#fandom dissertation

[mpchev]

Update on fanbinding dissertation: I bound a book! And wrote a diss!

I have to admit that the fanbinding part of this project was completed over a month ago. Once the author's copy was in the mail, I had to focus on the dissertation itself and kept forgetting to post about the fanbinding results, but here they are!

The idea for this project came from comments and tags left by @softest-punk on some of their incredible fics as being 'propaganda for Hob Gadling to be recognised as the world's best lay', so here's my little propaganda anthology. I had a lot of fun with the QR codes and the half dust jacket, keeping everything else pretty simple.

The fics are available on AO3 (all locked, but take this as your sign to get an account if you don't already have one), all Dream/Hob from The Sandman, all rated E:

Generous (1,225 words)

The Wager (5,000 words)

The Winnings (4,823 words)

Relief (8,573 words)

Revenge as a narrative device (1,649 words)

This was an absolute joy to bind, despite the fact that conducting fieldwork and writing a 22k dissertation and working part-time and moving and picking up this wonderful new hobby sure made for a whirlwind of a summer. All steps of the process have been tagged #autoethnography if you'd like to see it all. <3

Next up: binding the dissertation itself!

[louferrignojrofficial]

if i got the chance to interview oliver stark about 911, you bet your ass i wouldn’t waste a single question over something like ‘will tommy be jealous of buck and eddie’s friendship?’ after we have seen multiple times he isn’t, and most recently in the new episode. not to mention we’ve seen even eddie isn’t jealous of buck and tommy’s relationship, and we were shown that yet again in the premiere. there are so many more interesting things you could ask about buck’s actual relationship and that story, or even buck and eddie. but no.

[theatreslave]

I fully need you all to realize

in another universe, each and every one of us, is making Severus Snape stutter and blush.

[zephrunsimperium]

Brandon Sanderson said that the purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon, and this is exactly the mindset I use when writing my own novels AND when dissecting my relationship with stories - most recently Gravity Falls, but also stories like Mistborn and Eragon.

The reason why answering what the meaning of life is is so hard is because it's different for every individual: You have to find it, nobody can tell you.

This is why fandoms are so cool; people all have slightly different versions of characters that are important to them. Storytellers put something out there, but us, the listeners, we create what we need from what is given. And that is absolutely beautiful.

So a toast to fandom and all the creativity and self discovery it cultivates.

[con9103]

HI! I made this for my dissertation!! It's an online version of the community index survey takes less than 5 minutes

Anyone can fill it out!! Any age. As long as you're a Dan and Phil fan of any kind, casual, avid, anyone!!

What is the community index?

The community index is a short survey that measures how strong a community is, and if it reaches the minimum grade to be classified as a community.

Why am I doing this?

For my dissertation I'm researching Dan and Phil fans and the impact on mental health. However part of me is saying the fandom is a community. However I need to test, is it actually considered a community?

Are you interested, I have a second survey for my main research!

[essektheylyss]

I just want to tell you that World Wizard Entertainment is the most fun I’ve had in this fandom in a long time. Thank you for putting it out into the world

Hello! Thank you! I'm really glad people are having fun and participating, which was really the whole goal here.

To break character for a moment, I had been watching polls around this fandom and hadn't really seen a proper tournament bracket. But the thing with polls is that... they really are only popularity contests, not actual fights or games where a lot of chance is involved, unless you go hard into gaming them or everyone's in on a joke. So really what I was trying to figure out was whether or not the Critical Role fandom could make that happen with some kind of setup.

And honestly, even if today's result doesn't turn out any differently from the rest, I still think that we did it! I did get a bit pessimistic at times (and, admittedly, still do, looking at the state of some of my notes), but I do want to shout out the absolute unhinged chaos factor of the Veth contingent, because that kind of participation is really what this is about—making the weirdest, wackiest argument.

I'm very much a proponent of fandom being participatory and collaborative and fun, and doing a funny bit and writing a long and ultimately meaningless argument is fun! And I will not lie, I did get a little teary-eyed when I posted the final to discover that a surprising number of folks had prepped for this and also sat down yesterday to write out whole speeches, which was the whole point!

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

I just need to inform you nerds about absolute madlad academic Joseph Brennan

most notably, he wrote a paper about a queer reading of Mordred in BBC Merlin which heavily cites his own (poorly photoshopped) pornographic slash manips

but he also edited a whole book about queerbaiting, including chapters about: Supernatural, Xena Warrior Princess, One Direction RPF, Supergirl, and the fucking Johnlock Conspiracy

all the rest of his work is about gay porn

I fucking love academia

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

I want a ship war *people raising their pitchforks* to happen in the Roku fandom. *people lower the pitchforks, confused* That only yaoi fans can deliver.

