for tonight, I rest

I seem to have caused my first fandom kerfuffle. After responding, imnsho, fairly intelligently where needed and sincerely apologizing where it was called for, I am to bed.

For the record: Pet and Georgina rock for putting forth their time, effort, and dedication into making Don We Now Our Gay Apparel happen for the rest of us, and I never meant to indicate that I held them in anything but the highest esteem, no matter how much I may have subjectively disagreed with their decisions.

Sleep now.

Look, kids.

I called a spade a spade here because that's what I saw. It wasn't a case of well-intentioned but ultimately bad fanfiction - the way I saw it, it was a deliberately bad-faith and half-hearted (if that) effort to do something that was supposed to bring another person joy while keeping in mind that the same was being done for you. It was ill-intentioned and it *hurt* people and I don't feel unjustified for having said something about it, nor do I feel any of what I said has been in error, considering the source material.

That's as succinct as I can make it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have arrived.

From little newbies to seasoned veterans to their cocker spaniels, every little fan in fandom has a wish. They hope that someday, they'll say something inflammatory enough to end up in the hallowed forums of fandom_wank. Some go out of their way purposely to accomplish this, some do it purely by accident, but the day you appear in some outraged, half-formed petty tirade of a rant in a post there, you know you've made a name for yourself.

Well guess what. No day but today, baby!

fandom_wank! How amused is everyone? I'm in agonizing paroxisms of bemusement here. Maybe it's the resolution but wow. Appropriately enough, I found this out by following a third person's comment to a link in her journal to a comment posted in that forum by someone who actually replied in my own journal but didn't feel the need to link her own little outside rant. Heh. More amusement fodder for me!

It's really too bad I've addressed the issue they raised with my original post several times already, and even more unfortunate that it was never an issue to begin with. That part of the post was my subjective little whine for the evening, not a spiteful denoucement of either Pet or Georgina personally, nor their decisions regarding Don We Now Our Gay Apparel. I regret that that was ever lost in the translation.

If there's one line I've heard more than any other through all this...

it's the old standby, "Don't take this so seriously."

Well, which part am I not supposed to take seriously?

The part where people were hurt by the malicious content of what was supposed to be a Christmas present? Well pardon me for sticking up for my friends and having a problem with something I saw as an injustice and the gall to stand up and say something about it all.

The part where it's "just fanfiction" and therefore isn't worthy of being recognized as the authors possessing merit, as being just as good if not better than the last published novel I picked up, as being equally valid as a Shakespearean sonnet for consumption and discussion purposes?

I love fandom, and it's just not possible for me to love the phenomenon of fanfiction any more than I already do. I applaud the authors who put in their own time and hard work to bring us these wonderful stories for which there is no other forum. I applaud RPS writers even moreso, as the distribution is even more limited without the existence of archives which are liable to be found by the Powers and that only causes heartbreak, and for doing it despite the inherently "controversial" nature of their subject matter. They give of themselves and without any sort of substantive, real-world compensation, creating something and sharing it with the rest of us because that's what they want to be doing. And that can be everything, to the author or her public.

There are people who don't like Shakespeare, or the classics in general, but make sacrifices at the altars of their favorite fanfiction authors. Are their opinions less valid if they can back them rationally and intelligently, as is the requirement for any logical argument?

And no, people, it isn't "just fandom" any more than it's "just fanfiction." I don't think any of us are dismissive of the relationships we've formed or the good times we've had because this mutual thing of adoration brought us together. On some occasions, a single piece of fanfiction has been just as poignant and significant to my life. Hell, it's just like their music, and the boys are always talking about how that's what they love hearing, that's what they hope to accomplish, to touch just one person, to make them feel their music and understand that it means the world, if only for that moment. And when that happens, I'm just supposed to laugh it off or roll my eyes because it hasn't won a Grammy, or in this case, a Pulitzer?

But that's just me, and of course, as per the sentiment I haven't seen nearly enough in the course of this whole discussion, YMMV.