nyctanthes | Entries tagged with fandom: june something

Yesterday Kid 1 made Snickerdoodles. They are *so good*. Even better, she cleaned up after herself. I didn't have to do anything other than answer her twenty questions.

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A little Book Something before the June Something.

Most of the books I’ve finished recently have felt obligatory: “not bad” is how I’d describe them. There was Lot, Bryan Washington - like Junot Díaz but gay - and Spring Garden, Tomoka Shibasaki. Contemporary Japanese ennui. Meandering, almost plotless and extremely descriptive.

Oh! But a book that’s lingered the last week is by Denis Johnson of Tree of Smoke fame. In 2010 he published a Central Valley, California noir: Nobody Move. Nasty and sad. I enjoyed it a lot.

Currently I'm reading Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and Iain Banks, Player of Games. I see the skill in both, though neither is really grabbing me. I think it’s me. I’m a little distracted with work and a summer that, once again, will include too much time with Partner D's family. It’s been difficult to concentrate on reading. Though I’m killing it with the Times crossword puzzle.

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Day 16: Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon?

I’ve always read outside my specific fandoms. Ao3 makes it very easy.

I follow authors whose fic I enjoy into fandoms I know nothing or little about. Once in a while I check out the canon, but most of the time I don't; or I do but never finish it. The list of unfamiliar canons is extensive. (Yuri on Ice; Check, Please!; American Gods; Benjamin Hambly mysteries; Zelda: Breath of the Wild; It; Black Sails; The Terror; Killing Eve; Ms. (Mrs?) Whats-her-face Mysteries; and on and on). And then there's the MCU. Though I haven't seen most of the movies, I don't need to. I'd have to be living deep underground without any form of fannish communication to be unfamiliar with canon.

If someone in my DWircle writes, vids or recs work in a fandom I don’t know about, I often check it out. I’ve found good stuff that way. When I was starting out in, and later reacquainting myself with fandom I read a lot of BNF stuff (because it was rec’d, to understand what fandom liked, etc.) Which got me reading in some big fandoms and pairings I wouldn’t normally check out: Inception, Die Hard, Stucky, etc.

Typically, I don’t find it difficult to understand what’s going on in a story. Tropes make it easy. And when I'm unfamiliar with canon I 'm less apt to get ~~bitchy~~ ~~judgmental~~ concerned about characterization and fanon. I sit back and enjoy the ride.

Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?

Hey, where are playlists?

I like all three, and my preferences ebb and flow. Currently I’m reading very little fic, but am enjoying the art that passes through my Tumblr dash. I tend to binge watch vids around cons and fests. (Of course, including fandoms I know nothing about.) I love the visuals and the creativity and the storytelling, as well as the constraint of only having a few minutes in which to work. I appreciate the way a good song choice and well edited visuals can pack a real emotional punch. It’s like a tequila shot of canon. Vids I’ve seen for Watchmen and The Handmaid’s Tale and Supernatural (and many others) have stayed with me in a way that I don’t think fic has (or can.) Most fandoms are visual sources. Seeing a visual response to/interpretation of canon can be fascinating - and fun.

The tools to vid have become so sophisticated. I'm not a YT, Tiktok, MV person so vids are a nice way for me to keep a toe in the visual waters.

That said, I’m probably quite of touch when it comes to vids, as I only watch English language vidders who have some connection to Ao3/DW. In other words, I don’t put the same level of effort into finding new vids as I do into finding new fic.

Any gift would be cool, but art is my preference. Especially if it were associated with something I’d written. Or a vid because I have lots of song + canon ideas. I’ve often thought about commissioning one via auction.

Day 14: What fandom broke your heart?

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Fuck you, Fox. We all knew it was going to happen, but still…

That awesome ending to Season 2, and then nothing.

:: wails ::

Day 15: What fandom pairing took you over like Venom took over Eddie?

So...in a not entirely healthy way? Mark/Jack from As You Are. As I’ve written before, who gets seriously triggered by a movie (“Oh, so that’s what the word means,” I said as I sobbed in the corner for the fourth straight week) - and then writes 100K words of fic? Me. I might still be sobbing in the corner if I didn’t write it.*

BUT, I only stick with writing a ship if the two characters are interesting (to me!) and I can write them separate stories that intersect via the ship. AND, if the characters are living in a world with other people who are important to them. Family, friends, work or school colleagues, exes, randos, one-night stands, etc.

I’d much rather explore what happens when a pair is together for any length of time than why they got together in the first place.** Which means that I can enjoy a ship - I can write a ship - without needing them to be an OTP or exclusive/monogamous/forever. In a less fraught example, I've written a couple of relatively standard Nancy/Jonathan from Stranger Things fics, primarily as exercises in writing a story that would please shippers. I prefer to write them as I write Mark/Jack or any other ship: individuals with their own agendas who happen to be in a romantic/sexual relationship that just might have an expiry date.

Pleasing far fewer shippers. :P

To go back to As You Are, what started out as: these two characters must survive, and have sex with each other, turned into something quite different (though they do survive, and do have sex with each other.) Now I’m finishing up two explicit sex scenes that really serve as bookends for the main part of the story: an 8K word conversation between a main character and his (long lost, would prefer not to be found) mom.

