gacked from elynross

Amazon.com is selling each season of the X Files for $20, today only.

I have seasons 1-7 in my hot little ... e-mail inbox receipt. But, soon, soon, precious, they will be in my hands! *Cackles madly*!

stilljewish has been started. It is a community for Jewish fen and people who think Jews, Judaism, and fandom are awesome.

First up, I want to apologize for calling you the Cult of Nice, since I know that freaks some people out. I can't figure out what else to call the people who disagree with me in this debate because of their firm ideas about niceness and civility. If you've got another name for that position, I'll take it, but all I came up with is Politeness Brigade, which isn't better.

Second, there's a couple of things implied (or flat out asserted) whenever the debate about concrit/reviews vs. fandom is a nurturing place come out, that are simply not true of my fannish experience nor the fannish experience of, well, those people in fandom who became my friends. So, just to clarify:

1) Critical advice and reader discussion of fanfiction does not generally give its practitioners sadistic glee. Really. No, really. We're not doing this because we enjoy drinking the virtual tears of browbeaten ten year olds. We like reading fanfiction, and we like talking about it with other people. If the only critical advice you've ever seen was abusive or appeared to be for self-aggrandizement, I would suggest that this is because people who would have given you critical advice because they like talking about how to make stories better have been driven to stop giving critical advice by the first 34,234 rounds of this argument.

2) Some of us in the Cult of Mean like hearing negative reactions to our fanfiction, it is true. But there are plenty of us who will feel bad when someone says that our stories are poorly plotted, or the symbolism is anvilicious, or that our fic is ablist. Our stomachs might hurt a little bit, or we may close a browser window in disgust, or we may get on IM and yell at all of our friends to soothe our mental agony. We just don't think that displaying the negative emotional reaction publicly makes us look any better, and we do think that after we stop feeling deeply wounded, we just might learn something from the negative reactions.

3) We don't believe that every e-mail or comment labeled concrit contains the secret to rev up your sex drive, cure cancer, and get you that Pulitzer Prize. We know full well that you will be better able to evaluate advice from people you know something about than people you've never heard of before. And we don't believe that you are obligated to believe or follow any critical advice, or respond to it in any way. (Well, some of us think you should always respond to feedback, so a "Thanks for letting me know what you thought," may be called for.)

4) We believe one can forge relationships in fandom through critical discussion of fanfiction. These critical discussions are a way we enjoy relating to one another, it is a fun activity for us to share with other people, and, sometimes, if we do it long enough, these people become our friends.

So, we're not looking to hurt you, we don't think we're better able to think about fanfiction than you, we do have feelings, and some of those feelings are (a) critical discussion is fun and (b) people not liking something I did feels bad. Just FYI

I disagree with lamardeuse's post on concrit, because I want fandom (by which I mean journaling-based fanfiction-centric media fandom) to be an environment in which readers of fanfiction can discuss works of fanfiction with each other, based only on their common interest in a particular work of fanfiction, rather than their pre-existing personal relationships. I believe that defining fandom civility such that it is impossible to offer critical advice (and I'm ditching the phrase concrit because it has become loaded with radically conflicting meaning) to a stranger also precludes an environment in which fanfiction can be publicly discussed among the readers of it. I believe that such discussion is valuable to readers, in and of itself. I also think that such discussion has the potential to illuminate reader expectations, desires, responses to particular literary techniques, etc. for writers in a way that direct criticism doesn't capture. I live in terror of a fannish environment where negative opinions can only be offered among friends, because I was in fandom for six years before I made friends here, even though I spoke not infrequently on mailing lists (the main venue at the time.)

(The exception I would make to a public criticism culture is offering criticism on the instance of a story which is archived as a gift. This is not because of the writer's feelings, but out of concern for the recipient's ability to appreciate a present crafted specifically for her. I realize that this is not entirely consistent, but I like living in a world of nuance and exceptions.)