I want 30 page analyses on which ship is better: Rozin (Sozin/Roku) or Yazin/Sosu(?) (Yasu/Sozin).

And then I need 30 more pages on why one char is the uke/bottom and the other is the seme/top.

Then I need the yuri fans to grab a sword and draw blood while they figure out the same for Zeisan and who she should be with: Dalisay vs Rioshon. Or if both Rioshon and Dalisay should cut their losses and kiss instead.

C'mon fandom I believe in you. Deliver on these ship wars 2000s internet era style. It's not delivery, it's toxicity~! uwu

[smokey07]

My MINT a$$ realizing there are mutuals in the fandom who actually study classics/ history as a college major

It’s me I’m the imposter

[butterflysonnets]

straight-passing bisexuals everlark and odesta

[mpchev]

Dissertation on Fanfiction Bookbinding — Looking for participants! [EDIT: Thank you so much, participants found!!!]

[Edit continued: I'm still sorting through emails and setting up meetings, will reply to everyone very soon, I can't even begin to thank everyone enough for the visibility that's been given to this 💜 I'll keep the updates coming as I work on the dissertation (and learn how to bookbind), in case anyone would like to follow along. For any questions about the research or comments/suggestions/resources about ficbinding, my asks are wide open. Thank you thank you thank you!!!]

Hi! My name is Marie Chevrier, I’m currently doing my postgraduate dissertation on fanfiction bookbinding, and I’m looking for people to talk to about it!

If you’ve ever taken a fanfic from somewhere online and turned it into a physical copy, either for yourself or as a gift, I’d love to know more. From printer paper stapled together to typesetting and painted edges, nothing is too simple or too complex — I’m interested in the whole process, what motivates readers or authors to bring the story to a different format, and how it’s one more way to interact with stories actively and creatively. This will be the final project of my MLitt in Folklore and Ethnology with the Elphinstone Institute (University of Aberdeen, Scotland).

What to Expect

To participate, you must be 18 or older and speak English. I’ll give you more details and answer any questions you might have via email, and will then set up individual video calls with participants (if you happen to be in North-East Scotland, we could also meet at an agreed public location). I’ll tell you more about the dissertation and explain how what you share will be used, which depends entirely on what you agree to, including if you would prefer your contribution to be credited or anonymised. I will ask you about your experience with fanfiction bookbinding and if you have some examples to show me, I would love to see them! Meetings will last approximately 45–90 minutes and take place in June 2024. You have the right to withdraw your participation at any time.

Contact Information

If you’d like to participate or have any questions, please send me an email at m.chevrier.23@abdn.ac.uk

To know more about the Elphinstone Institute, please visit https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/

To know more about me, here's an intro post for you.

If for any reason you don’t wish to participate but still have comments/suggestions/resources/musings you’d like to send my way, please do!

[machabre]

another headcanon is Coluans have even more perceptive fingertips than humans, and human fingertips can already detect nano-wrinkles, though just like humans they're not always super-sensitive, it takes a bit of concentration to unlock that deep perception

[kyouka-supremacy]

Who in sskk would you say has the higher IQ?

IQ as in, conventionally smart? Then definitely Atsushi does. I'm sorry. I've said it many times before, but I don't think Akutagawa is a particularly perceptive person. Or witty. Or intelligent in general. It's due to external factors, he never got the chance to have anything that could resemble a proper education; but it's also a matter of his nature, he's just so impulsive, and narrow-minded, and stubborn, he really has the thickest skull ever. But seriously, especially in a world full of geniuses, Akutagawa simply doesn't shine for sharpness of mind, and is way too impulsive and instincts-driven to be a person that relies on reflection or rationality. Everything that Akutagawa does is the epitome of irrational, it's one of the greatest appeals of the character.

