I feel the need to froth for a bit. Bear with me.


Okay, guys. I am so fucking sick and tired of "it's just a show" or "it's just a book" whenever somebody says "it changed my life." Guess what! ART CAN DO THAT. I would argue that the entire point of artistic endeavour is to affect someone, emotionally, mentally, sometimes even physically (porn, for example*). If something doesn't affect you, if it is, in effect, just a book, then it's not art, and I don't think I have ever read a book that didn't make me react in some way. Even if I hated it (Twilight), it still made me react.

Everyone who creates is trying to affect somebody out there. One of the greatest compliments I recieved on any piece of writing was "a tremendous gut-punch of a story." It was not a happy story, and I'm sure the feelings evoked were not happy ones, but I was not trying to create happy feelings, and I affected my audience, which is the real and original goal of creativity.

I'm sure this is why people beg for reviews so shamelessly, why authors and musicians and artists love to hear from people who've read/heard/seen their stuff, and I know it's why I don't like to write fic for certain people because I know they don't respond. Artists have to know they're creating an effect, any effect. Attention-whoring? Perhaps, but I don't think so. Without response, how do you know you're not screaming into the void? How do you know that there's any point and purpose to what you're doing at all?

In short, don't ever dismiss something as "just" a show or book or movie or whatever. Somebody, somewhere, has been affected powerfully by that show or book or movie. I guarantee it. Your dismissal trivializes their feelings and, if it gets back to the artist, makes them feel trivial. Because the worst thing you can ever say to an artist regarding their work or to a person who loves that work is "meh."


*If anyone leaves comments arguing about the artistic value of porn, I will hunt you down and murder you in your sleep for spectacularly missing the point.

Amazon.com is stripping the sales ranks from gay and lesbian books. That means, essentially, that gay and lesbian literature will not show up on Amazon searches or their bestseller lists. I am sort of incoherent with anger at this, so I'll let other people do my talking for me.

Such as copperbadge! He talks well. He also has several links to things you can do, such as sending Amazon a letter through the support page (which I have done), signing the petition, or participating in Smart Bitches Trashy Books' Googlebomb.

Amazon Rank

Mark Probst, an affected author, talks about things here.

And Dear Author sounds off here.

You know it's a big story when Sf_drama gets hold of it.

Meta_writer has an alert here and a list of affected books.

And a Real Newspaper weighs in, very articulately.

With Amazon's fail in mind, I think today's daily poet should be Sappho. Don't you?

( A fragment of Sappho )

Dear BSG Fans:

So! You want to write a fic, specifically an Adama/Roslin fic. That's laudable. I want to write fic for this particular pairing too. And you decide hey! They're in love. Of course they are! I thoroughly agree with you. And you happen to subscribe to the true love = babies school. Well, uh, okay, whatever floats your boat. And you decide that since our shared pairing is in true love, they must have babies.

Hold it right there, Sparky.

Laura Roslin is in her fifties. We've never actually been given her age, but since Mary McAwesome is a hair shy of fifty-seven, I think we can assume that Roslin's around the same age. So, call it fifty-six, fifty-seven, which means that she has almost certainly gone through menopause. You know what menopause means? It means a woman runs out of eggs, stops menstruating, can no longer concieve a child; essentially, if she hasn't already gotten pregnant, she's out of luck. Also, depending on when you set it, there may be the small matter of her having breast cancer.

We're not even going to discuss Bill Adama's massive issues with kids.

This doesn't mean that you can't write babyfic! On the contrary. I have read and even very much enjoyed Adama/Roslin babyfic (okay, one, "If Not, Winter," and that was because Roslin was as shocked as anybody else that she got pregnant, and ended up going "whatever, I'm just going to blame Baltar" which made me giggle). Just... please realize that Roslin is past menopause, and therefore, you're going to need a hell of an explanation for how* she came to get pregnant. And I'd prefer it if it wasn't all smiles and kittens afterwards, partly because Adama and Roslin are not smiles-and-kittens people, partly because I'd really like some "wtf" at the entire situation, and partly because this is BSG, people, wtf show were you watching.

Basically, think before you write.

Much love,
me

*In a broader sense. I think we all know the specifics. Wiseass.

Dear self:

Why yes, people are being wrong on the internet! Chill. Do not start wank over poor phrasing.

That said...


Dear Fandom:

I CALL SHENANIGANS.

Love, me.

PS: Thanks for giving me an excuse to use this icon, though!

You. Specific you.

BAD AUTHOR. NO COOKIE. Character A and Character B are canonically married with two kids, and have been married for thirty years. Do not tell me that Character A never loved Character B just so you can have your shiny sparkly Sue hook up with her. FAIL.

Also, clearly you have never read the series, because the author makes a big honkin' deal about Character A and Character B being in love. It's important to the series; a lot of things happen because of it and at least three of the books have main conflicts sparked by or stemming from that fact. You ignoring it? EPIC FAIL.

GTFO of my fandom.

ETA: ...whoa. That was the fastest "whine flounce delete" I've ever seen.

From a list of frequently banned books and the reasons they've been banned:
"Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. - Anti-Christian, promotes witchcraft."

LOL WHUT. Somebody didn't read the book...

Also, all the banned-book lists are doing is making me really want to read them. I mean, when you've got crap like Twelfth Night and Where The Wild Things Are, for fuck's sake, I want to read the rest of the books and find out just why exactly people object.