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shadowkatExhausted...got up at 5:15 am to get to work by 7 am. And then raced home at 3 so I could be there in time for grouchy Time Warner person, who I felt an overwhelming desire to slap - instead I did it verbally with one phrase "THANK YOU". Then proceeded to give him a nasty review when TW called for their survey. Issues with the set-up top DVR box, which kept not recording my programs. As a result I lost the last two episodes of Being Human, the VEEP pilot, second episode of Girls, and Scandal. Could have been worse. Also trying to get used to the funky new box which is smaller but not as pretty as the old one, and has an annoying blue time display.
Enjoying the trashy novel that ate the media or took the media by storm not quite sure which is the better term (if you've no idea what I'm talking about - consider yourself lucky and seriously, stay under that rock you've been hiding under for the past five months), far far more than I expected. Was expecting to hate it - because I've been trying to publish (an admittedly non-trashy) pseudo literary novel for four years. Beginning to wonder if that's the problem. Maybe if it were trashy romance novel or a paint-by-numbers thriller, I'd get published - that's all people seem to read these days according to the best seller lists at any rate. Can't say I blame them - if you have a brain-taxing or stressful job, you too are reading these sorts of books or trying to read the other sort and going to sleep on the train.
I wouldn't say that trashy novel is great, but it is a lot better than 90% of the other 30 trashy novels I've read to date. Which, I'm not exactly sure is saying all that much. We're not talking a high bar here, guys. I've admittedly read a lot of really bad trashy novels as well as ahem fanfic (fanfic is oddly a lot better than the trashy novels) - as you probably know, because I keep reviewing them in my lj. Apparently I'm not just satisfied with reading the things, I have to review them too. Heck, what good is having an lj under a pseudonyme if you can't review trashy novels and rant about campy horror flicks in it?
This is most likely a mood thing. Work stress combined with other factors...At any rate, as much as I don't want to admit this? I actually now understand why trashy novel (*cough*FiftyShadesofGrey*cough*) is so insanely popular. (Last night it was mentioned on Dancing with the Stars - according to the Momster, who watches it, I wouldn't know - I don't watch it.) It's hot. I mean really hot. (Trashy novel not Dancing with the Stars...okay maybe that is too..) Keep in mind - it's erotica, female erotica, it's supposed to be hot. Well written? Literary? Thought provoking? Not so much. It's also, funny in places. (Not quite sure yet if it is intentional or not. On the fence on that one.)
Examples:
* Christian saves Anastasia's life. (She basically trips over her own feet into the street. (Don't judge, I did the same thing and ended up with six stitches, this can happen) He yanks her back, just in the nick of time, or she'd have been run over by...
a cyclist going the wrong way down a one way street. (Got to be wary of those wayward cyclists in Seattle apparently - they are killers. I wonder if this is a problem in England? It is in NYC - you can get ...well I wouldn't say killed, but maybe knocked down by an insane cyclist.)
* After Christian has shown Ana (what she describes as his Red Room of Pain, which by the way he takes exception to..."Red Room of Pain?? It's more pleasure than pain...trust me."
Hmm..thinks, Ana, comparing him to Bluebeard), he asks what sex acts she'd be willing to do. Ana looks at him bewildered. And finally states somewhat sheepishly that she has no idea, what sex acts she'd be willing or not willing to do, since, she's never had any sex.
(I found this sort of amusing...although believable. Believe it or not, there are a lot of virgins on this planet. Not necessarily intentional. And hardly pathetic. Society's view of virginity is as bad as its view of promiscuity. Society has some insanely screwed up views on sex, gender, etc. We don't handle sexual content well. Violent content, not a problem. We appear to have no problem whatsoever watching people beat one another up, kill each other, or fight. But sex...we don't quite know how to handle. Evidence? Just look at the movies out at the moment...and tell me how many are romances, show lots of sex and nudity and how many show people being blown up, killed, decapitated, dismembered, or
brutally murdered? I rest my case.) Christian goes fifty shades of pale. And freaks out.
Why didn't you tell me! Well, she states, somewhat believably, it's not exactly something you tell people upon meeting them or share. (Quite true. Oh, hello, how are you...I'm a virgin, just thought we'd get that out of the way, moving on.)