Atsushi is smart,,,, I've talked about this also, and I think it's less sustained by canon than for Akutagawa, but I like to think he's a very observant and perceptive person whose intelligence doesn't show because he's constantly surrounded by geniuses, but still he is smart. When it comes to observations skills, I find it easy for him to have them due to his childhood of ill-treatment and abuse: as a defense mechanism, he learnt to be especially observative of people's behaviour in order to tell what sets people off and be able to prevent any escalation, I think that's a widely shared abuse survivor experience. Something among these lines is shown in chapter 51:

I also think Atsushi is a very fast learner. He's observant, and that results in him constantly absorbing other people's knowledge. He's often asking for explanations for Dazai and Ranpo's reasonings, and although I know more often than not it solves an expositive role in the storytelling picture, there's still the fact that it makes Atsushi a person who's constantly trying to understand the reality surrounding him. Atsushi is also shown to be very cool-minded and calculating in fight: from him sliding under Akutagawa and attacking him from behind successfully eluding having to face him front-off in chapter 4, to him retracting his tiger limbs to escape Rashomon's bonds in chapter 12, to the strategy he elaborated with Tanizaki (and his ability to catch up on that) to defeat Lucy in chapter 16, to his attempt to outsmart Fitzgerald in chapter 34 (that, although failed, was still driven by rational thinking nonetheless), and the list could go on. The way in fight Atsushi is shown to ponder over and implement the advices people like Dazai or Mori offered him further makes me believe he's really good at absorbing information. And Atsushi is probably book smart, too! He's compelled by reading to the point he would even risk the orphanage director's punishment just to sneak into the library and read (not explicitly supported by canon, but I can take a guess). According to the second guidebook, he spends his leisure time borrowing books from the library and studying. Overall, he really seems to be rational in all the places Akutagawa is on the contrary driven by impulses¹.

It's like… A physics law when it comes to sskk, that Akutagawa will have the most despicable trait while Atsushi has the trait that is conventionally considered the best; or at least that's as far as my characterization of them goes. Atsushi is beautiful, Akutagawa is ugly². Atsushi is polite, Akutagawa is rude. Atsushi is pure, Akutagawa is stained. Atsushi is smart, Akutagawa isn't. Atsushi is lovable, Akutagawa is destined to cause repulsion in everyone he meets³. In the end, none of this matters: they're no different where it counts, that is, Atsushi isn't any more morally just than Akutagawa is. Atsushi in not any more good than Akutagawa is (I actually suspect the contrary is true). But as far as appearances go, it's still important to portray them as opposites, because Akutagawa being unlovable and Atsushi receiving all the love Akutagawa didn't get for being his contrary - even though deep down they're the same - is almost everything their relationship is about. It's also a big part of why they act like they do towards each other: it's source of Akutagawa's bottomless envy for Atsushi; it's source of how devoted and loyal he will grow to be for him - reaching the point of giving his life for him -, because he can't see Atsushi as anything but perfection. It's source of confidence and of that certain justified hatred towards Akutagawa Atsushi feels because to his eyes Akutagawa is about the worst person to have ever walked on earth. It's source to their wish to annihilate the other as the opposite they can't exist at the same time of. It's the reason Akutagawa had to die, because he's not the good one. Overall it's also expression of Akutagawa's thematic struggle to be good and unavoidable failure at that because of the constraints of a narrative that never wanted him to be good.

But I also think they can make it work. More precisely, I think sskk can make it work when both of them can overcome and defeat the narrative dichotomy they found themselves stuck into: by recognizing that deep common ground of “we're the same” and that where it matters, in morals, neither of them is better or worse than the other. The Beast universe exemplifies that for us readers, but they don't know Beast, so they'll have to realize it by their own. About that, I think Akutagawa already caught on, because he was faster to call out the hypocrisy of Atsushi's good guy façade, and from that it's a short distance to realizing that, as much as he hates to admit it, at his core Atsushi is not that different from himself. It's taking a little more for Atsushi to realize, because it's harder to get down from that higher moral pedestal he believes himself to be on, but with his whole reevaluating Akutagawa after he stopped killing and sacrificed himself for him (and then saved him again. And then showed him how formidable of a team they are when they find a common ground.), I think he's getting there.

Tl;dr: Atsushi is smart and Akutagawa is stupid and yes it fits their personalities, but way more importantly it's consistent with the themes they carry that translate in what their relationship is like.

¹ For further reading on how Atsushi can be witty, please refer to @/gloomierdays's tags on this post. ² For further reading on how Atsushi and Akutagawa's looks can be used to reflect their characters themes, please refer to this post. ³ For further reading on how Akutagawa being not smart (as far as conventional definitions of smart go) ties to his character themes, please refer to this post.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

"We need more messy/awful/cringefail female characters!"

You guys couldn't even handle Wanda Whipple...

[seventhdoctor]

Thinking about them again