Comments on LJ events you're already bored with

[resonant]

1. Love memes (like the one going on at queenofthorns right now) are much easier these days now that LJ introduced its little thumbtack icon! You can track the entire discussion (to see if anyone you know comments asking for love), or you can track your anonymous comment (so you can see if the person replies to it). It's very cool.

2. Some of the discussion on helenish's Take Clothes Off As Directed seems to be implying that it's a brand-new (and unfair) thing to comment on/criticize a piece of literature by writing another piece of literature in response to it.

But this sort of conversation between two literary works is at least as old as when Christopher Marlowe wrote The Passionate Shepherd to His Love ("Come live with me and be my love/And we will all the pleasures prove") and Sir Walter Raleigh replied with The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd ("If all the world and love were young/And truth on every shepherd's tongue ...").

Comments

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

But that's only what Icarus said, not Helen. Just because that's what Icarus thinks doesn't make it true. That's what I'm trying to explain to you--what people said in the comments has nothing to do with Helen's intent. They don't know Helen's intent any more than anyone else does. Helen couldn't and didn't disclaim for reader reaction because she didn't know what that reaction was going to be. You aren't going to find a definitive explanation of what the story was about in the comments to the story, or in the Cuttingboard discussion, or in any other discussion on the net unless it comes directly from Helen. Remember how you said that people kept hurling contrary explanations at you, and you were becoming confused? That's because all a reader has to go on is her own reaction to the story, her own ideas about what it might be about, and those are all going to differ. Your own interpretation of the story's purpose as a slam against Xanthe will be as valid to you as my interpretation of the story as a feminist allegory is to me, but neither of us may be right when it comes to what was actually in Helen's head. Neither of us can know that, and none of the commenters can know that--no one can, unless Helen tells us, herself. Until that happens, it's all interpretation. We'll discuss whose interpretation we feel is the most likely to be true, and why, share our impressions, but NO ONE knows Helen meant but Helen. So disregard what Icarus had to say about the story, because it's only her interpretation, and don't expect Helen to disclaim for things that other people think. There's no reason for her to.

[september1967.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, the story was always about the relationship between Dom and sub to me. It only became more than that when others were telling me what I should think about the story.

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

Story discussion is supposed to be about hearing others' thoughts on a story and either dismissing or incorporating them into our own views based on how valid we think their arguments are. (And, sometimes, also about shared squee. *g*) Other people can tell you what they think, even forcefully, but no one can MAKE you think something you don't agree with. You say you saw the feminist allegory originally, but then decided you couldn't see the story as feminist if it was about one female writer bashing another female writer's work. You've said that your main focus then shifted to the D/s relationship, but that was soured for you by what you saw as an unflattering and untrue portrayal of the D/s lifestyle. Those are all valid thoughts, and the only reason you should change them would be if you read arguments for other areas of focus or interpretation that you thought had merit and made you rethink your own. People will disagree with you in discussion because there are as many ways to interpret a story as there are people reading it. It doesn't mean that you should let anyone tell you what you should think about a story. They'll express their views, and you'll express yours, and you and they will either change your views based on those arguments, or you won't. No one can tell you what to think, and they aren't trying to, if they're really discussing and not just trying to browbeat others into seeing things their way. Sift through the arguments and see if any impress you as being valid. Change your views or not, based on that. It's about learning through discussion, being informed by others' opinions, not absorbing and internalizing without thought. Keep to your own views if you still find, after discussion and consideration, they're still the most logical ones, in your opinion.

[september1967.livejournal.com]

I've been in fandom since about 1998 and have been many things within several fandoms. LJ is a different beast, but the strangest beast of all have been fans who feel they are the police of it all. Lurking has been the best thing for me because I get to see some of the oddest comments coming from the most unusual sources.

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

I have issues with the 'fannish police' (or the 'kindergarten teachers' of fandom, as I've been known to call them) too, but from the other side--being told "that's not done" or "that's not nice", so I understand the frustration. And I agree that fandom has become a very changeable beast since moving to LJ. I feel like a creaky oldtimer for holding on to some of the views that I do, but there are a number of them I'm going to stand by, regardless of what the youngsters think and do. But you'll usually find me wading (loudly) into the middle of it all, anyway. *g*