continuing cheerful adventures of girls who write porn and the ip that hates them

In my continuing quest to be lazy....

Part A

You were all waiting for it; anti-fanfic bingo!

The AntiFanfic Bingo Card by ithiliana.

But wait! There's more!

The Anti-AntiFanfic Bingo Card by entropy_house

Next argument, everyone meet her with their cards and pens; winner gets the deep satisfaction of worrying about the state of humanity! Whee!

Oh, but it doesn't end there...

ithiliana, being of stronger stomach than many of us, has also quoted us this from Scalzi's blog:

i, all. I’ve been following this discussion for four hundred comments or so, and I just have to say your talents at writing analogies have really kept up my fascination. Fanfic is like using the neighbour’s pool! Like painting with watercolours instead of oils! Like decorating someone else’s sandcastle!

Has it occurred to anyone here that what you are all doing is writing copyright law fanfiction? You’re having so much difficulty communicating about something so huge and blurry that you’re making up your own little stories to explain it to each other. You’re creating a shared community, expressing your opinions, and exploring meaning by telling stories that are based on the original laws–and which acknowledge the source you’re talking about–but which are, in the end, an individual response to a “canon” that someone else (IP lawyers) have written–and you’re sharing your interpretations with the people around you. (You’ll notice, of course, that I’m doing the same.)

It’s IP fandom, and y’all are having a ship war.

Comment 455 by Zulu

Okay, pony up--er, if you want to. Share with me your favoritest quotes from Scalzi's blog. Come on, let's face it; the guy who compared fanfic to rape* deserves his moment in the sun for such a deeply beautiful analogy that totally expresses the relationship between a fanfic writer and her deeply, deeply phallic pen keyboard.

* I didn't see this one, just heard about it.

** To clarify--this statement was (presumably) made in comments to the entry, not by the owner of the blog itself. Clarified in the above comments. I was horrifically unclear in that particular set of sentences.

ETA: Heads-up. Who got banned over at Scalzi's blog? Anyone know?
ETA 2: That was in the Heinlein thread, courtesy of scalzi. My thanks for both correction and clarification, sir.

Comments

[fyrdrakken]

I tend to go for the $20 skeins that can make a pair by themselves, but the same thing applies -- whenever people ask me how much I spend on sock yarn, I explain that I'm paying for a month or two of something to do with my hands while I'm watching TV, and at the end of it as a bonus I get a pair of socks. I also explain to anyone who wants me to take a commission that I couldn't charge enough to even give me minimum wage for the hours I put in because no one would pay that much for the item, and most people get that point.

And a friend who's a jewelry-maker tends to sometimes get would-be buyers trying to haggle her down and wanting her prices to be based solely on the cost of the materials, because there's just not enough respect for hours of work that go into a creation. (Hence my focus on sock-knitting value as entertainment first and clothing creation second, when I'm having to justify my hobby to a non-knitter, so I don't leave myself open for a direct comparison of what sock yarn costs vs. what I could buy mass-produced socks for at Wal-Mart.)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods* I have done one or two baby blankets on commission, but it was basically a gift anyway for someone I knew and would have made for anyway if at the time I'd had the money for the materials. As a career choice, I think not. I enjoy it, but I enjoy it on my own terms; when I feel like it, when my hands don't hurt, and when it's pleasure. There's too much, personally, that I *have* to do; I like having things that are done simply because I want to.

Besides, there's something deeply soothing about the repetition in crochet. It's kind of the same zen I get when coding websites or when I work on my programs or the user guide at work; not mindless so much as focused.

[fyrdrakken]

When I was still learning how to say no to people who wanted me to knit something for them, I tried naming a price a few times. Once it backfired when the price I named was too low and she agreed immediately, and another time I underbilled myself but since it was a case of wanting to make the item but not wanting to have one for myself I was glad to have the excuse to knit it. Nowadays I reference the number of other projects I have in progress or queued, or mention a price of a few hundred dollars, and it tends to close the topic.

It is very zen, and not only is it a wonderful destressor, but no matter how crappy the movie or TV show I've been sitting through at least I have something to show for the time spent because I was of course knitting through the whole thing. That is a point usefully deployed during "Why bother knitting?" debates.