#MeatSpace Magazine

[aidanrauh]

Rauh, Aidan. Plastic, We Couldn’t Live the Way We Do Without It. MeatSpace Magazine, 2023.

[chevvy-yates]

HOW IS CHROME CHAMBER RAVE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER PARTIES IN THE HELL BUNKER?

Chrome Chamber Rave is no ordinary rave. It was created to celebrate techno(ise), dance, ecstasy and the joy of your own body. Art, music, fashion and desire are so close together and yet rarely have enough space to exist at the same time in everyday life. Chrome Chamber Rave changed this providing a retreat for creative minds and free spirits. At a sex-positive rave, it‘s not just the layers that come down, but often the inhibitions too, which is why it‘s absolutely essential to respect the other person‘s boundaries and to be polite and friendly towards one another. Unasked touching is not desired.

HOW OLD ARE YOU ALLOWED TO ENTER?

Admission is always from 21 years of age. Transfers of supervisory duties aka mom notes are not accepted.

IS THERE A DRESS CODE AT CHROME CHAMBER RAVE?

Yes, there is a dress code. Anything that stands out is allowed, so feel free to let off steam creatively. If someone turns around to look at you and your outfit in broad daylight, you‘re moving in the right direction. Conversely, everyday things are not desired since Chrome Chamber Rave is a hard techno rave with a sex-positive option and playrooms, we create a space for free development. If you can‘t deal with it, you don‘t have to worry. There are plenty of other hard techno events without a dress code at the Hell Bunker. Come by another time!

Go’s: black • red (holo) • silver • chromed • metal • chains free • fetish • rubber • leather • latex • kinky • shrill • loud naked • masked • mysterious No’s: non-fitting CCR color concept • CorpoRat suit • regular jeans everyday wear • tracksuit • simple all black • jeans and shirt combination

WHAT ARE BOUNCERS FOR?

Our doorbitches at the entrance check if the dress code has been adhered to and your mindset fits the event and other guests. We want to create a retreat for all creative free spirits with Chrome Chamber Rave, thus we offer a break from everyday life and want to protect this space as best as possible.

IS THERE A POSSIBILITY TO CHANGE INTO THE FITTING DRESS CODE AT THE LOCATION?

We understand that you don’t wish to arrive already un-dressed at Chrome Chamber Rave. If you need to change into your outfit at our place, please provide a picture of the outfit and we will lead you to the changing rooms after you pass the security controls. Private lockers as well as a cloakroom for storing your stuff are available to help turn you into your final fit for the rave.

WHAT ABOUT TRACKING/WEAPONIZED CYBERWARE?

Harmful body cyberware and any cyberware capable of recording videos/taking pictures, as well as cell phone cameras will be deactivated once you enter the bunker through our scanner.

WHY IS TEHERE A BAN ON PHOTOS AND VIDEOS?

Chrome Chamber Rave is a hard techno rave with a sex-positive option and playrooms. So that every visitor has the chance to let themselves go, unobserved by cameras, there is an absolute ban on photos and videos. To do this, every visitor’s cell phone camera will be deactivated as soon as you enter the bunker. Anyone who does not adhere to this rule will be expelled from the event without exception or discussion. Addressing the runners extra: quit trying to hack the systems. We have Watchdogs all over the subnet. So, opt out and give yourself into the exciting meatspace.

WHAT? YOU SAW SOMEONE TAKING PICS?

If you see a photographer walking around taking shots: it‘s the boss himself collecting content for 160+BPM (magazine) and HELLBUNKER.FM (radio station). And yes, he even asks if he‘s allowed to take pics of his guests first.

CHROME CHAMBER RAVE HAS AN AWARENESS CONCEPT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN AND HOW DO I RECOGNIZE IT?

At Chrome Chamber Rave we have an awareness team consisting of trained and experienced doll employees. You recognize them by the blue highlighted shining eyes and holo chains around their necks. The awareness team‘s job is to ensure an unforgettable and breathtaking evening. You have any questions, feel uncomfortable or harassed? Contact the awareness team. All other employees are also available as contact persons, whether at the counter, the door, the wardrobe or our MedTechs.

WHAT IS A PLAYROOM/DARKROOM?

The playroom and the darkroom are separate areas where you can retreat for sexual activities. The playroom offers a wide range of furniture and opportunities to fully express your kinky side, whilst in the darkroom you can experience sexual activities more anonymously as it‘s almost dark in there with less kinky furniture but a bunch of more private booths, sex toys and a sex sling as highlight. Whether you‘re an experienced player or curious to push your boundaries, you can give each other moments of bliss and enjoyment in those rooms. Even if you can let off steam here, some important rules apply: — ask first, then touch or join in — be discreet and tolerant — sexual self-determination and consensual acts are the goal Pay attention to safe sex and personal hygiene – you will receive condoms, wet wipes and hand disinfection at the entrance to the playroom. If our high med tech scanners detect a sexually transmissible infection you are not allowed to enter.

