Observing

[erastes]

I've finally got around to reading the Observer review of Lumos and I found it brilliant, actually. I can understand completely that the woman found the entire thing completely baffling and not a little amusing. I would too, if I hadn't been aware of Slash and/or the phenomenom of HP4Grown ups.

I loved this : And, even in Vegas, one of the oddest places on earth, the barmen in the hotel casino shake their heads at me when they see my name tag. "You're with the convention?"

"I am," I say. They give me a long, hard look. "You've heard of Star Trek conventions", I say. "It's not so different."

"Nuh-huh," says one. "There it's all about the merchandising and maybe, you know, you get to meet William Shatner. It's not about wearing a cape and going to lectures."

And those lectures - OMG. I'm so glad I didn't go. 'Muggles and Mental Health: Rites of Transformation and A Psychoanalytical Perspective on the Inner World of Harry Potter'......'Comrade Potter: A Marxist Reading' in which the speaker claims that a Nimbus 2000 broomstick is 'coveted not because of its usefulness but because of the value assigned to it by society'. .... And then 'Disney does Derrida', which is subtitled 'Joanne Rowling as a Writer of Our Times'

What ? I mean. WHAT??? I'm not even intelligent enough to understand the fucking TITLES. And I really would NOT want to travel 6000 miles or however far it is, just to have British Food cooked by Americans. I feel sorry for her.

I don't think the fact that she's not a "fan" matters. If I had no knowledge of fandom, I'd want to read this type of review, written by someone who is seeing it for the first time and is amazed by what she sees. She mentions Beatlemania, and she's not far out, I guess. Except of course the fans could actually SEE their idols back then. If I were dropped back on the tarmac when Beatlemania hit, I'd probably just as bemused as this reporter was about Potterdom.

But as usual, the rabid in our midst are horrified by this review. OH NO! Someone doesn't GET that we take kiddie books and write porn! Let's get her!!!

Really. *rolls eyes* Mr Opinion? Meet Mr Someone Else's Opinion.

Comments

[sionnain.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAH! I love you. I really do. This was my same exact reaction. I loved how people were like, "What? People think writing fic about wizards from a children's book having sex is weird? HOW DARE THEY!"

I was like, "Um...it is?"

Hahaha. Oh, fandom. Get over yourself! I know my hobbies are weird and strange and potentially horrifying. Who cares?

So, yes. YOU ROCK.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thanks hun. I have been ranting about fandom more than I meant to be doing since leaving it, but really!! Perhaps it just seems more ridiculous now I have left it.

I understand that one of the delegates was (shock) badly misquoted but goodness me, you talk to a journalist (at a Harry Potter convention where you KNOW that English Journos are all Rita Skeeter) and you are surprised you are misquoted???

And yes. It's weird. And pervy. It's fun, but so is bog-snorkelling. Just don't expect everyone to get it!!!

*snorts*

[chaos-rose.livejournal.com]

I hold with the earthy idea that opinions are like assholes - everybody has one and nothing requires me to like someone else's. However, with fandom, I'd have to add that the Names expect everyone else to believe that they poop vanilla ice cream and fart attar of roses.

Re: *snorts*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*

I may have to icon that.

Re: *snorts*

[chaos-rose.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you do - there are too few 'STFU Fandom!' icons about.

Seriously? Any time someone sets themselves up as the arbiter of a given experience and insinuates themselves so firmly into one's relationship with that experience, it just makes me leery. All too often, the jargon and Inner Circles are a cover for people doing other people dirt or getting power for themselves.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I laughed my socks off. Two things:

1. The bit about mention deconstruction and watch the suckers lap it up. (deconstruction and all that makes me just go "Yawn" - someone should tell em the HP series is a set of kiddies stories and written thusly).

2. The bit about the importance of rape in SS/HG fic. As a semi escapee from that pairing, I found that utterly priceless. Cos, yeah, rape is seen as the equivalent of a bit of rough and ready slap and tickle in that pairing, seems to me. And for sure, you can post any old shite with a rape/DE orgy in it and be sure of a gajillion adoring reviews (so long as it ends in nauseating domesticity and loads of babies). And yeah, I think the journo nailed it when she said if men were sitting discussing those things, anyone would have a few questions.

