Sometimes I trip across an example of that intensely weird "you can only be in fandom until you're 30" thing that some of the kidlets have been taught to parrot these days. And sometimes it annoys me, and sometimes it just makes me shake my head, and then again sometimes it makes me think...

Melville was 57 when he wrote very thinly veiled self-insert expies of himself and Hawthorne falling in love for 18,000 lines of an epic poem about war and politics and religion and sex and identity.

(That was Clarel, if you're wondering, and they also had a bit of a threesome going on with the young title character.)

So you know, A) Rolfe/Vine 4evar and B) you never age out.

You know, Zhu Yilong is alarmingly beautiful, and Xiao Zhan most /definitely/ knows how to make the most of his quite unfair mouth and cheekbones, but Hu Ge's singing voice still just puts a shiver down my spine.

I quite liked umadoshi's version, if only because it produced so many moments of "well, it depends on /exactly/ how you mean that", so let's base off that that.

first canon I felt fannish about: That would be... well, no the earlier one was... well, but that was actually kind of retroactive... No, okay, I got it: the earliest experienced canon I was, eventually, consumerishly fannish about is The Yellow Submarine. My first participatory fannish canon was Darkover.

first canon I wrote fanfic for: ...okay, so, are we talking the months-long oral saga that lives in your head and is elaborated on every night before you fall asleep? Because that was probably Star Trek. Or are we talking "makes it onto paper"? Because that was... wait, no... okay, that would have been Labyrinth, actually, that made it in about a year before the Roberson's Sword-Singer story.

thing I've been most obsessed with/fannish about without ever being even adjacent to its fandom: ...that, that would probably also be Darkover, actually. I had zero community contact on that one, but boy howdy did it last for years and years and imprint alarmingly deep on some things.

first online fandom: ...okay, are we talking online as in, the /fandom/ was online, or /I/ was online? Because the previous is probably Sailor Moon, but the latter would be Fullmetal Alchemist, with Gundam Wing being the slide between one state and the other.

online fannish trajectory: ...well, see, one of my American Lit students suggested I'd really enjoy a comparative analysis of the sub vs dub ending of Sailor Moon's first season, and then there was a period of VHS madness, and then there was Netscape Composer, and then I met this really fun author via GWing, and she invited me onto LJ, and I landed mere months before FMA kicked off, just at the explosion of digital subs, and well. *hands* Then there was Kenshin and Weiss and Digimon and Yuugiou and Fushigi Yuugi and Cowboy Bebop and Trigun and Utena and /then/ there was Prince of Tennis and Bleach, and there was FF7 in there somewhere, and, um, a furious summer of Naruto, and then work ate my brain so things slowed down a little.

online platform trajectory: See above; they're deeply intertwined. But, roughly, web-rings, geocities and Netscape Composer (the start of my online meta), LJ, DW, AO3, reluctantly Tumblr.

first fic posted online: Soooo, like, the first one I'll /admit/ to, or...? Let's go with the first /complete/ one, how about that? That would be... um... wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? I think that was "Air Feeds Fire" in 2003.

first meta posted online: Now, see, that's easier to nail down, because it was my Sailor Moon website round about 2000.

fandom with the most words written: I say words, because there was a /lot/ of all-up analysis for some of these. Naruto probably wins, thanks to the Summer of Furious Novelizing, followed by Prince of Tennis, which hit both meta and fic buttons.

OTPs over the years: Ahahahahahaha! Oh my goodness, so many. So, so many. Let's go, instead, for general shape of your OTPs: which tends to be Most Magnificent Bastard with Everyone, with a side order of Best Rivals. (In case you wondered, this means Anthy/Everyone, in that order.)

my favorite unfinished fic: That would unquestionably be Water's Woman, which is the FY fic of Yui years later, going back to the book world as an adult because she has some unfinished goddamn business, and Seiyruu is getting more than he bargained for in a miko, this time. *sighs* It's just such a demanding story, and I haven't had the brain for it for a few years, which is /really/ frustrating.

my weirdest fic: The Gilgamesh fic, hands down. Transformations of physical and mental modalities crossed with UST.

most upsetting research topic undertaken for fic-writing purposes: ...erm. I don't... actually know? I don't wig easily when I'm in research-mode, but on the other hand I also tend not to bind hard enough to characters that I find truly disturbing to ever fic them.

longest-held primary fandom: ...I think Darkover may still win this one, but Sailor Moon is definitely a contender, as are Utena and FMA and Tenipuri.

fannish activity I've never done and would like to: ...not many? I mean, I've done ConCom, I've done site building, I've done archive management, I've done some smashing image editing and collage-work if I do say so, I've done meta and fic, I've done verbally ripping people's nuts off with my teeth... not much I otherwise have a hankering for, fannishly.

So, I'm really not at home to most challenges, but some of the Snowflake prompts do catch my attention.

