Are you going to be at Toronto Trek? I'm really trying to figure out whether to go. I already have a ticket to the con (transferred over from last year when I didn't go, after JM cancelled), and I really want to see Toronto. Plus I want to hang out and see the con and everything. It just depends on money and job stability and that kind of thing.
And lol re: the rpf debate. I'm squicked by it too in theory ... I know, I know! But I am! I just can't understand how in practice, I'm not!
I'm like the exact opposite. In theory, I have no problem with it. It's not the actual person, it's a character based on that person's public persona. Which is totally fine with me; it's no different than an entertainment magazine. And it's actually much more interesting than that because it's playing with our cultural obsession with "celebrities" and exploring the boundaries around that--thinking about it and reinterpreting it instead of just swallowing what we're being fed. It's transgressive in a way similar to fanfic. And if people like you and Annie and Kita and Glossing are writing it, it must be producing some beautiful and insightful and interesting writing.
But I can't bring myself to actually read it; I've tried and just ... eeek. Makes me shudder and close the page. It just totally creeps me out. (Which is not in any way a value judgement on those who enjoy it. It's my personal issue.) I have a hard time reading any kind of fiction that incorporates real people, though, even historical fiction, for example. (I was just watching "Ever After" and it creeps me out that they included Leonardo da Vinci as a character in there, even though it's totally harmless and silly). I think largely this is because I'm the kind of person who presents a public persona that is not at all like my private persona, and when people extrapolate what I'm supposedly like based on how I seem in public, it's always totally wrong. I don't like when people do that to me, so I don't want to do it to other people. (I feel this even in real life contexts, not just fiction, like I'm always hesitant to guess at someone's underlying motivations or opinions.)
Whoa. Sorry for the babble. Just want to stress again that I have nothing but respect for the RPF writers that I know, and that just because it squicks me doesn't mean that I think there's anything inherently wrong with it.
Re:
And lol re: the rpf debate. I'm squicked by it too in theory ... I know, I know! But I am! I just can't understand how in practice, I'm not!
I'm like the exact opposite. In theory, I have no problem with it. It's not the actual person, it's a character based on that person's public persona. Which is totally fine with me; it's no different than an entertainment magazine. And it's actually much more interesting than that because it's playing with our cultural obsession with "celebrities" and exploring the boundaries around that--thinking about it and reinterpreting it instead of just swallowing what we're being fed. It's transgressive in a way similar to fanfic. And if people like you and Annie and Kita and Glossing are writing it, it must be producing some beautiful and insightful and interesting writing.
But I can't bring myself to actually read it; I've tried and just ... eeek. Makes me shudder and close the page. It just totally creeps me out. (Which is not in any way a value judgement on those who enjoy it. It's my personal issue.) I have a hard time reading any kind of fiction that incorporates real people, though, even historical fiction, for example. (I was just watching "Ever After" and it creeps me out that they included Leonardo da Vinci as a character in there, even though it's totally harmless and silly). I think largely this is because I'm the kind of person who presents a public persona that is not at all like my private persona, and when people extrapolate what I'm supposedly like based on how I seem in public, it's always totally wrong. I don't like when people do that to me, so I don't want to do it to other people. (I feel this even in real life contexts, not just fiction, like I'm always hesitant to guess at someone's underlying motivations or opinions.)
Whoa. Sorry for the babble. Just want to stress again that I have nothing but respect for the RPF writers that I know, and that just because it squicks me doesn't mean that I think there's anything inherently wrong with it.