A fictional post

[hazelk]

Not being much of a fic person I haven’t really weighed in on the whole FanLib thing but this response by the CEO to criticism hosted in Henry Jenkins’s blog was interesting. It does sound as if rather than hoping to become the fanfic equivalent of YouTube what FanLib are attempting to create is more the fictive counterpart to American Idol with the web site playing the role of the early ‘freak show’ rounds of the contest. Given the current popularity of all manner of talent shows it may well end up being successful on its own terms but be no more or less likely than the TV versions to discover writers/stories with real star quality.

The whole thing does seem to presuppose that fanfic writers have essentially the same motivations as Idol contestants, individual celebrity, fame and fortune. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but writers on LJ don’t give the impression of being there primarily for the competition.

We are pattern-finding and story-telling animals. It’s what we do. We take the real world and turn it into narratives and symbols so our brains can manipulate them more easily.
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/summer-2007/column-bears-examining-4-by-elizabeth-bear/

I don’t write stories in my head to any great extent, I find patterns and chop them into ever finer messes but for those to whom stories come naturally it makes sense that fanfic would be both a way to ‘talk’ about them or function as a form of narrative jamming, taking a storyline for a walk as it were.

Speaking of fanfic but more specifically (and based on a sample size of two) does anyone get the impression that fic!Buffy is a more womanly woman than she was on the show? Emotionally intelligent but otherwise not that bright? Joss’s Buffy can have a hard, quite abstract edge to her thinking. Her first line in the first comic has her philosophising about the world not individual inhabitants of it and she’s as capable as Giles or Wesley of understanding the big picture, that there may only be bad choices that Willow may still be evil. The main difference between her and the Watchers is where she draws the line between a necessary evil and a convenient one.

Comments

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Interesting bit on Fanlib. The first positive thing I've read online since it popped up. Not being a fanfiction writer - haven't been following that closely.

I'd agree with your assessment. I don't think writers like to compete in the same way singers do. We really don't want to have a spotlight shined on *us* so much as we want a spotlight shined on our *creation*. Otherwise we wouldn't hide behind pseudonymes and alias's now would we?
Or veer away from posting our pictures online. Writing unlike singing, is done alone in front of one's lap-top and is rarely a group activity. Our audience shows up after we've posted the work, not while we are in the act of doing it. It's a *different* process.

I remember reading about a Barry Manilow - who stated that he just liked to write songs and despised performing in public. He didn't want the fame and fortune and spotlight. He wanted his work to be heard and more or less fell into the performing of it.

I think if asked that's how most writers feel. We want the *respect* but not necessarily the idol status. We want our work to be loved. For it to move someone. In American Idol - no one is creating anything. It's performance based. Totally different process.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

That’s interesting to hear a writer’s perspective about feeling separate from the work. I have a baseline assumption I suppose that writing is an incredibly personal thing (which is part of why the idea of it scares me). As a reader I often feel as if what I get most from reading is the ability to see things through the writer’s eyes. I used to read on the bus into work a lot and so often had this feeling of looking up as my stop approached and momentarily having someone else’s voice provide running commentary on what I saw.

I suppose with performance art although it looks as though you’re laying yourself on the line it’s possible to think of singing as a physical ability that people are judging rather than something integral to your personality. Even though the best singers are the ones who can convey much more than technical vocal prowess.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

[I deleted because upon re-reading, wasn't sure I was being clear.]

How to explain this?

I think there is a difference between *performance* art and *non-performance* art. One is not better than the other. They are just different.
And there is equally a difference between someone who likes to *perform* in front of an audience and one who prefers not to see or meet their audience directly. It's in a way the difference between an extrovert and an introvert, although I don't want to use those categorizations since I find them limiting and know there are exceptions.

I've performed my writing in front of others - in that I've read poetry and stories in front of them and it is *very* different than having read my work away from my presence - which as a writer is more likely to happen and I prefer. Not necessarily because I see the work as separate from myself, I know it is an intergral part of me - particularly since I tend to write best when I write about things I *know* and have not had to go research in a library.

In college, I read my own poetry at a coffee house. Did it a lot.
At one of these readings, someone came up to me, asked to read the poem. I showed it to them. Their response was and I'll never forget it: "So odd. The poem isn't very good at all. Sort of silly really. But your performance of it made it seem amazing." (This may be why I identified so much with Bloody William aka Spike - because I had the same exact experience he did reading that Cecily poem in two different venues - it was *how* the poem read. Not the poem that was appreciated.)

When I post something online or send a story - I'm not present at the reading of it. I do not see the response. They are not evaluating my voice, body language, facial features, or what I look like. I am not *performing* the piece. They are merely looking at my words on the page and hearing their own voice or what they may imagine mine to be reading them. It's not the same.

A singer, on the other hand, unlike a writer is not really being evaluated on the words they've created. When we hear a song, we rarely think - oh great lyrics, we think oh great singer. Some songs when printed look silly and we think "how odd, that's horrible" but we loved the song. Something as simple as a line: "I Will Always Love You.." can be quite different depending on whether it is Whitney Houston or Dolly Parton singing it.

Writing is more cereberal, more private, while singing is more physical, less private. You don't need to be pretty or in great shape to be a popular novelist - look at Stephen King. But to be a singer, it helps if you are those things. You don't need any charisma as a writer. You speak through words. Most of your audience has no clue what you look like. But singers must perform in front of audiences, they are seen.

Take television as another example. The TV writer we seldom see. We don't know what they look like. We rarely know their name. But the actor playing role, we see on the magazine covers, we know their names, we know what they look like and we evaluate based on that information not necessarily just their performance. Songwriting - same deal - have you ever wondered why American Idol isn't about the next best songwriter? Because songwriters aren't seen. We don't often know their names unless they are also singers and performers.

I think that's the difference. It's not that one is more intergral to a personality, or that put more on the line in one than the other, just that they are different processes that require different personality types and different skills. The personality type that wants to be a singer or an actor, loves the performance and loves to be the center or in the spotlight, the personality type who prefers to sit alone in a room and write - because writing is mostly a solitary art and live in their head, would rather be anywhere but the spotlight.