* After having rather erotic sex with Christian. He makes love to her...quite sweetly.
The author actually knows how to write this - less is more, with emphasis on dialogue.
Although...Ana's "holy craps" and "holy fuck"...become sort of funny after a bit. Yet typical of the genre. Most erotica seems to have this...unless you write like Anais Nin, then not so much. But Nin's erotica isn't really that erotic..more literary. (At least the bit I read wasn't - granted it was her diaries...which felt like reading Joyce's Ulysses.)
Any how that's not the funny bit...the bit that is funny, is his mother interrupts them.
* Earlier...she wakes up and decides to make breakfast. Okay, I never understand this in books or movies. You've woken up after making wild passionate love in a guy's apartment, you've never been in before, you don't know his kitchen, and you decide - hmmm I'll make him breakfast?? I'd have raided the fridge for something easy like OJ. What's Ana do?
She decides to make bacon, omelets and pancakes. Except the author and apparently whomever edited/betaed this thing, forgets that Ana was making pancakes. One minute she is making batter for pancakes and hunting a place to let them warm, the next beating eggs and making an omelet, the pancakes forgotten. I spent ten pages trying to figure out what happened to the pancakes. I'm thinking I may be too analytical or anal for trashy novels? I had the same problem with fanfiction if you will recall. Both require brain being turned off - that's their appeal. You aren't stimulating the analytical part of your brain, you are stimulating that other bit...
It's a fun book if you don't take it too seriously. And you really shouldn't. The writer certainly didn't. Her fans don't. It's masturbation material people - that's it. (OR porn with plot as opposed to porn without plot - I prefer to call it smutty novel or trashy novel...hee. Fluffy.) I'm also starting to think I'm going about this all the wrong way. I should start writing erotic fanfic under pseudonymes, post it, get it betaed, then get that published as an e-book, and hope people love it. Except for one itty bitty problem, I don't enjoy writing erotica. It isn't my thing. I'm not that type of writer. In my head sure, on the page...not so much. I tend to write more in the mystery/noir/literary genre, the romance genre eludes me.
It will however make a few people squirm. Because it delves heavily into the world of BSDM.
Also the hero is well, the guy that Lady Gaga writes about in her song Bad Romance and Monster. He reminds me a lot of various versions of Spike and/or Angel in various fanfics I've read over the years. Elusive, egnimatic, troubled, serious Mommy issues, obsessive, manipulative, and controlling. If domineering, controlling, obsessive, manipulative hotly attractive men with Mommy issues make you want to hurl, best to avoid this book. But keep in mind...for those who get off on the fantasy? It's just a fantasy. Fantasies folks aren't necessarily rational or moral, if they were they wouldn't be fantasies. Hell, why do you think fantasy fiction is so dark? The human heart, mind and soul is complicated thing. I don't think anyone can begin to understand it's inner workings. Although we all do keep trying...
Enuf...proselytizing or is that philosophizing...I can't figure out which. But hey, at least I figured out how to spell those words. That's something? Right?
This all leads me to write up a list of things I learned on internet fan boards, livejournal and through fandom:
1. BDSM - bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism. There's a lot of people online who do this. It's not what you think. Trust is a major factor. You can't do it without trust and respect - or you will seriously harm the other person. Rules are applied. Rape is a big no-no. Must be consensual.
2. Erotica Fanfiction/Novels - easy to come by on the internet. The better stuff is more expensive. Although fanfic still rules. I think because fanfic writers tend to be more imaginative and less constrained. They use the characters names and descriptions, then go nuts. While non-fanfic writers in this field struggle with names and descriptions and tend to create stock characters. I don't know, that's the only thing I can come up with.
A lot of people don't consider a lot of the erotica fanfic to be fanfiction or good fanfiction - because it's not usually canonical to the story at hand, doesn't continue it, often will leap outside of that world, and may even see OCC regarding the characters.
But I have a broad definition of fanfiction.