ARE LIQUIDS ALLOWED IN THE CLUB, SUCH AS NASAL SPRAY OR LUBRICANT?

To protect our guests, no liquids from outside are permitted in the club. This also includes nasal sprays, eye drops, deodorants and lubricants. At our awareness checkpoint in the club you will receive everything you need and can stock up on deodorant during the event.

WHAT ABOUT STIMS AND DRUGS?

The use and dealing of illegal drugs is not permitted. This counts for stims as well. Don‘t even dare to try. If you have to take special medication that falls under stims we ask you to show us your MedTech‘s official prescription at the entrance. If you wish, we can keep it safe for you as well.

[anheliotrope]

I love looking through old PC magazines. We had this magazine here that branded itself as multimedia & games. And I always had this quiet thought "that's kind of dumb, why not just games?".

But over time, I've managed to understand. Games are cool, but there's also a world of empowering things you can do on your computer. The magazine had pretty basic articles on audio processing and composing music, for example.

Making music is easier then ever. The software is better than ever, the instruments are more plentiful than ever, the information is more out there than ever. But I don't see that many more people doing it. Basically nobody if I think about meatspace people (except my father!). I think that there's a missing piece of cultural enthusiasm for things like that. And I really wish there was more of it.

In a world where you can get depressed by so many things, getting a foothold in a world that is so rich both technically and creatively is worthwhile. Banging out some tunes for the bros. And it's not the only kind of computer related craft one can pick up.

But yeah, I think there's still a huge barrier to starting. And because the software that's powerful will never be very user friendly, you really need the culture there. Knowing a couple of people into that specific craft is the difference between an hour of suffering and ten.

[chronostachyon]

From a YouTube comment I just wrote

Link (cw: reaction video)

Star Wars and Indiana Jones are both cut from the same cloth: pulp fiction. The magazine format, not the Tarantino film. Pulp comics were cheap, trashy stories built around broad character archetypes and thrilling good-vs-evil violence; I fully get why they're fun and nostalgic, but they push a British colonialist viewpoint of noble men in savage lands that's very much descended from Rudyard Kipling. Takeaway, pulp fiction is a fun storytelling genre but it's best not to let it shape your world-view.

Regarding the changes to the film over the years: I'm sure many other commenters (online or meatspace) have mentioned that the CGI was added after-the-fact, as were the "Episode 4" and "A New Hope" parts of the title... but the title change happened much much earlier than the CGI change. In the time of Episode 5 (1980), it suddenly went from a standalone movie to first in a trilogy, so they updated the title of the first film. That change was a lot less controversial compared to Lucas's digital remasters just before Episode 1 (1999). Nobody grew up on "Episode ∅: The Unsubtitled" VHS tapes: in 1977-1980 home video releases weren't yet a thing, and taping things at home off of broadcast TV was incredibly rare (the tech was immature and outrageously expensive then). Nope, people grew up on the "Episode 4: A New Hope" name that you actually saw here, and they always knew it as first in a trilogy. There wasn't a real opportunity for a widespread "they changed it now it sucks" outcry, because the only crowd who knew the difference were people who watched it during that three year gap and were old enough to remember the old version.

A brief rant:

IMO, the "they changed it now it sucks" folks have a good point here and there, but I also see Lucas's thinking in 1999 about how a new generation was going to grow up with a Star Wars trilogy, and he wanted the original trilogy to look less jarring to people born in 1990-1994 even if people born in 1967-1972 hated the remaster changes... especially how a lot of cutesy squeaky animals were added in the Tatooine establishing shots and, yes, Greedo shooting at Han and missing. A lot of it boils down to kids my age screaming that ThunderCats the children's cartoon about teamwork was cool when we grew up, but the new ThunderCats is a children's cartoon about teamwork and that's earnest and cringe and I can't believe we're exposing younger generations to it, because ThunderCats the children's cartoon of the 1980s was gritty and dark and sarcastic like the stuff I'm into now as a teenager. Neo and Trinity and Morpheus just really get me, mom.

All that said: it's awful that we don't have a Blu-ray that has both VHS-era and remaster on them, though.

[haoeu]

My summer comic (and illustration) done for the Meatspace art magazine

[deathsmallcaps]

Adding an anecdote in agreement

When I was 15, I went to a summer camp, and one day they had us make a collage poster about ourselves.

