This is like the convergence of all things good in pop-culture.
My hope in people has been momentarily restored.



Oh Kermit... *sigh*

And yes, when I was little my brother used to call me Miss Piggy *HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH*

I've just come home from viewing the most recent Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars.

In a word: Damn! (or *squee*!!!)

In many more words: ( Here be spoilers, enter at your own risk )

I hope that wasn't too incoherent!
I will try gather more and better thoughts on this over the next few days.

In the meantime *fangrrl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

I just donated to the Organisation for Transformative Works.

This is part of fan and Internet history keeping and making.

I think being a part of it is awesome!



Good god, I've even posted a Cat!Macro in this honour.

Hopefully I'll find the time to do more than just vote and donate - volunteering is fun!

Via rm I discovered the comm kinkfreezone and friends... for a fanfic comm that allows high ratings on the fics and includes Slash, Het and Gen; I have never in my whole on-line life seen a more sex-negative fic community.

Wanting to have a community and specific requirements on fic is fine, fun and dandy. Honestly, it is. Wanting to exclude certain criteria that you and others would rather not read, very fine, your prerogative.
That's not the issue.

The issue is with language and the so-called binary of Vanilla and Kink.

For a more lighthearted, yet not, commentary on the list of kinks NOT permitted you can read thingswithwings' entry here. The comments are hilarious.

But oh, where to start... hmm, possibly from the most offensive one: ( So as not to eat your f-list )

Voice fetishization (cracking or broken; husky, low, throaty; purring; accents; whispering close to someone's ear).
Fucking hell! Involuntary reaction is not a kink. No, really. This is possibly the most absurd (not offensive, I've listed things I found particularly offensive) criterion on this list.

That whole list needs a serious language editor, a workshop in sex-positivism and just a little shake-up when it comes to Vanilla/Kink binary - here's a secret... it's NOT!).

Enjoy mocking the whole thing.

Edited to Add: Amazing what going to bed will do.
My comment in now deleted, as are all the other critical comments made on the post - I restrained myself a lot and wanted to be respectful, I may have failed a tad.
Here's my comment for keeps:

This list has extremely problematic and prejudicial language.
Perhaps if you edited it, it would read differently, but as it stands, this is offensive to a whole slew of people who you included as a kink.
Some of these aren't even kinks but literary tropes!
Trope=/=Kink, please learn the difference.

Also, including involuntary bodily reactions? Please, get a clue - also the inclusion of "accents", "uncircumcised penises", "homosocial environmental", "nautical themes", "exoticism" and a big portion of "gender themes" just to name a few is downright, and here are heavy words, racist, xenophobic and over-all queerphobic in general.

Fetishising Vanilla is also a kink, you know.
As I said, get a clue.

I understand and respect the want of specific kind of fic, but that toes a line that isn't just about criteria... this is exclusionary in the extreme.

Here is the Mod's reply:

WOW am I getting sick of repeating myself. Had you actually READ the damn post you would see RIGHT AT THE TOP!!! that it is, in fact, a list of KINKS, TROPES AND CLICHES from fandom!

You can go GET A CLUE sweetheart and get the fuck out of my community.

For serious.
The post itself has been updated, because you know, instead of trying to make the comm a little more inclusive - let's just be all the more offensive and delete the things I dun like!
How dare people get offended and say something about it! Sheesh!

Comic books came to me at a time in which I was searching for belief.

Between the ages of 13 to 15 I was going through a Wiccan/Pagan phase, sad but true, I lived the stereotype. I even have a paper diary in which I wrote down my teenage angst and rage at not being able to be polytheist, not realising I didn't actually believe in any god - because the gods are stories to me.

Mythology, the stories of why we are, who we are; that was what attracted me to the Bible stories, the cosmology of Life after Death in ancient Egypt and incestuous love affairs of ancient Greece.

I can't remember what motivated me to explore religions outside Judaism (I loved the myths before I understood that god was supposed to be more than just a character in a book), possibly because I found and still find, going to shul incredibly boring.
The liturgy can be lovely, but I can't stand the thought of being there just because of (cue the Fiddler) Tradition.

