sara

Niki, what do you know about Michael unsettling Mika??

unfortunately for them, makkinen are freaks about each other so it might have had the opposite effect, as per Mika's own words:

Mika Häkkinen having a lot of fun pouring champagne into Michael Schumacher's mouth at the 1997 Belgian Grand Prix.

I know I’m a stuck record about the fact that one of the worst things you can do as a critic or analyst or whatever is invoke a category as an assumed ontological state of which you and your audience share a common understanding without interrogating how + why + to what purpose that category is constructed, but I think it bears repeating when it comes to these apparently endless arguments about the legitimacy, quality, measure of derision etc. that fanfiction merits relative to what gets called ‘real literature,’ as though either of these categories are fixed and discrete states rather than porous boundaries distinguishing the political economy of a prose text. Often, what gets implicitly conveyed in the scaffolding of this discourse is the establishment of a number of predicates for distinguishing category A from category B which fail to hold water upon closer scrutiny. 

(Also, before the bad faith interpretation fandom finds this post, I’m not writing this as a ‘defense’ of fanfiction or making any claims about the legitimacy or value that fanfiction holds relative to works that operate outside of its particular paradigms. I really don’t care about the ‘republished fanfiction’ arguments or Ali Hazelwood or whoever and I think your constant appeals to ‘real literature’ are boring, but I also think that fanfiction tends to be a limited medium and that an engaged and curious reader + writer should try to expand their horizons + critical practices beyond it. I’m just trying to pick at why a lot of what undergirds the articulation of this discourse rests on assumptions that imo shouldn’t be going unchallenged.)

My issue lies with a real determination to defend this category of real literature as describing a body of literature that possesses a particular property which in turn ascribes it a value measure that fanfiction, as a form, lacks, rather than thinking about the sorts of questions that a statement like “Dante’s Inferno isn’t fanfiction” can open up for us as readers and critics. In this discourse, the categories of ‘fanfiction’ and ‘real literature’ come with predetermined value ascriptions – fanfiction is ‘bad,’ ‘real literature’ is ‘good’ (as is conveyed through the qualifier of ‘real,’ ie. attaching a legitimacy that fanfic by implication must therefore lack, and ‘literature,’ an intellectually elevated category that fanfic is, again, shut out of), and the terms of the discourse are to do with arguing whether or not fanfic can be elevated to this (presumed legitimate) category. What you end up with is a distinction between ‘fanfiction’ and ‘literature’ wholly dependent on appeals to quality – the Destiel 300k omegaverse coffee shop AU whatever thing could never be ‘real literature,’ not because of a material distinction between the categories, but because it lacks the nebulous yet innate literary property ascribed to Dante. Besides the fact that this overlooks the subjectivity of ‘quality’ and buys into the assumption that it is an empirically measurable category (a discursive move which is used to defend the interpellation of particular texts into a canonical body), this constructs a predicate wherein one might create fanfiction capable of being transposed into ‘real literature,’ if only they were to write something of the same quality and literary value as the Divine Comedy. 

And like, this isn’t the case, lol. The Divine Comedy isn’t fanfiction, but the claim that it isn’t fanfiction because fanfiction could never achieve its intellectual elevation is philosophically flawed; it introduces the possibility of someone, somewhere writing a fanfiction of equal erudition to the Divine Comedy and thus transcending its ‘bad’ categorisation in favour of a ‘good’ one. If we were to instead approach ‘fanfiction’ and ‘real literature’ as neutral categories – and for the sake of argument, let’s say ‘real literature’ here refers to literature published through a conventional publishing channel, not consciously identifying itself within the ‘fanfiction’ category, and a subject off of which its creator can profit – we can start to take seriously the project of picking at where and why these categories both intersect and diverge, rather than throwing around broad generalisations that reify more of hegemony than they manage to challenge. 

