(no subject)

I am slowly venturing back into fandom today and I find that things are relatively calm. The one question I really wanted answered has been ignored. Was I truly out of line adding my *sob* or did someone overreact? That's what triggered my rant.

On the whole my kerfuffle/kerfluffle is rather minor. Not knowing the correct spelling for that I did what I always do--I googled. Apparently the correct term is kerfuffle but as a Mr Baude wrote in http://www.crescatsententia.org/archives/2005_01_04.html the other spelling is beginning to take root.

tabaqui has begun a fabulous new "Variation on a Theme of Spander" called "Scaling Heaven" taking our bois into her own original (with a nod to C.J. Cherryh) future outer space universe. She wrote about how "Earth is so far from anyplace anyone wants to go that there's a booster gate to kick ships out, 100-billion light years or more." I blinked and thought how can that be as the universe is only about 13 billion years old? Before I wrote to her I decided to check it out and I googled. Well good for her she was right. According to the latest calculations the universe is 156 billion light years wide!!! That's a lot of space. See http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040524.html

(no subject)

Well I went for a walk to mull over some of the responses to yesterday's post. I do my best (?) thinking while I'm walking or showering or drifting off to sleep.

One commenter wrote: A fic needs a reader to be complete? Maybe. But it's got one; the author. Well that may be true but then why post it? Why not keep it in a notebook where only the writer can read it? Once it's posted others become involved.

Another wrote: We readers are lucky to be able to read so much good fiction, for free. Is it really free? I think the currency is time. These days most of us have so many demands on our time that we have to find the time to spare to read fanfic and give feedback.

I believe fanfic is a form of symbiosis: if a fic is posted and no one reads it, is the writer still satisfied being the only reader? I think not. I think a writer wants/needs an audience but apparently only on the writer's terms. A talented writer such as Ladycat, and I think she's one of the great writers of BtVS fanfic, can paint such vivid scenes and evoke such powerful emotions in her readers that they linger in the mind for years (it's been 3 years since I first read "HB"). If I feel hurt that she's left me and the bois in limbo can't I say something? And say that with a *sob* at the end of a rec?

Lastly: I truly hope you will make a public apology and in future think before you pass judgment on someone you only know as part of the reader-writer relationship, and not as a true friend with full knowledge of their situation and writerly motivations. Was I passing judgement? If so I didn't realize it and I do apologize.