At around that time I was reading Terry Pratchett and found that the philosophy he espouses in Pyramids and Small Gods sat very well with me and my apathetic-yet-literary pursuits.
I also found Good Omens and wasn't that a delight for me, receiving validation in my dislike of religion and being critical of belief at the time¹.
I had no clue who Neil Gaiman was.
I found out.
Enter the Sandman.
It took me four years to collect all ten volumes, as a teen my funds were lacking, of course, so I begged for early birthday presents, loaned money from my brother, just to get my hands on the next Sandman books.
When I realised that Sandman operated in the same world (though a different plain) as DC comics - I began to read Batman again.
Batman, whose villains are so much like himself... he even "dates" them - costume fetish? You bet!

I can now see, looking back and thinking critically upon that very apathetic time of my life, that my need for religion, the search for something bigger than myself - was the search for stories that were bigger than my life... and there ain't nothing bigger than the Endless, the Justice League, the X-Men, V and even the all too fallible Watchmen - post-humanism... oh yes. Now that's transcendent.

I remember reading Season of Mists at 18 and feeling as though my ideas regarding all the gods, faith and world order, laid out in front of me... in vivid colour².

I read "Concerning Mammoths, and Falling Walls" again (the third chapter in Brief Lives) not long after the second Lebanon War and the line Death (our friend, our constant companion in Life) says to the very long-lived man who asks "...I did okay, didn't I?" concerning how long he lived, she says:
"You got a lifetime. No more. No less."

That sentence has been resonating in me for the past three years. It comforts me when I think of my mortality, because we live as long as we do.
And that's it.

Having recently read Gaiman's rendition on the "death of Batman" in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" that line echoed in my mind.
It echoes all the time.

Though slash fiction were my main source of understanding "alternative" sexuality and the fact that I, myself, was not straight, comics empowered me in being outwardly weird - I like the colours... in comics even black is bright.
The dynamics of gender in comics are far more complex that what people think - sure, it's busty women in skin tight (or barely there) costumes and it's muscled men in skin tight (there are bulges) costumes.
You can learn so much about what is idealised and why by reading these people who still hark from that time of pulp-fiction and illicit magazines.

I'm writing this whole spiel because Blognewsarama (my main comic oriented news site) plugged this website:

The A-Z LGBT Comic Book Character Superlist, which is freakin' awesome! This website Queersupe appears to be that much more extensive, in-depth and analytical.

Works for me! Go and explore.

And just to keep with the theme of this somewhat sombre entry; comic books (along with my search for faith through religion) enabled me to doubt, ask questions about the veracity of the stories we tell ourselves (all are real of course) and the ideals upon which they are supported... helped me learn about myself and the stories that make my world the way it is.

Footnotes
(1) I'd just like y'all to know that it took me a long time to come to the conclusion that agnosto-atheism was the best place for me, I really wanted to have some kind of faith that was bigger than me. But my identification with being Jewish is too strong, though historical, cultural and ethnic - religion is a composite in that, and despite being a complete heretic... I cannot remove it from me entirely.
Back to text.

(2)For a long time Bast and Anubis were my closest companions in my dreams and I even bought two little figurines of them... they sit along with the other statuettes in my room, that I collected over the years. I once used them in a ceremony with a bunch of friends - I was still trying to be of belief, faith and religion, but inwardly I was already gone. A hypocritical portion of my life, without a doubt.
Back to text.

Episode 3

Fuck.
Me.

This is bloody brilliant!

Vampires have taken over our lives. They suck out time via books, television and film like no other supernatural beast ever could.

Why?

Because they look like people, like you and me, they can walk among us unknown and seduce us with their glamour, mystique and plain ole' attractiveness.
Vampires are always beautiful, those that ugly, do not need to be. We are attracted to the fact that they are excluded from daylight, that they are reflected only in the eyes of human (their prey) and to the fact that they are immortal.

They do not die.

We pass away and they pass on.

Vampires have reached a kind of peak of pop-culture popularity. Ten years ago when I was fourteen and obsessed with Buffy, I read Dracula, Interview with a Vampire and thought Bella Lugosi was the shit.
Vampires were awesome.

Now... they're poster boys for Abstinence.
Where have we gone wrong.
( This glamour will make you click on the cut )

When some one links to an article titled The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky on a website called The Spearhead and the Author's nick is Pro-male/Anti-feminist Tech; you know you're in for some fun sci-fi critique!

My first thought after reading that diatribe of misogyny, homophobia and exclusionary nostalgia, was pretty uncharitable, petty and mean.
Not even the most "one of the boys/I'm not a feminist" female-geek wouldn be able to consider this person particularly tasteful.
Seeing as he's laying out misogyny and homophobia pretty fucking thick. Without any shame and certainly without any self-reflection.
But That's what cowards do.

