#fandom and life

[petalsthefish]

My pal (unaffectionately), I’ve lived a long and wonderful life already. I could die tomorrow and be perfectly happy with how I lived it. I’ve traveled far and wide, I’ve made friends from all over the world, I’ve fallen in love, I’ve fallen out of love. I’ve made mistakes, I’ve regretted being mean and regretted being kind. I’ve read many books and written works of art outside of Harry Potter. I’ve survived chemotherapy. I’ve climbed mountains, swam in oceans and have been face to face underwater with a 500 lb dolphin. I have two degrees and I’m working on a third. I’ve got sunspots from time lifeguarding in the summers in high school with all my best friends. I’ve got scars on my knees from an ice skating rink. I’ve gotten drunk, and gotten tattoos. I’ve got a good paying job that appreciates me and work friends who make me laugh. I’ve got a passion for love, in all its shapes and forms. I especially love fiction, where human behavior always seems easier to decode. I know I’ll never be lonely, I’ll never regret being passionate, and I’ll keep doing life my way…while still loving the things that make me, me. So while Harry Potter fanfiction may be a part of my life, it’s not my whole life, but I am unabashedly proud of these things that I doubt you have ever experienced considering how miserable you’ve presented yourself. I wish you a softer world, and if you don’t want a softer world, then I wish you the life you think you deserve. Meanwhile, I’ll stay happy and passionate in mine.

[do-you-know-this-queer-character]

Do you know this queer character?

Castiel is Queer and Agender or Genderfluid, and uses varying pronouns based on presentation!

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Ship trope I'd love to see more of: "Are we in love? I mean, yeah, probably, but that's a problem for future us. Right now we're just trying to make it through the Plot."

[icarus-suraki]

I don't like wading into Ao3 debates, but I want to give my professional opinion on Ao3 with regard to archives vs. libraries.

I am a professional librarian (MSLS) and I have worked in both archives and public libraries and a lot of the confusion and concern I see surrounding Ao3 is a fundamental misunderstanding of How Archives Work.

An archive is a collection related to a subject. That subject is often a person but sometimes a field or concept or project. And the purpose of an archive is to keep everything. And I mean everything. I was going to say "short of biohazards" but since I know there's a sealed R. Crumb Devil Gal chocolate bar in the UNC Chapel Hill archives, we really do mean everything.

When a collection of materials--which are usually unique and original and can be photos, manuscripts, letters, recordings (audio and/or visual), notes and notebooks, objects, published books, whatever--on and/or from the subject arrive at the archive, they are examined, preserved for longevity, accessioned and cataloged (added to the archive's records), and added to the archive. You measure collections in linear feet. As in, once it's all preserved and boxed and secure, you note how many feet of shelf space it takes up. And some of y'all on Ao3 have a lot of linear feet to your name (and I'm proud of you).

This is an archive: it is designed to preserve the original materials related to a subject. That is its purpose. Archives are how we have the original scroll manuscript of On the Road, for example, or the Lomax recordings of American folksongs, or Tijuana Bibles, or James Joyce's loveletters to Nora.

Now you, a member of the public, can access some archives. Some are easier to access than others. The one I worked in was open to the public; good luck getting into the British Archives without a good reason.

So now apply this to Ao3--which is an archive both in name and in purpose. It is intended to preserve fan-created content long term. And this means everything, whether you personally like the materials or not. It is a repository for as much as possible.

And the "whether you personally like the materials or not" is important, hence why I mentioned Jim's loveletters and Tijuana Bibles in particular. (RIP Jim, you would have loved pegging.)

If it's made by fans and it exists, we should keep it to document the history and progression of fandom. That is the point. We have lost enough materials related to the subject of fans of media and we don't need to lose any more.

The fact of the matter is that Ao3 is only one facet of the OTW, which preserves other fan-related materials (convention booklets and zines, for example). Somehow Ao3, an archive on the subject of fanfiction, has been divorced from the rest of the project, mostly by way of "purity culture" and panic over "dangerous" fiction.

The fact that you can go through an archive and find interesting information is the other side of archives. No, they shouldn't be like the banker's box of old letters stuffed in my closet. Yes, they should be organized and as accessible as is appropriate for the state of the materials.

It's really, really cool to find stuff in an archive, I'm not even going to lie. I have done it before and I will do it again. And yet there are other items in an archive that I might not want or need or be interested in at all--but they're still there. That's the cataloging and accessioning: to keep up with what's there, to stay "on topic" with collecting, and to be able to find things in that archive. Bless the tag wranglers who are doing the cataloging at Ao3.

The pearl clutching seems to come from 1. the creation of "dangerous" fanworks and 2. public access to those "dangerous" fanworks. These are issues of "purity culture" and opinions on censorship and should not involve Ao3.

Ao3, under the umbrella of the OTW, is a documentation and preservation project first and foremost.

[girlboyburger]

alright tumblr, here's your homegrown cowgirl C:{

what do you think of her?

[modawg]

i like to think if annabeth and percy ended up living around mortals they would tell their friends abt some of the stuff they went through bc they can’t really hide it forever except they make it sound like their family’s part of the greek mafia

a lot of “yeah my dads…influential…in greece”

or “my moms,,pretty powerful in greece,, yeah she’s up there lol..anyway”

like they make it sound like maybe poseidon and athena are two “business CEO’s” who butt heads but everyone thinks their two mafia leaders who hate eachother

annabeth slips up and brings up the 7 months percy was missing and they have to cover it up saying his aunt, on his dads side, sent him away to a boarding school in greece where he wasn’t able to contact anyone here in america

“yeah we don’t really talk to her after..that..”

it doesn’t help that their friends can hear them hiss in greek to each other when they don’t want them to know what their saying

or when their stretching in a certain way that makes their shirt ride up and there are obvious scars hidden underneath

and it honestly all makes sense just going off the vibes of the two of them so no one really questions it because who would and anytime either of their parents appear shifted into their mortal counterparts everyone keeps their eyes downcast

dj khaled: anotha one

[prokopetz]

I think people sometimes misunderstand why we come up with such elaborate justifications for shipping two characters together. I don't justify my ships because I feel that I need to; I justify my ships because squinting at the published canon with furrowed brow and asking myself "okay, how exactly would this work?" is my idea of a good time.

[mi-ch-ito]

[thirdtimed]

one more pearl & tilly for the road

[jakei95]

Having depression is not a choice, every person dealing with this will find a lot of factors around them debilitating. Saying things like "you're always focusing on the negative", only adds to the problem. If you can't empathize, then keep your judgments to yourself.

[black-salt-cage]

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

[can-they-assemble-ikea-furniture]

*as in, the person answering this poll's dad. Determine who counts as your dad for the purposes of this poll at your discretion. If you have multiple dads you'd answer differently for just spin a wheel or something

Assume they have access to ikea furniture

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Would be asleep right now, but there are Fictional Characters to imagine in emotional situations. You know how it is.

[randombook4idk]

some fandoms need to see this

[ruporas]

your love returns in tragedy (ID in alt)