I looked through some magazines and cut out a couple animal pictures and I think maybe a picture of a girl who looked like me. Then I spent the rest of my time drawing cartoon characters (mostly Steven universe) because I loved those shows. Basically, whatever I had an interest in, I put on that board, because that felt like me .

When it came time to present, I was shocked that so many of my peers decided to depict some so much deeply personal stuff. Death, abuse, adoption, illness, divorce, trauma, family structures, it was a lot of personal stuff. So when it came time for me to present, I felt embarrassed, because I had such trivial stuff on mine. And I think a couple of my peers were surprised, because what I did was different from theirs.

Now, looking back, I had a history of misunderstanding assignments due to my neurodivergence. So part of me thinks that’s what happened that day. I wasn’t necessarily wrong in my interpretation, but I came to a different conclusion.

But I also think it’s because of a previous incident. When I was 10, we were assigned to write something personal. My essay must’ve alarmed the teacher, because it somehow made its way into my parents divorce battles (they’ve been divorced since I was 2 but they fought for most of my childhood). This hurt me, and so I rarely make any lasting records about personal things in the meatspace. (I do get pretty personal on here though lol. Anonymity is nice)

So to get back to the posters: For my peers, I think it felt empowering to open up. A lot of that information they shared, their parents might’ve been displeased that it went public. And for me, it wouldn’t have been. And that’s ok. People, but especially children, rarely feel they have agency about their own information.

Children don’t usually get a say about who knows what. So it was a confidence booster for my peers to open up, and have an audience. And it was a confidence booster for me to be able to keep that information to myself. To quote Steven universe (or rather, Pearl from SU), “I am the master of me”.

And the same goes for art. Some people are reaching out for an audience, someone to recognize their pain and memories and agree that it is real. And others merely use it as a creative exercise that makes them happy, and keep their information to themselves. And either way, that’s wonderful.

(Obviously, there are some times and things that need to come out, especially if they’re causing active harm, but even then, it’s ok to be upset that the info didn’t come out on your terms. The ends justify the means if it’s a matter of life and death, but that doesn’t take away the hurt you may experience.)

Fuck it, making this its own post:

I think we should be honest with ourselves and recognize that "vulnerability" is a barbaric thing to want and expect from an artist. To be entirely honest, I would hope that artists I enjoy feel safe from me, not vulnerable to me; I hope that their art stimulates healing, curiosity, catharsis, and play, and that their needs for privacy and comfort by default take precedence over any imagined obligation to bare delicate and deeply personal suffering to an audience. As the audience to a piece of art, I am not entitled to authenticity or vulnerability from the artist. Some of my favorite artists create deeply personal art drawn from their own pain and I have clung to that art for survival, but I don't mistake it for a faithful outline of the shit they discuss with their therapist.

i'll have more thoughts on it later, but I think it's horrific that it's slowly becoming normal for artists to publicize what traumas they have and intimate details of their life that no one is entitled to.

We have to become okay real quick as a society with people writing about people they appear to share nothing in common with, not only to protect people from having to announce their sexuality to the world or share where their PTSD comes from to avoid getting harassed, but because it is just the nature of art; a writer's job is to powerfully connect to and evoke experiences that they don't have, and if it was not possible to sympathize with something you can't experience, art would not exist

[firef-ck]

Title: You let my Tyres Down Artist: Tropical Fuck Storm Album: A Laughing Death in Meatspace Year: 2018 Country: Australia

We might just stop everything we’re doing and play this on repeat till we die.

-Tom Tomatoe

[franklymrshankly0]

Great albums #11

Music genre: post punk

1. Sci-Fi Sky- Lebanon Hanover (2020)

2. A Way of Life- Suicide (1988)

3. Tim- The Replacements (1985)

4. From The Lion's Mouth- The Sound (1981)

5. Another Setting- The Durutti Column (1983)

6. Nowa Aleksandria- Siekiera (1986)

7. After All- The Cold (2004)

8. The Correct Use Of Soap- Magazine (1980)

9. A Laughing Death in Meatspace- Tropical Fuck Storm (2018)

[canberrazineemporium]

Big Changes!

The Canberra Zine Emporium is taking a new direction. We are changing a couple of things as we regain our energy from an exhausting last couple of years

We're leaving Facebook and Instagram. In the spirit of building a building a better community between zinesters, our socials will be focused on Discord and Twitter. Neither of these platforms are perfect, but have a better track record over what Meta provides. And there's no better time to quit than now.

Here is our Discord: https://discord.gg/yPseuEftBF

Drop in and say hi.