I'm reminded of my entry into the comic book world, there are women there (readers that is) and I gravitated to the classics (Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, the Justice League - yeah, I'm a DC grrl) and to horror-fantasy (DC's Vertigo line; Sandman, Hellblazer, Fables, Lucifer etc).
This is not an odd thing, most people like more than one kind of genre in they chosen form of medium, but I definitely felt the overwhelmed by the amount of boys in this medium and how my reading of the stories being feminist (even before I could articulate why it was feminist - I was 15 when I got into comics) made me iffy about getting into discussion with other Batman fans - many of them, somehow, ignoring the fetish gear he dons in order to fight crime and the only women he's ever been interested in sexually (he doesn't do romance) have been other criminals who wear costumes.
I digress.
( This is cut for length )

Times they are a changing, and guess what, they've been "changing" and "changed" since the mid-60's, you, Pro-Male/Anti-Feminist Tech failed to get on that boat and complaining about us women and queers taking over your genre and taking your jobs in science...
This is not a tree-house club and there are no more Wendy houses.
This is a sandbox - please stop peeing in it.

ETA: I couldn't stop myself. I commented, sans a link to this blog. I don't need to make easier for them to find me.

I went to see Inglourious Basterds this evening.

It totally and utterly rocked.

Tarantino at his best and funnest.
Art that was very much not dumbed down for the "masses".

A longer, spoilerific and analytic review at a later date, probably tomorrow.

Stay tuned... or I'll scalp ya!

Torchwood Fandom,

This is not okay, no matter how you spin it, via torch_wood:

Please Read - TW Fandom Using a photo of my son inappropriately.
[Posted by shamazipan]
I am not usually one to get all up on my high horse about photos I've posted online. It's annoying when something you've posted ends up somewhere else without credit, but at the weekend I heard something that made my stomach churn. A complete stranger told me that she recognised my son from an email attachment that's been floating round. Apparently someone has taken a picture of him and Gareth David-Lloyd and captioned it "Ianto and Lisa's Baby". I can only imagine that someone saw the photo of Gareth and a small mixed race boy and their mind had that random thought. The thing is that most normal people would leave it there and wouldn't then pass that photo around with a silly caption. You have no idea how I felt on hearing that my son was being used as an object of amusement for someone. I share my pictures in very few places - my LJ (photo posts are usually flocked), my private photobucket account and this one photo was shared with friends on a Torchwood forum. What makes this worse is that it is probably someone I know that has done this. While I usually don't worry too much about sharing pictures of my son online this is taking it too far. I want to be able to share pics with my friends but this has seriously made me have to rethink that. Taking a picture of someone's child and knowingly editing it and passing it around is not cool. Not cool at all. I know this is my fault for being trusting but I wanted to post this so that people may think twice about how they use images belonging to others. I feel violated, I feel that my son has been violated and I just can't understand why someone would do that. it was creepy having a stranger approach me and say "I'm sorry to have to tell you this..." and then go on to describe the photo in detail. I just hope that by posting this the person who did this may see it and that they (and anyone reading this really) will have a long think about how they use other people's images without permission in future. There's not much I can do about this now but please, if you get this email, don't pass it on. Seriously fandom, it's creepy stuff like this that gives us a bad name.

Fandom, seriously, invading people's privacy and manipulating the picture of a minor without guardian/parental consent and permission is wrong. Not to mention the skeeviness of objectifying a child in that manner, when it was an innocuous memento.

*sigh* I thought it was too important to not, at the very least, re-post about it.
If I come across that picture there will be Words.

Fandom, the Interwebs carry real life ramifications, I know that it doesn't feel that way, but it really really does.

It may not seem like a big deal, but make no mistake, stuff like this can carry very real and very harsh consequences.

Transformative works should be something creative for our community (because yeah, that's what we are) and not breed distrust.

My two cents.

... Until somebody pees in the sandbox"

An apt metaphor.

The whole situation regarding SurveyFail (see my previous post and more links on the matter) has been a matter of frustration to Fen.
As is evident by the amount of links collected, it is just an issue that touches us where it hurts the most.

To have our passions, desires and identities reduced in such a callous manner just will not fly.

