#and have to check her fanlore page again

[yuniper]

i've come to the conclusion that people using an insane number of pseudonyms in the print zine fandom days is the equivalent of people deleting and remaking their accounts every few months today

[kuwdora]

Saturday Morning Vid Recs - Space and Robots

@tafkarfanfic asked me for vid recs that are similar to the following vids:

Data’s Dream by GayleF (Gayle) and TasheryS which premiered at Escapade in 1994 - made on a VCR!! - and was remastered by morgandawn in 2004. Definitely check out the Fanlore page about Data’s Dream. Star Trek + multi-source.

Starships by bironic. Multi-source. The history of Starships on Fanlore.

These two vids are iconic. Please check them out and learn about their history from the Fanlore page, it's a great look at some vidding history and culture. Amazing vids, do love. As for some recs. I love this kind of prompt. More vids like [this vid] is so much fun. I dug deep into my vid rec archives and brain and bookmarks. I’ve also crowdsourced some recs from the vidding discord. Thank you to @rukbat3, @sandalwoodbox, @fairestcat, @monkeyswithjetpacks, @grammarwoman for the reccing help! And everyone else I might have forgotten.

From Land to Sky - and kicking ass while you're there!

Landsailor by @singlecrow/raven. Multi-source. Swades (We, The People); Master and Commander; 3 Idiots; The Dish; The West Wing; Parks and Recreation; Flight of the Phoenix; NASA archive footage; Apollo 13. ❤️ We're gonna need a bigger boat. Come O’ Eclipse by melodytree. Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer. Calendar-making! Math puzzles! Astronomy! Politics! Eclipses! Oh my! Galaxyrise by starlady. Multi-source. Apollo 13 (1995), Interstellar (2014), Gravity (2013), Europa Report (2013), Contact (1997), The Martian (2015). This vid is full of so much wonder! The sky calls to us/If we do not destroy ourselves/We will one day venture to the stars. Going through space with the world by bironic. Space Exploration RPF. ❤️❤️❤️ From "day in the life of an astronaut" videos to international stardom; or, Chris Hadfield and his adorable mustache. Monsters of the Cosmos by CherryIce. Thor/MCU. Jane Foster/Science.Cherry’s editing is goddamn incredible. In the last century, black holes have gone from being mathematical curiosities to real objects in the cosmos. This is a vid about Jane Foster and her one true love, Science. Also, Thor is there. Toxic by JinkyO. The Planets (TV - 2019). Humanity/The Solar System. This vid is so fucking brilliant and makes me cackle in love and awe so much. It's dangerous, I'm loving it. Sci-Fi Friday in a Blender by Luminosity. Multi-source. Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. So much happening in this vid. This is among one of the earliest vids I remember watching and became obsessed with back in the day. Supernova Girl by @usuallyhats. Multifandom. Doctor Who, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Steven Universe, Andromeda, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Mass Effect, Stargate. So many wonderful brilliant amazing EXCELLENT supernova women and girls. Zoom, zoom, zoom. Space Girl by @aurumcalendula. Multi-source scifi. Inspired by Charmax’s Space Girl vid and Bironic’s The Greatest. This vid has a great selection of newer tv shows and films and it’s fun to play spot that character. But also this vid will grab you by the heart, too. Utterly brilliant, perfection. A must watch!! 'I've been as far in hyperspace as anybody can.' One Girl Revolution by bessyboo. Star Wars, original and prequel. Padme and Leia!! Seeing these two focused on in one Star Wars vid is an adventurous kickass ride. I'll be everything that I want to be. Space Girl by charmax. Multi-source scifi. One of the most beautiful epic space vids out there! I know I’ve recced this before and I’ll rec it again and again and again. My momma told me I should never watch Sci-fi but I did, I did, I did.

Robots! More than wires.

If a Machine by caramarie, Multi-source. Robot narrative focusing on machine origin, intelligence, and interaction with humanity. And Human fallibility. An incredibly rewarding watch and rewatch. This is the story of cables and copper wirings. Electric Avenue by @monkeyswithjetpacks. Multi-source robots! Nate’s multi-vids are always so fun, especially when it’s showcasing classic cinema and all these excellent serials. Electric Avenue has source from 1919 to 2015. His editing is always on fucking point. Don’t miss this vid. We’re gonna rock down to electric avenue. Everybody by @kuwdora. Star Trek, the Borg. This vid was actually inspired by the Backstreet Boys original music video. I still have the vivid memory of watching or rewatching the original music video in @ars-amatoria ’s kitchen. And then at some point realizing it is perfect for the Borg. Am I original, am I the only one? Fembots by Grammarwoman. Multi-source. Sexy sharp editing and fun use of all the sources. The intersection of women and technology: a spectrum of clones, AIs, gynoids, cyborgs, and other artificial creations. On by @rhoboat77. Star Trek: Picard. A Soji fanvid. Rho has the sharpest editing skills this side of the Internet and this Soji vid is so fucking badass and worth 100 rewatches. Can’t hold me down cuz you know I’m a fighter. Que Sera Sera by @ohvienna. Star Trek Voyager and Picard. Seven of Nine.Nobody vids their Seven of Nine love like @ohvienna. You gotta watch this if you love Seven. Whatever will be, will be…"

Journey through Space.