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul.

And I recall Sailor Moon. But more than the anime itself (or the manga, or the other anime...) I recall how one of my literature students lassoed me into Fandom by using Sailor Moon. She spotted my weaknesses right off and suggested that I'd be interested by a narrative comparison of the sub versus dub endings to Season One, especially the way that excising all the violence for dub-land also managed to snip out all of Sailor Moon's agency in the scene. And, well, that was me done and dusted.

So here's to you, Kay. Well done.

Yesterday I had occasion to discuss with someone unfamiliar with fanfic why fanfic is not "easier" than origific because "half the work is already done". This is, of course, a hoary old chestnut often put forward by people who have never tried to write both forms, and much verbiage has already been expended on it, but this time something new occurred to me.

I think I have finally found a use for Plato's damn Cave.

In brief, the Allegory of the Cave suggests that the reality we see around us is merely a shadow of some higher reality of Forms (platonic ideals), as people confined facing a cave wall with a fire behind them would only be able to see the shadows on the wall of actual objects in the cave with them.

Now, I think the Allegory of the Cave is a useless bit of self-congratulatory twaddle, when it comes to models of human perception in general, but it does seem to have some particular applicability to written fiction.

A good writer does a whole lot of world-building that never makes it directly onto the page. Just think about all the memes that go "name a character/fandom and I'll tell you X many things from my personal head-canon/mynon/etc about them". The words on the page are, if you will, the shadow of what the author built up in their mind, in their storytelling space. That building always has to be done; the author has to know all those little details. Without that, the shadow won't look convincing or have weight. But a shadow is still all that makes it onto the actual page. An author going to write fanfic has no direct access to the vast majority of the last round of world-building.

This means that, when writing fanfic, all that world-building must be done again from the ground up and it must be done in such a way that the text/shadow it makes on the page overlaps smoothly with the first text/shadow. This must be done without having ever seen the "object" that cast the first shadow, because that "object" only exists inside the first author's head. All the next author has to work with is the shadow.

When an author doesn't do the world-building, then they write a shoddy story. Fanfic or origific, lack of world-building detail results in an incoherent, inconsistent, or flat story. On top of this, when a fan author doesn't manage to make their shadow overlap sufficiently with the source shadow, then the story fails as fanfic. Fanfic does not have any of the work done already; what it has is an extra requirement in the building process. (This is, of course, modified by the fact that fan readers will forgive a whole lot of not-overlapping if the fan author still manages to give them sufficient id-candy tagged with appropriate names and outfits, just like origific readers will forgive a whole lot of shoddy world-building if the author gives them sufficient id-candy, period.)

So there we go: Plato's Cave of Condescension finally serves a useful purpose. Remix, reuse, recycle.

Apropos of yet another round of exasperation with commenters who somehow think they're fit to be my beta or that it's okay to put a review in the comments:

Let us remember, please, that comments on fic are a direct, one-on-one conversation with the author, in the author's space.

If, during a party, some dishes were served that you happened not to like, or a dish was prepared in a way you found odd, you would not go find the host and/or cook and inform them that you suppose they made a good effort but that lamb had too much cardamom in the sauce. Not unless you were an asshole, at any rate. A good friend might sneak into the kitchen for a taste beforehand and note that maybe the sauce could use some alterations, but once it's done and on the table? If you don't like it, you just don't eat any more, possibly mentioning to another guest you know shares your taste that they should stick with the olive spread. This is a party, not a restaurant. You didn't pay for this food. You are the beneficiary of the host/cook's generosity and a guest in their space, and there's nothing to be served by telling them they didn't make the lamb the way you, personally, like it. You won't get lamb the way you like it, next time; you'll probably just not be invited back, since you clearly have such a huge problem with the host's lamb recipe that you just had to tell them about it.

Fic doesn't even carry the potential pressure to stay that a party does. There's no shadow of an excuse to buttonhole the author and complain over a fic not being written to your personal preferences.

Reviews are different. Those are in the reviewers' space (or should be, thank you very much) and those are for the benefit of readers. Pointing out both what you liked and didn't like is not only excusable but, indeed, the very business of a reviewer. An author who demands only positive reviews is delusional and living in diva-land. An author who demands only positive comments to the fic itself, and that reviews be addressed to their actual audience not to their topic, is telling readers to remember whose "house" they're in and who they're speaking to.

Besides, what do you think will happen, if you do comment that way? Will the author go and revise that finished story? No. Will the author magically start writing just the way you want them to? No, not even the ones who think they should try.

But doesn't the author want to improve in her art? asks the devotee of the Holy Concrit, puzzled and offended that their faith offering has been rejected.