And the payoff is the amount of squawking since the article has been released.

*goes off to prepare suitably pretentious paper for Sectus 2007, notes the words "Derrida", "Barthes" and "Structuralism" for future reference*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I know.... I meantersay... I've been called pretentious in my time, but ... even I can't match up to THAT.

Oh please do. The Challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to prepare a paper which either completely contradicts itself, OR is utterly incomprehensible that it might as well be called "The importance of nihilism and Emperor's clothes on the destabilisation and mythos of the potterdom"

and people would take notes. and be impressed.

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a Post-Modern essay generator? You should just get one of those and replace all the names and terms with canon references. EASY QUALITY ACADEMIC ARTICLES TOTALLY TRUE.

[viverra-libro.livejournal.com]

I felt like the writer didn't try very hard to understand what was going on. It seemed like a very superficial article. I think that if she had been reviewing a star trek convention, she would have tried much harder to really understand the attraction. Anyway, I agree that the panel titles are, well, a bit off-putting, and probably not very relevant to most peoples' experience of fandom.

I'm actually going to Sectus only to hang out with fandom friends; I expect that sightseeing in London would win out over panels, if they're like that.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I agree, it was superficial, but I got the feeling that it couldn't really be anything else - she was sent to garner her views, and she really didn't expect to find what she found. Perhaps if they'd sent someone with convention experience it would have been more to the fan's liking, but as I said, I liked it for the tone it set, that she really was a stranger in a strange land.

I felt much the same when I went to an Engish Civil War re-enactment weekend. I was all for the dressing up and sitting on officer's knees, but I was jaw-droppingly gobsmacked at the utter geek obsession that some people raised it to, instead of just having a good time.

And we all know that kind of thing happens in fandom, particularly at the Het end of the market....

However at this re-enactment, this woman (in this INCREDIBLy detailed dress, the sort of thing you see in films) started talking to me - I squeed over the frock and she said "So what made you come here?"

That stumped me and I burbled something about having seen Cromwell and it was one of my favourite films (not wanting to mention the beer and officers' knees) and she went into an hour long tirade on the "inconsistencies of the film Cromwell and why it wasn't considered a good authority on the subject."

So, yes, I understand that reviewer's bafflement, completely.

*G*

[julesjones]

Actually, the only commentary I've seen about it is general eye-rolling about the usual "teehee, look at the freaks!" style of reporting about any fannish activity, in combination with the reporter apparently believing that she is the first journalist ever to have discovered this group of freaks to laugh at. Particularly as the Observer/Guardian has reported on fanfic in general and slash in particular before. It gets very boring when yet another reporter makes a song and dance about it as if she is the very first to discover and report on what is by now a thoroughly documented phenomenon, complete with multiple scholarly and dumbed-down-for-the-massess studies that date back decades.

But then I'm not in HP fandom, and never have been, so I've only being seeing the comments from people who are long since used to reporters who will scour a science fiction con of 500 people in order to find the three in costume. (I've been both the one pounced on, and the one ignored as being far too normal for the purposes of the piece.)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You are lucky. I've seen various "get her" posts, from wanting to write to the paper, send petitions and even bombard the paper with Harry Potter books.

Because all of that will convince the Obs fandom are rational people, won't it?

*G*

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Hey I am going Phoenix Rising to meet fandom friends, eat a whole lot of good food and drink too much..and not be a mom for a few days.

I was amused at how horrified some where too and am of the camp of So What? We all a do what makes us happy and if other people don't get it, whatever.

:) Life is waaaaay too short to take things so seriously or care what a stranger might think.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Eat drink wear silly clothes and have a good time.

That's what it's all about.

Oi!

(you put your right hand in....)

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I'm the one who wrote the HP and journalism paper she mentioned in the article (no, it wasn't all about Cornelius Fudge being Stalin). I went to the Comrade Potter talk and found it quite interesting as well, and even asked the presenter to submit his paper to a collection I'm putting together when he's finished with it. I'm very unhappy with the broad strokes she used in painting the academics at the conference.