To Touch the Face of God by destina. Multi-source. The Right Stuff (1983, )The Dream Is Alive, From the Earth to the Moon (TV).This is one of the most beautiful moving vids you will EVER, and I mean EVER see. From Chuck Yeager, to the Mercury 7, and on to Apollo and the Space Shuttle Program (STS) - a very human history of the triumphs, joys, and tragedies of the USA's journey into space. Doctor Who on Holiday by sisabet. Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who. A mashup vid of Luminosity’s Sci-Fi Friday in a Blender. This vid inspired me so much. And I have 10 very intense ideas about how I would do my own remix of this vid if I were to make it right now. Fly Me To the Moon by thirdblindmouse. Multi-source. This vid has everything! Alien sex! Xenophilia! Zero-gravity sex! Mpreg!!! Because everyone knows this song is about space sex. Game Night in Space by garrideb. Multi-source. This vid!!!!! IS! SO! MUCH! FUN!! Game on! How are you going to spend those long nights on your starship? Play games, of course! Space poker, space chess, space Monopoly… this is a fanvid celebrating game night in space, set to Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Starships (Monochromatic Remix) by @monkeyswithjetpacks. Multi-source. See the Fanlore page on the history of Starships (Monochromatic Remix). ALSO check out jetpack-monkey’s extensive notes and side-by-side comparison vid of the original vid and his vid!! He matched Starships shot-for-shot! Most brilliant work ever. The vid notes aren’t on the ao3 page so I HIGHLY recommend checking out the notes on his dreamwidth page! This vid is 10 million kinds of brilliant and technical prowess and perfection.

Vidshow Rec

Alien Invasion! - 30 vids curated and organized into a show by @tafadhali for VidUKon 2024. Featuring films and tv shows: Nope, Attack the Block, Pacific Rim, Venom, Doctor Who, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek, Prey, Smallville, Rowswell, Supergirl, Arrival, Starship Troopers and more.

Follow these tags to keep up with vid recs this summer:

#saturday morning vid recs

#kuwdora recs

A helpful guide I wrote:

How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids

[danpuff-ao3]

Writ, @writcraft, a creator I've long admired! Writer of excellent stories, thinker of excellent thoughts, human of excellent taste! They've written some of my favorite fics, such as How We Were Warriors and The Beating of this Fragile Heart. Oh and not to forget A Lion's Heart! (Not me sneakily sneaking in extra recs for you all.) (As if this list isn't stupidly long to begin with hahaha.) In fairness, I did strive to choose works I think need more attention and hype! Ones I love dearly that I need others to chat with about! Plenty of people know the above fics...it's the below fics I need to scream about!

But before we get there...Well, Writ is more than just a fabulous writer. They've modded many a fest and event over the years. In fact, you can check out their Fanlore page for more information about those! Not to mention their fantastic meta works (which...oh heck I'm gonna add some of those to the list too.) The point is, they've been in fandom for a very long time, and they've done so much for fandom in that time. The community is so important to them, and it shows. They are so dedicated and supportive. Even now, they manage so much in spite of how busy real life has kept them! They still care so deeply and it shows.

Thanks for being here, Writ. Thank you for all that you do for fandom. And for being so kind to me (even if I'm chatting your ear off! 😂)

Fics

Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams

Harry/Severus. Harry/Draco. Rated: E. Words: 6,995. Angst. Pining. Post-breakup.

This fic practically lives in an open tab on my phone, so often do I reread it.

Also AO3 keeps telling me I left kudos here, which: rude. Let me leave more!!!!

Draco left Harry and regrets it bitterly. He wants him back, but Harry is now in a relationship with Severus. As much as he wants to, Harry will not be able to make both men happy and someone is going to get hurt.

Dressed for Dinner

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 3,772. Formal wear kink. First time. Established relationship. PWP. Romance.

I did not have a thing for men in tuxedos until now. Hubba hubba!

Harry has a thing for men in tuxedos. Severus finds out.

