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Friday, June 23rd, 2006
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6:55 am - It's not just the story of one woman's often shady dealings: it's a story about *fandom*.
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This is a duplicate of an entry on my regular LJ. I ended up deciding that, as a response one of the bigger things to go down on JF, it might as well go on JF as well.
So, I've just used up a major chunk of the past two days reading The MsScribe Story on Bad_Penny. Well, the story in itself isn't that long, although it's the most lengthy, deeply researched thing of this nature I've ever seen, so much so I've had to invent my own word for it: the Wankcycle. Think ancient epic poetry.
What ate so much time in particular was reading the comments, the reactions, the unfolding of new evidence and discoveries. I haven't even done it for the newer posts, or all of the older ones. It reminds me of old epic tale-telling in another important way: much like all of the local people gathering together to listen to the storyteller, you've got a huge section of fandom come together over this, including a lot of elements who haven't been in the same general location for longer than a few minutes for a very long time. There's been some healing of old wounds makings of new ones, some bridging of old gaps and widening of others, there's been tears, apologies, vindications, and drinking. It's a party all right, and everybody's invited. Except for fpb. And it's more that he got thrown out of the hall for being annoying.
If you want to know what it's all about without reading through all ten parts (I idly clicked on part five, and ended up reading out of order as a result because I couldn't put it down), you can poke around for summaries in the Fandom Wank report, or go with this:
MsScribe wanted to be a BNF real bad, so she made up a bunch of sockpuppets to alternately flame her, praise her, support her, and flame her anew. The flaming in particular got her sympathy and notice from the major HP BNFs of the time. When the site she set up to take the fall for some of this flaming posted evidence of the fact these socks were all MsScribe, she denied it and those HP BNFs backed her, with the net result that everyone believed those people were persecuting MsScribe, and they got massively shunned. MsScribe went on to make more sockpuppets to generate more wank to keep her in the eye of the public, and was one of the worst anonymice in Charitywank, which the strong of stomach can find discussed here. Really, you should read the write-up itself: I don't know who ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) charlottelennox is, but she spins a good tale, full of such classic elements as friendship, betrayal, fame, rises to fortune, and falls from grace. And mythical Pakistani women.
But like I said, the reaction to it is equally breathtaking, though a lot less well written-up. The impressive denials, the grudging admissions, the stunned reactions, the heartfelt apologies, the comments that combined both stunned reactions and heartfelt apologies, the vindicated "I knew it!" and "I told you so!" posts, the questions of relevance, the rebuttals about relevance, the ponderings on the nature of trust and identity, and the fact that all-told, we marked off just about every square of Internet Argument-Losing Bingo. It really is astoundingly unifying. And, like so many astoundingly unifying things, also extremely divisive.
But is it true, you might ask?
I've been reading Daughter of the Shining Isles by Elizabeth Cunningham this past week. It's the first book of an interesting series I've been meaning to recommend, one of the most startling takes on the story of Jesus I've ever seen. It's told from Mary of Magdalen's point of view, only when we first meet her, she's not calling herself that: she's Maeve, an utterly barbarian red-headed Celtic pagan sorceress. It's worth noting only the name really changes even after she hooks up with Jesus and the Gospels get going; that's part of what makes it so interesting. (Of course, by then, she's added prostitute, ex-slave, and priestess of Isis to her list of descriptors, and the story of all that is in The Passion of Mary Magdalen, which I read first. As you might imagine, the reviews of this series are rather wildly mixed.) It's a remarkable book and series in a lot of ways, but there's one repeated line in this book which really struck a cord for me, and I found myself thinking of as the tale CharlotteLennox was weaving drew to a close:
"A story is 'true' if it's well-told."
There's a lot of hard facts in the account, and a lot of very sound logic. There's a lot of people coming forward to corroborate evidence, and even a lot of people who initially tried to deny the validity of the accusations have themselves ended up contributing things that confirm it. But for some people, even without the IP evidence about Charitygate that finally convinced so many, it will always be true, simply because it's told well. It's given the attention and presentation needed to make it believable.
And, ironically, that's part of why MsScribe was able do do what she did with Gryffindor Tower--the part where she pretty much convinced everyone that the IP evidence presented against her then was entirely false and made up to persecute her. Her story was well-told, better told than theirs: it had more compelling voices (the BNFs speaking in her support), cleaner lines (the GT admins didn't painstakingly explain all of their evidence, which made it look a bit muddled; I still say a diagram might have helped), a more sympathetic plot, and of course it was carefully crafted through and through to appeal to the assumptions, beliefs, and prejudices of her audience.
Of course, that illustrates the reason why, particularly in this day and age, it's best not to stray too far from what the realities are when you start telling 'true' stories. Because of the two, in the end, CharlotteLennox will be remembered as more true because it's be better told--better told because she included more of what really happened in them, which virtually always strengthens a story. MsScribe's story could even serve example of why authors should try to make their details as realistic as possible: small mistakes, and the CharlotteLennox story contains a number of these, might be overlookable by the readership, even if they know they're wrong, because they don't ultimately sabotage the tale you're telling. But with big ones, with integral ones, as soon as someone who knows better reads it, the story is sunk. Telling things well can only take you so far. It might take a while, you might even be really popular for a time, but hell. So is The Da Vinci Code. (So was Naked Came the Stranger.)
