Very interesting posts, thanks for the link. And I do agree with you and Cathexys that the fanficcer's anxiety to distinguish herself from the Bad People undercuts her argument. If fanfic is commentary, it doesn't stop being commentary just because the comment you're making is about sexuality. Of course her interlocutors were unwilling to grant the idea that fic can be commentary in the first place, so I imagine the whole point would be lost on them, obvious though it is.
Taken as a whole, both the original post and the ensuing discussion ooze fear of violation. The original poster mentioned two fears: first, fanfic, but also the possibly influence of bloggers on pro writers' critical reputations. Two sides of the same coin: with the advent of the internet pro authors are being being subjected to comment from communities who previously have not had much of a public voice. Did you notice how several commenters said they were afraid to post about fanfic because they were afraid of being deluged by indignant responses? And that producers were afraid to antagonize fanficcers because they acknowledge that fanfic a part of fan culture? If you step back from the nastiness, what you see is terror -- terror of a phenomenon that they know is very large and very powerful and very much a part of their world.
Perhaps this fear of becoming one voice among many explains why the commenters wasted so much of their space, at least initially, in finding various ways to classify the fanfic poster: as young, as a lawyer, as a law student, as a pornographer. All insults, in their view, but insults of a particular kind: the commenters wanted to slot her into some group of people that they consider as not having the right to speak -- as people whose arguments, however rational they may seem, are really just a sort of noise expressing their needs or biases. All that name-calling was basically just a policing action born of panic. I felt rather sorry for them. Almost.
no subject
Taken as a whole, both the original post and the ensuing discussion ooze fear of violation. The original poster mentioned two fears: first, fanfic, but also the possibly influence of bloggers on pro writers' critical reputations. Two sides of the same coin: with the advent of the internet pro authors are being being subjected to comment from communities who previously have not had much of a public voice. Did you notice how several commenters said they were afraid to post about fanfic because they were afraid of being deluged by indignant responses? And that producers were afraid to antagonize fanficcers because they acknowledge that fanfic a part of fan culture? If you step back from the nastiness, what you see is terror -- terror of a phenomenon that they know is very large and very powerful and very much a part of their world.
Perhaps this fear of becoming one voice among many explains why the commenters wasted so much of their space, at least initially, in finding various ways to classify the fanfic poster: as young, as a lawyer, as a law student, as a pornographer. All insults, in their view, but insults of a particular kind: the commenters wanted to slot her into some group of people that they consider as not having the right to speak -- as people whose arguments, however rational they may seem, are really just a sort of noise expressing their needs or biases. All that name-calling was basically just a policing action born of panic. I felt rather sorry for them. Almost.