Dirge Without Music

Albus Severus/Draco. Harry/Draco. Rated: E. Words: 6,029. MCD. Suicide. Dub-con. Knifeplay. Alcholism. Angst. Dark.

Ouch. But also: wow.

Albus is happy because everything seems to be coming together. He is captain of the Quidditch team and his father is getting married again – then one night the bottom falls out of his world. Written for the NextGen Darkfest on Livejournal (2012)

Forget Me Not

Harry/Severus. Draco/Harry. Draco/Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 8,219. PTSD. Threesome. Hurt/comfort.

One cleans, one collects and the other just wants to forget. Somehow, it works.

In the Palm of His Hand

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 6,969. (Wow what a word count 😉) Hand & finger kink (don't we all?) Glove kink. Getting together. Hot as all hell.

Harry has a thing for Snape’s hands. Snape indulges him.

Independent Love Song

Ginny/Millicent. Rated: E. Words: 6,255. Getting together. Matchmaker Hermione. Coming out. Queer themes.

I'm in love with tailor!Millicent and this does not disappoint.

Millicent Bulstrode is a tailor and Ginny is losing her mind over a woman in a tweed blazer and burgundy brogues.

Life Has Just Begun

Harry/Severus. Rated: E. Words: 6,230. Older characters. Internalized homophobia. Coming out. Romance. Salt and Pepper Fest 2018.

Harry has been carrying the weight of his secret desires for a long time. Severus is there when he’s finally ready to talk.

Stone Butch Blues

Minerva/Wilhelmina. Rated: T. Words: 1,019. Genderfluid character. Gender identity.

Will reminisces with Minerva.

Take Him to the Stars (Cut to the Feeling)

Harry/Scorpius. Rated: E. Words: 9,768. Age difference. Light bondage. Romance.

Scorpius has a thing for older men. For one older man, in particular.

Treading Water

James/Sirius. Rated: M. Words: 1,200. Implied/referenced homophobia. Angst. Closeted character. Ambiguous/open ending.

I’m sorry, Sirius wants to say. I’m sorry that people in this stupid world made you think loving me could only ever be a joke.

Meta

Albus Dumbledore: a Man More Sinned Against Than Sinning?

Comparing and Contrasting Snarry vs Drarry

Canon Critique and Creator Responsibility in Fandom

Fandom Platform Migration: Fandom History and Why It Matters

Tags, Warnings and Freedom of Content: On Non-Con, Dub-Con and Consent

Why dark fanworks matter to me

for an explanation about Mutuals March, or to figure out why i wrote you a thing, please check out this post.

[loopy777]

I thought the rock came from Love Potion 8 since they used the scripts? Toph gets the rock from her ex-servent in that. I like the rock thing, its childish but they were just kids right? Innocence loss. And the rock goes KABOOM with the ship.

I had no idea there was a heart-shaped rock in LP8, but sure enough I checked the scans and Ohev gives one to Toph (that he created using Earthbending) on the last page. I do wonder what we’re supposed to believe happened to it. Maybe Toph reshaped it into Suyin and breathed life into it.

But this raises an excellent point. Is the Maiko fandom stealing something from the... um... Ohoph? Tohev? Is there even a fandom for this ship? Anyway, is the Maiko fandom stealing something from that dumb book? Well, according to the Wiki, LP8 was published in December 2008. That was five months after the airing of the cartoon finale in July 2008. Going Home Again was published in September 2007 to go with the premiere of the third season, but of course the Maiko Rock is not in the text of the comic.

So I poked around, and found a reference to the Maiko Rock Cut Content in October 2007, just a month after the comic was released. This source is interesting because it claims that the original source is someplace called “FK” where one apparently needs to register to view posts. Anyone know what this was? Googling around also reveals that Allison Wilgus, one of the writers of GHA, might have been the original source, but I found nothing about whether the idea originated with her or one of the writers from the cartoon.

There’s also a post dated 1/2008 somewhere else referencing the Rock, so it had entered widespread Maiko Fanlore roughly a full year before LP8 was published.

Thus, I have to conclude that either LP8 reused the Heart Rock idea after it had been cut from the comic, or else it was a completely independent invention. I lean towards the latter, as the Maiko Rock was really only of interest to the shippers and it spread purely by word of mouth on the internet. I don’t think the author of LP8 was a die-hard AtLA fan, at least not of Zuko and his romantic entanglements, and a heart-shaped rock makes a lot more sense for a pair of Earthbenders than a Firebender and his Knife Waifu.

[fuckyeahlwaxanatroi]

Some interesting behind the scenes tidbits...