3. Fanfiction - There's an awful lot of fanfic on the internet, more than I thought possible. I'm a curious sort - so I will literally try to read anything at least once. (The worst was a teletubbies fanfic...*shudder* That I'm glad I can't remember.) Anyways for someone who loves to read stories...the internet is crack. Actually it's crack for writers and avid readers.
4.Squick...sigh, I really wish I never found out where that word came from. Because ewwww.
Once you read it, you can't get the image out of your head. Suffice to say...it is a response to a sexual act...or a violent sexual act out of the movie Saw. I blame some nitwit on whedonesque for this.
5. Vids...you can apparently make vids of your favorite tv series or movies, it's legal (I think or marginally so at any rate) and add music. These vids can act as meta, a revisionist version of the story, or just a piece of fun. There are erotica vids too.
Vids are visual forms of fanfiction and most likely fit under the same copyright law loophole.
6. GIP or GIF - basically an icon or photo created and posted in lieu of a written post. Speaking in pictures instead of words. Some people like to speak in pictures better. Other's prefer words. I'm more into words, my brother is more into pictures. So I understand the difference.
7. Poll...no matter how many times you do a poll, you'll never get a clear idea of the majority view on anything, because the sampling is never accurate enough to get one.
For example...say I have 100 people who friended me on LJ. I do a poll. 60 people take it.
Of the 60...only 20 have friended me. The rest came over via links or other sources.
So what does this tell me? Absolutely nothing. Just that 60 random people feel this way about whatever I polled them on. It's indicative of what they thought, but I can't extrapolate and say that people generally feel this way. Because if I were in someone else's journal, did the same poll, I'd most likely get an opposite result. If you need proof that market research and surveys don't tell you very much - there it is. Statistics lie, baby, the internet is proof. (That said - I'm more than willing to have someone try to prove me wrong on this point. We could all do a poll...and see what the results are in all our livejournals, then ante it up, and determine accuracy. Eh, too much work. I've no time. And just thinking about it gives me a headache. So... Never mind.)
8. Defriending/Friending....these terms make no sense. But I can't think of another one.
Basically someone decides to read your journal/facebook. If you friend back, you decide to read theirs. It's not necessarily personal. Often is quite random. And why people friend or defriend you is often never explained. For example - I'm often amused by my flist going up a point, say to 51 and then dropping down again to say 50. Then back up. Then back down.
I think -- okay, someone clearly can't make up their mind. Or, I keep losing and gaining random people. Yet, I always take this personally...I think damn, what did I write? Or I'm convinced I've pissed people off - but no, they are still here. Go figure. Incredibly patient and tolerant souls. Wait, I gained people? How'd that happen? The whole thing frankly bewilders me. I friend ...sort of randomly. My reasons change on a daily basis.
9. Fandom....I honestly never really interacted with a fandom until the internet. There wasn't any good way of doing it. Letter writing? Conventions? No. The internet made it possible. And fandom bewilders me. I'm not sure what to make of it. It veers from being insanely aggravating, to cool and fun and addictive. The Buffy fandom makes me crazy half the time, while also amusing me to no end. It never fails to bewilder me that I can get into a knock-out, drag-down verbal fight with someone whose real name I don't know over
a tv show writer, or a comic book. Leaving the fight bloodied and pissed. I mean seriously, we are arguing about a guy who sits in his expensive house writing comic books and comic book movies for a living...who does not know we exist (okay maybe he does know one of us exists, but it's not me) and probably doesn't give a shit what we think of him (as long as we continue to pay money for his art, which we do, even while ranking on it).
Fans are weird. How can you get so emotional about a character or story writer? But I do.
Just like people get emotional about sports teams. I don't understand why though.
10. Fan discussion boards...amazing places. Insane too. Fun. (And yes, never more fun then when there's a kerfuffle...which brings me to Kerfuffles...I learned the word on the internet. Another word for flame war, but funnier. )
11.Kerfuffle/Flame War - Kefuffles are fun from a distance, when you aren't in the middle of them. Or related in any way to the parties involved.
Also, from a distance they make no sense, hence the fun. It's like watching some bizarre social psych experiment or reality series. But when you are either the target or in the middle of one - it's like having your emotions flayed by gnats. Embarrassing, painful,
and never ends well. Often...it ends with people defriending and banning each other.