Mainly due to a lack of time and differences in time-zones I did not participate actively in the actual discourse with ogi_ogas; not on his journal, which reading it left me feeling quite unclean due to having my eyes skim over the kind of entitlement I've grown to expect from men who think they deserve to see me kiss other women and not on threads on other journals which left me apoplectic and wanting to gouge my eyes out with my knitting needles.
An example at shaggirl's journal:

why are you focusing on slash in your survey and not just relationships in general for fanfic without regard to who the pairings are?

Thank you for your questions!

Well, slash is kind of the female equivalent of the straight male interest in transsexuals. That is, the opposite of what culture would predict. So it probably reflects a more direct subcortical effect. Also, there's already data out there about romance novels we can use, which probably overlaps with relationships in fan fic, but we do have a few questions that aren't specific to slash. Maybe we'll have more in the next round.

Emphasis mine.

That, friends, was the moment I could not for the life of me find the words to comment coherently, because the only thing I could hear was the blood rushing to my head and trying to find ways to spill out of the cavities in my face!
Yes, my head was pounding and I actually felt nauseous.
Read the thread... it's special.

One of the things I learnt over my years of living where I do, being who I am and being visible in practically ever facet of my identity to a certain extent is that you cannot get rid of your biases.
Everything is coloured by your preconceived notion of what is Right, what is Wrong, what is Good and what is Bad.
It takes a lot for your view to shift in any real way.
One of the things that does help regarding the issue of bias, is the acknowledgement that the things you seek in other people (be it knowledge, relationships or simple curiosity about how others think), are the things that exist within you as well.
There is no research, certainly not when it comes to the brain (read this succinct overview of what we know when it comes to Psychology) or any kind of human mechanism, that does not include self research.

Thus, when a couple of dudes come to fandom with the notion that they will show the world at large (for a good sum of money) how it is that Other People Get Off on Internet Porn, they are assuming that there is behaviour that is Normal and behaviour that is Different and they do not even bother to unpack what this Normal stuff is and why other stuff is Different from it.

I suppose it's redundant to mention that while the Fandom Backlash did its best to set this SurveyFail on fire, these researchers showed their true colours by locking up the journal upon which the majority of backlash occurred, they contacted one of the people that helped promote the survey and officially showed their true colours.
It is primarily yellow, btw.

[..]He [Ogi] defends is comparison of women liking slash to straight men liking transsexuals because "some deep sense of pleasure or satisfaction ultimately rooted in subcortical circuits" compels us to seek out slash/transsexuals despite fearing exposure to society at large. He asks for my feedback on this theory. He suggests they were working on the point-by-point post I suggested above, requesting my suggestions, and explains to me again why their methods are not faulty, that they actually planned to change the phrasing of questions as they went along. He is quite certain that his values align with those of the bulk of fandom, and crows a bit about still having contacts in slash fandom who are apparently "blissfully unaware" of SurveyFail. He has nothing but goodwill for fandom, but dismisses the criticisms of "anonymous, purported academics". And on and on. On second read-through I'm kind of gobsmacked.

Emphasis mine

If you read the whole post, you will find that it was far more malicious that first thought, though possibly still clueless regarding where the fail actually lies.

I feel this issue will continue to create waves in fandom, as it is not just these few individuals who created a shit-storm, because the assumption of Otherness when it comes to women's desires, queer desires, the reality of gender expression and identity and the intersection it has with race, class and ability is not something to be dismissed.
It is our lives.
What went on here.
That was just a symptom.

I'm curious to see and participate in the discussion that comes out of the ashes of this very hot bushfire.

See, I was going to write this whole overview about the Survey that brought about the Epic Fail.
Just fyi*.

But there is a nice concise post about the Fail for Newcomers benefit over at Geek Feminism - Who wants to play Evolutionary Neuro Cognitive Research FAIL?

Really, the train wreck is massive, and as time goes on and as I read more and more of everything, it just seems that the two researchers have no effing clue on a)how to handle the Internet and b)how to actually respect the people they are supposedly researching.

There is info about how much this piece of research is NOT approved, and is basically a book deal.

The main Livejournal that this whole fail actually occurred has been locked, to no ones surprise, but this was the post I wanted to link to.

Note the use of "Shemale" in the title.

Fandom set them on FIRE!

I'm happy.

Now I'm waiting for the fallout and off to try and help salvage some of the info!

*There are many more links to read.
Back to text.

Disney now owns Marvel Comics.

