On politicalfic.

Joyous Solstice, and happy birthday pitchblackrose and winter_baby!

My fandom is all a-flutter this morning about the news, but it's Tuesday, so politics you shall have.

During the inital Specter flap, I emailed Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader. This week, his office emailed me back.

( A Message From U.S. Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist, M.D. )

I'm assuming this same message was sent to everyone who emailed on the issue. Given the fact that it seems unlikely Specter will actually be blocked from the chairmanship in January, it reads to me more like an apology to Specter's detractors than anything else.

*

Today I want to talk about coping with politics through fandom. Not using fandom as a gathering-point for political discussion and activities, but actually working through political stress using fannish behavior.

The way I think of it, fannishness is a fairly ingrained personality trait. It's a way of approaching things -- texts, images, what have you. I started writing fic for my cartoons when I was very little, and told myself elaborate stories about the illustrations in picture books; many fans have had similar experiences. It's not so much "being a fan" of something in the traditional sense -- loving it -- it's more a desire to participate in it, to bring some part of it under your control.

I think we saw this happen in the course of the election cycle. Events were presented to us in the same form as materials of fannish interest often are -- on TV -- and while it was possible for us to influence the outcome, there was a limit to what could be done. And people began to respond to it fannishly, going to places like johnxjohn to slash and squee -- to turn it into something familiar and self-controlled. It was like a shipping war times ten thousand.

And eventually, we got jossed. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that after the election, people were more motivated to write fic about it than before. (I wrote some too, though I haven't shared it publicly.)

There were fics that dealt literally with what had happened, like this untitled snippet (G, Kerry/Edwards) by sarken. And there were fics like vulgarweed's Democracy 2 3 4 5 (PG-13, Kerry/Edwards), that turned it into fantasy AU.

lolaraincoat posted Meetings with Remarkable Muggles #17 - November 3, 2004 (G, Ginny/Hermione), which still dealt with the reality, but framed it in terms of another fandom. Lola posted a happier AU version too. malograntum also very cleverly "fixed it" in another fandom with Put Right (G).

I'm trying to think if there's any other source of shared real-life stress that has provoked a similar fannish response, and I can't come up with one. People ficced the 2000 election too, though not to the same extent. Maybe it needed the spark of John and John's mainstrem-media-acknowledged slashiness to really take off, though obviously people ficced it beyond the slash.

Well, anyway, I don't have a big impressive wrap-up for this, I just wanted to point it out (and have an excuse to link to some snazzy fics that came of it). If anyone else has thoughts on the phenomenon, or wants to link to good election fics, that would be yay.

On politicalfic.

Joyous Solstice, and happy birthday pitchblackrose and winter_baby!

My fandom is all a-flutter this morning about the news, but it's Tuesday, so politics you shall have.

During the inital Specter flap, I emailed Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader. This week, his office emailed me back.

( A Message From U.S. Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist, M.D. )

I'm assuming this same message was sent to everyone who emailed on the issue. Given the fact that it seems unlikely Specter will actually be blocked from the chairmanship in January, it reads to me more like an apology to Specter's detractors than anything else.

*

Today I want to talk about coping with politics through fandom. Not using fandom as a gathering-point for political discussion and activities, but actually working through political stress using fannish behavior.

The way I think of it, fannishness is a fairly ingrained personality trait. It's a way of approaching things -- texts, images, what have you. I started writing fic for my cartoons when I was very little, and told myself elaborate stories about the illustrations in picture books; many fans have had similar experiences. It's not so much "being a fan" of something in the traditional sense -- loving it -- it's more a desire to participate in it, to bring some part of it under your control.

I think we saw this happen in the course of the election cycle. Events were presented to us in the same form as materials of fannish interest often are -- on TV -- and while it was possible for us to influence the outcome, there was a limit to what could be done. And people began to respond to it fannishly, going to places like johnxjohn to slash and squee -- to turn it into something familiar and self-controlled. It was like a shipping war times ten thousand.

And eventually, we got jossed. Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that after the election, people were more motivated to write fic about it than before. (I wrote some too, though I haven't shared it publicly.)

There were fics that dealt literally with what had happened, like this untitled snippet (G, Kerry/Edwards) by sarken. And there were fics like vulgarweed's Democracy 2 3 4 5 (PG-13, Kerry/Edwards), that turned it into fantasy AU.

lolaraincoat posted Meetings with Remarkable Muggles #17 - November 3, 2004 (G, Ginny/Hermione), which still dealt with the reality, but framed it in terms of another fandom. Lola posted a happier AU version too. malograntum also very cleverly "fixed it" in another fandom with Put Right (G).

I'm trying to think if there's any other source of shared real-life stress that has provoked a similar fannish response, and I can't come up with one. People ficced the 2000 election too, though not to the same extent. Maybe it needed the spark of John and John's mainstrem-media-acknowledged slashiness to really take off, though obviously people ficced it beyond the slash.

Well, anyway, I don't have a big impressive wrap-up for this, I just wanted to point it out (and have an excuse to link to some snazzy fics that came of it). If anyone else has thoughts on the phenomenon, or wants to link to good election fics, that would be yay.