Deletions. And people deleting or leaving their lj's or locking them down. Hurt feelings all around. If you've been the target of one or been in one, you know whereof I speak.
They are different for everyone. The one's I've been in are actually pretty tame. I defriended people - but it was usually just one person. After several months, it went away.
My friends ignored it. And outside of that one person, no one defriended me. But the argument was usually just between us. If I decided they were right about what upset them, which occasionally happened, I'd apologize and try to veer away from doing it again.
Because of past kerfuffles, I'm more careful about talking/discussing various topics. Here's a quick list:
* International and US Politics, Nationalism, Religion
* Rape, Death Penalty, Sexual Violence, Porn, BDSM, sex
* Joss Whedon, Buffy comics, Angel, Xander, Harmony, Robin Wood, Spike, Bangle, Spuffy, Cordelia, and various Buffy actors including James Marsters, David Boreanze, SMG, and Charisma Carpenter
* RT Davies
* Gender issues, Feminism, Racism
* Fanfiction - specifically reviewing or critiquing it at all or commenting on any I've read.
I try to think before I type. Easier than it sounds. And often find myself deleting later.
For example, I'm debating deleting my last post and even this one...as I type, because not sure it will be read the wrong way. I have the ability to read things multiple ways - you are taught how to do this, although I may have always known. But definitely was taught in both undergrad and law school. So I play devil's advocate with myself. And question.
If I re-read a post and realize, damn, someone is going to take offense at that and read it entirely the wrong way and not how I intended it to be read at all...I delete, possibly far too late. I admit, I'm weirdly anal and insecure regarding posts. It's almost compulsive. Yet, I contradict myself...because, I post stream of consciousness, straight into lj.
12. The Best Rec's for Books, Films and TV shows come from LJ. I find all sorts of cool books this way. And tv shows, films etc. I use my flist as my recommendation source.
Particularly for genre fic in the sci-fi/fantasy genres.
13. I'm not alone, there are apparently a ton of culture geeks just like me wandering about. Introverts. Whose friends are mainly online or elsewhere. Who prefer their own company. Are bookworms or bookaphiles. TV sluts. Film sluts. Have weird eclectic taste. Wildly intellectual curious. And love shows that take place between the cracks or in the cracks. Creative sorts...who are frustrated writers and artists.
I'm going to bed now.
Enjoying the trashy novel that ate the media or took the media by storm not quite sure which is the better term (if you've no idea what I'm talking about - consider yourself lucky and seriously, stay under that rock you've been hiding under for the past five months), far far more than I expected. Was expecting to hate it - because I've been trying to publish (an admittedly non-trashy) pseudo literary novel for four years. Beginning to wonder if that's the problem. Maybe if it were trashy romance novel or a paint-by-numbers thriller, I'd get published - that's all people seem to read these days according to the best seller lists at any rate. Can't say I blame them - if you have a brain-taxing or stressful job, you too are reading these sorts of books or trying to read the other sort and going to sleep on the train.
I wouldn't say that trashy novel is great, but it is a lot better than 90% of the other 30 trashy novels I've read to date. Which, I'm not exactly sure is saying all that much. We're not talking a high bar here, guys. I've admittedly read a lot of really bad trashy novels as well as ahem fanfic (fanfic is oddly a lot better than the trashy novels) - as you probably know, because I keep reviewing them in my lj. Apparently I'm not just satisfied with reading the things, I have to review them too. Heck, what good is having an lj under a pseudonyme if you can't review trashy novels and rant about campy horror flicks in it?
This is most likely a mood thing. Work stress combined with other factors...At any rate, as much as I don't want to admit this? I actually now understand why trashy novel (*cough*FiftyShadesofGrey*cough*) is so insanely popular. (Last night it was mentioned on Dancing with the Stars - according to the Momster, who watches it, I wouldn't know - I don't watch it.) It's hot. I mean really hot. (Trashy novel not Dancing with the Stars...okay maybe that is too..) Keep in mind - it's erotica, female erotica, it's supposed to be hot. Well written? Literary? Thought provoking? Not so much. It's also, funny in places. (Not quite sure yet if it is intentional or not. On the fence on that one.)