While browsing Fanlore, I came across a website hosting all the issues of the IDIC Newsletter, which ran from December 1988 to October 1996. The newsletters themselves are a very interesting read, and if you are interested in reading Star Trek discourse, the letters section is for you. A couple of issues have Lwaxana/Majel-related behind the scenes tidbits, and while I don’t think I can republish the content, you can check out the issues at your own leisure.

1. Issue 17 (August 1991), pages 43 to 44

This article is a fan report on Seatrek ‘91 (basically, like a Star Trek convention but at sea), and the bits on what happened during the filming of ‘Ménage à Troi’ are absolutely hilarious!

A magazine article on the same event can be read here at My Star Trek Scrapbook, though it does not cover the TNG panel.

2. Issue 23 (August 1992), page 47

This con report gives more information on the mud bath from ‘Cost of Living’, and while it certainly looked enjoyable to Lwaxana in the show it wasn’t in real life!

3. Issue 27 (April 1993), pages 64 to 66

This is a transcript of an interview Majel recorded for a German convention. There’s more on the mud bath (which makes me wonder if anyone knows of Michael Dorn’s take on it, since Marina Sirtis and Brian Bonsall both disliked the mud as well), and how she got her role on the film Westworld.

4. Issue 29 (August 1993), page 48

In this excerpt from this con report with Marina Sirtis, there’s again a bit more trivia about the mud bath scene, and how she and Majel were like family. (Aww.)

5. Issue 42 (August 1995), pages 52 to 54

Note: the URL given on the website actually leads to Issue 41; replace the 41 with 42 in the URL to get to this issue.

From this con report we have Majel’s thoughts on Christine Chapel, whom she didn’t like much, and of course Lwaxana whom she enjoyed playing. The report on Carel Struycken (Mr Homn) is also fairly interesting and explains how Mr Homn communicates with Lwaxana.

[archiveacademics]

Authors and Fanfic

Sometimes published authors are into fanfic. Sometimes they’re not. These are their stories.

We’ll start with those who don’t like fanfic. Namely, Diana Gabaldon.

In 2010 (as far as I can tell) she went on an epic rant on her blog about how much she hates fanfic and why. There’s three whole chapters to it (not shocking from someone who writes books that could potentially be used like a concrete shoe: chain someone to it and drop them in the river, never to be seen again.) While it was eventually deleted from her blog, it was luckily saved by a few enterprising fans and is recreated on this LiveJournal page for your enjoyment. 

Since I read the whole thing, I’ll give you some highlights.

“OK, my position on fan-fic is pretty clear: I think it’s immoral, I know it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.”

“[Reasons people use in argument for fanfic] 2) I want to write, but I don’t know how to make up characters, and it seems less scary to use some that already exist, and just make up stories for them. You know…it’s practice!

I have a lot of sympathy for people who want to write. I used to want to write, and I had no idea how to develop characters. Oddly enough, the notion of using someone else’s characters never occurred to me. I just tried to do it on my own. Surprise! It worked. Suck it up, guys. If you want to write, write—and write your own stuff. It does take courage, but that’s the only way to learn how, believe me.”

“Beyond the specific arguments against the concept remains the unfortunate fact that a terrible lot of fan-fic is outright cringe-worthy and ought to be suppressed on purely aesthetic grounds.”

“The thing is, though, that the central—the only truly vital part—of a story, and what makes it unique, is the character or characters. Everything else springs from that. In essence, a story is its characters. Therefore, while all kinds of things in a piece of writing can flow throughout the collective consciousness and inspire new work—theme, style, form, setting, mythical archetype, ideas of any kind….a character is not merely an idea. He or she is a real thing, and no less real for having no bodily presence. They do exist, even though they are embodied only in words.

Characters—good characters, “real” characters—derive their reality from the person who created them. They are the person who created them, refracted through the lens of that writer’s experience, imagination, love, fear, and craft. Another writer seeking to duplicate that character might equal—or conceivably surpass--the craft; they can’t touch the essence. When you mess with my stuff, you’re not messing with my characters—you’re messing with me.”

OK, so that’s a lot of quotes, but it saves you from having to go on the whole journey with Gabaldon. It’s a long one and though she seems to soften a bit towards fanfic (acknowledging that she never imagined maybe it was just written out of love while still taking the shot that the reason she never imagined it is because all of it is terrible) she still ends the rant by stating, unequivocally, that she does not want fanfic written about her work. 

George R. R. Martin is of the same mind, though he’s a bit nicer about it. 

“I don’t think it’s a good way to train to be a professional writer when you’re borrowing everybody else’s world and characters. That’s like riding a bike with training wheels. And then when I took the training wheels off, I fell over a lot, but at some point you have to take the training wheels off here. You have to invent your own characters, you have to do your own world-building.”