We are looking at monthly or quarterly meetups over discord and in meatspace. We'll be likely meeting at the Gang Gang in Downer, but will to take suggestions, if its another relaxing spot in the Canberran surrounds.

Starting now, we are receiving submissions for our new project/experiment - Circuit. Circuit will be a quarterly magazine, publishing the work of zinesters, artists and writers from the Canberra/Ngunnawal, ACT and the surrounding region.

Currently Circuit has no theme, so feel free to submit whatever you like, provided that it follows the submission guidelines.

For those who supported us in the past, we look forward to seeing you again. To anyone looking to see what the Canberran zine scene is about, we look forward to meeting you.

[keyofjetwolf]

I hear you called someone madam in the Albertsons and wanted to remind you to recount the tale in full blown literary glory

skylineofspace said:Jet, what was the deal with you saying Madame in the Albertson’s Pharmacy line? Inquiring minds want to know!

thoughtfulfuri said:Regale us with the time you said “madam” in the line for the Alberson’s Pharmacy!

I KNOW HOLLIGAY PUT YOU ALL UP TO THIS

VERY WELL

Come, friends, join me on this magical mundane tale of a goodhearted, charismatic, very sexy heterosexual, simply trying to keep her dumbass gay alive and in exceptional health while also protecting … THE WORLD.

So my aforementioned gay had been hrumphing and dragging her ass on getting her flu shot, and as we sometimes must, I grabbed her by her little ear and dragged her to our local Albertsons (okay we were going there anyway but going there THEN reminded me) so that we could get this taken care of. I’d been badgering her about this for a while, so was quite insistent on it today, and because I am of course cool and chill in every scenario in whcih I find myself, I was belabouring the point as we were walking into the place. “HERD IMMUNITY!!” I was yelling, to which Doc was saying absolutely nothing at all.

Now something I feel is important to clarify, particularly for those of you who’ve never had the misfortune opportunity to spend meatspace time with Doctor Holligay, is that sometimes Doc’s little ADHD brain whisks her away for a brief but intense vacation. You can be talking to her, and sometimes *POOF!* she’ll just be gone. Oh she’s still physically here, of course, but mentally, she’s out of office, and all you can really do is wait for her to clock back in again.

If I’m looking at her, I can tell when she’s popped out for a bit, but we’re walking side-by-side, so I can’t see her face at all, yeah? So it’s ALSO possible that she’s completely there, and present, and living in this moment, BUT SHE’S IGNORING ME, and that, of course, is a crime and also a sin.

So we’re in the store, going up to the pharmacy (she had a completely unrelated prescription to pick up, so her body could still well be on autopilot, this was proof of nothing), and I was determined to get her buy-in on this flu shot situation so I could once again know rest. But we’re in line now, and she still hasn’t even reacted to me, and so I need to get her attention. Simple! Easy! No problem whatsoever! These are all probably things you are thinking to yourself. You, sitting there, wrapped in your hubris and naivety.

There’s a particular way that Doc and I speak to each other. We’re hardly unique in this. Everyone who spends enough time with another is going to pick up little quirks and mannerisms, shorthand for their feelings and intent. Things intended just for them. Tones used that would never move outside of their personal bubble.

All of this would have been helpful for me to remember before I spoke next.

I most assuredly did not.

Standing there, in line at the pharmacy, intent on making my dumbass gay agree to get her flu shot, uncertain if I was facing the latest ADHD-related silence or being actively ignored, I spoke just one word: “Madam.”

“Spoke”, is perhaps not the best descriptor.

I didn’t so much say “Madam” as I did spit it out, fired it point-blank from the barrel of my mouth. There was no preamble to this; remember, my preamble had been given on the way in. I was looking for confirmation, not conversation. So there was no context for this “Madam”, it simply sprung to life, fully formed, like a very cranky and impatient Athena.

“MADAM?!” I demanded of Holligay.

“MADAM?!” I snapped at the little old lady I had not previously noticed standing in front of us in the pharmacy line.

To say that I startled this innocent soul would so undersell what happened. She’d been reading a magazine. That magazine barely avoided being ripped in two, she was so rattled. I would not have been surprised to learn she woke up the next day with aches and pains from how high and hard she physically jumped. I rattled the absolute fuck out of this poor woman’s cage. AND THE SPEED. She was already racing to the counter, leaving behind only the faintest impression of her needless apology for being distracted and not knowing it was her turn.

IT WAS NOT HER TURN. GODS HELP ME IT WAS NOT. HER. TURN.

“No! No, not you! I was talking to her!” Words are tumbling out of my face now, my stupid old-lady-scaring face. I don’t know if any of them were heard. I don’t entirely know what happened next. All I remember for sure is that the lady I had terrified into rushing to the pharmacy counter had gone to the second window, only to discover it was as empty as she had thought, and then the one that, yes, was still occupied, and had to come back in line to wait some more.

