![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Waxing and waning
Jan. 10th, 2011 03:16 amI think I might return to what I'd originally intended with this journal - a place for fannish wankery that feels a bit to much like wankery for LJ. Tidbits, ficlets, character profiles, details from That Great Ongoing Crossover RPverse (which keeps getting larger and larger yet somehow better for it - perhaps because of the lack of Harry Potter and high school, who knows). LJ used to be the go-to place for that, but of late my LJ feels a bit too public, a bit too academic... it's hard to explain, I suppose, but people complain about "cluttering up" their flists with posts about fandoms they don't care about - and virtually no one on my flists cares about CoD, FEAR, Ao2, or what have you - yet they don't mind post after post of hand-wringing about their middle class suburbian angst? I mean everyone wallows in despair from time to time, and from time to time I too have posted a bit of wangst, by there are people on that site for whom it would be no exaggeration to say that every second or third post is out and out whinging about daily life.
That's... not really what I signed up for. Of course I'm interested in the goings-on in the lives of my 'net friends, but for me fandom is a huge part of the interaction I crave. Be it punditry, commentary, fanwork, discussion - this explains why I've turned to f!s of all things, I suppose. At least there I get to talk about the creative things I love for a while, sometimes. For so many, LJ isn't about that. And that's fair enough - that's how they roll - and sometimes their lives/commentary on RL events/political issues du jour are terribly interesting, but I wish fandom was still a part of that.
Back in the good old days of the X fandom we discussed the characters, the plot, the meta, etc., all the damn time. Complete with raging debates. Yes, much of it was shipping-centric. Much of it wasn't. But at least it was something. It seems like the only fandom discussion that occurs these days, on LJ, is "____ is so hot" and "____ belongs with ____" and "I love _____" followed with three pages about how much the poster in question hates their job or isn't doing as well in school as they'd like (but has just spent all day on the internet and fails to see the irony).
I want to discuss meta again. And plot. Yes, and pairings too, but not just that. I want to play with the universes and have it out with people who don't see eye-to-eye with me about them but remain friends at the end of the day. Gaming forums are one place to do this, but too often they're so full of wankery and screaming douchebags and pretentious fanboys with a matchbook knowledge of philosophy and an ego the size of an encylopedia, with a seasonal dash of misogyny and homophobia...
...Though in the end I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't still be worthwhile, just to get the chance to talk about the things I love. Like I used to do, on LJ.
Ah well. Perhaps that will all change when the new Atlus game comes out. Strange Journey was astonishingly bland; Catherine seems spicier, but I wonder if setting a game with the theme of anxiety about masculinity overseas was the right idea, as Japan and the West - heck, Japan and America - have very different ideas about how one is to perform masculinity.I have a weakness for femdom and will be playing it anyway, but as we saw with Black Swan there's no shame in pandering a bit. We megaten fans have a fondness for meta; it's one of the things that attracted me to it in the first place.
There's vanishingly little meta discussion about CoD, both on LJ and gaming forums, because admittedly CoD is not really "about" that. (Though as anyone who's being entirely honest will admit, one of MW's biggest selling points was the compelling narrtive of its single-player campaign.) At least, meta discussion that isn't "GHOST IS/ISN'T GAZ" and I admit I'm guilty of that as well (for the record I'm an "IS" tinhat). In future, I'll try to change that.
So, yes, this journal will become what I'd originally intended all along - fandom meta. For megaten (my passion for the series has waned a bit of late but there's been nothing out for it of late - I'm sure it will rekindle with a new installment) and for the merc'verse fandoms. As well as whatever else I'm into.
Let the flist-cluttering begin.
That's... not really what I signed up for. Of course I'm interested in the goings-on in the lives of my 'net friends, but for me fandom is a huge part of the interaction I crave. Be it punditry, commentary, fanwork, discussion - this explains why I've turned to f!s of all things, I suppose. At least there I get to talk about the creative things I love for a while, sometimes. For so many, LJ isn't about that. And that's fair enough - that's how they roll - and sometimes their lives/commentary on RL events/political issues du jour are terribly interesting, but I wish fandom was still a part of that.
Back in the good old days of the X fandom we discussed the characters, the plot, the meta, etc., all the damn time. Complete with raging debates. Yes, much of it was shipping-centric. Much of it wasn't. But at least it was something. It seems like the only fandom discussion that occurs these days, on LJ, is "____ is so hot" and "____ belongs with ____" and "I love _____" followed with three pages about how much the poster in question hates their job or isn't doing as well in school as they'd like (but has just spent all day on the internet and fails to see the irony).
I want to discuss meta again. And plot. Yes, and pairings too, but not just that. I want to play with the universes and have it out with people who don't see eye-to-eye with me about them but remain friends at the end of the day. Gaming forums are one place to do this, but too often they're so full of wankery and screaming douchebags and pretentious fanboys with a matchbook knowledge of philosophy and an ego the size of an encylopedia, with a seasonal dash of misogyny and homophobia...
...Though in the end I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't still be worthwhile, just to get the chance to talk about the things I love. Like I used to do, on LJ.
Ah well. Perhaps that will all change when the new Atlus game comes out. Strange Journey was astonishingly bland; Catherine seems spicier, but I wonder if setting a game with the theme of anxiety about masculinity overseas was the right idea, as Japan and the West - heck, Japan and America - have very different ideas about how one is to perform masculinity.
There's vanishingly little meta discussion about CoD, both on LJ and gaming forums, because admittedly CoD is not really "about" that. (Though as anyone who's being entirely honest will admit, one of MW's biggest selling points was the compelling narrtive of its single-player campaign.) At least, meta discussion that isn't "GHOST IS/ISN'T GAZ" and I admit I'm guilty of that as well (for the record I'm an "IS" tinhat). In future, I'll try to change that.
So, yes, this journal will become what I'd originally intended all along - fandom meta. For megaten (my passion for the series has waned a bit of late but there's been nothing out for it of late - I'm sure it will rekindle with a new installment) and for the merc'verse fandoms. As well as whatever else I'm into.
Let the flist-cluttering begin.
