Sometime reasonable wins...

[maygra]

If you have not tripped over heatherly's essay elsewhere, I encourage you to read it.

You know, if that's the sort of thing you like to read.

I say this in full admission of fact that I disagree, or rather, approach differently a couple of points in the second half of her essay -- primarily from a ideological and practical POV as opposed to disagreeing with her en toto of a writer's responsibility. I'm pretty sure I'll have additional thoughts on that in a bit, if I can get my thoughts organized in such a way as to present them as less contention than perspective.

Comments

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

I think my main quibble is the assertion that incest as a plotpoint of fiction marks fandom as being outside the mainstream, like there is no published fiction on this topic. I hate to always be the one in the audience screeching "Flowers in the Attic!" but seriously, this was well-travelled ground long before the Eppes brothers or the Winchesters hit our screens. (And then there's anime, which is a whole topic unto itself.)

I just... we didn't make this up, not to be "edgy" or for any other reason. The trope was already out there, some of us are just choosing to run with it within the scope of fanfic.

*sigh* Kneejerk reactionism off. It's a very good essay, laying out good information on difficult topics and, incidentally, put a name to something I didn't have a name for before. *wince*

[maygra.livejournal.com]

I'm still stuck on the thoughts = action response (Which heatherly did not assert.)

For her essay, I trip over the "responsible" part. I consider myself a responsible writer, in that I feel a responsibility to write in such a way as I satisfy my own moral standards. I'm less sanguine about being held responsible for or to the moral standards of other people, especially when Moral standards is so ambiguous as to practically be an oxymoron.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it immediately sets up a dichotomy: if Action X is Responsible, then Action not!X is Irresponsible.

It's... rrar. Crazymaking. *sigh*

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

see I draw a line between fiction/public speech and pornography/erotica. The latter has its sole purpose to titillate - and therefore (as long as it is properly labeled/restricted to age appropriate venues) there need be no restrictions or concerns or discussions of writer's responsibility. Just as there need be no restrictions (as long as no harm is being done) on what goes on inside the head. Or inside the bedroom (between consenting adults).

Fiction - as people have pointed out -serves a different need -- for storytelling, reflecting, shaping and shifting the reader/society. There I'd want more thought put into the writing and I'd want the writer to be aware of what impact their writing can have.

The real issue we're debating is not writer's responsibility - but how visible do we want pornography/erotica to be, is there harm in reading/writing it and should it continue to be written as freely and openly as it has been in the past 30 years? Some feminists have been arguing for years that pornography denigrates women and needs to be stopped. Religious groups come at this same question from a different angle. There are also groups that feel that hate speech needs to be silenced because it creates an atmosphere of tolerance. Parents look at TV and movies and worry that over sexualization and mindless violence is shaping their children into something unrecognizable.

So we’re not the only ones struggling with these questions, and I think it is time to start looking at this from a broader view. The issue is not whether *fans* need to be cautious in what we write/read but what we as people are willing to allow into public for consumption and to what degree are we willing to tolerate other peoples definitions of ‘good for society/bad for society”. Blogging creates its own problems because it creates an illusion of private space – where in reality it is as public as any other website

[amireal.livejournal.com]

*butts in*


I'm currently reading the 2002 hugo winner for literature. While it's new (the book) comparative to fandom/fanfic, I'm not really sure that makes a difference.

I think one of the big things that seems to throw people is that fanfiction doesn't need someone to approve of it before it can get published. Doesn't need anyone to say "this is worth reading" whatever that means to that person and thus publishable and thus there's this weird "well no one is doing it for you, and thus you must do it for yourself" which totally misses the point of most of what publishers do.

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

True, and as others have pointed out the flip side of the lack of a gatekeeper in fanfic is the lack of a warning structure on profic. :)

It makes me tired. Every time something brings an issue like this to the fore (or, in some fandoms, every time the seasons turn) someone brings up the same argument like it's Brand New, "See?? This is why you should change your ways." And in the end it's never new, there are people on one side asserting their expectations of behaviour of people on the other side.

[amireal.livejournal.com]

ack! The book being about this very subject matter. Sorry!