Anne Rice also hates fanfic. Famously so, in the face of fandom. There’s even a fanlore page that describes the personal harassment campaign that was launched against several fanfic writers in 2000. Pretty intense stuff there.

Meanwhile, there are other authors who not only support fanfic, they still actively write it.

That’s right, Rainbow Rowell is one. She features on the Fansplaining podcast episode “Rainbow Rowell” and talks all about her fannish history and how she came to write the book Fangirl as well as Carry On (which is actually not fanfiction.) 

Fangirl tells the story of Cath, a college freshman with social anxiety who is a big name in fanfic and is trying to complete a novel length fic about her favorite series, The World of Mages by Gemma T Leslie, before the final book of the series comes out while also completing her first year of college. It’s a fun coming of age story and I’d highly suggest it if you’re into that sort of thing. 

It’s basically a love letter to fanfic, with Cath having to defend her writing to everyone from her professor to her best friend to her boyfriend. Apparently, Rowell came to the internet late and so she was discovering and exploring the world on online fanfic at the same time she was writing Fangirl, which adds authenticity to the book. Cath’s experience of reading and writing is very much tied to Rowell’s own. 

She even admits to writing fanfic today, though she does not publish it. 

“I was trying to write Landline and it was the first time I had written about an existing relationship. So Landline is a book for adults about adults, it’s about a marriage that’s kind of having a hard time. They’ve been married like 15 years and they’re having problems.

I was kind of nervous about writing an existing relationship, because I had written only falling-in-love stories, and so I decided to write a really short Harry/Draco where they’ve been in a relationship for 20 years and they have, like, grown stepchildren and this sort of middle-aged thing...

So it was kind of my experiment with, like, can I write—like, let me do this as fanfiction where I don’t feel as much pressure to pull it off. So I’ll just do this short story and I won’t show anyone and I’ll see if I can write a compelling story about two people who’ve been in love for a long time.”

Needless to say, she pulled it off. The book got written and published, though apparently the fic will never see the light of day.

Other authors aren’t so shy about their fanfic and they write a lot of it. 

“[Naomi] Novik scorns the idea that published authors should turn their back on fanfiction. She recalls being on a panel where one member said he couldn’t understand why someone would waste their time writing it over an original work: “I said, ‘Have you ever played an instrument?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I play piano’. I said, ‘So, do you compose all your own music?’”

For Novik and many other writers, fanfiction is a fundamental a way of expressing oneself, of teasing out new ideas and finding a joyous way to engage with writing again after the hard slog of editing a novel. The journey to become a published writer isn’t a straight line; it’s a spiral, as we grow older and continue to explore the characters and tropes we love.” (The Guardian)

Novik, who helped found The Organization for Transformative Works, is not shy about the fact that she writes fanfic. In fact, she considers it an important cultural artifact, according to her soundbite here. Though she asks that her fanfic pseudonym not be attached to her in the google-able sense (I couldn’t find out what it is. I think you have to know a guy who knows a guy and I apparently know no guys) she’s not shy at all about the fact that she writes it to this day.

Neither is Seanan McGuire (who is, in case you were wondering, my favorite author of all time.) She discusses fanfic at length in this GeekDad interview that is well worth a read. I couldn’t decide what snippets to quote so I’m quoting none of them. (It was that or quote all of them.) She also wrote a great...”manifesto” might be too strong a word but “essay” doesn’t convey the power of her words, for Tor.com. 

“Fanfic is a natural human interaction with story. Children do it before they know its name. People who swear they would never do such a thing actually do it all the time, retelling fairy tales and Shakespearean dramas and family anecdotes in new lights and new settings. FANFIC WILL NEVER DIE. We need to acknowledge that fact: we need to accept that fanfic is never going away, and that it would suck a sack of wasps through a funnel if it did, because we need it.

So if you know someone who wrinkles their nose at fanfic, or who would tell a former fanfic author that their original fiction is somehow worth less because of their roots, or who is just generally an impacted asshole with legs, remember:

They are wrong. Fanfic is beautiful. Writing fanfic teaches you important storytelling skills. I have a funnel and access to wasps. Thank you for coming to today’s episode of Seanan Gets Mad About Things, and join us next time for No It’s Not All Porn And There Wouldn’t Be A Problem If It Was.”

McGuire especially gets into the questions of race and gender than plague fanfic (do women write more? Why? Is it considered bad because more women write it? PS, the answer to that last question is YES and McGuire’s argument is pretty solid on that front.) She doesn’t pull her punches and if you want to dive more into why fanfic is Important, I’d highly suggest checking out what she says. (And then, once you’re awed by her words check out some of her fiction!)