Ships, and porn, are my gateway drugs to plot and character development.

* This might not be unusual? Fandom: Never think you’re the only one.

** That might be why I tend to gravitate to canon relationships. A lot of the Why Are They Together? has already been covered. I don’t have to use creative energy coming up with scenarios/explanations.

Skipping Day 10 (Drop your OTP or small ensemble from the fandom they're in into another fandom - how do they do?) and Day 12 (Who is someone that you share the most fandoms with?)

Day 11: What would make you leave a fandom, or prevent you from getting into it in the first place?

If I leave a fandom it’s because i) I don’t have anything left to say or ii) canon is going in a direction I don’t like and it’s time to cut bait. I make the latter decision very quickly. For example, I was into Supernatural Season 1 when it was first airing. I watched Season 2, decided hmm…this is not going the way I like, and stopped watching. Stopped reading too for the most part because I wasn’t attached enough to the characters to keep up with the fandom despite canon. I was never into Harry Potter fandom (I read them when I was on my decade long hiatus); but I did a similar thing with the books. Zipped through Volumes 1-3, got annoyed by several elements, including the way Rowling positioned the BIPOC characters in a public school setting,* and moved on.

Wankiness, cliquey-ness, drama, etc. hasn’t yet driven me out of a fandom. I avoid it; and to date I haven’t been an interesting enough or important enough target to become the subject of it. May that ever be so.

* A subject I know a lot about through personal experience. One day I will make a personal post about this!

Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.

When it comes to tropes, relationships, sex acts, etc. I am a squick free person. Many aren’t for me. While I don't search them out, I also don’t take special measures to avoid them. And might even check them out to see what all the fuss is about. If they're still not for me, that’s what my back button is for, and I use it liberally.* As for bad SPAG, plotting, writing, characterization...this is fandom and I've come to expect it. Some of these fans are young.

What really, truly bothers me about fandom is when people dislike an aspect of canon, can’t stop talking about it and want everyone to join in their evisceration of said aspect. Basically, they build their fandom reputation on being a hater.

As you all know, I am hardly a fandom Pollyanna. Critique away! And I am *not* talking about discussions of racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. in the source or in fandom. I’m talking about someone who dislikes a character or a ship and part of their brand (sorry) becomes dislike of this character or ship. And when a fairly well known fan does it, it makes fandom life kind of a bummer. Especially when I get the sense that the person is doing it mostly for attention.

I only block porn accounts on Tumblr, because who the hell is following me: practically no one. But the other day I finally banned someone - who doesn’t follow me and who I don’t follow - who goes on and on about how awful a character and the ship they’re part of are. A character I adore, a ship that I like well enough to write.** As I clicked block I thought, ”Now you almost don’t exist! And I am no longer tempted to send you snippy anon messages. Mostly.”*** They also talk a lot about hating a ship I don’t care for at all. I can’t help but wonder...What’s the point? Once you’ve made it known that you don’t like something, why say it again and again? Make it really personal about the morality or common sense or taste of people who like this ship?

Unless it’s for attention, of course. Scratch the surface and you can smell the hypocrisy.

* Though shoes on the bed might be a bridge too far. WHO DOES THAT!?!?!? Granted, I once had a party for sixty people in my apartment and all of them took their shoes off without being asked - my proclivities are well known. Still…

** Doesn’t matter if I don’t follow them, the structure of Tumblr - and my personality - makes it difficult to ignore them.

*** I have never done this. So tempted to, but then I remember: it’s just the internet!

Day 8: Crack!fic - We all know it. What's your opinion of it, and if you want, show us an example.

These days I don’t read much crack, but I do watch it. This is a storytelling method that, in recent years, I think pro-tv tends to do better than fanfic. Or at least in a way that I prefer. Because the crack isn’t the be all and end all, but is instead woven throughout a larger story. And it tends to be gen which, when it comes to crack, I prefer. I think it creates more possibilities when it's not tied to a ship?

:: ducks tomatoes ::

Crack taken seriously: Bojack Horseman.

Crack that winks at the audience and asks, “Can you believe this shit?!?!”: Doom Patrol.

Crack that’s lovingly poking fun at multiple genres: What We Do In The Shadows (and before that, Arrested Development.)

Crack that’s melodramatic and gothic: Sharp Objects (I love the series, but what a fucking ridiculous story. Talk about pushing a disturbing premise to the edge of the cliff and then over it.)

Crack in Spanish: Los Espookys (Bring me Season 2, damn it! I need MOAR Ursula.)

Day 9: Drop the cast of a fandom you follow into a reality tv show - who/what/why?

I don’t watch reality shows, so I didn’t think I’d have an answer for this. But wait! There is a show I’ve seen a couple of episodes of and would absolutely watch more of - after I finished everything on my to-watch list.