Examples:
* Christian saves Anastasia's life. (She basically trips over her own feet into the street. (Don't judge, I did the same thing and ended up with six stitches, this can happen) He yanks her back, just in the nick of time, or she'd have been run over by...
a cyclist going the wrong way down a one way street. (Got to be wary of those wayward cyclists in Seattle apparently - they are killers. I wonder if this is a problem in England? It is in NYC - you can get ...well I wouldn't say killed, but maybe knocked down by an insane cyclist.)
* After Christian has shown Ana (what she describes as his Red Room of Pain, which by the way he takes exception to..."Red Room of Pain?? It's more pleasure than pain...trust me."
Hmm..thinks, Ana, comparing him to Bluebeard), he asks what sex acts she'd be willing to do. Ana looks at him bewildered. And finally states somewhat sheepishly that she has no idea, what sex acts she'd be willing or not willing to do, since, she's never had any sex.
(I found this sort of amusing...although believable. Believe it or not, there are a lot of virgins on this planet. Not necessarily intentional. And hardly pathetic. Society's view of virginity is as bad as its view of promiscuity. Society has some insanely screwed up views on sex, gender, etc. We don't handle sexual content well. Violent content, not a problem. We appear to have no problem whatsoever watching people beat one another up, kill each other, or fight. But sex...we don't quite know how to handle. Evidence? Just look at the movies out at the moment...and tell me how many are romances, show lots of sex and nudity and how many show people being blown up, killed, decapitated, dismembered, or
brutally murdered? I rest my case.) Christian goes fifty shades of pale. And freaks out.
Why didn't you tell me! Well, she states, somewhat believably, it's not exactly something you tell people upon meeting them or share. (Quite true. Oh, hello, how are you...I'm a virgin, just thought we'd get that out of the way, moving on.)
* After having rather erotic sex with Christian. He makes love to her...quite sweetly.
The author actually knows how to write this - less is more, with emphasis on dialogue.
Although...Ana's "holy craps" and "holy fuck"...become sort of funny after a bit. Yet typical of the genre. Most erotica seems to have this...unless you write like Anais Nin, then not so much. But Nin's erotica isn't really that erotic..more literary. (At least the bit I read wasn't - granted it was her diaries...which felt like reading Joyce's Ulysses.)
Any how that's not the funny bit...the bit that is funny, is his mother interrupts them.
* Earlier...she wakes up and decides to make breakfast. Okay, I never understand this in books or movies. You've woken up after making wild passionate love in a guy's apartment, you've never been in before, you don't know his kitchen, and you decide - hmmm I'll make him breakfast?? I'd have raided the fridge for something easy like OJ. What's Ana do?
She decides to make bacon, omelets and pancakes. Except the author and apparently whomever edited/betaed this thing, forgets that Ana was making pancakes. One minute she is making batter for pancakes and hunting a place to let them warm, the next beating eggs and making an omelet, the pancakes forgotten. I spent ten pages trying to figure out what happened to the pancakes. I'm thinking I may be too analytical or anal for trashy novels? I had the same problem with fanfiction if you will recall. Both require brain being turned off - that's their appeal. You aren't stimulating the analytical part of your brain, you are stimulating that other bit...
It's a fun book if you don't take it too seriously. And you really shouldn't. The writer certainly didn't. Her fans don't. It's masturbation material people - that's it. (OR porn with plot as opposed to porn without plot - I prefer to call it smutty novel or trashy novel...hee. Fluffy.) I'm also starting to think I'm going about this all the wrong way. I should start writing erotic fanfic under pseudonymes, post it, get it betaed, then get that published as an e-book, and hope people love it. Except for one itty bitty problem, I don't enjoy writing erotica. It isn't my thing. I'm not that type of writer. In my head sure, on the page...not so much. I tend to write more in the mystery/noir/literary genre, the romance genre eludes me.
It will however make a few people squirm. Because it delves heavily into the world of BSDM.
