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*waves* Howdy y'all. Nice to see you again :). I'll be dealing with friending and icons and all that soon, but first some long winded fandom blathering as promised. I was wandering around TWoP the other day because while I have very few reasons for going there anymore, it's still a good way to catch up on reality tv and I somehow found myself in the middle of a marathon block of America's Top Model on VH1 last weekend (oh, like you've never). Anyway, I ended up reading some Dr Who recaps because I find jacob interesting sometimes and I was curious as to his take on it when I found something that made me sit up and go "YES, that." in his recap of The Long Game:
And that right there? Is what I've missed so much. The play I haven't engaged in so long. That's why I'm in fandom. And why I tend to avoid straight up criticism of shows, and in fact get so frustrated with the habit so many of us have of ripping apart episodes and scripts for their quality or lack thereof...to the point where I will actually stop reading reviews of episodes (even by people I adore) when they go negative, or stop watching a show if I get to the point where I can't wave away its faults.
It's not that critical analysis of that kind isn't a valid pursuit or that there's no value in it, it's that in the context of fandom for me the text is not the point. It never was for me. It's about the engagement with it. What can I, you, we do with it is the point. Canon is important to me only in the sense that it defines the shape, color, and size of the blocks we use, but it doesn't and can't limit what we build with them. Ever give a group of kids the same lego kit? Same blocks, but over there you have a spaceship and over there you have a castle and over there you have a wild and crazy structure that can't quite be identified but dang it's kind of cool looking. The picture on the box is only the starting point.
Meta, fic, vids, silly conversations at 3 in the morning about gay porn...all playing with the blocks. And I have no interest in whether or not the box has too many green blocks in it or not enough corner pieces or if the plastic is kinda cracked...I just wanna see what gets built out of it.
Time to pull out the blocks again. Glad to have you with me.
if you don't swallow your TV and digest it and taste it with your salty and sweet and bitter and whatever parts of your tongue, it doesn't matter what you watch. Two hours of Big Brother is equal to sixteen hours of the History Channel or a single episode of Laguna Beach, if you look at it right. If you want to see war strategy in action. Whether it's the nightly news or a sci-fi show, a show is not brainless if you engage with it; the quality of the entertainment is always directly dependent on the quality of the viewer, how much you are willing to risk in engagement.
And that right there? Is what I've missed so much. The play I haven't engaged in so long. That's why I'm in fandom. And why I tend to avoid straight up criticism of shows, and in fact get so frustrated with the habit so many of us have of ripping apart episodes and scripts for their quality or lack thereof...to the point where I will actually stop reading reviews of episodes (even by people I adore) when they go negative, or stop watching a show if I get to the point where I can't wave away its faults.
It's not that critical analysis of that kind isn't a valid pursuit or that there's no value in it, it's that in the context of fandom for me the text is not the point. It never was for me. It's about the engagement with it. What can I, you, we do with it is the point. Canon is important to me only in the sense that it defines the shape, color, and size of the blocks we use, but it doesn't and can't limit what we build with them. Ever give a group of kids the same lego kit? Same blocks, but over there you have a spaceship and over there you have a castle and over there you have a wild and crazy structure that can't quite be identified but dang it's kind of cool looking. The picture on the box is only the starting point.
Meta, fic, vids, silly conversations at 3 in the morning about gay porn...all playing with the blocks. And I have no interest in whether or not the box has too many green blocks in it or not enough corner pieces or if the plastic is kinda cracked...I just wanna see what gets built out of it.
Time to pull out the blocks again. Glad to have you with me.
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