I'm fine with the reporter's befuddlement, with the fact that she's not a fan, even with the fact that she found a lot of the convention strange and off-putting, especially the slash parts. That's to be expected and understood. I'm not ok with the fact that she openly admitted to not having done her homework in reading the books, with her anti-intellectual attitude, with the fact she used people's real names when they asked her not to (because they could get in trouble at work if she did, considering the timbre of her article), with the fact that she misquoted people and with the fact that she misrepresented a lot of academics' work. For example, I went to two of the three panels she mentioned in that quote you provided (I don't get Derrida either, so I skipped that one), and the Comrade Potter paper wasn't at all what she said it was. She just took a quote out of context that by itself sounded very odd and said the paper was all about that. I'm not saying it's anyone's fault they don't know this. I just know about half the people she quoted in the article, and went to several presentations. So I'm just telling people who didn't go what I saw.

I'm sorry for vomiting all over your LJ, erastes. I'm all for having fun at conventions, not taking oneself too seriously and for allowing reporters to have their opinions and express them. I'm also annoyed at people who want to send her flames instead of reasoned rebuttals, who want to mail the paper Harry Potter books, who want to go to the Observer's offices and "raise some hell". If this was just a "look at the weird fans!" piece I wouldn't even bat an eye. I just don't like the sloppiness of the article, its questionable ethics, and its fairly condescending tone. She hurt a lot of people with this piece, and in saying that I wish I only meant hurt their feelings.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Wow. Holy white space, Batman. How did that happen?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No trouble about verbosity here, you know me by now, any discussion is welcome as long as it's not nasty, so vomit away!

The trouble is of course is that she's under space restrictions, so for all we know she may have written a lot more and it was edited to death - we just don't know. I have to say that I enjoyed the style of it - perhaps it's just my evil streak, or "getting" the Brit style or something.

I do agree that she shouldn't have used real names when they asked her to though! That was pretty bad, but then again, Journos! You can't trust 'em.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

LOL ok then :)

Possibly she did write more and it was edited out. I'm willing to buy that. But given the tone of the rest of her article, I think I can safely say I doubt any cut material would have changed its focus.

To be honest, I've had a couple folks on the other side of the pond mention the Brit style to me , or that I just don't understand British wit or humor (not saying you accused me of that, as you didn't. Just saying it's been brought up). I'm a little bothered by that defense. First of all, I studied in the UK for awhile and I practically grew up on British TV and British literature. I think I "get" British style reasonably well for someone who isn't British, and I don't think being offended at the article has anything to do with not understanding a particular sense of humor. If an American had written an article using our own cruel brand of snark, I'd be just as bothered. But then again, I'm just not the kind of journalist who finds much profit in poking fun at people for their hobbies and interests. I save my more poisonous moments for people who are actually hurting others, and even then I don't take cheap shots. It's really sad to me today that journalists in developed countries (and readers) think that insult, innuendo and laughing at something they don't understand and don't particularly want to (in this case, literary criticism) amounts to any sort of relevant discourse. This wouldn't upset me so much if I didn't see the kind of attitude in this article creeping into every kind of article, instead of staying on the editorial page where it belongs.

Moving on as for the "Journos!You can't trust 'em." ...yes. But this is exactly the problem. If readers can't trust us to report fairly and without actively trying to hurt the people we interview, then it's a seriously bad day for journalism. Our livelyhoods are based on trust. And the sad thing is, I'm dismissed by a national newspaper as some academic loony for saying just that in my paper.

[divinereverie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean, what did they expect? The writer to totally understand and think it was awesome there was porn written about children's books? Fandom is not mainstream acceptable, deal with it.

I'm considering going to Prophecy 2007, and if I do, I'm not going to register, because for the most part, the panels don't particularly interest me. I'm going to meet people and hang out; I'd rather keep the registration money for roaming about Toronto.

[divinereverie.livejournal.com]

Although, actually, someone made a good point about it being sort of anti-feministic in regards to women and sexuality, and it made sense to me, as I'd picked it up a bit in the article, but it doesn't really surprise me. Of course it was going to be that way. It's fandom, and people are even snide about crappy romance novels!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

As you say, that doesn't surprise me either. However you can find just about ANY message in the Potterdom if you look hard enough!