She had to come back and stand there in front of me.

AND YET THE EARTH REFUSED TO SWALLOW ME WHOLE DESPITE MY SILENT PLEA

It was at this point that Holligay – WHO YOU WILL NOTE HAS NOW DECIDED TO ENGAGE WITH THE WORLD ONCE AGAIN ISN’T THAT INTERESTING – pulled me out of line and drug me to paper goods, where I basically had a breakdown against a pallet of Signature Select Everyday Napkins.

AND THIS IS WHY WE MUST FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE GAY AGENDA

[aidanrauh]

The Russian Nihilist Counterculture of the 1860s

Nihilism is about embracing contradiction. This is something that I have had to learn how to do in order to keep my brain from exploding. When I was fifteen` I was in love with the world. I was awestruck and ditzy from rainy days spent stepping in puddles and holed up in big sweaters, lunchtime breaks on the brink of delirium and playing videogames with friends, immersion in a thousand worlds worth their weight in soul. It was also the most unhappy I have ever been. I was sleeping between two and six hours a night, each day a cacophony of bright lights and endless noise. I ambled from room to room grasping at inklings of focus, trying not to upset the status quo. It was a difficult thing for me to reconcile. My world revolved around information, everything that I learned seemed to indicate either the end of the world or the meaning of life. Nothing was ever dull. I learned to embrace the contradiction. The source of my love is also the reason I am overwhelmed. 

I coped with this by wearing oversized hoodies, baggy jeans, and peppering them with homemade pins that declared my obsession with the world. The pins contained ironies and obscenities like “nihilist”, “this space intentionally left blank”, and “local whore”. When the world made itself to be too much for me, I responded with minimalism. When the world made itself to be too little, I responded with maximalism, meaning that I was always practicing both at once. I was out there telling everyone that I didn’t care and that I cared more than anything. And both were true at the same time. I made media my life, books, TV, essays, short stories from other centuries. I figured the act of trying to find the answer would be my identity. I liked stories in which the text was so needlessly complicated that doing a surface level reading could be a puzzle in and of itself.

Throughout the 1800s, Russian nobility was in the process of freeing their serfs. This process involved charging the serfs with an absurd debt for the noble’s lost property. The result was a generation of people getting a glimpse at a better world, but who were ultimately still trapped under the heel of poverty. It was under these conditions, inside these complicated young minds, that nihilism was invented. They remind me, almost painfully, of myself. They wore extremely deliberately casual wear, basic black shirts and black overcoats, but they were also littered with symbols that declared their opposition to the authorities of their world. Men grew their hair out, and women cut it short. They decorated themselves with flowers stolen from graveyards. They wore casual clothes that screamed “I don’t care” with a meticulousness that betrayed that they really did. 

A majority of the cultural influence that inspired these nihilists were, ironically, depictions of nihilists in pointedly anti-nihilist fiction. In Ivan Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” Bazarov is the best friend of the main character. He rudely declares his nihilist intentions without regard to who he will offend. He insults other’s taste in books. Nonetheless, Bazarov and his friend share philosophical musings and practice a scientifically minded worldview. The Nihilists rejected these kinds of depictions, but channeled them anyway. They were pointedly obsessed with science and reason. At the time, reading glasses were made with blue tinted glass. Nihilists, even and especially those that didn’t need reading glasses, wore blue sunglasses, even at night.

There are basically two ways of framing the world. One posits that the universe is massive, and a person is small. The other posits that the majority of things in the universe are very simple, and humans are the most complicated things in it. Both of these ideas tend to inspire a kind of awe. If allowed to take root in one’s mind, they will fester and feed on the threads of the imagination. One’s empathy and one’s reason will grapple ad infinitum. In order to resolve this conflict, one can either choose to be indifferent or they can embrace contradiction. Empathy and reason. Work and play. Change and pain. All of these contrary ideas are inherent to humanity. One can be ignored in favor of the other for a time, but eventually both must be felt at once. Unignorable, overwhelming, nothing. When two forces of equal and opposite strength meet, they cancel out. They collide. To be a nihilist is to feel the transcendent and impossible beauty of your own life. To be torn apart by it. To be in love with it. To be a contradiction.

Rauh, Aidan. The Russian Nihilist Counterculture of the 1860s. MeatSpace Magazine, 2022

[queerbauten]

4, 36, 50 :)

putting this one under a jump as well.

