Four things: Descensus update and more!

[rm]

Four things:

1. How queer is fandom? Specifically HP fandom? I hang out in such disparate parts of it, and am also not terribly social in it until recently that I still can’t figure it out. Like do I know the 20 queer Potter fans? Or is it statistically similar to the general population or is it gay gay gay gay gay?

2. Chronic illness and fandom. What’s up with that? Is this our escapism? Or are we just home more because we have crap wrong with us? Or is fanfiction, like comedy, all about pain? I’ve always wondered about this, but I suppose I never asked before, because even with the MVPS, I never really considered myself part of the club until this celiac bullshit.

3. Speaking of celiac, I’ve gotten really sick of carrying around big bottles of wheat-free soy sauce and the like. So I bought a bunch of cobalt blue 50ml bottles and jars and stuff, so I can stylishly (and geekily) have safe condiments wherever I go.

4. The moment at least some of you have been waiting for: Facilis Descensus Averno is updated.
April 21, 1979, part 2 is here: http://community.livejournal.com/descensus_hp/8390.html
If you need a refresher, Part 1 is here: http://community.livejournal.com/descensus_hp/6042.html

Comments

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Hi rm! Added you, and just realized we've a ton of friends in common! Sweet!

How is acting going in the city? I lived in NYC for about a year, and I really miss it.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

2. Chronic illness and fandom. What’s up with that?

Two of the four people who make up my elective family have significant food sensitivities, as do I (all different, which naturally makes restaurant hunting difficult - thank the gods for Japanese and Chinese food). Expanding this circle wider, the number of people I known in the far fringes of geek culture, including serious fans, pagans, gamers, & occultists who have significant food sensitivities or other chronic and annoying problems is quite large. In some odd way, it almost seems a physicalized mark of our separation from mainstream culture.

3. Speaking of celiac, I’ve gotten really sick of carrying around big bottles of wheat-free soy sauce and the like. So I bought a bunch of cobalt blue 50ml bottles and jars and stuff, so I can stylishly (and geekily) have safe condiments wherever I go.

What an absolutely wonderful idea. I have occasionally brought olive oil and vinegar along with me so I can make certain to have both salad dressing and a butter substitute wherever I do, and taking them along in something that lovely would actually be a very nice touch. Thank you for mentioning this.

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

In early fandom (I mean general science fiction fandom of the 1930s), pretty much through the 1960s, fans tended to be sickly: polio, osteporosis, heart murmurs. It might just be that people who are sick spend more time alone, reading, incapacitated in ways that incline one towards reading and thinking at length about fantasy worlds.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that the two biggest factions I see in HP fandom are gay folks, and married women. Not all of the married women are housewives either.

[karen-jk.livejournal.com]

Lots of gay folks in fandom, that's for sure. And lots of straight. Lots of young women, lots of 40-something young at heart women like myself. And a few men big on the HP love.