sistermagpie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sistermagpie) wrote2004-06-30 04:29 pm
sistermagpie) wrote2004-06-30 04:29 pm
Author sites
So I've been reading about updates on JKR's site, and I'm generally wary of
The main thing everybody's reacting to is the title to the sixth book, which, if anybody cares, I think is abysmal and sticks out like a sore thumb. Books 1-5 all have boy fantasy titles with an object + of + cool thing. This one is girlie. Yeah, I know, sexist yadda yadda, but I still think any mass-market editor would probably look at that title and say it was girlie-as have all the people who recognize it from FF.net.
But anyway, I went over to F_W and there was, of course, wank about it because it's HP and thus, we wank. But I was more interested in the conversations about exactly how "we" are supposed to interact with JKR and her website. I've never gone to the site, btw. I just read things on my flist. But it seems like on one hand people are losers for taking the books too seriously, waiting for their Hogwarts letter and all that. Otoh, though, it's equally wanky to respond to JKR as any other person and have a different opinion or disagree because IT'S HER BOOK so her interpretation goes, apparently.
I don't, uh, get this. It made me start wondering just what type of relationship I was supposed to have with this woman, but that just begged the question of why I had to have any relationship. Really, our only relationship right now is that she, like thousands of others, wrote a book that I read. And hey, I'm impressed at anyone finishing a book, much less one that caught my interest (I'm not being dismissive there, just honest that these aren't "special books" to me the way others are). But that's it. If it were up to me, I'd just read the books. In fact, the thing is, the real woman tends to make me like the books less. Not because I'm angry at her personally or dislike her, but because she seems to always be telling me I like the wrong things in the books, and that makes me think I'm not going to like them ultimately, you know? It's kind of like hanging out with a bunch of people and slowly realizing they're bad news and you need to call your mom to pick you up. Or if somebody's telling you what seems like a funny joke that turns out to just be kind of offensive to you. Right now I feel like the last two books are homework for Fandom Class and that's annoying.
It gets stranger when the author is talking about the fans. The most obvious example, of course, is when JKR talks about people who "like" the Slytherins being wrong or liking Tom Felton, which she seems to do every chance she gets judging by my flist. When people respond it's wanky because why take it personally? She's not talking to YOU, with the implication that she would NEVER talk to YOU because you're NOBODY. You're embarrassing yourself. And I don't really get that because well, of course she isn't talking to ME personally because she doesn't know who I am, but she is addressing people who think such-and-such and if I think that then of course she's addressing me in an abstract sense. Just as if I respond I'm not really talking to HER personally either, but all the ideas I disagree with. If it's strange for me to think she cares about me, then why on earth is she bringing people like "me" up?
It's kind of funny when you think about it, because in fact she seems to address this group of fans the most. There just seem to be different ideas as to why. Some people think she's poking fun at them because they're such losers, but that's a lot of attention for people one thinks are a joke. If there's joking going on I don't think the two "sides" agree on what it is. I mean, the whole difference of opinions seems to be about the nature of good and evil so, uh, I can see why both sides are a little serious underneath.
I don't know it was all just...very strange. This whole idea that a creator and fans *should* have an antagonistic relationship, that while it was wanky for fans to make demands on the creator it was cool for the creator to pull fan's chains. The main experience I have with this is in X-Philes fandom, where CC also liked to comment on fans, first positively and then with increasing antagonism. Not to mention Aaron Sorkin going onto televisionwithoutpity and getting into a flamewar. To me this just reinforces my original thought: if you write something, let your writing speak for you. What's even stranger is apparently there are different rules for fandom. Random people can say or think anything they want about an author and it's just normal conversation. If you're in the fandom it's different. Which is strange because what exactly does it mean to be in the fandom? Seems like it's just admitting it or identifying yourself as such, feeling like you are. Right now I'm kind of ambivalent about how that feels. Not people-wise, but just that it's a burden.
The main thing everybody's reacting to is the title to the sixth book, which, if anybody cares, I think is abysmal and sticks out like a sore thumb. Books 1-5 all have boy fantasy titles with an object + of + cool thing. This one is girlie. Yeah, I know, sexist yadda yadda, but I still think any mass-market editor would probably look at that title and say it was girlie-as have all the people who recognize it from FF.net.
But anyway, I went over to F_W and there was, of course, wank about it because it's HP and thus, we wank. But I was more interested in the conversations about exactly how "we" are supposed to interact with JKR and her website. I've never gone to the site, btw. I just read things on my flist. But it seems like on one hand people are losers for taking the books too seriously, waiting for their Hogwarts letter and all that. Otoh, though, it's equally wanky to respond to JKR as any other person and have a different opinion or disagree because IT'S HER BOOK so her interpretation goes, apparently.
I don't, uh, get this. It made me start wondering just what type of relationship I was supposed to have with this woman, but that just begged the question of why I had to have any relationship. Really, our only relationship right now is that she, like thousands of others, wrote a book that I read. And hey, I'm impressed at anyone finishing a book, much less one that caught my interest (I'm not being dismissive there, just honest that these aren't "special books" to me the way others are). But that's it. If it were up to me, I'd just read the books. In fact, the thing is, the real woman tends to make me like the books less. Not because I'm angry at her personally or dislike her, but because she seems to always be telling me I like the wrong things in the books, and that makes me think I'm not going to like them ultimately, you know? It's kind of like hanging out with a bunch of people and slowly realizing they're bad news and you need to call your mom to pick you up. Or if somebody's telling you what seems like a funny joke that turns out to just be kind of offensive to you. Right now I feel like the last two books are homework for Fandom Class and that's annoying.
It gets stranger when the author is talking about the fans. The most obvious example, of course, is when JKR talks about people who "like" the Slytherins being wrong or liking Tom Felton, which she seems to do every chance she gets judging by my flist. When people respond it's wanky because why take it personally? She's not talking to YOU, with the implication that she would NEVER talk to YOU because you're NOBODY. You're embarrassing yourself. And I don't really get that because well, of course she isn't talking to ME personally because she doesn't know who I am, but she is addressing people who think such-and-such and if I think that then of course she's addressing me in an abstract sense. Just as if I respond I'm not really talking to HER personally either, but all the ideas I disagree with. If it's strange for me to think she cares about me, then why on earth is she bringing people like "me" up?
It's kind of funny when you think about it, because in fact she seems to address this group of fans the most. There just seem to be different ideas as to why. Some people think she's poking fun at them because they're such losers, but that's a lot of attention for people one thinks are a joke. If there's joking going on I don't think the two "sides" agree on what it is. I mean, the whole difference of opinions seems to be about the nature of good and evil so, uh, I can see why both sides are a little serious underneath.
I don't know it was all just...very strange. This whole idea that a creator and fans *should* have an antagonistic relationship, that while it was wanky for fans to make demands on the creator it was cool for the creator to pull fan's chains. The main experience I have with this is in X-Philes fandom, where CC also liked to comment on fans, first positively and then with increasing antagonism. Not to mention Aaron Sorkin going onto televisionwithoutpity and getting into a flamewar. To me this just reinforces my original thought: if you write something, let your writing speak for you. What's even stranger is apparently there are different rules for fandom. Random people can say or think anything they want about an author and it's just normal conversation. If you're in the fandom it's different. Which is strange because what exactly does it mean to be in the fandom? Seems like it's just admitting it or identifying yourself as such, feeling like you are. Right now I'm kind of ambivalent about how that feels. Not people-wise, but just that it's a burden.