Now for a blast from the past

[wickedwords]

Back in 1999, I published "You Big Bully! The Dynamics of Fan Created Power Imbalances." This was before having a rant page was popular and before the symposium, so sherrold hosted it, as she had more traffic to her site than I did.

(Later on that year, I did the fannish potlatch, and posted it at the symposium, where it still exists today.)

Well, the fannish world has changed between 1999 and today, and yet many of the core thoughts in the column still hold true. So I asked cereta if she would mind putting it on the symposium, as everyone looking for it expected it to be there.

And now, it is.

You Big Bully

Three point characterization is now up on the symposium as well.

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

so glad it's up! i actually just reread the transcendental debates and i kepton thinking 3-point!!! 3-point :-)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

One of the sidebars to this is that I think that if an author writes enough, their version of the character gets to be known to a reader, so when that author then chooses a largely different set of three-points for their character, the audience that *doesn't* already see that interp, but who did buy into the old interp, then feels betrayed. That's not the version of the character that they know and love (or have accepted and adapted to); it's different and not what they were expecting. There's a lot of resistance, and the author has an even bigger burden, if they decide they'll go for it, in not only presenting the case to the people that buy into those 3 points, but they have a bunch of people actively resistant to the changes that now have to be convinced, and who can only be convinced by the author not only showing the connection to canon and migrating the interp, but showing the connection to their 'usual' characterization and then migrating the interp. And that's a really big burden to put on an author, but it does seem to be a piece of the whole characterization puzzle.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

well, if i ever write a paper along these lines, i want to talk about first of the month and the fire :D

in other words...oh yes!!!

I was just thinking of "You Big Bully"

[emyrys.livejournal.com]

thanks for posting the link. I was just about to go look for it, as I haven't read it in awhile but was in the mood to read it again.

I usually read your entries on my friends page, but I just went over to your journal to check on something & I saw one of my all-time favorite quotes (blood & rhetoric from "R&G are Dead").

Also -- last night as I went to sleep, I thought I need to write you & elyn & killa about Desert Prince (again :-) ). I am reading a long, WIP that involves a slave based AU (its in another fandom, and is pseudo-European-medieval-slavery) . I'm reading it for various reasons, and for the most part I am enjoying it. But periodically (actually, fairly often) I get thrown completely out of the story either because 1) there's some hideous anachronism (i don't care if its AU, the fact that they are careful for germs when surgery (surgery ?!?) is described in detail is distracting) or 2) the slave character is reduced to a complete emotional child.

And I realized last night, as I was drifting off to sleep after reading the latest installment, that in the whole time I've read & enjoyed SotDP, I can't recall ever once being jarred out of the story by some anachronism that didn't fit. And Duncan has always been the proud, emotionally adult (well, relatively speaking :-) ), strong, proud character he always had been, even if he is a slave.

I am even more impressed with the writing of the krell than I was before.

So, once again, let me thank you for all that you have shared with fandom (and thus with me) -- esp. your talent (which is amazing).

And you're writing in fandoms I am currenty reading!! Woohoo!!! (House -- my current obsession & SGA -- which I am still resisting, although I am reading more & more (all chelle's fault :- ) )). I especially liked Bodies in Motion.

Re: I was just thinking of "You Big Bully"

[emyrys.livejournal.com]

oops -- i;m tired -- just caught that that was a rec & actually Greensilver wrote it. So thanks for the rec. (and where's the embarassed icon when you need it :-/ ).

Re: I was just thinking of "You Big Bully"

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

No worries, hon! I'm glad you liked the story, and enjoyed the rec.

Re: I was just thinking of "You Big Bully"

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

You know, it was really great to hear how much you are still liking desert prince. I feel like I have been writing that story for most of my on-line life (we started in in 1998!), and I know it's been a trial for people, what with the real life interference and all meaning sometime we only post one chapter in a year. So to hear that you still like it and are still reading it makes me very, very happy, and I thank you for that. {{hugs}}

And yay for new fandoms too! I loved greensilver's story, and was happy to pass along a link. And mmmchelle is the one who pulled me into SGA, so it's all her fault for me as well. It's very exciting to be involved in episodic tv fandoms again; I really haven't done that since Highlander and Sentinel went off the air, low these many years ago. I've been doing book fandoms and movie fandoms since then.

[47-trek-47.livejournal.com]

Hee. That is a wonderful essay. I especially agree with the concluding bolded point. ;)

This whole thing is why I almost exclusively read bottom!Jim fic in Sentinel. Not so much because I thought Jim was always a bottom, but because whenever Blair bottomed, it seemed disturbingly common for him to turn into some wussy little not!Blair creature...

I remember me and my friends used to notice something we called "Shrinking Blair Syndrome," (I'm pretty sure we weren't the ones to coin the term) where Blair and his various body parts (like hands and such) were always described as "small" and "slim" and "shorter". Heh. Funny thing is, I see a bit of this with Methos now that I'm reading Highlander... and... ok, yeah, he's a bit shorter than Duncan, but, come on!

Hee. Fanfic is a strange but wonderful thing.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Em Brusen used to have this rec page of bottom!Jim stories, and I used to visit a lot when I was in TS, hoping she'd update it. I loved the way the power dynaimics changed simply by putting Blair on top. *sigh*

And oh my yes. The incredible shinking BSO (beloved slash object). The get so tiny, you can put them in your pocket and sometimes I kinda like that.

Fans, fanfic, and fandom -- how bizzare yet interesting.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think I've ever told you how much I admire your essays on fandom, which is really terrible because I tell other people all the time, and this year, I've been telling people publicly at conferences and such. So today's the banner day when I actually tell YOU. *g*

(Hey, it's always better to know that people are saying NICE things about you behind your back, eh?)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is really nice to hear. It is just so weird to me that articles I wrote in 1999 continue to be of interest to people, and knowing that they are getting outside of fandom...huh. I never expected anything like that.

And it's totally cool to learn that people are saying nice things about me and my work. After the last couple of days, I really needed to hear that, so thanks.