4. what are you looking forward to?

right now? immediately? having the weekend off. it feels like I haven’t had a day off in years (never mind that I had one last Sunday...). I’ve also decided I’m going to get Starbucks tomorrow, so there’s that, too.

I’m also looking forward to getting my tax return and my ticket refund money. it’ll be a good amount of money!!

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

going back to Paris. there’s something about my trip to Paris specifically that brings to mind this sense of freedom, which is something I desperately need right now. I went to Paris for things I wanted (things I am passionate about) and spent my time as I wanted. Nobody could bring me down in Paris. (also, the culture is really great, and if I get to meet up with theee YoungEarlGrey again, all the better!)

meeting my best friend(s) in real life. I love @menderoffarspeech with all my heart, and I would love to be with her in meatspace, even if only for a while. I’ve got other friends I’d like to meet, too, of course—everybody should just come here!

getting a stable writing or editing job. please. I did my time freelancing and getting underpaid. I have proven myself and have the burnout to go with it. for goodness’ sake, I spent two years as editor of a real magazine! please, let me get back what I once had.

50. favourite picture of your idol

I don’t have idols—or, at least, I don’t think of people in that way. as for pictures of my faves? it would take a while to compile that gallery! to keep things quick, here’s a picture of Blixa Bargeld that I’m really loving right now:

fucking asshole. I hate him

thank you for the questions!! it means a lot :)

[archiveacademics]

Histories and the first Spotlight

Earlier this week I looked at what the definition of fanfic is. It’s a topic of endless debate and one I will doubtless return to again and again over the course of this study. But for today I’d like to do a little look back at the history of fanfic and, more broadly, of fandom itself.

“First there was “Star Trek,” the original series, whose viewers—many of them women in stem fields—organized conventions and created self-published journals (a.k.a. fanzines) with fiction about its characters, a small but notorious slice of which included sexy doings between Kirk and Spock. Or: first there were fans of science-fiction novels and magazines who held conventions and traded self-published journals as early as the nineteen-thirties. Or: first there was Sherlock Holmes, whose devotees, hooked by serial publication, pushed for more stories, formed clubs, and wrote their own. Or: first came Virgil’s Aeneid. Or: first, the Janeites. Or: first there was you, and your friends, age ten, making up adventures in which Chewbacca met Addy Walker, and writing them down.”

So opens “The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction” by Stephanie Burt, which, if you didn’t read it when I linked to it in the last post you really should. The history of fanfic, if we wanted to be really broad, could go all the way to the ancient Greeks writing plays based on The Iliad and The Odyssey which are based on oral stories of a real war that (probably) happened around 1180 BCE. 

But we’re not going to do that, because, as Jill Bearup explains in the first of her “History of Fanfic” vlogs, The Aeneid and Iphigenia at Aulis and Trojan Women were not technically fanfic, but derivative works. As I discussed before, fanfic is about intent*.

To find the true beginnings of fanfic, you need to only go as far back as the eighteenth century.

“...popular authors such as Daniel Defoe started protesting that his work was being "kidnapped" and bowdlerised by amateur writers who reduced the value of his creations with inferior impersonations,” writes Ewan Morrison in an article entitled “In the Beginning, there was fan fiction: from the four gospels to Fifty Shades.”

1913 saw the publication of Old Friends and New Fancies – an Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil Brinton, the first piece of published Janeite fanfic. (Janeite, of course, being the name of Jane Austen fans at the time. Much like Swifties or Beliebers today.)

I myself own a book called Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, and though I’ve yet to read it (my shelf is over full, you might say) I’m sure it’s delightful.

From the Janeites of the eighteenth century we move forward to the Sherlock fans of the nineteenth. This genteel group of readers was so dedicated to Sherlock Holmes that they managed to raise him from the dead. Well, they annoyed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so much he raised Sherlock from the dead. 

From there, the literary club of the Baker Street Irregulars was established in the 1930s and they are still alive and active to this day. Apparently, there’s a lot to discuss, as “Conan Doyle generally wrote the Holmes stories quickly and with a minimal amount of editing, and as a result the canon contains a huge number of mistakes and inconsistencies. It was from these that the practice of "Holmesian speculation" arose, which consists of pointing out discrepancies in the canon and devising (sometimes reasonable, sometimes extremely outlandish) explanations for them.” (Fanlore.org)

From Sherlock and the Irregulars we move to the modern era, and what you could potentially call the birth of modern fandom. That’s right folks, it’s time for some Star Trek.

“The shape of those [early 2000s] fandoms, in turn, was due to those that migrated out of meatspace onto the brand new baby internet, which of course owed their structure to the zine-based fandoms of the ‘70s and ‘80s. All of which can be traced back to – you guessed it – Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Original Series is often looked to as the origin of modern fandom, and many of the networks and communities those fans established continue to influence fan interactions to this day, as does the example they set in using fandom as a means of social awareness and political action.”

