It’s come to my attention that some people are traversing the interwebs of fandom without ever hearing of the Ms. Scribe Story or the Cassandra Claire Debacle.
At surface level, this is concerning because they are awesome stories, and everyone’s life is made a little better when they find an awesome story.
On more serious levels, fandom is a wacky place, full of people doing wacky, occasionally damaging things to each other. Some of that has evolved, but some of it is the same as it ever was. History rocks because you can learn from the mistakes of others, and maybe hurt people a little less in the future. Fandom being a giant, convoluted web of passion, some history that could use sharing goes missed.
The two stories linked are from early 2000s Harry Potter fandom. The Ms. Scribe Story is a tale of one person’s aggressive use of sockpuppets to work their way up fandom hierarchy. The Cassandra Claire Debacle is about how the top name in that fandom hierarchy is a plagiarist.
They’re prime examples of fandom being fandom in intensely negative
ways. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a brand of fandom toxicity that isn’t on display in some way within these write-ups, and while that is admittedly sort of depressing, having things to point at that make you stop and think, “Wait, I’ve seen this before, this is not a thing I want to be part of,” can keep you out of some of the deeper fandom pitfalls.They are also deeply fascinating reads. If you haven’t explored them before, or only know the summary versions, give them a shot.
I still have a moment of distinct disbelief every time I see one of Cassie Claire’s published works in a bookstore.
Oh gods so do I
It’s WEIRD
Apparently she lives somewhere around Western Massachusetts, because when the movie came out I saw notes attached to posters for it in our local multiplex saying “by a local author!”.
I had the sudden, wild urge to stand in the centre of the lobby and go “LET ME TELL YOU A THING OR TWO ABOUT THIS LOCAL AUTHOR”
Published
just moving along like everyone else 