A constant enough thought

[zen_monk]

 A lot of times when I think about fandom, and I do that a lot since such is the nature of Tumblr as is this non-collective collective of individuals, is that: 

1) I gotta be more conscientious and critical of fiction and media consumption and analyze all the things that go into it and how people react to it, while also shaping it to their will (while also considering people's reactions and shapings and analyzing their schticks).

and then: 

2). Man, this is just fiction, so what? 

Of course I don't really believe in number 2, but there are days I really start to question how good is it to stay firmly in the abstract (which is what fiction is to me) in order to understand the real? 

(dammit, and I just remembered my fucking late paper [which i got an A omg thank you teacher almost everyone in my class kinda dislikes for some pretty solid reasons] which is all about how abstraction leads to understanding and clarifying reality, omg it was my teacher's paper that he published for a philosophy journal ugh I failed you in the Pragmatics department. I am somehow rejecting William James and Pierce.) 

And obviously when i mean fiction, I mean like book and anime fandoms and not like the importance of myths and folk tales a la King Arthur and Mulan. 

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Congrats on getting an A on that paper!

I find that the more aware my brain is of critical analysis, the less I am able to turn it off. But that is okay with me. I can flip between different modes of engagement and enjoyment (heh, or annoyance), sort of like switching between two languages.

I would not wish to forget and erase my ability to do this. The two modes help me understand why media works or fails for me while also allowing me more insight into other people's reactions.

The hardest part was that time period I was in when being critical was a struggle and it got in the way of comfortable enjoyment.

[zen_monk]

It's not so much that I no longer enjoy critiquing media or such because I'm that film studies student who really get a kick out of analyzing film and editing and what goes behind the stuff. And I was in an Aesthetic class where we get to talk about standards of taste and all that.

But it's like... there are days where I don't enjoy how other people critique things? Like there's actual fatigue in how other people comment on stuff or want to highlight things or take certain things and abstract them.

Like David Hume says, don't make a Matterhorn out of a molehill. Before I'm like "pfft, Hume you elitist" but there are some days. Some days where i think "yes. Ideal critic. Do it, David Hume." [Also Kant is still hard to read and I got a B- on his aesthetics, gdi you germans and your language [extends to Heidegger]).

[sarasa_cat]

There is also the question of whether people are engaging in critique that is constructive and educational versus criticism that is militant and condemning.

The latter is very tiring for me to see, especially when in fandom.

matterhorns out of molehills and vice versa

[zen_monk]

This might seem paradoxical to me, but I tend to actually enjoy both forms since both can be pretty good in different ways and sometimes even in the same context.

And obviously I try to catch up to my dashboard, so I can see how you would be fatigued by it all (and it saddens me because sometimes it seems to me that what seemed like an argument for all parties looked like you're all on the same page but such is the nature of communication).

But that's like the thing about criticism and critique, in which on one form yeah there's gonna be a pretty strong argument contained in one form and in the other is like a study or an observation (which can be biased, of course, because not everyone is a Humean ideal critic), but to some people one of them can be a killjoy in one thing or suddenly the biggest academic ever to exist on the internet/Tumblr wow give 'em all the notes.

So some moments/posts, i'm gonna feel like a killjoy because someone's gushing and wanting only positive posts on one thing that really grabs them, or when people are "nope nope nope" I might be a sucker grabbed in by stranger's candy. Which at this point i would mentally step back and ask myself "how much emotional energy am I going to expend in this kind of fandom interaction" and decided to just check myself out and scroll on, safe and secure in my own needs and wants and thinky-thoughts.

Re: matterhorns out of molehills and vice versa

[sarasa_cat]

I also enjoy both forms in contexts where people are willing to listen and figure the matter out.

Unfortunately a lot of the criticism on tumblr seems to be all about ppl trying to censor what kinds of fanworks are allowed and they do this from a self-centered POV without trying to understand why other people make and/or consume certain fanworks. For instance, I have spent three years on tumblr and other DA fandom forums dealing with ppl who go out of their way to let me know that they don't want any Fenders or any Mage/Templar content in DA fandom because it is "morally wrong." They aren't interested in hearing why ppl ship these ships and how some of us are acutely aware of the problematic elements. Some of these moralizing critical voices dominate certain forums so loudly or engage in direct acts of trolling. Making fandom inclusive to that kind of behavior ends up driving people away.

This is why ppl I know have left. This is why I rarely post fanfic in DA fandom because, frankly, why bother.

So, there are consequences to militancy. This is a force that silences voices and reduces diversity in fandom.

Meanwhile, other things deemed okay (including things I find offensive/troubling/problematic when unexamined and treated as a joke) are given space with out being challenged. Truthfully, I am wiling to give them space but this needs to be a two way street. After three years it still is the same noise as before.

So, what may be educational to an onlooker isn't worth the hassle to the actual content creators in the fandom.

Re: matterhorns out of molehills and vice versa

[zen_monk]

See this is also lke why I get exhausted by this whole back and forth thing between people who are critical of fanworks within and out of the general community, and how there's this ascribing of almost foundationalist assertions for why xyz works or doesn't work, and if it's something that is hands-down problematic or whatever, then it's like "ban it no matter what" while on the other side it's people who try to be so lenient and "understanding" that they don't want to really question things or be critical outside of "hey i don't want to talk about this, i have my own boundaries too." Of which of course I mean people who aren't anything other than cis and able-bodied with other things personal and far-reaching.

And it took me a while in ths three or four year venture into Tumblr where anyone is able to share their profile and blogs super publicly that each of them can be individual platforms and when realizing that it's like they assume a kind of authoritative assertion due to the newfound audience. Suddenly it's "collecting receipts" (which i admit is pretty useful in some ways) or "this user is a source" or I am the bastion of knowledge and what I say is legitimate for discussion. Or it's like when people see BNF and pretty on-point users and they try to emulate them and try to imitate their style to almost a non-reflective degree.

Maybe I"m just a curmudgeon or am secretly a Scotsman who has a different way of articulating universal standards of taste and how to be a critic.

Re: matterhorns out of molehills and vice versa

[zen_monk]

But I think that I just thought that there is just too much an emphasis on making things super personal to them, that almost any fanwork is super personal for someone and that is the measure of fandom.

Like i got someone who defends Frozen from criticism because its depiction of Elsa for people with some form of depression or mood disorder saves lives (or other very personal reason) because that kind of representation validates them, so therefore it should be free from criticism or people who really don't think the movie's any good.

and I'm just sitting there and thinking like... "saves lives" isn't really....a measure of taste or other kind of critical thinking, like, that is such a different qualifier for things that for something subjective it's a fairly extreme thing to tack onto.