In “None of This is New: An Oral History of Fanfiction” Jordan West discusses why you shouldn’t be surprised when you draw the card “Harry Potter erotica” in Cards Against Humanity and gives a quick overview of the history of fanfic. However, West argues that writing such as Shakespeare and The Aeneid count as fanfic which, by this blog’s definition, they don’t.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that everyone has their own ideas of what fanfic is and where it really began. I’m sticking with the Janeites as my point of ignition. 

Now that’s settled (insofar as anything on the internet is every “settled”) let’s move on to this week’s Spotlight. Every week, I plan on putting a platform, a person, or a particular story in the spotlight to show off the practical side of these academic headaches I’m giving myself. (I’ve gone back and forth on the definition of fanfic at least fifteen times since I posted the first blog post, much less when I was writing the damn thing.)

This week’s Spotlight is on two of the earlier homes of fanfic: LiveJournal and Fanfiction.net. 

LiveJournal was created in 1999 by American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick as a mixed blog/social media site.  It was purchased in 2006 by Six Apart and then sold in 2007 to SUP Media, a Russian media company. (Wikipedia.com)

“LiveJournal encourages communal interaction and personal expression by offering a user-friendly interface and a deeply customizable journal. The service's individuality stems from the way highly dedicated users utilize our simple tools, along with the instinct for individual expression, to create new venues for online socializing.

Because of LiveJournal's unique combination of platform and social media, LiveJournal has a unique personality in different parts of the world. In fact every national community in every country is unique in its own way. Where a user in the United States might focus their attention on communities dedicated to topics from the popular to the esoteric, users in the U.K. may tend to rally around entertainment-related issues. In Russia LiveJournal makes up the vast majority of the blogosphere, hosting over 80 of the top 100 Russian blogs. In Singapore LiveJournal revolves around collaboratively purchasing overseas goods. And that's just for starters.” (LiveJournal.com)

Fanfiction.net was created in 1998 by Los Angeles programmer Xing Li. The largest archive of fanfic on the internet, fanfiction.net comes in second in popularity to Archive of our Own**. It has over 12 million users and hosts stories in over 40 languages. Unlike LiveJournal, fanfiction.net is not a social networking site, but a site specifically dedicated to fanfic. Users can choose from a number of categories for their work and they can rate their work as well. The site also hosts forums for fans and writers alike, and registered users can apply to be beta readers. (Wikipedia.com)

I have never had a LiveJournal (I’m honestly not even sure if I’m capitalizing that right), and if I did have a ff.net account I had to have been, like, 12 when it was created and 13 when it was last opened. Still, these are two of the earliest archives of massive amounts of fanfic from hundreds of different fandoms (just check out this list of book fandoms that have stories written about them of ff.net. And that’s just the book category!) 

A history of fanfic is always going to be a little bit messy around the edges, in part because the definition of fanfic is so personal and changeable. All I can hope is that you’ve learned something new today while reading this. If so, I’ll count that as a win.

*And as I haven’t discussed yet, it’s also about copyright and ideas of authorship. Again, this is a topic you’ll have to look forward to.

**AO3 will be the subject of a future spotlight, don’t you worry.

[eldritchsurveys]

306.

Have you ever worn those Drunk Goggles? >> I haven’t. I’ve never encountered them in meatspace.

Which decade before the 90s had the best makeup trends? >> I don’t have an opinion.

Can you agree to disagree, or usually get upset over conflicting views? >> I absolutely can agree to disagree. Though I sometimes like to needle people about why they hold the views they hold, if they’re particularly interesting or novel to me.

Does it bug you when long socks are constantly falling down? >> That would bug me if I wore long socks.

Rodeos -- entertaining, or cruel? >> I have never been to one so I don’t know if they entertain me or not. I also have no opinion about the cruelty thing.

Why can't politicians debate politely? >> I’m sure some do. But they usually don’t make the news.

Who is the best female rocker? Why? >> I don’t have an opinion on who’s best. I like quite a few of them.

Can you even taste a difference between Cheez Its and Cheez Nips? >> I don’t know, I don’t eat them.

What about between Pepsi and Coke or Sprite and 7Up? >> I can taste the difference between those.

Do you care what kind of toilet paper you use? >> I sure do care.

What color of roses do you find the prettiest? >> Red is fine.

Which celebrity has the cutest butt? >> I don’t know.

Do you still have any decent arcades nearby? >> I don’t know if there ever were any decent arcades here, because I haven’t lived here long. But there sure aren’t any now.