This, however, was very weirdly not what I wanted to talk about when it comes to this at all. I'm going to break for tea--or maybe cinnamon rolls and a nap--and then try and decide if I think my original topic was even worth discussing. In the meantime, click the links, read the story, become part of the story. This is a milestone in fandom history; even if you're not in HP fandom, it's a tale worth hearing--because it's well-told and true.
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| Monday, December 12th, 2005
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7:05 am - Brokeback Icons--now with petty backstory!
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Despite my long history--well, it's not actually that long, but time is relative to perception, so it feels long--with attracting minor wank and wtf responses, I was still startled by the reaction to my posting of these. Sure, I figured some people would be annoyed, and maybe a couple would defriend me, but instead people who didn't bat an eyelash when I told off a whole fandom got ticked when mocked the cult of intellectual superiority that has sprung up around fans of a movie featuring over-acting gay adulterous cowboys.
And the biggest sinner of the lot, according to someone, was not any of the admittedly-they're-mean icons, oh no. It was "I don't give a damn about Brokeback Mountain and I hated the story" one.
And yet, at the end of the day, when I pause to really think about it?
...not actually that surprising.
( Icons under cut. )
Rules as with prior. Want to credit me? Fantabulous. Don't want to credit me? Go ahead. Want to fold, spindle, and mutilate? It's your karma.
current mood: Petty
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6:09 am - Big, Long, Hard, Uncut Icon Post
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I felt kind of guilty about having an account sitting here with the wind blowing through its empty, empty rooms, but hell--I have a hard enough time actually managing to regularly post on my LJ journal. Two? Not gonna happen.
But still, I thought, you could post something. And then, after being tsked for mocking The Pure and True Gay Cowboy Love, I thought, "Y'know, if anyone is going to appreciate cynical icons you've had inspired by wanks/discussions, it's JournalFen."
Not that I actually expect anyone to look here and actually see them, but dammit, the theory is sound!
Rules are as follows:
Credit to me is happily taken but not required. If you feel like it, throw an m_butterfly or Milkshake Butterfly notation somewhere, but I'm not going to wither of neglect if you don't.
Credit to other people may be required/requested in certain situations. Check individual icons.
Want to fiddle with the icon? Go ahead. Want to steal the phrase and make your own? Go ahead--though if I mention the phrase should be credited to someone, please continue to do so. Want to wear underwear on your head? That's between you and your god.
Originally stated by </a></b></a>beccastareyes over in </a></b></a>![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif) fanficrants, in this post, so you might want to credit her if you take it. She said she was okay with people iconing it, so if you want to take the quote and run, go ahead--but really, you should credit her and maybe let her know, too.
I just iconed it because it was one of the best summations of, "No bad pairings, just badly written fics," I'd ever seen.
Spawned by another FFrants discussion, though I doubt I could find this one if I TRIED. Turns out all the Sailor Scouts are sex goddesses, even the virgins. All we could think is it must be a power they get along with the uniform and attacks.
One day </a></b></a>catalase, my much-treasured realism beta and attack Siamese, said this to me, and after I stopped cracking up I had to icon it. Like with the Quantum Mechanics, credit Cat for the phrase if you like, though neither of us are as stringent about it; likewise you can take the phrase and make your own. It just amuses me--Cat neither makes icons nor writes fic, but through association with me she's been both credited for icons and recced.
Sometimes I suspect she wonders if perhaps speaking to me was such a good idea, after all.
Three things to know about this icon:
1) I do not believe all Slytherins are evil.
2) I do not believe all Republicans are evil.
3) The "Slytherins are rebels!" people make me want to hit them with sticks, because Slytherins generally favor traditional power structures so long as those structures favor them, and are more likely to work with the establishment to achieve their ends whenever possible than against it.
4) Which is technically cheating, yes, but really, needs to be said: bearing in mind 1-3, this icon was not made to insult Slytherins or Republicans, but rather to hit certain fangirls over the head with a two-by-four.
5) Which is totally cheating but worked for HHGTG: this icon really needs to be redone without anti-alias. I'll get to it, I'll get to it.... See? Got to it.
I blame </a></b></a>wal_lace. And </a></b></a>scans_daily, of course.
But y'know, comics and F_W sayings need to be brought together more often. Who wouldn't want an icon of Blue Beetle (Ted) reading, "Now he dead of Crisis"?
...I mean, besides me and the better part of my friends list.
Inspired by the mods enforcing the rules and someone yelling "Help! Help! We're being oppressed!" Only with bad spelling, which rather does compromise a call to arms. Fortunately, one typo just made it the kind of call to arms a wanker can really get behind.
current mood: Frivolous
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