Also, I call bullshit on the notion that offering a normative vision of fannish behavior is not a bid to influence the behaviors of others within fandom. A second person analogy explaining proper behavior is a rhetorical advice which gets the audience to envision themselves behaving in the way you would prefer (or recoiling in horror at a vision of themselves behaving in a way the author believes is reprehensible.) If you, as a journaler, want to tell people about how you want to behave, then you can do that most effectively by talking about your own behavior. Telling the audience about their behavior is telling the audience how to behave.

ETA: To expand on why I call bullshit and quote myself:

People who claim "This behavior is polite; why have people stopped behaving in this fashion" have skipped a step in setting up group norms. They are claiming that there is already a consensus reality that the behavior they are discussing is the preferred behavior among those with the most inculcation into group mores. They are saying that the behavior under discussion is the normative behavior, that contradictory or competing behaviors are non-normative. They are claiming the moral (or at least rhetorical) high ground by embedding the assumption that people who disagree that the behavior they are advocating is normative/expected/customary/correct are in favor of rude behavior.

So that would be why a lot of people, including myself, are contesting you on the grounds of a) wanting to set up rules or b) definiting polite vs. rude behavior.

Title: "Closer"
Author: zvi_likes_tv
Recipient: callica
Pairing: Callie/Erica
Rating/Warnings: NC-17, PWP
Summary: Six months into their relationship, Callie and Erica get closer than ever before.
Disclaimer: This is an unauthorized fanwork based on the television series Grey's Anatomy. This fanwork has not been created or approved by any of Grey's Anatomy's owners, creators, or distributors.
Additional notes: Thank you, annavtree, for pointing out that I could start over. 1307 words

I wanna fuck you like an animal

Liquid Story Binder has sometimes been described as the Windows answer to Macintosh's much-renowned Scrivener. You can download Liquid Story Binder for free today at givewawayoftheday.com. Go get it, kittens. (XP and Vista compatible.)

Poll #1225483 linguistic madness two
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Do the following two statements have the same or different connotations? A) I don't like singing, so I don't like musicals. I didn't like Moulin Rouge. B) I don't like Moulin Rouge. It's a musical, and they keep breaking into song.

( Read more... )

Title: You can't put back a petal when it falls from a flower
Author: zvi_likes_tv
Recipient: sathinks in femslash08
Fandom: Grey's Anatomy
Pairing: Meredith Grey/Cristina Yang
Rating: PG
Word count: 2504
Disclaimer: This is an unauthorized fanwork based on the television series Grey's Anatomy. This fanwork has not been created or approved by any of Grey's Anatomy's owners or creators.
Summary: Cristina gets a haircut. Meredith gets a revelation.
Author's Notes: Story inspired by Flickr's answer to the search 'lesbian'. Title from the musical South Pacific. Thanks to caorann, fox1013, and the-willow.insanejournal.com for listening to me whine about this and audiencing.

You can't put back a petal when it falls from a flower

Don't post a "dear exchange-writer letter" when you're the participant to whom I'm assigned in a fic exchange.

OP: [makes a point]

Myself Commentor A: "Gee, I think you might be limiting your point. But then again, I might have misunderstood what you're saying. So I'm just going to put in my two cents on the matter."

Commenter zvi_likes_tv: "Rather than say, 'Hey, heads up, I think you're misinterpreting the OP and I would like to set you right,' I'm going to pose inflamatory questions that:
a.) assume a number of things I don't know about you,
b.) imply a number of things about you, and
c.) do little more than to evade my point and make me come across rather like a someone who's hungry for a fight."

Myself Commentor A: "Huh, well, that was kind of rude."

Commenter zvi_likes_tv: "OH YEAH? WELL NOW, I AM GOING TO TELL YOU HOW WRONG YOU ARE, BECAUSE CLEARLY, I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP."

Above is verbatim, but taken from a comment wherein she said, and I paraphrase: racism is a problem because white people get too much blame for it.

