I want to thank the Fandom...
Oct. 22nd, 2004 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
donnaimmaculataI am not a particularly busy member of the fandom - what with work, university and getting-drunk-and-discussing-porn-with-young-men occupying a lot of my RL time - as I can't be bothered to make fandom one of many chores, which I have to regularly attend to. As much as I enjoy the interaction online, I want to have the freedom of disappearing from time to time without worrying about community maintenance or fest deadlines. But there is one thing about the fandom, which attracts me immensely (and hasn't got anything to do with hot steamy boysex) and makes me come back over and over again: Reading fanfiction, writing fanfiction and - especially - discussing canon with all you lovely people is a therapy method which has cured me from a severe trauma inflicted on me during my school years.
In secondary school, I suffered under the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of a couple of teachers (well, two: German literature and English literature), who at that point had taught for many years, making generations of pupils read the same books, which they (the teachers) knew by heart, and never, ever allowing us to draw our own conclusions and interpret the books in a manner that differed from theirs. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.
I can't emphasise enough how much I hated that approach to teaching. I hated the condescending way those teachers dismissed my ideas as invalid, simply because they differed from their own. Good arguments were shrugged off, because they introduced a new aspect of reading a novel. My English teacher in particular was the most narrow-minded idiot I've ever come across, and I don't think I've ever hated (and I use this word very consciously) a person as much as I hated him. He managed to make me dislike novels such as Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies and Brave New World, simply because I'll always associate them with him.
So - after this therapeutic flashback - I just want to stress how much I love the fact that the fandom is full of intelligent, well-read people with academic and literary background, who read the same books as I do and who read them in a completely different manner. This is a main reason why I love reading character and canon discussion, and why I never feel insulted when other fans dislike my aproach to characters and never try to convince anyone that their interpretation is wrong. (Of course, I know that my interpretation is the only valid one, but that's beside the point.) On the contrary, it is most interesting to read other people's opinions on plot points and characters, especially when they are well thought through and well argued.
This applies not only to my main characters of interest (Remus is Teh Kewlest!!), or the fandom's main characters of interest (The Malfoys are Teh Hawt!). Some months ago, there was a plethora of Hagrid-related essays, which I found exceedingly interesting, because they opened my eyes for a totally different approach to him, which I would never have considered myself. I like Hagrid, and I will always like Hagrid, no matter how well argued an anti-Hagrid essay might be, because no essay makes me change my feelings for a character. It might affect my opinion on what makes the character tick or what made Rowling to write a character the way she did. However, for me liking and disliking characters has nothing to do with logical approach to them but with the initial gut feeling. Logical analysis is only an attempt of an explaination of that gut feeling, and it is always a great pleasure to read other people's analyses, be it in the form of essays or fics.
*offers virtual drinks all around*
In secondary school, I suffered under the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of a couple of teachers (well, two: German literature and English literature), who at that point had taught for many years, making generations of pupils read the same books, which they (the teachers) knew by heart, and never, ever allowing us to draw our own conclusions and interpret the books in a manner that differed from theirs. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.
I can't emphasise enough how much I hated that approach to teaching. I hated the condescending way those teachers dismissed my ideas as invalid, simply because they differed from their own. Good arguments were shrugged off, because they introduced a new aspect of reading a novel. My English teacher in particular was the most narrow-minded idiot I've ever come across, and I don't think I've ever hated (and I use this word very consciously) a person as much as I hated him. He managed to make me dislike novels such as Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies and Brave New World, simply because I'll always associate them with him.
So - after this therapeutic flashback - I just want to stress how much I love the fact that the fandom is full of intelligent, well-read people with academic and literary background, who read the same books as I do and who read them in a completely different manner. This is a main reason why I love reading character and canon discussion, and why I never feel insulted when other fans dislike my aproach to characters and never try to convince anyone that their interpretation is wrong. (Of course, I know that my interpretation is the only valid one, but that's beside the point.) On the contrary, it is most interesting to read other people's opinions on plot points and characters, especially when they are well thought through and well argued.
This applies not only to my main characters of interest (Remus is Teh Kewlest!!), or the fandom's main characters of interest (The Malfoys are Teh Hawt!). Some months ago, there was a plethora of Hagrid-related essays, which I found exceedingly interesting, because they opened my eyes for a totally different approach to him, which I would never have considered myself. I like Hagrid, and I will always like Hagrid, no matter how well argued an anti-Hagrid essay might be, because no essay makes me change my feelings for a character. It might affect my opinion on what makes the character tick or what made Rowling to write a character the way she did. However, for me liking and disliking characters has nothing to do with logical approach to them but with the initial gut feeling. Logical analysis is only an attempt of an explaination of that gut feeling, and it is always a great pleasure to read other people's analyses, be it in the form of essays or fics.
*offers virtual drinks all around*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2004-10-22 05:31 pm (UTC)And if you don't want ole Lucy, send him this way ;-)
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Date: 2004-10-22 05:35 pm (UTC)I'm sure ole Lucy plus Cane will find the time to fit us all into his tight schedule. He comes around, that one. And you're more than welcome to share *eg*
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Date: 2004-10-22 05:38 pm (UTC)And ooh, good plan. Bella can take her time turning up then. More for us. Mmm.
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Date: 2004-10-22 05:42 pm (UTC)More for us. Mmm.
You're giving me ideas here... *takes a drink of cold water*
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Date: 2004-10-22 06:03 pm (UTC)What else did I mean to bug you about... Accio UK. http://www.accio.org.uk/ Tell me you're going to come over? Or think about it? The slashers party planning is already underway *g*
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Date: 2004-10-22 06:13 pm (UTC)I didn't know about Accio UK, but I'll definitely think about it! Hm, early bird discount...
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Date: 2004-10-22 06:37 pm (UTC)Whee, do! And yes, even if you pay using installments, you only have to pay the first one by the end of the month to get the discount :-)