Cabin fever needs a telethon

[vulgarweed]

So let's see....

* HPfGU - OTChatter has exploded into a multidirectional flamefest on slash, sexy stories, homophobia, childrearing, and freedom of speech (and this has nothing to do with RestrictedSection.org's C&D letter).

* Henneth-Annun went from a variant on the dreaded "Was Tolkien Sexist?" discussion (Don't let the Rohirrim catch you abusing a horse's corpse like that!) to rush of hissing about whether or not it's OK to pre-emptively pre-flame those who are not so great with research and logic.

* WIKTT, of all lists, had a flareup about, of all things, morality and pre-marital sex. (Is the Hermione of Anna's "Travelogue" a "slut" for having had sexual relationships with three men over the course of two-and-counting novel-length fics? Hell no - how twisted is that accusation? But somebody thought so.)

Where is Fandom_Wank when you really need it?

Me, I'm just anticipating this upcoming trip - Kitty-Boy and I going to the folks' house in the mountains, via Amtrak. (It's about a 16-hour trip, with gorgeous scenery in the last leg - isolated, roadless, ghost-townned West Virginia landscape visible from neither plane nor highway). We'll be there for a week and it will be great except....

I have four days to find and buy a used laptop. I cannot stand to be cut off, I cannot stand to be one of four people fighting over a computer that I never get to use in any privacy. My parents' house late at night is the best place in the world to write (that is, after all, where I learned how) - provided one has something to write on. I've been needing a newish computer for a while anyhow. I do love my big clunky Mac desktop. No matter that it's older than some prominent HP fanwriters - it runs great. It's like a Toyota of computers that way. I will NOT throw it away or get rid of it or even move it off the desk. But I need something faster, with more memory, and powerful. I don't need something I can download whole movies on or anything like that....just a good little Internet/word processing machine. Wish me luck in the hunt.

Comments

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

Re that dust-up on WIKTT--have you ever noticed how tedious it is when people proclaim their high morals while at the same time being rude and outraging common decency? If Hermione's a slut for having two steady sexual relationships and one on-again off-again sexual-chemistry-thang over the course of several years, then the woman who complained is surely a low-down dirty bitch for bringing it up so nastily on a mailing list where the author of the stories is present!

[labellerose.livejournal.com]

Brava. It's one thing to say you don't agree with someone's behavior, real or fictional. Or to state that a given author's ethical paradigm may not be yours.


Speaking for myself, I've read -and analysed- a lot of things I don't agree with. I might not want to be 'best friends 4 ever' with Emma Bovary, or Nora from A Doll's House. But does that mean isn't worthwhile to read their stories? Or that their authors' craft was not superb.? Didn't think so.

Going off on Jr. High level finger pointing prevents any of the thoughtful reasoned discussion that these characters and their adventures could otherwise raise.

WIKTT, alas, seems to do this every so often. Remember the PtQ debacle? Sigh.

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

I've only been reading HP fanfic since mid-December, so I think the PtQ debate was before my time. I was so annoyed by what I saw of the "slut" argument that it renewed my resolve not to read the list regularly, just to stay on it until I was ready to post the Snape/Hermione epic I've been working on. I check the archives regularly and stay away from the discussion, and the same is true for Snapeslash as well.

Whenever people go off on this sort of judgmentalism, I always want to say, "What about the Bible? Do yoy think that God approves of all the acts that are depicted in his Book? And if he doesn't, then what does that say about art and what it portrays?"

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

One of the things that made the PtQ fluffup especially nasty (and drawn-out) was the fact that Riley felt compelled to argue with her detractors. It got really personal, and really nasty, and it went on for a LONG time. It's a controversial story and not everyone's gonna like it - I thought it would have been better if Riley had just walked away (certainly better for her), but I also think a lot of the attacks she was getting was unfair.

Some people really - I mean really - identify with the characters. Sometimes different interpretations just offend them personally. Especially on WIKTT; all that romance-novel wish-fulfillment starts to make my skin crawl after a little while. There are a lot of good writers and smart people over there; there's also a contingent that I find scary.

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

I thought Anna handled the slut dust-up well--it looked like she simply shrugged and walked away. I find an ability to let other people have the last word is a useful defense in fandom. It would seem, from what Riley has on her webpage, that she became so discouraged by her detractors that she was put off from finishing the story, which is a shame.

[resmiranda.livejournal.com]

fandom_wank was dead for about three hours, but now it lives again, in wanktastic!

*tools off to go witness the kerfluffle*

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Where is Fandom_Wank when you really need it?

Undercover as the new wanktastic! The wanking goes on!

Actually, if you go by the standards of my old high school she would have been beyond slutty. I got called those kinds of names for having sex with two guys, both of whom I was going steady with...

What does that prove? That the people who call Hermione slutty are still stuck in freshman year I guess.

[alchemine.livejournal.com]

Re: "sluttiness" - would anyone have asked that question if a male character had slept with three women?

Nope, didn't think so.

*beats double standard with a stick*

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a good point, too.

*ponders Severus going through Harry, Hermione, and Draco in three novel-length fics*

*gets big smile*

Because people don't think

[(Anonymous)]

For want of tact, a listmember was pissed
For lack of a brain, a poster was smacked DOWN
Because an author was so tolerant, only skirmishes were fought
For want of a well-behaved list, a moderator was *very* annoyed

Annywayy... Hating someone else's work is ok, right? Calling it "junk" is a whole different deal. At least, that's what I'm leaning towards...

But then again, who knows?

Chalk it up to pre-pre-Valentine's Day anxiety.


Autumnmist

Re: Because people don't think

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Thanks VERY MUCH for the moderation, btw. It could have been so much worse.

[nut-shell.livejournal.com]

Funny. The Dictionary.com word of the day is RESTIVE.

good luck on your laptop search.