(no subject)

[astridv]

I'm only one page away from finishing my current project and I think it can be done by tonight. Emphasis on 'night' but anyway, the thought fills me with glee. Also, for the past week I have managed to fight off the roommate's evil killer virus; don't want to jinx it but maybe I won't catch it this time around. *fingers crossed*

Interesting links:
selenak posts on the famous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.

(via metafandom) matociquala aka Elizabeth Bear on why fanfic doesn't bother her. After the ongoing insanity in Lee Goldberg's blog* it's refreshing to hear a more reasonable perspective.

*(current round still not over... o.O But the wankiest parts have been deleted.)

Comments

[newscaper.livejournal.com]

would you clarify fan wanking?

I know what the verb wank means, and therefore the general sense of calling someone a wanker, but I'm not sure which people are the wankers here.

this is the short answer, really

[astridv.livejournal.com]

fandom_wank (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/) defines wank: Self-aggrandizing posturing. Fannish absurdities. Circular ego-stroking. Endless flamewars. Pseudointellectual definitions.

The wank in question, Lee Goldberg vs The Fic Community, has been going on for years. Like I said, long story. (Warning: only visit his blog when you got time to waste, that thing sucks you in. The main rule when reading the blog is, do not engage. Many have tried, but those folks just aren't open to arguments at all.)

Urm, maybe I shouldn't link you while you're still busy writing Servare Vitas ;)

Cliff notes: Lee is a tv writer, executive producer or what not, and also makes a living writing licensed fanfic tie in novels. And, he hates fanfic with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns... which in itself wouldn't be wanky, the man is entitled to his opinion. Thing is, Lee is not interested in discussion, he just likes to bash the fanfic community so the discussions on his blog tend to be heavy on the ad-hominems - the fic community has been called cape-wearing losers, thieves, pedophiles, and rapists. Also, the anti-fic crowd merrily mix up issues of legality, morality, and ethics, als well as the concepts of theft, plagiarism, and copyright infringement. Reading of Lee's blog induces heavy eye-rolling.

The wank I was referring to is here: leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2006/10/novik_on_fanfic.html . One of the fic-defenders, Kete, is German. Naturally, a few fic-haters found it necessary to slam Kete in particular and Germans in general with a few choice Hitler-comparisons. It only went downhill from there.

Finally Kete threatened to link Lee's German business partners to the thread since he left those troll comments undeleted, in her opinion implying agreement (in mine too). This was followed by counter-threats from other commenters to hunt down Kete and, I dunno, destroy her career or whatever. Then Lee finally intervened, claiming he never saw the German-bashing comments because he never reads the comments to older posts (hah! Show me any blogger who don't read their comments :P), and deleted the whole mud-slinging fest.

I forgot

[astridv.livejournal.com]

If you haven't tuned out by now (for some reason I never tire of it) I have two recent posts on that topic which got some interesting discussion in the comments, here (http://astridv.livejournal.com/61574.html) and here (http://astridv.livejournal.com/61124.html)