Also the hero is well, the guy that Lady Gaga writes about in her song Bad Romance and Monster. He reminds me a lot of various versions of Spike and/or Angel in various fanfics I've read over the years. Elusive, egnimatic, troubled, serious Mommy issues, obsessive, manipulative, and controlling. If domineering, controlling, obsessive, manipulative hotly attractive men with Mommy issues make you want to hurl, best to avoid this book. But keep in mind...for those who get off on the fantasy? It's just a fantasy. Fantasies folks aren't necessarily rational or moral, if they were they wouldn't be fantasies. Hell, why do you think fantasy fiction is so dark? The human heart, mind and soul is complicated thing. I don't think anyone can begin to understand it's inner workings. Although we all do keep trying...
Enuf...proselytizing or is that philosophizing...I can't figure out which. But hey, at least I figured out how to spell those words. That's something? Right?
This all leads me to write up a list of things I learned on internet fan boards, livejournal and through fandom:
1. BDSM - bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism. There's a lot of people online who do this. It's not what you think. Trust is a major factor. You can't do it without trust and respect - or you will seriously harm the other person. Rules are applied. Rape is a big no-no. Must be consensual.
2. Erotica Fanfiction/Novels - easy to come by on the internet. The better stuff is more expensive. Although fanfic still rules. I think because fanfic writers tend to be more imaginative and less constrained. They use the characters names and descriptions, then go nuts. While non-fanfic writers in this field struggle with names and descriptions and tend to create stock characters. I don't know, that's the only thing I can come up with.
A lot of people don't consider a lot of the erotica fanfic to be fanfiction or good fanfiction - because it's not usually canonical to the story at hand, doesn't continue it, often will leap outside of that world, and may even see OCC regarding the characters.
But I have a broad definition of fanfiction.
3. Fanfiction - There's an awful lot of fanfic on the internet, more than I thought possible. I'm a curious sort - so I will literally try to read anything at least once. (The worst was a teletubbies fanfic...*shudder* That I'm glad I can't remember.) Anyways for someone who loves to read stories...the internet is crack. Actually it's crack for writers and avid readers.
4.Squick...sigh, I really wish I never found out where that word came from. Because ewwww.
Once you read it, you can't get the image out of your head. Suffice to say...it is a response to a sexual act...or a violent sexual act out of the movie Saw. I blame some nitwit on whedonesque for this.
5. Vids...you can apparently make vids of your favorite tv series or movies, it's legal (I think or marginally so at any rate) and add music. These vids can act as meta, a revisionist version of the story, or just a piece of fun. There are erotica vids too.
Vids are visual forms of fanfiction and most likely fit under the same copyright law loophole.
6. GIP or GIF - basically an icon or photo created and posted in lieu of a written post. Speaking in pictures instead of words. Some people like to speak in pictures better. Other's prefer words. I'm more into words, my brother is more into pictures. So I understand the difference.
7. Poll...no matter how many times you do a poll, you'll never get a clear idea of the majority view on anything, because the sampling is never accurate enough to get one.
For example...say I have 100 people who friended me on LJ. I do a poll. 60 people take it.
Of the 60...only 20 have friended me. The rest came over via links or other sources.
So what does this tell me? Absolutely nothing. Just that 60 random people feel this way about whatever I polled them on. It's indicative of what they thought, but I can't extrapolate and say that people generally feel this way. Because if I were in someone else's journal, did the same poll, I'd most likely get an opposite result. If you need proof that market research and surveys don't tell you very much - there it is. Statistics lie, baby, the internet is proof. (That said - I'm more than willing to have someone try to prove me wrong on this point. We could all do a poll...and see what the results are in all our livejournals, then ante it up, and determine accuracy. Eh, too much work. I've no time. And just thinking about it gives me a headache. So... Never mind.)
8. Defriending/Friending....these terms make no sense. But I can't think of another one.
Basically someone decides to read your journal/facebook. If you friend back, you decide to read theirs. It's not necessarily personal. Often is quite random. And why people friend or defriend you is often never explained. For example - I'm often amused by my flist going up a point, say to 51 and then dropping down again to say 50. Then back up. Then back down.
