Veritaserum Meme. But wait there's more!

[jlh]

First, you know I rarely do the cryptic, but I have to this time:
HA!/gloating

Welcome back to everyone who was at Lumos. I'm pleased to hear you had a good time. Thanks to wordplay, I'm very seriously considering Phoenix Rising even though it will be complicated both financially and logisitically. On that subject, I've recently started watching metafandom and I'm finding it rather interesting, thinking about what meta I care about and what I don't, and what themes are really about fandom and not any one per se. Which leads me to a meme stolen from slytherincess, which I admit some of this is only a corollary to:

The Veritaserum Meme

1. Here's the general theme, for those of you with a short attention span: You're in fandom. Guess what? You're a fan. It's really easy to make fun of the fannish behavior of people who are fans of other canon, or of things in your own canon that you don't care about, but you've done half that shit yourself, so stop being so superior. Mocking is not a sign of a higher intelligence.
   
2. Other reasons to stop being so superior include (a) your ship being canon (b) the canon creator saying they like your favorite character (c) predicting a canon plot point or character arc. You were right. Yay. Did you win a car? No? Okay then.
   
3. Speaking of which, you want to know why the slashers seem more ubiquitous and more together than the het-fans? Because so many het-fans are too fucking busy having ultimately pointless canon ship battles that they can't organize, can't run a good archive, can't get along for longer than ten minutes. And I think it sucks.
   
4. Also in the "we're all in fandom" theme: Your fanfic is fanon. I don't care if you predict every event in book 7, or who wins the reality show: it's still fanon. It's all just a matter of degrees away from canon.
   
5. Corollary to slytherincess's #3: Fandom isn't a zero-sum game. Someone or something else being popular doesn't make you less popular. It can mean that you don't get as much fic in your preferred pairing/style, but that also means there isn't as much badfic in your preferred pairing/style.
   
6. Some people like their fic to be junk food. They don't care about characterization, or plot, or arcs or good dialogue; they just want it to be hot sex. Those who can churn those stories out—and I mean, at least one a week if not more often—will get popular. (Maybe not respected, but popular.) McDonald's is also popular, and it satisfies that craving, but I don't think anyone confuses it with haute cuisine. That said, no one wants to eat haute cuisine all the time, either.
   
7. Corollary to slytherincess's #4: Really, no one cares about your RPG character. Really. I'm glad you're having fun; I had fun in my RPG too, and I know how it can take over your fannish life. Talk about it on the OOC comm; that's what it's there for.
   
8. Enough with the grammar police. Seriously. It doesn't make you look smart; it makes you look inflexible and obnoxious. If you're too busy checking my subject-verb agreement to bother dealing with the actual content of my sentence, then you might want to take a step back. Not everything on LJ needs to be a fully beta'd essay.
   
9. On the other hand, if you don't care enough about your story or essay to use capital letters, avoid netspeak, and follow enough grammar rules to make it easily readable then I don't care enough about your story or essay to read it.
   
10. Corollary to slytherincess's #8: Don't be obnoxious about character death. If your own favorite character died, you'd be in mourning for a while, so don't make fun of other people's mourning just because you didn't care about Sirius or Dumbledore. The point of the canon deaths is to have emotional impact. If JKR cried buckets of tears killing Sirius off in the first place, why is it wanky for someone reading the book to be upset about it? (And no, I'm not talking "I'm writing a letter to JKR because she was wrong" upset, but "wah, I'm still sad" upset.)
    
11. Corollary to slytherincess's #9: On the other hand, if you need to put 8340572984350927345 god damn warnings on a fic you wrote, go write horror novels far, far away from me. Death or rape or torture or whatever you're doing doesn't make a story deeper, particularly when badly done—and we've all seen them badly done.
    
12. All right, I'm going to tell the Truth about Inner Circles. Of course they exist. They're circles of people who became friends the same way that most people become friends online: they liked the same things, or found the same things funny, or whatever. Very often, they came into fandom at the same time. And when they decided to create archives or writers groups, they asked their friends to help or join, which is what most people do. They weren't doing it to keep you out. Cliques are an uncomfortable fact of human relationships and we've all been on the wrong end of them. Maybe you should learn from Heathers or Mean Girls and instead of angling for a seat at the cool kids' table you should just start your own table. (Full disclosure: In my own cliquey high school, I was a music geek and sat at the table with the other band and chorus kids.) It's true what the Inner Circle people say, that the way to "get in" is to contribute in some way, by working as a mod or writing great stories, but what is so much more likely is that you will create your OWN Inner Circle which honestly, is so much more awesome. After all, what creates the hierarchies is people thinking that the cool kids are cool. If you ignore the cool kids and make your own kind of music, then you're also contributing to the leveling of fandom, which I think we all want.
    
