lyore | Random thoughts and linkages

A few completely unrelated notes:

1) For those of you who haven't seen

tkp's Pictorial Log of the wait for 6A/LJ's explanation, I suggest you check it out. It's a compilation of icons/banners/macros and images posted on the

dw_news thread during the Great Wait, and it's a wonderful insight into the collective fannish brain. Oh, and did I mention it's funny?

2) For those of you interested in Gender in fandom, Henry Jenkin's blog has the first of a series of gender and fan studies conversations. A side conversation can be found here. I haven't had time to really check these discussions out, but they promise to be interesting.

3) I never mentioned that my Royal Guard helmet arrived, did I? Well, it did, and it is cool.

4) Finally got around to watching West Wing. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not sure if I could ever get really fannish about the show - my lack of knowledge of US politics means I'm left inferring a lot of things from the context, and it lacks the 'epicness' normally required to really suck me in.
ETA ARRGHH! Cliffhangers!

But I still have the urge to read some West Wing/Invisible Man or West Wing/Stargate SG-1 crossovers. C'mon people, rec me up! :)

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I've been tearing through the West Wing, both the series and fic, but then, I've always found US politics fascinating. I probably wouldn't understand any of it if it was set in Australia. :p

I was just watching one episode where they spent the whole show talking about 'mandatory minimums' being racist, and don't explain why until the end, or the whole 'English as the official language' threat... I spent a lot of time trying to gauge the severity of issues from reactions, when I have no idea what they are actually talking about! :)

It's definitely interesting, and I'm loving the characters and the dialogue. I think I'll try and pick up the second season tomorrow - despite my confusion, I'm willing to pay sale price for more :)

Ooh, can't help you with West Wing, but thanks for the links! Just catching all the LJ drama in retrospect! The cat ones are genius. The gender and fan studies stuff seems really interesting - have bookmarked that too.

There's a lot of LJ drama to catch up on - you've picked an interesting time to come back :)

If you are interesting in the gender/fandom issues, I suggest catching up on the FanLib drama once you've finished with Strikethrough 2007, since a large proportion of that is gender-based. Let me know if you want me to dig up the most relevant links, since I've been following this one very closely.

Oh, and for gender and feminism in general, there's some good stuff from our friends in the comic world - 'Mary Jane comiquettte', and 'Heroes for Hire Tentacle Rape', respectively. Same deal - let me know if you want some links.

And all this in the last week or so - like I said, good timing!

Isn't it! My head is spinning from all the strikethrough stuff!

Ooh yes please for the links - *really* interested in gender/fandom stuff, I find it fascinating. And have really got into comics in the last year - would be soooo interested in people's gender opinions on that world!

Well, your first stop on the FanLib front is [Bad username or unknown identity: life_wo_fanlib"]. Pretty much all the meta about it ends up there, and there is a lot of gender stuff, but often mixed up with the general analysis of the situation - which I would recommend anyway, since there's a lot of smart people out there thinking ~~and snarking~~ about this one.

You might want to start of with this post (http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/626928.html) from

icarusancalion, since it's a good summary of the situation. Henry Jenkin's first post on the issue is here (http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/05/transforming_fan_culture_into.html#more) and the followup is here (http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/05/chris_williams_respond_to_our.html). All of these touch on the feminism issue, especially if you read the comments.

But unfortunately the only article I can remember off the top of my head dealing specifically with feminism is this one (http://paradox-dragon.livejournal.com/44378.html?format=light), although I know there's more posted to the comm.

Sorry, that link is

life_wo_fanlib.

More links on the others to follow, I just need to go to the shops now :)

Just to add - looked up the Heroes for Hire (that comic is such a nightmare!) tentacle rape stuff and found Sequential Tart, which I'm sure you know about - fantastic site - so brilliant to hear the views of women on comics and challenging the sexism/misogyny around the place, which is a bit scary at times. Hasn't put me off getting into 'western' comics though this year (have been into manga for a few years now). I see you're into X-Men and Spider-man from your list - I'm really really getting into both of these series? titles? now, but haven't investigated the fandoms very much yet. Have read the House of M and Civil War 'events' (torrents are a joy) and feel like I'm catching up a little. Seems like there's some great characters challenging traditional race/gender/sexuality stereotypes coming up in the 'new generation' characters. I'm really getting into Runaways too. And Spider-man, with his flaws, warmth and lack of 'uber-machoness', is easily my favourite mainstream male 'hero' that I've come across so far. Anyway, will stop rambling on....

I'm mostly into the movie-verse (or TV-verse) when it comes to Superheroes - for some reason, my brain just can't handle comics. I tend to focus exclusively on the words and don't process the pictures, no matter how much I try. The same applies for manga, which is a real pity, since I've always wanted to get more into both genres. I used to have a 'working knowledge' of what was going on in the main titles thanks to friends who kept me informed, but they've pretty much stopped reading now, for a variety of reasons.

Since your interested in feminism and comics generally, I'm just going to link you to my two main sources - rss feeds for

fangirls_attack and

feministsf, since I see from your userinfo you don't have either of those friended.

LJ-central for the Mary Jane thing was this post (http://devildoll.livejournal.com/750924.html) by

devildoll. If you follow through on her LJ, through comments and subsequent posts, you'll get a good sampling of the reaction on both sides.

Happy Reading!

Thanks for these - brilliant links. My god *shakes head and sighs at the MJ statuette*. What a fantastic counter-pic of Spidey doing MJ's washing....

Funny, I couldn't get into the X-men films until I got into the comics - just wasn't in the right headspace for the whole 'superhero' concept, which is why I stayed on the manga side of the fence for ages. But now I love the 'movieverse' versions too - especially the first one, and have a much better feel for/appreciation of the characters, which passed by me first time I saw the films - don't know why. I think it took me a while to cope with Wolverine :-) (He actually bores me to tears now in the comics but I like him now in the films).

Gah! Must do some work.... :-(

I loved Wolverine, especially in the first one. I really liked the father/daughter relationship with Rogue (yes, I know, no relation to comics canon at all, but it worked for me).

I can't access LJ at work, which can really suck when I have nothing to do. But I have to admit that it's probably a good thing from a productivity point of view :)

I've been saving this post forever so that I could follow the links. *g* I just wanted to say thinks for the links in the post and in comments. *g*

Glad they were useful :)

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