I won't lie. My eyes misted over and I felt like weeping for the end of an era.

I'm not a big follower of the industry, any industry, but I do try to keep track of who owns what and what belongs to whom, because I like knowing who is getting my money - I'm slowly getting a taste for things second hand (I'm very much a fan of owning previously owned books) and buying directly from the manufacturer.

Disney is notorious when it comes to Intellectual Property. It was the entertainment Lobby in Washington DC funded by Disney that brought about the current Copy Right Law and the Intellectual Property shenanigans that follow if I'm not mistaken.

Regardless, Disney has been known to persecute and prosecute those they believe use "their" character and "their" ideas for purposes other than Fair Use, and they'll decide what "Fair Use" is.

As I've said elsewhere on this subject, I fear for fandom.

Content wise, I doubt there will be much or any improvement when it comes to the stories, but that we'll just have to wait and see what, if any, influence this union holds.

As I was visiting my fic communities yesterday, someone in the jackxianto community shared a quote that made 'em think of Jack and Ianto.

The quote is this:
"I Want Him To Come Up Behind Me And Wrap His Arms Around My Waist To Catch Me Off Guard And Whisper" I Love You".

I couldn't help it.
I gagged.
I back buttoned and had to read a fic in which the Jack and Ianto behaved like... well, like I think they behave on the show - I really recommend Pizza Mouth by cyus as a slice (haha) of "real life" boys hanging out together, but are also sexual with each other. It's all so very dirty.

The fic made me feel better.

That quote is so anathema to the way I perceive Jack and Ianto's relationship that I cannot imagine how anyone would consider this appropriate for their dynamic.

I think the pictures of Jack and Ianto that floated around the Interwebs in the year following the end of the second season and promoting Children of Earth gave fans the wrong idea regarding the relationship.

Is there love there? No doubt. After CoE you'd have to be utterly clueless in order to ignore the depth of feeling between the two men. The gravity between then is possibly the best ever portrayed between two men on screen - yes, more than Queer as Folk, more than Brokeback Mountain and more than the latent homoeroticism found in various war movies in which one kills people instead of making love to your fox-hole buddy.

Which brings me to my point.
( Jack and Ianto are warriors. )

Should I x-post this anywhere? I'm still a bit fandom shy at times.

These many thought came about because of my slowly becoming more involved in fandom, developing ideas of my own for writing fan fiction, talking to other fans about these issues and real life events paralleling fandom events too closely in my mind.

About a year ago I wrote a post about why I'm obsessing with Torchwood.

Now I have some new thoughts.

But I think I need to write a little something that will further contextualize what I'm writing.

( A Bit About Buffy, because it's important )

Buffy and I parted ways a few years ago. It's still the best show to ever be on television; writing wise, thematically and just plain awesomeness. I have seven academic books about Buffy.

It changed my life, I'll always be grateful².

All that was a long way of saying, I take my entertainment seriously. Not only that, it takes me seriously as well.

Torchwood changed my life as well, in a vastly different way.

Not too long ago I wrote: I love Torchwood and generally speaking, Torchwood loves me..

It's obvious to me, but I suppose I should disclaim, that I'm well aware that the people on Torchwood , just like every other show, movie and book that I read, are fictional, I will not be able to go to Wales and meet any of them.
And despite a phenomenon like this, they are not real.

Except, that they are.

( Introspective Personal Thought On Texts That I Love )

When it comes down to it, the past year was hard and I really cannot imagine how I would have gotten through it were it not for my girlfriend and Torchwood (it helps that she enjoys the show as well). I had to deal with a real world that didn't go exactly like I expected.

Wake up call.

As most of you know, during July I was still pretty shook up over what happened in Torchwood: Children of Earth, you just need to browse back to see how deeply affected I was. I don't know how my GF stood me. I don't know how anyone stood me.
Then in August the real life tragedy of a Hate Crime against queer youth struck and I was shook up again.
Living in the country that I do exposes me to violence on a scale that at times is just too much.

I felt so disgusted with myself that I took the death of Ianto Jones as hard as I did.

It's gratifying knowing that I'm not alone. That I am validated and can validate others in their love of text and how it affects them.
How we affect it.

I think I'm going to be writing fic very soon.

( Notes )

Just last week I ordered Blue Gillespie's EP's.

And lo! The first one arrived today! It was very very quick I must say.

