I misunderstood the point of this ride

Gaaaaah. It's ninety-plus degrees out, humid and sunny, and the air conditioning in this old building (the school, where I'm working 'til I find more gainful employment) is kaput. I feel like I've been put on a slow broil, here.

Here are some current fandom-related articles I've been reading lately, since I'm too fried to try and provide much in the way of my own content right now!

The Truth Of Wolves, Or: The Alpha Problem - written with urban fantasy fiction (mostly novels, I think) in mind, but interesting to reflect on with regard to Teen Wolf and TW fic. I was talking about the whole intensely stratified Alpha/Omega 'verse thing with a fannish friend a few weeks ago ... something I haven't exactly been surprised to see proliferating in TW fandom? But I was surprised to hear that she's been seeing it in other places (like hockey RPF, apparently?), and even being used separately from anything related to (were)wolves. IDK. It reminds me of how fascinating I found the concept of Recognition in ElfQuest (if anyone besides were_duck and myself have read that) as a kid, only to grow up and be kind of disturbed by the whole 'biological imperative" thing.

The Mary Sue's Star Trek: Into Darkness review - WARNING: not squeeful. A rather good, articulate analysis of the same problems I was having with the film.

Elementary, My Dear Joan Watson: An Egalitarian Sherlock? - a bit of a love-fest for Elementary and Joan Watson, cosigned 100%. I was trying to convince a non-fannish classmate of the show's amazingness some time back, and he was very dubious, citing less-than-gripping mysteries. Which I would only sometimes argue, but as s.e. smith writes, "On Elementary, the real case study is in human beings, not in criminology." Fantastic (platonic!) relationship dynamics FOR THE WIN.

Watsons, Hudsons, and Invisible Labour - a fantastic post by thingswithwings that does a beautiful job of articulating my thoughts on various Watson portrayals (and the reason why I always, always prefer the active, smart Watsons, and find Joan to be the most rewarding of all) ... and makes some really excellent point about the way Hudsons are and aren't (generally the latter) valued in Holmes adaptations. (I agree: I really hope we see MUCH more of Elementary's fantastic Ms. Hudson next season!) All outlining a point about decentralizing and reversing the worshipful, exceptionalist white dude genius centric narrative that I often find so troubling (even though I love Holmes, and so much of Holmes--canon and adaptation--is all about that).

Oh god, okay. Almost time to go. Tonight I am taking the excuse to go hole up in a movie theater and watch the story of another troubled white dude genius ... and his robotic armor. :p Finally.

Come on, my beloved grad school of choice: post your 2011 application guidelines already! I am slow, I want to get started.

On a vaguely related subject, I've been thinking a lot about race, inclusiveness, and clarity of visual representation in art/comics. I would welcome thoughts from other artists - or anyone else, for that matter (so long as you don't dismiss the importance of the subject, which I take seriously).

I should note from the start that while I'm going to begin with some broad background, this isn't really a comprehensive piece of social commentary - I'm interested in comparing notes from a creative perspective, and have been pondering how best to improve inclusiveness within my own work. (Criticism of my approach, as well as the content of the post, is definitely welcome. This is an area of privilege for me.)

( On portraying characters of color in cartoons and comics. )

Some seriously shitty things have been happening IRL lately (not really to me, but to people I love); thank goodness for the distractions of the internet. There seems to have been a minor flare-up of two bandom-centric wanks (the warnings business and bandflesh). Funtimes! :| I don't really have anything to add, except a great big WORD to wistfuljane's post. (impertinence also has a worthwhile post on Anonymity and Livejournal.)

On the other hand, this has spawned a nifty post from iamtheenemy about fandom experience. A lot of people have been weighing in about their fannish history in the comments, which I find fascinating. *_* Mine's kind of pointlessly overcomplicated, but thinking about it reminded me of a conversation I was having with hermionesviolin awhile back, which was sort of hilarious.

I'd been musing over my ten-year fandom anniversary (I got into my first fandoms, Sailormoon and Labyrinth, during 9th grade; the 1998-99 school year), when something odd occurred to me. I also began the process of coming out (to myself, as well as to others) during that time, and it was also around then that I started drawing 'seriously.'

( LOL NOSTALGIA )

Also tangential to the whole personal fan history thing: Star Trek is reminding me why I have always gotten into fandoms late, when there are already tons of recs and goodfic epics just waiting for me. My life, so hard.

If I can't find enough Kirk/Spock to satisfy the craving right now (I have an unusually strong case of OTP fever, ack), at least there is all kinds of Ray/Ray fic I can go back and read. It's a long story, but I just finally watched "Call Of The Wild" for the first time on Tuesday. (I laughed, I cried; I made noises only dogs could hear; I lol no'd bowling alleys. I am currently rereading brooklinegirl's Long Road (Long Ride Home) and it's even better now. ♥)

Oh, and lol latest, but: I'm really sorry about your band's split, Panic fans. :( I know I'd be devastated if it were MCR. I really hope that you keep enjoying your fic, bbs, and maybe even wind up with two great bands to love. ♥

I'm sincerely sorry, flist, for continuing to rant at you, but I guess I have a few more things to say about the warnings mess. I'll probably be stopping after this, though.

( I just don't understand where some people are coming from. )

Whew, okay, that was much longer than I expected. Briefly, I discussed: "your triggers are not my problem"/community sensibilities, the anger of pro-warning fans, survivors and pro-warning advocates "attacking" ficcers, censorship, and demands for consensus on a list of triggers to warn for. With lots of attempts to explain what I think the pro-warnings camp is attempting to say and to accomplish. (My understanding of the situation ultimately represents nobody's opinions but my own. Obviously.)

I think I'm done now--shit, I have so much to do that is NOT THIS--but here are a few more links. While I think that the analogies being thrown around are inherently problematic (fandom is neither a bookstore nor a supermarket), vassilissa's take on the food allergy analogy is at least better, IMO: "You'll have to find that out for yourself. You can always leave if you smell peanuts. It's your responsibility, not mine." kalpurna has a handy list of ways to make your warnings optional by hiding them. And lastly, the unfunnybusiness write-up has lots more links, including to a lot of the posts where the wank started and was primarily continued.

[ETA:] quettaser does the math. *_*

[ETA 2:] As usual, have not been able to pull myself away from haphazardly reading more posts on this subject. /o\ The more I do (and the calmer I am; I fully admit that my previous post in particular was written in a haze of rage), the more things seem to boil down to one simple issue. People don't like to be told what to do. Duh, I know. (And: a simplification, I know. But significant.) I don't have a lot of respect for that reaction (in this case), but I get it. However, this is not about people telling other people what to do: it's about people asking for help. I wish some people out there would read impertinence's post about triggers (again, if need be), and try to re-focus their perspective a little. In context, that contrary reaction is fucking selfish.