Some fandom-states subscribe to the Church of the Holy Concrit as their official faith, and accept or even encourage all readers leaving "how to improve" comments. Some most signally do not. Anyone tempted to proselytize their personal faith in heathen lands might find it instructional to look up the Crusades (One through Nine) and just how little result they had outside of vast death and destruction. In little, that's pretty much the pattern you'll see over Concrit, too.

Teal deer: in someone else's fandom space, check the profile/info/about before you assume it's hunky dory to tell them to their face all the things you, in your towering judgement, didn't like about their fic. Failure to do this may result in a swift smack on the nose.

Didn't like someone telling you your comment was substandard? Remember that feeling.

I don't do this very often, but this isn't the kind of thing I like to leave unchallenged.

Anime fans! Go and tell this blog-blinkered individual that women who are also passionate anime fans exist!

*shaking head* Honstly.

So, what do we mean when we say that Laurel K Hamilton is writing fanfic of herself? What do we mean when we say Twilight is fanfic? There are a lot of circumstances and skills encompassed by the word "fanfic", and I think it would be helpful to actually name some of them separately. Among other things, it might help us be able to say what it is we like about any piece of writing and what we don't like, more specifically and with less fire-hazard.

I started by trying to separate out the skill sets involved. Formulating the difference between writing fanfic and writing origific is always slippery, but one of the things that's come to mind recently is: fanfic relies on the skill of seeing what isn't there but could be.

This is, in some ways, a response to the hoary old fallacy of fanfic as "training wheels", which is absurd. The mechanical skills are transferable, yes, but the worldbuilding and characterization skills are not. All you have to do is read the first books of a few people who switched from fan to origi writing--they're right back to square one.

Fanfic happens when we see a character shape or story shape that isn't there but resonates anyway. Hence Leather Pants Draco, and his popularity. The readers see, accurately, the character shape that could provide a dramatic foil to Harry. That shape is not the one that Rowling used, but the way a more vivid anti-hero might interact with Harry is a deeply appealing one. Similarly, hence the safe-house trope in Gundam Wing fic. The characters never all live together, or even work together for long, in canon, but the viewers see, accurately, the plot shape that could provide more powerful and dramatic character interactions, and that shape demands a band of brothers, working together.

This is not a skill set that any author, writing from scratch, is ever going to use. Origific requires choosing a single path, a single form for characters and plot. Alternate possibilities just go on back into the idea-melt. Origific is the first swipe. It can't be the second.

We have spent so long valorizing the Solitary And Original Artist that we tend to think it's the first of those that matters, that takes the most work, that has the most value. But I have to say, I enjoyed Maya's HP fic a great deal more than Brennan's Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I would like to see fanfic writers give themselves more credit for what they do. The things readers and viewers see, that aren't there, are very often powerful and desirable shapes. Bringing them forth is a worthy project.

So one thing I think people mean when they say that some (usually very popular) book is fanfic-ish is that it has struck, on the first go, one of those powerfully resonating shapes and run with it.

One of the skill sets that is sometimes held in common is how to write in a shared world. It's a very particular skill. One has to take account of what the other people have written, the history that has already been created, and fit one's own ideas into the mosaic. It also means not repeating all the world-introduction every time while still conveying the major points for those who may be coming in relatively cold. That last applies to an un-shared world, too, if it shows up in an extended series.

The dark side of this is that sometimes authors get lazy. They don't even bother hitting the major points, but just dive into the story, let the previous characterization or canon carry all the burden of development, and assume that any reader who isn't familiar with that has only themselves to blame. This is one of the other things people seem to mean when they call origific fanfic-ish. It is not a particular weakness or tendency of fanfic, though. It's a weakness of lazy writers everywhere. It may show up in somewhat higher absolute numbers, in fanfic, because fanfic is, by its nature, a shared world writing form. But proportionally, based on an unscientific survey of popular commercial series and popular fic, I'd say there are about as many lazy writers on either side.

So there are two things that came to mind when I thought about what we can mean by "fanfic" as an adjective. *tosses it out to her readers* Any others to throw in the pot?

For your reading delectation and exasperation: Kieth Mander, ignorant young sleeze who has no clue what kind of meat grinder he's stuck his hand into.

It's anyone's guess whether the Twilight fandom has a sufficient percentage of web-savvy to kick this intrusion to the curb, but I'm thinking LOTR probably does.

Well, the world hasn't ended in ice, but we have a thick enough sheet that the university is closed and I don't have to go in. So instead let me talk about cons.

Anime cons seem to be at an awkward stage of development. It's a hard one to get past. But eventually it really does become necessary to give panels that are more than "this source/activity for beginners/newcomers". Anime cons, in general, have not made this leap, and I am getting bored out of my mind.

( See, I used to have better... )

So I'm going back. Next year? I'm not doing Ohayocon or Youmacon. I'm doing ConFusion, which I knew from days of yore. Maybe anime cons will grow up a bit if we just give them another five years or so.