[divinereverie.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, so true. Maybe I shall start a rumor that there is some sort of coded message contained within.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there is, some Geek has probably done all that "bible code" stuff with it already and found all sorts of predictions!

*G*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great idea. That's the only reason I'd go to one, either, to get very drunk and sight see.

[venivincere]

I thought the majority of the hue and cry was because the author identified someone by their full, real name after being asked not to. As far as the author's opinion of the fans and the convention, that's exactly the same reaction I got when I told people at work about Witching Hour. :-D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that side of it, other than it being mentioned on this thread, I've seen annoyance that it was so flippant and non-comprehending.

The publishing of a name was pretty bad, especially if she was asked not to do so, though, I do agree.

And yes! I mentioned it once at work and got complete blank and horrified faces. Now I don't mention it, they know I write original gay porn, and I think they think that's weird enough!

[rosie-red73.livejournal.com]

I really don't understand how people can think that the outside world would see this as normal behaviour, I mean seriously, what did they expect? A reporter to come to the conference and instantly realise what he/she has been missing and sign up to fully fledged fandom?

Personally, I would die of shame if half the people I know in RL found out about all the fandom stuff that I do. There are maybe five people who know about it. Maybe another five who know I write but not what I write about. I don't mind telling them I've read the books and I'm a fan of them, but telling them I've written hardcore gay porn featuring characters from a children's book? Oh yeah, I can see that going down really well with my family and clients. I wouldn't expect them to understand it any more than I understand people who write Teletubby porn. It's sad, and I applaud people who are prepared to stand up and say it out loud without caring what people think as long as they live in the real world about it. Not caring if people think they're idiots is one thing, not recognising that people think they're idiots is entirely different.

That's not to say I wouldn't rather like to go to a conference one day so I can talk freely to people without being hysterically laughed at and pointed at for the rest of my life, I mean I recently spent a couple of hours in Snape's pub with rosesanguina and pitchblackrose and it was wonderfully liberating to be able to say things like 'oh, remember that story about Sirius and James fucking on the underground?' out loud without having to explain who Sirius and James are or having to justify why I would say suc a thing in the first place, but I wouldn't exactly be allowing myself to be interviewed for the British press about it.

And also, I think the reason they give the lectures such ridiculously pretentious names is because it makes them feel less like idiots for taking it so seriously.

Yeah. So. Rant over. I think the problem is that I type really fast, so I don't realise how much I've written until I'm done :D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Becaause they are rabid. It's like the H/Hr vs the H/G shippers. There is only one right way, and that's THEIR way.

I'd had loved to get together with other fans at some point, but it was not to be, hopefully I'll get the chance to meet you or rwday or gehayi and others at some point.

I do worry about not understanding the acedemic stuff though

[spessartine.livejournal.com]

I had pretty much the same reaction when I read it in the paper. A pretty fine article, if you ask me. What pissed me off was the ridiculous "ZOMG it's an academic conference you bitches!" thing the organisers had going on. Erm, no. As someone who's sat through a good many of those, I can tell you now, it most certainly was not, no matter what discussions and lectured you might have had. At most of the conferences I've been to, I'd have about killed by the second day to get down to discussing Snape Rape, and Harry and His Post-modernist Broom, or whatever went on there. >.>

Actually, I thought some of those sounded interesting, if a little self-conscious. The food alone was enough to put me off, though!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*Chortling*

"Harry Potter and his post modernist broom" that really SHOULD be book seven.

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

As someone who is in a planning committee for an Australian HP con next year...

I laughed, I did. I found it immensely funny and at the same time because I recognised so much of the mania in myself it was a little bit pointed too. I love the fan stuff: I've become RL friends with fandom people and it's so much fun to sit around with lollies and giggle at really fucking horrible fics and relay old fandom folklore stories to each other, but it's such an insular and esoteric community that any outsider is immediately going to feel completely WTF about it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Ohyes, that's why I found it funny, particularly, because I would have been there, sitting next to the Journo and spilling the beans and being horrified she couldn't seen Jason Isaacs and Alan Rickman were totally doing it...

*G*