So, what are the terms upon which we distinguish fanfiction from non-fanfiction works of prose? Good-faith interrogation of a few of the conditions upon which this might take place reveals the categories to be more porous than we might assume.

If fanfiction is necessarily derivative, being a reworking of characters/themes/etc from an external source material, then does it follow that the condition of not being derivative makes something ‘not fanfiction’? Is it a work of prose being ‘original’ that distinguishes it from fanfiction, and on the terms of the original discourse, is it originality which merits an intellectually elevated status? If this is the case, what do we do with the great corpus of work which constitutes adaptation, retellings, reimaginings? One might fairly argue that something like the Divine Comedy – or Paradise Lost, or Shakespeare, or, to go earlier, works of epic poetry which borrowed from the mythologies of the time, such as the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid – are beholden to pre- or proto-capitalist economic conditions that lack the concept of intellectual property and which therefore fundamentally alter the relationship between the literary text and its cultural sources, and I’m inclined to agree with that position; but then, where does that leave us when it comes to texts like Wide Sargasso Sea, a 20th-century novel writing within the universe of the nineteenth century’s Jane Eyre? Insofar as ‘real literature’ is a category that exists, WSS certainly belongs to it.

I’ve already touched on why ‘quality’ is an insufficient yardstick for distinguishing the categories, but it’s worth touching on this adjacent question of intellectual depth and merit which people will often appeal to; fanfiction is, in this imaginary, necessarily frivolous, concerned with ‘shipping,’ wholly in the interest of fulfilling certain emotional needs of the reader (needs that are often treated as immature and insufficiently ‘critical’), and therefore shut out of this arena wherein it might actually meet with and develop/challenge the themes of its source material. To me, it reads as something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; because fanfiction by nature is wholly about wish fulfilment, there’s no possibility of it ever accomplishing anything of intellectual worth, and is therefore not to be met with on a critical terrain. Except that this presents a very narrow view of what the form can do, and there certainly exists fanfiction with as much discursive depth to it as any given published work of original prose. There also exists fanfiction which is shallow (which, imo, who cares – it’s a space for amateur prose writers to flex their prose muscle, it’s fine for it to be shallow lol it’s a process of building a skill – but the point is, it exists), bigoted, thoughtless, etc. – but so too does there exist a whole wealth of ‘real’ ‘literature’ with those same attributes. Again, a rubric that relies on appeals to intellectual merit is not a useful means of distinction.

My point is that the fanfiction vs ‘real literature’ debate relies on a number of ascribed properties that do not inherently make a work of prose belong to one category or the other. Building off of all of this, my proposition is that distinguishing fanfiction from non-fanfiction works – and treating these categories as value-neutral rather than good/bad markers – requires describing their political economy. If we pretend for a second that fanfiction hosting websites like AO3 or FF.net existed in 1966, what meaningful difference would it make for Jean Rhys to have published Wide Sargasso Sea as an independent novel, rather than posting it on one of those sites as a piece of Jane Eyre fanfiction? Surely the answer to this lies not in the content of a text (WSS could plausibly be labelled ‘fanfiction’ and presented as such in fanfiction-based format without changing a single word of its actual body of text) but in the material conditions of production and distribution, and how that affects the assumptions we bring with us when we approach it; assumptions that cover questions of quality, authority, depth, the extent to which our criticisms might be fair or unfair. ‘What constitutes fanfiction?’ is a question that is pretty much impossible to answer with anything other than ‘The author said that it was fanfiction, and presented it in a fanfiction-appropriate format.’

Both fanfiction and so-termed ‘real literature’ are contingent categories; the former relies on the existence of IP from which it can derive its status as ‘fan’-fiction, ie. fiction created within the context of one’s being a ‘fan,’ and the latter relies on an intellectual hierarchy and normative site of literary production through which that which has literary value and merit is delineated. Both of these are conditions of capitalism; if we abolish IP, we couldn’t reasonably categorise ‘fan’-fiction as distinct from other derivative works, and if we abolish meritocratic practices of literary production, we cannot assemble a corpus of texts which are metaphysically elevated and therefore meaningfully distinguished as ‘real’ fiction.

