My class is a bunch of crazies.

[charloween]

Today I did my Star Trek pop culture presentation in the summer course that's proving to be an endurance test.

Imagine, then, the fun that is explaining fandom and slash fic to an audience who: in week one, was reminded that characters in the Old Testament couldn't be expected to follow the Commandments because because characters in one part of the text wouldn't be expected to be aware of other parts of the same text; and in week two, made some comment about how beavers have hooves. I made an conscious decision to tune out after more than half the class defended the guy who argued that all parts of Canada are multiethnic, diverse and accepting of diversity. (Obviously they've never been an hour outside of Toronto.) And today, we were talking about existentialism, and another guy asked about "That Satire guy. John something Satire that you just mentioned." (Prof'd mentioned Sartre's name about seven times by that point.)

As you can well imagine, a kind of delerious freedom descends when I'm faced with that kind of audience. Talk about Star Trek? Sure. But I'm going to spend most of the time showing slashy fanart and generally fucking with the class's small, small minds. (I didn't even mention the porn.) Take that, beaver hooves.

I ended up having to disabuse the prof of the notion that fandom is made up entirely of teenagers. She then challenged me with the assertation that fandom itself was created by studios as a marketing ploy and that there are only about a thousand people in all of fandom, because no one has that much free time to write fic.

Sigh.

Comments

[firstgold.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. *snuggles*

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I keep having Hermione moments, too. Today Prof removed one of the required readings from the course, and I actually got upset. O.o

[aoshi.livejournal.com]

*pat pat* At least there is Star Trek.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I don't even like Trek all that much, which is why the presentation was all about fandom. :D

[aoshi.livejournal.com]

I can see why you had so much pleasure is destroying the brains of many then with the love of fandom. XD; Reminds me back in 2nd year in Contemporary Lit where we learned about slash fiction and people we so grossed out/confused/terrified, as Marcus happily discussed the subject of fanfiction, slash and real life slash. XD;;;

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Oh MAN. If I'd had more than 15 minutes...

[xtinethepirate.livejournal.com]

Clearly, your professor has never been to livejournal or fanfiction.net or any other place where fandomites (yes, it is a word as of now) gather in droves.

The poor thing.

*snerks* beaver hooves.....

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

She barely knows how to speak English or operate Powerpoint, let alone navigate fandom.

I am, however, wondering if I should prepare a primer for her. A little bit of this, and a little bit of that... she was saying she was going to go on ff.net and read some stories. Hell, if a lesson plan is too much for her, then I shudder to think what scary cul-de-sac of strange she'll find herself in if she tries to get in to fandom. Maybe I should send her some links, like the one where Jack Sparrow is at Hogwarts (http://community.livejournal.com/crossover_hp/66932.html).


I KNOW! Beaver hooves, indeed.

[xtinethepirate.livejournal.com]

That. Fic. Was. AWESOME. *fangirls you for linking*

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you liked it!

[jissa.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just, wow.

It hadn't even occurred to me that anyone would think fandom was a creation of the studios. Because of course its impossible for people to have time enough to write fic. There's time enough for people to start their writing careers while having day jobs, but enough for people to write fics.

Gah!

. . .

Although at least this has reminded me of how much I love Lois McMaster Bujold. She's a frakking amazing author who wrote Kirk/Spock slash!fic back when it was coming out. ;)

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

AH! I was commenting somewhere else on lj about The Curse of Chalion, and LMB came up in conversation after class today. (Guy: "I like Tad Williams". Me: "Gag. LMB is where it's at." ...transcribed more or less exactly.)

And I KNOW - Prof-lady knows nothing about creative writing, eh? Also, she was trying to suggest that it's all a facade, and there isn't really anyone in fandom. *headdesk*

[jissa.livejournal.com]

You should clearly read the prof-lady the section of Dreamweaver's Dilemma where Lillian Stewart Carl talks about her and Lois geeking out over Spock and starting a fanzine!


And yay! for LMB love! I <3 her so! One of the best things about living in the MN was that Lois lived in Minneapolis and did signings at local cons and bookstores all the time!

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I would, but I doubt Prof would get it. Sad, really. :(

I'm jealous of your ex-proximity to LMB. We get a healthy dose of Robert J. Sawyer up here, but at least TO is big enough to get a stop on most everyone's tour.

[jissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, but RObert J. Sawyer is pretty awesome! I've seen him once, but it would pretty great to live by him.


::sniffles::

I miss living by authors!

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I like how he writes Toronto-centric sf. Toronto is far too pragmatic and protestant and plodding sometimes... we need short stories about a post-apocalyptic Toronto (and jokes about the fearsome mythical "trudeau"). Which is why RJS exists. :)

Authors are excellent. Books are excellent, too!

[serrico.livejournal.com]

o.0

...no, seriously, o.0

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much.

[thucyken.livejournal.com]

I hope you pointed her at fandom_counts. It's a good indication of how many fannish journals there are on LJ.

I kinda like to imagine that BNF are all actually shills of the studio, though, with these intricate plots to suck people in. Muh-whah!

- That was an evil laugh, not an air-kiss, by the way.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, about 33K+ at last count. I'm torn about wanting to enlighten her and not wanting to put another ounce of effort into the hours I spend in her class. It's a problem.

I can buy the BNFs, but all of fandom? Silly lady.

I did direct her to ff.net, for all the good it'll do. Bwahaha.

[squonk.livejournal.com]

Good Lord. Gotta love the summer classes...

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

I keep going back because a) need the credits and b) it's fascinating to watch the disaster-in-progress that is the class as it's unfolding.

Against the grain

[philthe25th.livejournal.com]

What's a fandom? ;P

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

Something with those intarnets I've heard so much about on the news.

[piratefanatic.livejournal.com]

Fandom not created by the studios? Pah! I, for one, am paid a handsome salary to squee over pretty people and awesome lines and pretty costumes and--

wait, nevermind.

[naturelf.livejournal.com]

*quietly pockets cheque*

I mean... Damn. IF ONLY.