13. Is this meme actually different than the "unpopular fandom opinions" meme?

Comments

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

Hee. I love your "HA!".

Also, yay! I mean, don't make yourself nuts over it, but fun awaits you!

I don't know if it's quite the same as unpopular opinions, although there are obvious similarities. That said, I'm thinking about it and I'm not sure I'm enough in the swim of the fandom to have my own truths to tell. *ponders*

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Everyone wants me to go which is an awesome feeling. And I want to go without making myself nuts. I also want to figure out a way to get a het panel that won't eat itself. Like maybe, can't we just lay down our arms and hug? Why couldn't we keep EE going? Are we all so ship specific? What can we learn here?

Or you know, minor chars, but that feels sort of like a lot of people going "I think I think I think."

[ciceronianus.livejournal.com]

This seems to read differently than most of the "unpopular fandom opinions" memes I've ever come across - a lot of those come off as self-important or obnoxious or just boring, really, this meme wasn't any of those, despite the fact it made pointed remarks.

[evil-erato.livejournal.com]

So... PR! I really hope it works out for you to come, because that would be so awesome I don't have words. :D

As to the meme, a hearty word to it all, especially #12. :)

Randomly, did you get Sharpies? I'm still in love with mine... ;)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to get them tonight after I have sushi with Emily since I'm planning on doing a lot more cleaning tonight.

It's so nice that people really want me there. I hope I can work it out without turning myself into a crazy person.

[ladyjaida.livejournal.com]

You are one of the most eloquent people I know.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

That can't possibly be true, but thanks!

re: #2

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

So... seeing as how we are now running away together to an island in the Bahamas, when should I come pick you up?

Re: #2

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I'm so fucking sick of the smug. Like, allow me to slap the smug right off your face, weriously.

Dude, I am like the worst person because I forgot to tell you that I got the bracelet and it's awesome and now I have a subtle geeky necklace (my OS X dog tags) and a subtle geeky bracelet and since I don't really wear T-shirts I guess I just need subtle geeky earrings or something?

OMG vol 14 in English, I am saving it for after my comp, but I already know that SOMETHING happens so I can't wait to read it. Also, I'm excited that it will be complete in 18 vols as I love things that get finished. Stories don't need to be epic.

Re: #2

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

XD You definitely need dork earrings now. I have a brief vision of some magical girl anime that had maaaaaagic earrings, but I can't remember what it was - which probably means it sucked and you're better off not knowing. XD Damn anime. *needs volume 14 badly, too*

[smilie117.livejournal.com]

PR! It would be great to see you again there :D lots of good stuff planned.

*nods in agreement to the rest*

[jlh.livejournal.com]

It's tricky but I want to make it work. I wish I could get that student pass because MY year isn't over yet, which is what makes it so tricky! But it isn't the money, it's more the timing. I hope it does work out though!

[trincesstiara.livejournal.com]

hey clio, totally not the right post to comment on :) but i´ll be in new york next week (again - back from mexico!) and want to go to that real nice shoe shopping street you told me about before....was it w8th and 6th ave? i think so but don´t really remember cos i´m an idiot. and if you´re around/free for coffee, let me know....i want to hit up the city bakery again!!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I am totally around and I still have the same mobile number if you have it; if you don't my email is in my LJ info so shoot me an email and let me know when you'll be around! I warn that I'll be all stressy due to upcoming exam, but you know, let's get together!

I have been reading your trip entries with interest!

[sisterpandora.livejournal.com]

13. Yes, I think so because it's got a different kind of vibe to it and it's fresh and new. Possibly crescent fresh. In this one, at this point, it's kind of a slate cleaner where people are just saying honest things. In the other, before you post you must stop and consider whether people will or won't agree with you, whether this or that opinion merits being in the meme, etc.

You and the lovely and fun slytherincess get a big well said from me on these. I'll even say so in my own, mostly non-fandom journal in a mo when I give updates, birthday wishes and other things.

[alissomora.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I really hope you'll be at PR ♥

[ali-wildgoose.livejournal.com]

I LOVE YOU.

You know why, baby.