Fandom Politics and Politics in Fandom
Sep. 22nd, 2006 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vulgarweedHappy Equinox, everyone!
And Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!
There's a lot of interesting stuff on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
metafandom lately about fandom and large amounts of mainstream attention - related largely to something about a Wall Street Journal article on fanfiction, and some Kirk/Spock vid set to NIN's "Closer" going all the way around the world on YouTube.
Today![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
musesfool relates the small-community nature of fandom to that of underground rock in the 80s, and relates mass-media attention to the phenomenon of Nirvana and the year punk broke. Yeah. Just...yeah. Meaty thoughts to chew on, and oh yeah, deja frickin' vu.
***
So Fandom_Lounge at journalfen has a link to a mildly alarming story about the popularity of the Harry Potter books among Guantanamo detainees. (It comes from a bit of Defense Department propaganda about the "benefits" the detainees are enjoying. What's a little waterboarding between friends if you get to play table tennis and read Harry Potter, too? Hell, half the American public thinks "waterboarding" is something John Kerry does off Nantucket.)
The comments thread. is even funnier. Hell, I want towrite read Osama Bin Laden Hogwarts self-insert fic. (Not as if I've never made a joke about him in HP fic before).
Why? Because the louder the usual election-year drone about terra!terra!terra! gets, the less I want to hide under the bed and vote Republican (not that I've ever found either of those attractive options) and the more my natural gut-level instinctual response drifts toward ever-increasingly-tasteless jokes.
***
Speaking of other ways right-wingers scare and bilk people....
Here's a rec for a Good Omens fic I just loved:
Human Footnotes
author:shiplizard
rating: PG
Characters: Aziraphale and Crowley (you can read it as slashy or just friendly)
Summary: 1920s. America.
A very powerful and haunting story (in its subtle, sneaking-up-on-you way) about abuses of faith, exploitation of the flock, and the arc-bend toward justice. Also about friendship and forgiveness (which of course are both intimately connected with justice).
And Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!
There's a lot of interesting stuff on
metafandom lately about fandom and large amounts of mainstream attention - related largely to something about a Wall Street Journal article on fanfiction, and some Kirk/Spock vid set to NIN's "Closer" going all the way around the world on YouTube.Today
musesfool relates the small-community nature of fandom to that of underground rock in the 80s, and relates mass-media attention to the phenomenon of Nirvana and the year punk broke. Yeah. Just...yeah. Meaty thoughts to chew on, and oh yeah, deja frickin' vu.***
So Fandom_Lounge at journalfen has a link to a mildly alarming story about the popularity of the Harry Potter books among Guantanamo detainees. (It comes from a bit of Defense Department propaganda about the "benefits" the detainees are enjoying. What's a little waterboarding between friends if you get to play table tennis and read Harry Potter, too? Hell, half the American public thinks "waterboarding" is something John Kerry does off Nantucket.)
The comments thread. is even funnier. Hell, I want to
Why? Because the louder the usual election-year drone about terra!terra!terra! gets, the less I want to hide under the bed and vote Republican (not that I've ever found either of those attractive options) and the more my natural gut-level instinctual response drifts toward ever-increasingly-tasteless jokes.
***
Speaking of other ways right-wingers scare and bilk people....
Here's a rec for a Good Omens fic I just loved:
Human Footnotes
author:
shiplizardrating: PG
Characters: Aziraphale and Crowley (you can read it as slashy or just friendly)
Summary: 1920s. America.
A very powerful and haunting story (in its subtle, sneaking-up-on-you way) about abuses of faith, exploitation of the flock, and the arc-bend toward justice. Also about friendship and forgiveness (which of course are both intimately connected with justice).