Any further qualifier is changeable; the forms have trends and paradigms (fanfiction, due to there being essentially no access barriers to participation and being very much an ‘amateur’ practice, will often be of ‘worse’ quality; fanfiction is limited by its tethering to a source material; the tropes, narrative shapes, expected outcomes, etc. of both forms are as defined by this method of categorisation as they might be by genre or style or anything else, and so on), but none of these qualities are fundamental to the form in question. I think when back-and-forthing about fanfiction and its literary value and its relationship to formally published literature, it’s worth bearing in mind that what we describe when we talk about these categories is divergent sets of material relations with associated paradigms rather than fixed prediscursive states, and trying to establish one form as inherently more meritorious than another reifies the conditions under which those forms are naturalised in the first place. 

1. Randomly prod men with your index finger. They like that.

2. If a man is wearing a hat, mess with it.

3. Do not under any circumstances keep your hands to your gotdam self.

4. Do an intense stare sometimes.

5. Cultivate an aloof, sexy, moderate and mature social media presence

i've never read a fic so well-catered to my tastes before in my life and the best part is that i was so caught off guard by how good it was cuz the tags and summary had me like "right this is some omegaverse-esque, rawr XD mating shit"

but from the very first paragraph i realized it wasn't just ao3-typical possessive mating shit it was (dare i say) IN CHARACTER possessive mating shit. underappreciated dan feng lore is the two hearts shit, duty expects him to smother his own empathy and perform cruelty obediently (and that being in his dragon form literally numbs his empathy towards mortals) but then it's flipped around and he's criticized for being too heartless

there aren't a great many english fics that take advantage of the 'numbed empathy' thing, so this fic using that to explore the toxic codependency that drove dan feng to making yingxing immortal in the first place is so!

dan feng's dragon heart prioritizing it's own indulgence and power, his human heart screaming against it for empathy and restraint, but both hearts united in this possessive adoration of yingxing... dan feng is possessive to the point of harming his partner, forcing them to take his affection, inherently contradictive to the protective impulse to see the other unhurt.

dan feng makes yingxing immortal in a really sketchy operation, despite knowing that yingxing is literally defined by his pride in being a short-life. he wants yingxing to be with him so badly that he does the one thing that would hurt yingxing the most, too blinded by possession, this sickly overbearing affection, to empathetically respect yingxing's death.

yingxing lived cramming every second he could into his craft and his goals precisely because he has so much less time than all the immortal species around him, but when he's forced into immortality, his hands are scarred and ruined past the point of ever crafting again. he suddenly has so much time, all this time he would've cherished as a mortal, but is totally useless to him now that his purpose for living and passion is gone.

so there being a scene in this fic where dan feng is moping "yingxing doesn't wanna fuck because he's glued to his workshop", being followed up with a scene of dan heng fucking blade while kissing his scarred hand and crying that he's "so sorry", yeah no shit asshole, his dragon heart got what it wanted, blade has all the time in the world to fuck and nothing competing for his now limitless attention and no one's happy about it.

as arrogant about being a short-life as yingxing was, it really is compensation for the discrimination he faced for it. other immortals looked down on him, so having dan feng, THE top dog, be so deeply enamored with him stirred his own toxic codependent urges. he was so desperate to have dan feng's eternal regard that he's willing to die for him (as in the sedition), his death being the force cementing his place in dan feng's heart forever.

so the fic having yingxing ruminate on this, that he had hoped for dan feng to love him even centuries after he inevitably died, only for the fic to end with:

yeah yingxing... you left an impression... he made you immortal.... everyone's upset by this

(that's what makes dan heng forgetting blade was ever yingxing to begin with all the more painful because, you went and turned him immortal and when it backfired horrifically you went on and fucking forgot, bitch i'd be pissed to the point of centuries long bloody pursuit of vengeance too.)

here's the fic go read it and leave kudos and a comment, technically porn but i got so invested in the character study that part barely registered. also yeah if you hadn't realized already super dead-dove:

Been done to me by people of both genders. 

