Ooh, you wrote Harry/Draco? I think maybe I remember that. Unfortunately the only HP pairing that has ever engaged me is R/S ... Sirius Black hits my buttons like you wouldn't believe. (I have a type. It's so fucking predictable.)
Man, I am sorry about not keeping up with the website/fanfic stuff. I really intended to, for a long time. I just get further and further away from it. You can still rec me stuff... I am thinking, like, maybe updating once a month, something like that, adding a few stories here and there. And there are still a bunch that I NEED to add, that I've gotten approval for. *guilts*
I know, you didn't intend to make me feel guilty. But I do feel very bad for not keeping up these responsibilities.
Ohhh yeah, that social awkwardness comment. It is very true. I just remember, like, the old days on BAPS when I first got into fandom. I got into the most amazing discussions with complete strangers, about stuff incredibly close to my heart: the nature of free will and choice, the possibility of redemption no matter how badly you've screwed up, etc. Spike gave us a common language, a metaphor with which we could discuss these issues in intimate detail. But the issues themselves went WAY beyond Spike, or the Buffyverse, or anything like that. And of course, we still do stuff like that on LJ... though I don't participate as often.
I am a big believer in the power of fiction to help people grow and understand the world. I think about everything in terms of metaphor. Popular culture is our new mythology, and I love treating it as such, and digging deeply into it instead of dismissing it out of hand.
I grew as a person because of Spike fandom. I got out of a shitty relationship because watching of watching S6 and yelling at Spike to stop letting that bitch treat him like shit. It got me thinking about power dynamics in a way I hadn't before, that was really healthy for me. And the same with the whole free will thing... I don't think Spike ever figured it out, really, but I certainly learned a lot about my own power of choice from analyzing that show.
I guess the one thing to be cautious about (which I don't think you're doing; it's just something I try to avoid myself) is making assumptions about people because of their fictional preferences. Like, for example, you support Buffy/Angel, so clearly you've never grown past an immature high-school type idea of romance. That's certainly not always true, though it may be for some people. Or, y'know, you support Spuffy because you think rape is okay. People make these assumptions are arguments all the time, when it should be common sense that we are all way more complicated, and different, than that.
And then there's the fact that I can have a fannish interest totally in common with someone, and yet we can be different in all other respects. This amuses me about my friendship with drujan, for example. We feel exactly the same way about Buffy (ie, we loathe her and would love to see her die a slow horrible death). Yet in real life, most of our ideas about gender and relationships tend to be almost opposite.
no subject
Man, I am sorry about not keeping up with the website/fanfic stuff. I really intended to, for a long time. I just get further and further away from it. You can still rec me stuff... I am thinking, like, maybe updating once a month, something like that, adding a few stories here and there. And there are still a bunch that I NEED to add, that I've gotten approval for. *guilts*
I know, you didn't intend to make me feel guilty. But I do feel very bad for not keeping up these responsibilities.
Ohhh yeah, that social awkwardness comment. It is very true. I just remember, like, the old days on BAPS when I first got into fandom. I got into the most amazing discussions with complete strangers, about stuff incredibly close to my heart: the nature of free will and choice, the possibility of redemption no matter how badly you've screwed up, etc. Spike gave us a common language, a metaphor with which we could discuss these issues in intimate detail. But the issues themselves went WAY beyond Spike, or the Buffyverse, or anything like that. And of course, we still do stuff like that on LJ... though I don't participate as often.
I am a big believer in the power of fiction to help people grow and understand the world. I think about everything in terms of metaphor. Popular culture is our new mythology, and I love treating it as such, and digging deeply into it instead of dismissing it out of hand.
I grew as a person because of Spike fandom. I got out of a shitty relationship because watching of watching S6 and yelling at Spike to stop letting that bitch treat him like shit. It got me thinking about power dynamics in a way I hadn't before, that was really healthy for me. And the same with the whole free will thing... I don't think Spike ever figured it out, really, but I certainly learned a lot about my own power of choice from analyzing that show.
I guess the one thing to be cautious about (which I don't think you're doing; it's just something I try to avoid myself) is making assumptions about people because of their fictional preferences. Like, for example, you support Buffy/Angel, so clearly you've never grown past an immature high-school type idea of romance. That's certainly not always true, though it may be for some people. Or, y'know, you support Spuffy because you think rape is okay. People make these assumptions are arguments all the time, when it should be common sense that we are all way more complicated, and different, than that.
And then there's the fact that I can have a fannish interest totally in common with someone, and yet we can be different in all other respects. This amuses me about my friendship with