Escapade 2004: Saturday--part one
Feb. 27th, 2004 03:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaThe fact that the dealer's room opens at 9am is guaranteed to get us up, dressed and vittled in time to join the gathering hordes. Don't want to miss any good stuff, after all. I bought a few SG photos and a few notebooks with decorative fellows on them as gifts for friends that are far away but still close to my heart.
And I picked up some pre-ordered zines, too.
The first panel was Beyond Copyright, moderated by elke_tanzer . She has written up a fine report of her panel, so I won't be as thorough as I might be. I found myself sitting in the borderlands between "We steal it, we share it" and "Give me credit for my derivative work." Observations that seemed really hit me were: Having boundaries set you up for discomfort. That if we ask for permission and it is denied, we feel marginalized in our own community. Sometimes it's not about what's legal, but simply observing common courtesy. We will froth more when we feel powerless, and the fights are so big yet the stakes are so small. That fandom started out with the drive to find new people with which to share our interests, but now there is much effort in trying to keep people from our stuff, which is disquieting. The bottom line was to state what your boundaries are and what you will do if your wishes are not respected.
Slashing the Slashers: a not-so-virtual circle jerk. Now, I have to say I came into this panel with a big, "Oh come on now!" reaction and firm in my belief that I write the stories for me, and post them to repay the fandom kitty for the enjoyment I've received. But then they read a really cool poem called ode by gwynnega, and I thought, "Oh shit." The clearest example of what they're talking about is when a group of people are in chat and writing a smutty scene and as one person is writing, the others are typing, "Oh, that's so good! More, more!" I mean, under any other circumstances, how would anyone else interpret what was going on? We are, in effect, getting each other off, but I'm still sticking to that the focal point is the characters, though, and that everyone is getting off on them. Really. An observation I don't want to think about is that writing an erotic story is public masturbation where we invite others (the readers) to masturbate along with you. Okay, moving right along, now! I will heartily agree that Escapade itself is erotically charged, and a large mental orgy. It's cool that it's both cerebral and sexual, but then they do say that the most sexual organ is the brain, so there you go.
Three main contributing factors to slash are intimacy, privacy and security. In the privacy of our own space, we are free to explore subjects of great intimacy--our sexuality, and we can share that with other fans because we feel secure in our society. In fact, we can even find the safety and security to be sexy. We know we won't be rejected or exploited. In fact, our main society tends to judge sexual worth by one's appearance, so a slash writer who hasn't been considered sexual could suddenly find herself coveted by other fans for her ability to write well.
It was also noted that these intense relationships are like love affairs. It is very safe and non-threatening to love a character like Angel because he is not only fictional, but he's also a vampire. We can also form intense relationships with other slashers, but what happens when we meet these people in real life? Is the chemistry still there? And what if there's a breakup? Fans are loyal creatures, and sides will be chosen; these breakups can be just as messy as the more traditional type relationships. And in real life, a person may be het, yet intellectually be bi. Their conversations with other fans are intimate, perhaps even flirtatious...maybe leading the other person to the wrong idea where they will be rejected. The signals are getting mixed up. And when you add into that the exaggerated or false personas, then it becomes a very confusing situation.
Feedback. What else is it but the "Was it good for you?" question? There was the thought that why the "give me more!" feedback is irritating is because the reaction is, "Wasn't it good enough the first time?!"
The summing up included that slash fandom is important because we get to dictate our sexuality. We define it for ourselves and ping off each other. No rules. We will have two guys getting intimate, but by doing so, slashers are getting intellectually intimate with each other.
The next panel was Should Subtext become text? This was mainly looking at shows and decided were the relationships text, subtext or almost canon. Interesting thoughts were that slash fills in the plot holes between the scenes. Tension is attractive as a subtext and can be interpreted as sexual tension, but when it is made text or canon, it loses its attractiveness, its subversive nature. QAF fandom apparently has it slash fans in the RPS realm. That het relationships made canonical, can kill a show pretty fast. That a canonical slash relationship steals some of the fun because the genre of the first time story is wiped out by canon. Someone said they would rather have more HL Jimmy scenes--scenes that are charged emotionally rather than seeing these relationships made text. I have to admit the Jimmy scene was pretty damn hot and much more exciting then if Duncan and Methos had just been snogging.
