sundries

[rm]

Make the Mercury Retrograde stop, I want to get off! Seriously, I left my keys at work yesterday and I'm damn well hoping I left my passport and cash card at home this morning or else I'm a bit fucked. Also, eleventy billion other things.

Went to ellen_kushner's party for the debut of "The Man With the Knives" last night. I'm very excited that more people I know will have read it soon, as I've had things to say about it since I heard it at the NYRSF reading some time ago, but have been avoiding doing so because it's high on the list of things you need to experience in the moment. It, and the presentation of it in this form, gets at some of the stuff in my Bristol paper in a sort of sideways way. So I'm really excited about it, but am still like "fsdjkafjldgjaldfgjal! read it people, so I can talk about it!"

Anyway, cool party, cool location, cool people. One of those nexus of awesome things. *Waves at the new people.*

All of which means I did maybe less work on the Bristol paper than I should have last night. HOWEVER, 1,200 words, some of which might eventually be useful isn't bad. Also, this morning I woke up knowing how to solve the current problem with the intro, so yay? I do much of my best work when I am sleeping; I think I learned this from the Asimov Robots books; I did a book report on one of them in 7th grade and remember how the main character kept almost solving the mystery as he fell asleep after sex, but his mind wouldn't quite let him hold the connections. Thank god I can hold the connections.

A suspect has been caught in the Times Square car bombing.

You know, I don't particularly want to give the Diana Gabaldon anti-fanfic screed more attention, but I feel like some things need to be said, above and beyond all the right on kalichan said here.

1. Stories make me brave, made me brave. They help with the getting out of bed sometimes, or the walking into a room full of strangers. Which is why I find it so fundamentally appalling when writers act in a manner, that sure seems like cowardice to me, about their writing and its reception.

2. My background in largely in public relations and marketing. Add to that my life as a performer and a storyteller and nearly everything I do at least brushes against the idea of image-making and image control. And here's the thing, you can control what people see about you; but you can't control HOW THEY SEE IT. This is true of everything from the fiction you write to the self-image you sell¹.

3. I have never read Gabaldon's books, and now I probably never will. Not because she doesn't want fanfiction written about them, but because she has contempt for people engaging in dialogue about her texts. To me, this screed from her is no different than when other pro writers lash out with ad hominem attacks at professional critics or random readers offering reviews on Amazon. It's inappropriate and rude².

4. I am a published author, and I write fanfic.

5. I don't need your approval.

Last night we watched the "Hand! Evil Hand!!" episode of Angel. Is there really anything else I can say to that? Actually, there is:

1. Viscerally, totally creepy and awesome.
2. The guy who was all "kill me" -- sure, he'd lost his hand, but he seemed otherwise in tact. What gives?
3. Angel is such a fucking five-year-old sometimes.

I looked myself up on the evil that is Spokeo before opting out. It claims, when you search on my full name, among other things, that I am a scorpio (I'm a libra), that I have children (I don't), that I am a clerical worker (I'm not), that I have "some college" (I have a BA), that I have lived at my current address for 1 year (try 4), that I'm single (I'm not), that I'm not interested in politics (WHAT?), that I enjoy shopping (eh?). Now I want to punch someone.

I cannot listen to this shitty, shitty song without working on ConSweet.

---

¹ Yes, this tangent speaks to my feeling about the fact that while some RPF may be squicky some of the time for some people, that it's a valid mode of cultural dialogue.
² I'm looking at you, Anne Rice.

Comments

[idiomagic.livejournal.com]

Diana Gabaldon posted a follow-up to her rant, in which she once again entirely misses the point, and doesn't bother to apologize for her inflammatory language. *sigh*

http://voyagesoftheartemis.blogspot.com/2010/05/fan-fic-ii.html

[rm.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's hard not to start in on her just for the tone. "Apparently Stacy exists."

Oi.

[idiomagic.livejournal.com]

To say nothing of the blatant hypocrisy...her main character was "inspired" by a Dr. Who character. She admits to using other people's stories and "filing the serial numbers off". She uses other people's fictional characters in her books (see: Comte de Sevigny). She based her characters on her own family.

But fanfiction is bad, because it does all those things. Right. And oh, yeah...remember how evil she says pr0n is in fanfiction? How because it even exists the whole of fandom should be banned on aesthetic grounds? Yeah. Having your main character's hand nailed to a table while he is repeatedly orally and anally raped--and likes it- is fine literature.

Very, very unfortunate that she chose to get on her high horse over morality in fiction when she seems to have none herself.

I used to like her books, until the most recent one, in which she rehashes her own plot lines, makes her canon characters act entirely out of character, and apparently didn't bother to edit anything.

I had already decided not to waste any more money on her books, but all this? Well, I'm now quite likely to discourage my friends from trying her books at all.

Nice going, Diana.
*golf clap*

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Having your main character's hand nailed to a table while he is repeatedly orally and anally raped--and likes it- is fine literature.

wtf? srsly? ok, i have never even heard of her before, but SO definitely not ever reading her work now

[idiomagic.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Her books are uber-rapetastic. Let's see...the main male character gets raped as stated, the main female character is gang raped, those two characters have a daughter who is raped...the list goes on with many, many subsidiary characters. The secondary male character is the only one I can think of offhand who doesn't get raped. She still has two or three books to go in the series, however, so I wouldn't put any money on him escaping unscathed...

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

um... yeah, totes not my thing

[gement.livejournal.com]

Oh, and all gay men are pedo pervs. Don't forget that part.