1) OP: Dominant group displaying -ism at 10 o'clock! Will ignorance ever stop before my head explodes? Stop, dominant group, stop!

2) Commentor A: Discriminated against group contains members who -ism against dominant group. Discrimination is not a one way street.

3a) Secondary commentors who believe Commentor A is someone who is new to discussion of -isms and doesn't realize they're making an ass of themselves: You do realize your comment is reinforcing the dominant -ism paradigm and is likely to make people view you less than charitably? People won't appreciate your comments on the difficulty of being dominant until life works like that in many, many more cases.

3b) Secondary commentors who believe Commentor A is a troll: Asshat.

4) Commentor A: Meanness! Rudeness! Inappropriate behavior on the internets!

5a/b) All secondary commentors: No, really, asshat.

I like it lots, but I don't necessarily have much to say about this episode. Except that LaT insists that Tyler is the same guy as the guy who is the philosophy teacher on Swingtown, and I don't think it's the same guy. What say you, LJ?

In any case, no long, elaborate +/- review, just some highlights.

( Of the good. )

Not much to criticize this week, really. ( Of the not-so-good )

The problem with fpreg is that the logical conclusion to draw from being unexpectedly pregnant is not that your girlfriend knocked you up, but that you were roofied and raped. Fuck. Now I've got to think up an entirely new premise for my femslash08 story.

When Callie's father visited her and George, did she call him dad, papà, father, or what?

Saw the fourth episode of Swingtown tonight, and I really do love this show. Trina and Tom are a little scheme-y about being with Bruce and Susan, but they're not pushy or evil about it. Bruce and Susan have a nice relationship, and Susan enchants me. (Not surprising, since I love Molly Parker.)

The relationships on this show feel very real, and the marriages very solid. I really get the feeling that Trina and Tom love each other, in a really solid, happy way.

But the best part of Swingtown is that Trina and Susan are so into each other. The Femslash basically sits up on screen and writes itself. This is the most strikingly femslash relationship I've seen since Callie and Erica. I have to remember to go check out femslash_today, and see if people have been posting stuff for this show.

And if they haven't, maybe I'll write up a ship manifesto.

Hey, you! Yes, you, over there! The one who's been ignoring about the awesome The Middleman.

You can catch up with The Middleman for free at Hulu.com. And, hey, the ABC Family player works on Linux! (Unlike ABC's.)

h/t executrix

batdina has started some discussion about how the comm will operate and what it will do. If you are Jewish, or if you are an ally who wants to participate, (and, I think, if you are a fan) go talk.

Passing the Bechdel test in the teaser +1 (Okay, I realize that Wendy and Lacey live together and talk about their jobs and apartment and Wendy's mom all the time, and will probably do so every week. Let me bask in the novelty just a little bit. I'm not sure GA passes the Bechdel test every week.)

MM has a weakness … admits it … asks for Wendy's advice … but already has a consultant lined up to help deal. +4

A major joke of the episode has to do with ( race ) -1.25

The ( consultant overacts ) -1

Lacy's sub-plot was fantastic! ( spoilerific burbles )+1

MM & Wendy get attacked by a raging fit of stupid at the same time, nearly destroying the world. ( spoilery bitching ) -2

Ida Cranky old not!woman +1

( Leaving a pistol above the fireplace ) -0.5

They got a lot of minuses this week, but this episode honestly was better than the pilot. The guy playing MM has settled down in his role a little more, so the whole goshdurn package feels more genuine. The A & B plots crossed in more organic feeling ways. And it was mostly funnier.

REMINDER: Next week, it moves to 10 p.m. on Mondays. I don't know if this is a bad sign, or if they're pulling stronger in a demo they didn't expect and think will be more willing to watch at 10.

Re: the Middleman -- My connection points out that I meant to say the show gets even better, as opposed to the backhanded compliment of better.

Re: con.txt ciderpress' con report is good overall, and contains a better write up of the FOC Safe Space panel than mine.