Well, I have some guesses why! It was pretty controversial, it made people protective of their community/identity, and because I didn't make the most important clarification of all: authors are still fans, but cannot be fans of their books in the same way. Rose Fox did this very well, which I linked above. This was sort of vaguely there in draft #whatever but got lost as I refined the scale. I've come to realize the scale analogy is flawed, though. I've been telling people since before my article was even a blip that I wish I had done a 3D scatter plot, which might have created more useful discussion, and included authors (who yes, are fans) more broadly. Everything is better in three dimensions. DISCLAIMER: EXCEPT MOVIES. :|
I'm not going to argue with people's interpretations (well, a little in spaces where I know I'm not facing accusations of bullying), but I do suspect the fervor on Twitter meant that the idea that I presented, that authors should take care when entering fannish discussion space (not reviews; my examples weren't of reviews and I never meant to include them so that's my bad), wasn't sticky enough. The sticky idea that ended up being born was "authors shouldn't comment on reviews" and it blew up into a balloon tentacle monster of fury and spread like only Twitter drama can. I suspect a lot of the bloggers creating welcome signs for authors and policies are reacting to that strawman of single-author reviews, rather than my argument about potentially intense, multi-fan, explicitly interpretative discussions and how authors should think about it. "Think about it" is now code for "beat it!"??? My argument was never "GTFO!" as I would be a hypocrite, because there are tons of authors who have stepped into my space and been fine, and some who I hope know have open invitations. One of the authors in the Twitter conversations with PNH was one of them. Last I checked I wasn't a fuckmuppet to him; he escaped my wrath unscathed by my fan/author essentialism! I'll try harder next time.
Your position is probably correct! A lot of the bloggers creating signs/policies to welcome authors (that I've seen) are women. Of course, they're not really engaging with me directly, but rather just having a discussion to themselves, which is pretty telling. I didn't say it outright, but I suspected the reaction the people who accused Ana and I of bullying was gendered, but wasn't sure if it was BECAUSE it was or if it's because I've had multiple run in with those people (I assume they're both men) over gender issues in the past, where they shout down women deliberately and use the full force of their social networks to help do so and have no interest in examining their biases. I'm also not the only one who has noticed the pattern, either.
And HA, Emma Jane Davies, wow. I have a suspicion that's pure retaliation since Ana roundly took apart an opinion piece she wrote in response to us earlier this year. She's one to talk about appropriating any type of language when she does the exact same thing. Gotta admire her for sticking with a grudge until it's beaten and dead on the ground, though.
no subject
I'm not going to argue with people's interpretations (well, a little in spaces where I know I'm not facing accusations of bullying), but I do suspect the fervor on Twitter meant that the idea that I presented, that authors should take care when entering fannish discussion space (not reviews; my examples weren't of reviews and I never meant to include them so that's my bad), wasn't sticky enough. The sticky idea that ended up being born was "authors shouldn't comment on reviews" and it blew up into a balloon tentacle monster of fury and spread like only Twitter drama can. I suspect a lot of the bloggers creating welcome signs for authors and policies are reacting to that strawman of single-author reviews, rather than my argument about potentially intense, multi-fan, explicitly interpretative discussions and how authors should think about it. "Think about it" is now code for "beat it!"??? My argument was never "GTFO!" as I would be a hypocrite, because there are tons of authors who have stepped into my space and been fine, and some who I hope know have open invitations. One of the authors in the Twitter conversations with PNH was one of them. Last I checked I wasn't a fuckmuppet to him; he escaped my wrath unscathed by my fan/author essentialism! I'll try harder next time.
Your position is probably correct! A lot of the bloggers creating signs/policies to welcome authors (that I've seen) are women. Of course, they're not really engaging with me directly, but rather just having a discussion to themselves, which is pretty telling. I didn't say it outright, but I suspected the reaction the people who accused Ana and I of bullying was gendered, but wasn't sure if it was BECAUSE it was or if it's because I've had multiple run in with those people (I assume they're both men) over gender issues in the past, where they shout down women deliberately and use the full force of their social networks to help do so and have no interest in examining their biases. I'm also not the only one who has noticed the pattern, either.
And HA, Emma Jane Davies, wow. I have a suspicion that's pure retaliation since Ana roundly took apart an opinion piece she wrote in response to us earlier this year. She's one to talk about appropriating any type of language when she does the exact same thing. Gotta admire her for sticking with a grudge until it's beaten and dead on the ground, though.