That show is Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel. If you haven’t heard of it, the premise is to drop a couple of people - naked - in an inhospitable, uninhabited place for three weeks. Each have one item of their choice (e.g., a hatchet) to help them. That's it: no food, no water, no clothes. There’s a winner of each episode but no tangible prize. The two usually work together, though also pursue their own ways of surviving. The winner is the one who’s less fucked up at the end of the three weeks.

So…Spike and Angel, the souled versions, get dropped on a sunny island. (The reason why they’re there? A bet. Or Wolfram & Hart.) Angel is not down with the whole naked thing and weaves himself an itchy plant thong/sarong. Spike worries his dick will catch on fire but Angel’s irritation at his wanton nudity is worth the risk. They, of course, must hide during the day. They build some palm leaf and branch lean-tos. (Well, Spike's is a lean-to. Angel's is more of a shack because there's a certain level of aesthetic/material comfort he's become accustomed to.) They start out on opposite sides of the island but run into each other at night while hunting and somehow end up at the other’s place. During the day, Spike drinks coconut juice and composes bad survival haikus. Angel’s item is a copy of Robinson Crusoe. He reads it aloud to drown out Spike’s singing of Mountain Goats' songs. (What a sap. And my god IS THERE NO END TO THEM, Angel asks.) Eventually Spike shuts up and listens to him; it's the first time he's read it since he was turned.

They do their hunting at night. It keeps them busy: there are many small rodents and reptiles, and even some bigger ones, but to not get too skinny they need to eat a lot of them. Also, eating monkeys is kind of depressing, and they’re feisty. Spike decides that birds are especially tasty and he spends a lot of time shimmying up trees, staying very still and then trying to flying squirrel them into submission. They usually wake up in time and flee. He breaks his leg twice and his arm once.

Who wins? Angel needs more blood, being bigger and all, but he’s also less picky about what he eats than Spike. And more efficient with his hunting. But on the very last day Spike puts something unspeakable (his requested item - like Kryptonite but for vampires) in Angel’s coconut (he promises to stop singing if Angel will try some.) And then Angel’s too sick to leave his shack.

Earlier this year I abandoned my watch of Twin Peaks S2. Three or four episodes in, it moved too slowly for me. But this week on a whim I started watching again. I'm now on Episode 11. This is a first watch for me. (I know, I know…) Maybe it’s my mood, maybe this set of episodes are particularly good but I’m suddenly quite into it. Leland is so deliciously awful, and Shelly and Bobby are the dimmest criminal masterminds I’ve had the pleasure to meet. I love them.

I’ll have to be speedier than usual if I’m to complete all 22 (!) episodes of Season 2. The show leaves Netflix at the end of the month.

There must be good meta somewhere, there's so much to dig into. I’m particularly thinking of the women in it, and how they struggle to find some agency.

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Day 7: What's the longest time you've been in a fandom. Not necessarily your oldest fandom, but a fandom that you started and still continue to read/write/create content for in some way.

For media fandoms (television and movies), my upper limit is about three or four years. Granted, I have few examples to draw from, but between a general tendency to arrive late, limited ability to deal with toxic fandom behaviour, eventual, inevitable annoyance with the direction the source has taken, the well running dry in terms of new ideas to write and stories to read, the source becoming outdated, etc. I drift away. I might return occasionally (e.g., if someone I know posts something, or for Yuletide and other exchanges) but I wouldn’t say I am *in* a fandom after 3-4 years.

But books are a different story. For the most part they’re closed canons and, for me to fannish about them, the characterization (the writing, the plot) has to be good in the first place and worth a re-read. Which gives it a greater chance of lasting over time.*

Which leads me to Little Women. This and the follow-up books were my childhood favourites. How I loved them (and the 1990s movie with Winona Ryder as Jo). Unsurprisingly I don't feel the same way now about canon as I did then, but a few years ago I learned there was a small Little Women fandom on Ao3. It made me super happy.

I don’t feel any need to write for it. I wrote plenty in my head as a child. Nor have I seen the recent movie because, well, I have pointless antipathy towards Greta Gerwig. And I loathe Timothée Chalamet. And I refuse to like Amy. :P I tried when I was young. (Am I Beth? Am I Jo? Am I Amy? Please, lord, let me not be Meg.)

In this sense, Little Women is a true fandom. I have such strong feelings about it, decades later. Is Amy/Laurie a NOTP? Absolutely. Are Jo and Laurie having an affair years and years later? Probably not but I like to read it in fic. Is Beth quietly peeved at her beloved big sister for putting her on a pedestal and wishes she saw her with less rose colored glasses? Yes. Does Jo one day realise that her father isn’t exactly the man she thought he was and she struggles with that? Hopefully. Will I ever forgive Aunt March for not taking Jo to Europe? Never ever no fucking way!!!

If I were to write a fic, Jo’s black-and-white view of the world, and how she grows away from that would be my focus. And she'd be a lesbian.

I’m sure there was a mini-explosion of Little Women fic after the movie aired. I need to check it out. Though there’s probably a lot of Amy/Laurie. Sigh…

* No, I was never into Harry Potter. Though I wish I was into Austen, because that seems like a good fandom.