, and I've stopped posting my FMA work to comms so it doesn't count either.) And I always end up comparing and contrasting my experiences with other fandom fellows between the two.

Mainly, fic feedback. With Death Note I tend to get a lot of feedback, and mainly the standard stuff. A couple of lines of generic feedback. Which I do not knock, not at all. Any feedback is good feedback, as far as I'm concerned. Every so often I get a great review with details and specifics and some con crit, and that's awesome. But that's pretty much it. The general 'hey, great fic!' followed by 'thanks, glad you enjoyed!' or something similar. This, in my experience, is generally how it goes.

Now I've only written a handful of SH fics, but I'm already blown away by the level of feedback that I've seen and received in this fandom. My own fics get long, detailed, specific reviews. Other people's fics get long, detailed, specific reviews. I have yet to see a fic - on sh_het or sh_femslash at least - that wasn't answered with a thoughtful, in depth critique.

This boggles me. I'm not used to this at all. I'm not used to routinely getting into long conversations in comments on fics. And now I start wondering... are there other fandoms like this? Is it common in video game fandoms? I've only written video game fic for Xenogears, which is essentially a dead fandom, so I have no experience here. Or is it simply because these two communities are relatively small, close knit groups?

I'm rather used to fandom being a big giant sandbox where the kids kind of have their little groups, and hang with their friends, but interact politely if distantly with the majority and share their toys with a sort of quiet, almost impersonal demeanor. I'm not used to the sandbox being full of kids who get along and play together and end up hand in hand building a sand castle together after sharing the toy firetruck.

I don't know if I had a point, other than 'wow I like this fandom'. Especially since I'd avoided it for so long due to scary stories about nothing but Pyramid Head running off with and falling in love with a steady stream of painful Mary Sues.

In conclusion: awesome feedback is awesome, SH fandom is full of cool people, and I think I'm going to be happy here.

(Oh, and does anyone know where I can get a SH moodtheme?)

It's 3 AM, and I can't sleep, despite three cups of valerian tea. This post won't let me. So here I am.

First off, while I talk about HP fanfiction, please remember I have not read the seventh book, so absolutely no references to it whatsoever in comments.

That out of the way! The topic on everyone's mind and LJs right now is yet again, fic/art and censorship.

As some people know, I frequent some pretty damn dark corners of the internet. And I mean dark. Why? A few different reasons. One, I have a deep interest in serial killers and their mentality. I enjoy reading stories that delve into that. This means I often do read things that involve graphic descriptions of torture, rape and murders. Both online and in published works of fiction. This includes but is not limited to situations involving snuff and underage characters. Two, I'll admit it, I've got trainwreck syndrome. Some people read Mary Sue fic for entertainment, some read vastly OOC fic, I read horrifically disturbing and bizarre smut. But really, once you've read vore/un-birthing/ovipositioning fic involving a triple breasted giant lizard woman and a killer whale, nothing phases you anymore....

( My Further Thoughts )

As some of you know, I have a 12 year old niece. She's in middle school, she's popular, she's at the top of the social totem pole. Earlier this year, I got her the first DVD of Fruits Basket. I didn't know how she'd take to it - she'd seen my manga and some of my anime DVDs, and she knew that lennaofmidearth and I watched anime, but I figured it couldn't hurt. And the first DVD was the only DVD of the series I was missing, so if she didn't like it, it wouldn't be a waste.

Fast forward about a month. She's watching the series over and over again every day. She has it memorized. She's introduced it to all of her friends. They all love it. I'm boggled. Lenna is boggled. We're amazed by this. We start looking around into other anime to show her. I don't bother with manga because I had no idea how she'd take to it. Neither Lenna nor I are big manga readers. And besides, it's easier to get anime than manga out here in Middle of Nohwere.

Last week, I'm out on the deck smoking. D (my neice) comes out. She's holding something in her hand. She walks up to me and asks 'hey auntie, have you read this manga yet?'. I don't even remember the title of the series, I was too busy going 'where did she get this?!?' and 'holy crap, my niece is bringing me manga!' It was a Shoujo Beat title, some middle school romance. And it was volume three....

( Mechas to Mainstream: Anime Then and Anime Now )