After a holiday, do you go to the store to get candy on sale? >> No.

Did Marilyn Monroe look better before or after cosmetic surgery? >> I have no opinion.

Bullfighters who get gored kind of had it coming, right? >> Well, kind of, it’s an occupational hazard, innit?

If you make surveys, do you care what people rate them? >> ---

Have you ever accidentally found porn when looking for something else? >> I don’t think so. Unless it was in some badly worded google search.

Ever run into those 'celebrity lookalike porn' blogs? >> Yeah.

If you're not religious, is the Bible basically just an old collection of short stories? >> No, it’s a mythological/pseudo-historical text, which is a fair bit more interesting.

Do you think religious leaders just like to manipulate people? >> I guess some do and some don’t. I’m not going to generalise.

Why do so many fans with OTP's insist that their ship is real? >> Because to them it is. 

Even when the writers (or real people that they ship) tell them it isn't? >> Because. To them. It is. It might be unorthodox but it sure ain’t rocket science or anything.

Do you draw fanart of anything? >> I would if I still drew.

Do annoying city kids ever loiter outside your library and harass people? >> No.

Do you like to hang out at your local library? >> Not really. I mean, sometimes I like to sit and read magazines, but I get restless. Spent way too much time in libraries back when I had nowhere else [indoors] to go, so I think it’s soured the experience for me.

On that subject, do you like the smell of books? >> Some books. Not all of them have the smell I like.

What's on your Reading List, so-to-speak, right now? >> There are over 100 books on my to-read list.

Read any great non-fiction books lately? >> Sure.

What do you like on your burger? >> Cheese, mustard, pickles, onion.

What do you NOT like on your burger? >> Mayonnaise, a lot of messy toppings.

Do you like 'loose meat' sandwiches? >> I’m not sure what that is.

Have you ever heard of the restaurant Maid Rite? >> No.

What is the best thing to put in a grilled cheese (other than cheese)? >> I used to have a preference but I haven’t had a grilled cheese in so long I forgot what my preference is. :x

Homemade tomato soup, or just out of a can? >> I like the Trader Joe’s tomato soup that comes in a carton. Most canned tomato soup tastes like ketchup water to me.

Favorite thing to see in museums? >> I like science and tech museums best.

Have you ever seen an unwrapped mummy in person? >> Maybe in a natural history museum.

What things have people shamed you for? >> I don’t recall being shamed for anything.

Do you always reply to private messages? (On any website) >> I reply to most of them. Some of them aren’t worth my time or don’t require a response.

What device do you seem to always be buying batteries for? >> None.

What's worse -- snow, or all the mud after it melts? >> Definitely the latter.

Are there any 'adult stores' in your area? >> Maybe. I haven’t seen any, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was one somewhere.

Have you been inside of them/shopped there before? >> I’ve been inside a lot of them (in NYC). Sometimes I even bought things.

Do you watch The Masked Singer? Any theories? >> No.

Favorite Alfred Hitchcock film? >> The only one I’ve seen and remember seeing is The Birds.

Do you like Funko Pop figurines? >> They’re all right, sometimes.

If so, do you have any? Which ones would you like to have? >> I have six, I think (two from Preacher, two different Heimdalls from the Thor franchise, and two from The Dark Tower). Sparrow has a bunch but I don’t remember what they all are. I don’t really want any more, I don’t find them that interesting to keep around.

Which ones do you think they should make (but haven't yet)? >> Haven’t they made, like, everyone into a Funko by now, lmao...

[haoeu]

My Meatspace comic about an off the rails life (plus the page sketches). So glad I can finally post my contribution, check out the full Fall 2021 magazine on their page!

[omgnia]

as much as i think ts4 is a total dud, the series continues to provide such an interesting reflection on society in ways i think you completely wouldn't expect. not like the edgelord murdering ppl by locking them in a kitchen with zero cooking skill and no fire alarm, but like what aspects of meatspace life do ppl seek to reproduce in the sims?

you see stuff like meticulous cc reproductions of a mcdonalds store and all the ephemera that goes inside or the entire ikea product catalogue, famous bldgs miniaturized into dollhouses, the costumes from tv shows recreated to put on virtual dolls. but then also: starting summer 2020 i started seeing ppl recreating BLM rallies in-game, covid testing tents, signage, masks etc.

when ts3 was still the newest game, i subscribed to a sims home and garden magazine, which was like a regular home and garden magazine in almost every way. i think it goes to show that play continues to be an important part of processing our reality even in adulthood.

but the reason i wrote this post is bc i saw an ad for cc dining furniture featuring a sim crying on the ground in lingerie, which is fucking unhinged.