Shakes4Supes

Scientist:- Let’s call it “George”

NASA: No! No way! Definitely not!!

Scientist (mumbling): You’re anus

Someone–Stephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King foreword–once said they’d like to say to a brain surgeon, “Boy, I’d love to do brain surgery someday.”

We treat “the ability to put words into a sentence” like it’s just the same as “the ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didn’t see before”.

And that’s like me drawing a stick figure and saying I’m an artist.

Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and don’t realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book. 

You see, “homage,” “pastiche,” “reboot,” “retelling,” all tend to be less <i>original</i> than fanfiction. And I use the word “original” knowing how loaded, and potentially meaningless it is — it’s the criteria used by copyright law for a text worthy of being covered by copyright, and also as part of the definition of plagiarism. Works in the genres of “homage,” “pastiche,” “reboot,” “retelling,” are nearly always assumed to be original enough to be copyrightable in their own right, despite being derivative works.

These remix categories are all expected to explicitly rework a story while adding in a few new frills, and yet somehow, magically, that re-working makes them “original”. Yet that magic does not apply to fanfiction, which is seen as much more derivative and less worthy of respect.

Here’s the irony I mentioned. Fanfiction often jumps off from the source and tells a new story, or fills in a gap in the story it’s responding to (commonly with queer romance or sex). In many cases, fanfiction, while still a derivative work, is fundamentally much more “original” than the mainstream and more legitimate forms of remix, as it is telling a new story altogether.

Interesting, isn’t it, that the form of remix which is often most “original”, in that it offers more than just a retelling with new frills, is derided as the most derivative.

Look Dave was a douchebag to Kurt in seasons 1&2, there’s no denying that. But he hasn’t 1) laid a finger on Kurt since he apologised or 2) gotten together with Blaine to hurt Kurt.

We all know the writers of Glee are Klainers. That they introduce love interests for either Kurt or Blaine and break them up within an episode or two to put those two back together so why all the drama?

Grimm and Other Folk Tales

"For the record, feminism by definition is: ‘The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.’

I started questioning gender-based assumptions when at eight I was confused at being called “bossy,” because I wanted to direct the plays we would put on for our parents—but the boys were not. When at 14 I started being sexualized by certain elements of the press. When at 15 my girlfriends started dropping out of their sports teams because they didn’t want to appear “muscly.” When at 18 my male friends were unable to express their feelings. I decided I was a feminist and this seemed uncomplicated to me. But my recent research has shown me that feminism has become an unpopular word. Apparently I am among the ranks of women whose expressions are seen as too strong, too aggressive, isolating, anti-men and, unattractive.