When Fans Attack, was the next panel. It touched on the plagiarism as a flash point. But that many conflicts were misunderstandings due to losing tone because the communication was through writing. Critiques vs praise. Disagreements vs flames. The most irritating thing was the decision to not name names. People talked about certain fans behaving badly, perhaps even criminally, but were reluctant to name names. That was frustrating.
Okay, Saturday was such a full day this will have to be broken up. You were all probably beginning to skim anyway!
And I picked up some pre-ordered zines, too.
The first panel was Beyond Copyright, moderated by elke_tanzer . She has written up a fine report of her panel, so I won't be as thorough as I might be. I found myself sitting in the borderlands between "We steal it, we share it" and "Give me credit for my derivative work." Observations that seemed really hit me were: Having boundaries set you up for discomfort. That if we ask for permission and it is denied, we feel marginalized in our own community. Sometimes it's not about what's legal, but simply observing common courtesy. We will froth more when we feel powerless, and the fights are so big yet the stakes are so small. That fandom started out with the drive to find new people with which to share our interests, but now there is much effort in trying to keep people from our stuff, which is disquieting. The bottom line was to state what your boundaries are and what you will do if your wishes are not respected.
Slashing the Slashers: a not-so-virtual circle jerk. Now, I have to say I came into this panel with a big, "Oh come on now!" reaction and firm in my belief that I write the stories for me, and post them to repay the fandom kitty for the enjoyment I've received. But then they read a really cool poem called ode by gwynnega, and I thought, "Oh shit." The clearest example of what they're talking about is when a group of people are in chat and writing a smutty scene and as one person is writing, the others are typing, "Oh, that's so good! More, more!" I mean, under any other circumstances, how would anyone else interpret what was going on? We are, in effect, getting each other off, but I'm still sticking to that the focal point is the characters, though, and that everyone is getting off on them. Really.
Three main contributing factors to slash are intimacy, privacy and security. In the privacy of our own space, we are free to explore subjects of great intimacy--our sexuality, and we can share that with other fans because we feel secure in our society. In fact, we can even find the safety and security to be sexy. We know we won't be rejected or exploited. In fact, our main society tends to judge sexual worth by one's appearance, so a slash writer who hasn't been considered sexual could suddenly find herself coveted by other fans for her ability to write well.
It was also noted that these intense relationships are like love affairs. It is very safe and non-threatening to love a character like Angel because he is not only fictional, but he's also a vampire. We can also form intense relationships with other slashers, but what happens when we meet these people in real life? Is the chemistry still there? And what if there's a breakup? Fans are loyal creatures, and sides will be chosen; these breakups can be just as messy as the more traditional type relationships. And in real life, a person may be het, yet intellectually be bi. Their conversations with other fans are intimate, perhaps even flirtatious...maybe leading the other person to the wrong idea where they will be rejected. The signals are getting mixed up. And when you add into that the exaggerated or false personas, then it becomes a very confusing situation.
Feedback. What else is it but the "Was it good for you?" question? There was the thought that why the "give me more!" feedback is irritating is because the reaction is, "Wasn't it good enough the first time?!"
The summing up included that slash fandom is important because we get to dictate our sexuality. We define it for ourselves and ping off each other. No rules. We will have two guys getting intimate, but by doing so, slashers are getting intellectually intimate with each other.
The next panel was Should Subtext become text? This was mainly looking at shows and decided were the relationships text, subtext or almost canon. Interesting thoughts were that slash fills in the plot holes between the scenes. Tension is attractive as a subtext and can be interpreted as sexual tension, but when it is made text or canon, it loses its attractiveness, its subversive nature. QAF fandom apparently has it slash fans in the RPS realm. That het relationships made canonical, can kill a show pretty fast. That a canonical slash relationship steals some of the fun because the genre of the first time story is wiped out by canon. Someone said they would rather have more HL Jimmy scenes--scenes that are charged emotionally rather than seeing these relationships made text. I have to admit the Jimmy scene was pretty damn hot and much more exciting then if Duncan and Methos had just been snogging.
When Fans Attack, was the next panel. It touched on the plagiarism as a flash point. But that many conflicts were misunderstandings due to losing tone because the communication was through writing. Critiques vs praise. Disagreements vs flames. The most irritating thing was the decision to not name names. People talked about certain fans behaving badly, perhaps even criminally, but were reluctant to name names. That was frustrating.
Okay, Saturday was such a full day this will have to be broken up. You were all probably beginning to skim anyway!
