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”
you can find a download of the zine’s FREE PDF here!! I’d definitely encourage taking a look; working on this project with everyone loving & interpreting these two wonderful characters in their own way was just…. really delightful~
Practice was just as grueling as it’d always been.
Regardless that Midorima had just been in an important match
against Jabberwock, Coach Nakatani didn’t take it easy on him. Even as he used
his selfish requests (now cut down to merely two a day), the coach would find
ways around it. Even compared to Teikou and their training last year, it felt
particularly brutal.
It was strange, Midorima thought, how much had changed when
their third-years graduated. The whole team had to be changed, plays rethought
and strengths reestablished and trust reformed. He expected it the moment he
attended Shuutoku, but being the complete cornerstone for the team and having
everyone depend on him until they sorted things was difficult.
And yet, he mused as he shot from the half-court line,
nothing had changed. From how Coach Nakatani ran them until it felt like they’d
break. From how Takao still joined him for every after hours practice. From how
Miyaji Yuuya threatened him with all kinds of bodily harm for bringing another
gigantic tanuki and keeping it on the bench.
Of course, their thirst for victory—clawing for wins like it
was life and death because it was—hadn’t changed at all.
When he finally came to awareness, he was sitting on his ass on the floor holding a hand to his jaw. Bakugo was on his knees a few feet in front of him, bloody-knuckled fist still raised as if he was preparing to strike. His eyes were wide and wild. His teeth were bared. He looked furious and so incredibly worried as he breathed hard. The left side of his face was red, and blood smeared from the corner of his mouth.
So I’ve watched a bunch of Very Good Videos today.
Lindsay Ellis has been doing an examination/critique of The Hobbit films and her team’s finally finished the last one:
They are Excellent(u_u), Perfec(u_u u_u), and Majestic(u_u u_u u_u).
Lastly, through a VERY Circuitous route which began with searching for obituaries for the late lamented Harry Anderson(Here is Markie Post. Here is John Larroquette. Here is an Obit By David Hill at The Ringer which I very much liked), is this talk on Consciousness by Dan Dennett(TED 2003; somewhat dated; don’t want to bother trying to embed it) that, incidentally, has some pretty fun perception games in it :>
Everyone’s like “those Germans have a word for everything” but English has a word for tricking someone into watching the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.
just moving along like everyone else 