Also I have been guilty of doing this, so I apologize. Because I was overly excited and just couldn’t wait to talk…. yeah. 

This is the origin of Deadpool as we know him: breaking the fourth wall, making random references, and cementing his motormouth, all while introducing the pieces for almost everything in the first movie. It also has an unexpected amount of depth, introspection, character progression, vulnerability, and long form storytelling. Even, or especially, if you’re not a fan of the character (like me), I’d recommend this run. Bold=Main story Italics=Optional but explained 

Deadpool (1997) 1-5

Deadpool -1 (negative one) –Flashback issue. Technically this was published after 6 but it’s a one-shot and this way it’s between arcs.

Deadpool 6-7

Annual Deadpool & Daredevil ‘97 –Both this and the next annual are part of the arcs in the issues preceding them .

Deadpool 8-17

Annual Deadpool & Death ‘98

Deadpool 18-19

Deadpool 0 –Self-contained one shot. I couldn’t find anywhere to fit this so I stuck it here. Can be read any time before 20.

Deadpool 20-33

(originally posted May 2023 on hoyolab)

Yoimiya mentions in her second story quest that her ancestor came up with the idea for fireworks as a means to represent the past and the future, but this isn’t a new development in the story: it is precisely the theme that her first quest revolved around and one of the most important concepts in the narrative of the Inazuma chapter.

The eternity around transience is the core of Makoto’s ideals, and what Ei comes to terms with at the end of her arc. Thus, Naganohara Fireworks and Yoimiya as a character serve as the first element of insight into the narrative of Inazuma.

This is an ongoing series where I explore the many layers of narratives and themes present in this chapter. Heavy interpretation is involved, but the core arguments are supported by cultural references and historical parallels with Japan, the inspiration behind the nation.

Part 1: What is Eternity?

About Ei's struggles to follow the path of eternity, a fundamental belief of Shinto (the indigenous religion of Japan), through the lens of Buddhist philosophy. Both religions have co-existed in the country for centuries, practiced simultaneously by regular people despite their opposing and contradicting world views.

Makoto’s ideal of transience wasn’t a superficial preference for temporary existence. She believed transience was part of eternity, of making insignificant human life part of something bigger, long-lasting, something that could outlive mortality.  She didn’t place transience above eternity, one is just a means to the other. The twin gods always shared the same goal of eternity for their nation, the difference is Ei was blinded by fear and couldn’t understand her sister’s approach, but they never held opposing views. They both wanted the same for their people: to survive and remain.

Read Part 1: What is Eternity? on hoyolab

Part 2: The Allegory of the Puppet Ruler

An analysis between the parallels of Tokugawa Shogunate Japan's class system and the natural order of Teyvat's own Heavenly Principles, explored through the narrative of Ei's arc of duty and sacrifice.

Defiance to absolute power or order is the path towards liberation that ultimately breaks down Ei's fear of the Heavenly Principles, and allows her to hope for a better future.

While the Shogun puppet represents absolute order and the figure of the Almighty Raiden Shogun represents ultimate power, Ei simultaneously plays the role of both the samurai trapped in her obligation to duty and the major authority of the nation. It's almost like she herself is part of the social order, she's the one upholding this system because she believes it is her duty to do so, and she can't conceive taking a different path because she's afraid of the Heavenly Principles, the actual universal order of Teyvat. The Heavenly Principles are at the top of the hierarchy, and everyone else (including Ei) owed absolute obedience and submission to it.

note: this was written during 3.1

the page citations for the non-wiki sources are inaccurate because they come from a compiled pack made by my professor but you should still be able to look them up if you want anyways