I think -- okay, someone clearly can't make up their mind. Or, I keep losing and gaining random people. Yet, I always take this personally...I think damn, what did I write? Or I'm convinced I've pissed people off - but no, they are still here. Go figure. Incredibly patient and tolerant souls. Wait, I gained people? How'd that happen? The whole thing frankly bewilders me. I friend ...sort of randomly. My reasons change on a daily basis.
9. Fandom....I honestly never really interacted with a fandom until the internet. There wasn't any good way of doing it. Letter writing? Conventions? No. The internet made it possible. And fandom bewilders me. I'm not sure what to make of it. It veers from being insanely aggravating, to cool and fun and addictive. The Buffy fandom makes me crazy half the time, while also amusing me to no end. It never fails to bewilder me that I can get into a knock-out, drag-down verbal fight with someone whose real name I don't know over
a tv show writer, or a comic book. Leaving the fight bloodied and pissed. I mean seriously, we are arguing about a guy who sits in his expensive house writing comic books and comic book movies for a living...who does not know we exist (okay maybe he does know one of us exists, but it's not me) and probably doesn't give a shit what we think of him (as long as we continue to pay money for his art, which we do, even while ranking on it).
Fans are weird. How can you get so emotional about a character or story writer? But I do.
Just like people get emotional about sports teams. I don't understand why though.
10. Fan discussion boards...amazing places. Insane too. Fun. (And yes, never more fun then when there's a kerfuffle...which brings me to Kerfuffles...I learned the word on the internet. Another word for flame war, but funnier. )
11.Kerfuffle/Flame War - Kefuffles are fun from a distance, when you aren't in the middle of them. Or related in any way to the parties involved.
Also, from a distance they make no sense, hence the fun. It's like watching some bizarre social psych experiment or reality series. But when you are either the target or in the middle of one - it's like having your emotions flayed by gnats. Embarrassing, painful,
and never ends well. Often...it ends with people defriending and banning each other.
Deletions. And people deleting or leaving their lj's or locking them down. Hurt feelings all around. If you've been the target of one or been in one, you know whereof I speak.
They are different for everyone. The one's I've been in are actually pretty tame. I defriended people - but it was usually just one person. After several months, it went away.
My friends ignored it. And outside of that one person, no one defriended me. But the argument was usually just between us. If I decided they were right about what upset them, which occasionally happened, I'd apologize and try to veer away from doing it again.
Because of past kerfuffles, I'm more careful about talking/discussing various topics. Here's a quick list:
* International and US Politics, Nationalism, Religion
* Rape, Death Penalty, Sexual Violence, Porn, BDSM, sex
* Joss Whedon, Buffy comics, Angel, Xander, Harmony, Robin Wood, Spike, Bangle, Spuffy, Cordelia, and various Buffy actors including James Marsters, David Boreanze, SMG, and Charisma Carpenter
* RT Davies
* Gender issues, Feminism, Racism
* Fanfiction - specifically reviewing or critiquing it at all or commenting on any I've read.
I try to think before I type. Easier than it sounds. And often find myself deleting later.
For example, I'm debating deleting my last post and even this one...as I type, because not sure it will be read the wrong way. I have the ability to read things multiple ways - you are taught how to do this, although I may have always known. But definitely was taught in both undergrad and law school. So I play devil's advocate with myself. And question.
If I re-read a post and realize, damn, someone is going to take offense at that and read it entirely the wrong way and not how I intended it to be read at all...I delete, possibly far too late. I admit, I'm weirdly anal and insecure regarding posts. It's almost compulsive. Yet, I contradict myself...because, I post stream of consciousness, straight into lj.
12. The Best Rec's for Books, Films and TV shows come from LJ. I find all sorts of cool books this way. And tv shows, films etc. I use my flist as my recommendation source.
Particularly for genre fic in the sci-fi/fantasy genres.
13. I'm not alone, there are apparently a ton of culture geeks just like me wandering about. Introverts. Whose friends are mainly online or elsewhere. Who prefer their own company. Are bookworms or bookaphiles. TV sluts. Film sluts. Have weird eclectic taste. Wildly intellectual curious. And love shows that take place between the cracks or in the cracks. Creative sorts...who are frustrated writers and artists.
I'm going to bed now.