The EP arrived is a medium sized bubble-wrap interior envelope and when I opened it there was little cardboard CD envelope with a small black CD inside... with tiny ridges and black all over like a real EP!

( Pics of the EP and cover under the cut )
So cute.

My brain was a bit slow and for a moment I thought "they didn't send me... a real EP did they!?".

Of course not.

I'm now listening to Cave County Part One, Part Two should probably be here sometime later this week or next as it was only released on the 21st of August.

Oh, Gareth your growl is very sexy *bats eyelashes* the guitar is doing mean riffs! And per usual of my rock music listening the drums are totally doing it for me.

When the first riffs came over the speakers I had a moment of "man, I feel like a teenager again", back when I used to listen to Korn, Metallica, Rob Zombie and other crap metal bands (I still listen to these on occasion, because dude it's awesomely loud!), but BG are really good!

I'd listened to them on their Myspace page, but they sounds so much better on my stereo system!
Very epic in a closed space kind of sound.
I'm sure they rock in live performances (why am I not in Wales!?).

Edited to Add: Twenty three minutes of very good, classically harsh notes and lyrics and just damn good music from a band I really hope releases more than just EP's some day (though I hope they remain independent).

If you still want in on this meme, you can fill it out here.
But now, the lists!

There is no hierarchy to this Top Five Lists, all are equally awesome in my mind!

( Top Five Catchphrases )

( Top Five Musicians )

( Top Five Fights )

( Top Five Books )

( Top Five Comic Book Characters )

( Top Five Dream Jobs )

Any questions?

Ask me my fannish Top Five Things. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

It may take me a while to reply to this, but I shall and at length, for your pleasure.

Ask away!

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!".
I will then give you five words that remind me of you.
Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

These are the words whereisjoy gave me:
( Gender Studies )

( Israel )

( Activism )

( Torchwood )

( Fangirl )
So, yeah.

During the San Diego Comic Con Torchwood Panel (available in seven parts) lots of things came up.

It was interesting to hear the Panellists' (Russel T. Davies, John Barrowman, Euros Lynn and Julie Gardner) opinions on the characters and the epic itself, it's always nice to hear creator and performer insights into characters. What a lovely touchy-squishy medium.

A few *squeeee* worthy moments were ( This kiss )

In addition, during the panel, one of the questions pertained to John Barrowman's costumes and his clothing in the parts that he plays. In his answer he mentioned that one of his dreams would be to play ( him )

And moving on to some of the more serious content in conjunction of Fandom reaction of the past two weeks.

RTD's response to what would be considered the internet fan response and it really put things in perspective for me.

Personally, I don't care what RTD thinks about the fans, fandom or even his own creation.

He has a vision, as Julie Gardner said, and it their jobs as storytellers to execute those visions to the best of their ability, in the way that matches how they see character, plot and world they built (and consequently destroyed).

As fans, we feel propitiatory towards the characters. We love them, we know them, we read how others love them and think about them.
Those are interpretations.
That is meta.
That is how the characters, story, world relates to us, the readers, the viewers and that is no less important than those who created them, with one big difference.
We do not get a say in how the vision plays out.

We do not get a say in what should have happened.
Nor should we.
Art is not a democracy.
Art is a tricky piece of the modern market.

We are not the Patrons of Yonder Years (or the real Art Patrons and Matrons of today), the majority of us do not have enough money to be that.
We spend our money on the stuff that we like, enjoy and then create a community around that.
It's fun, I dunno who I'd be if it weren't for other obsessive geeks like me.

We are lucky that the creators chose to take more feedback from us than ratings. That kind of closeness should not be taken lightly or derided.

Not too long ago, Neil Gaiman wrote a post in his blog about entitlement issues regarding writer George R.R. Martin's accessibility to his fans:

George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.

This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now.

People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines.

You're complaining about George doing other things than writing the books you want to read as if your buying the first book in the series was a contract with him: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and George for his part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the books for you.

No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading, and I assume that you enjoyed it because you want to know what happens next.

He goes on and this is of course applicable to any writer, musician, actor and any other artist who chooses to interact with the people who consume the work.

We do not get a say. They, the people who provide us with entertainment, are not under any obligation to make feel all squishy inside and make our self-worth issues the centre of their universe.

That's my opinion as a fan who has interacted with the people who created things I love.

I'm feeling very bitter towards fandom who makes the likes of me look bad and actually have this bullshit be a part of the way we are perceived.

That is all.