My idea of how LJ works...
...and other people's seems to be very different. I have always thought of LJ as a discussion space, because of the easy commenting system. So I've posted stuff here expecting it to be contested, discussed, pulled apart, and generally looked at from many different angles.
One of the things fascinating me most about the discussion flowing out of " How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor" is how some people are sure--sure--I'm arguing for the commercialization of fanfiction in the essay. I thought I'd contextualised it well enough that it was clear I was raising the question for discussion, but didn't have a cogent answer to offer. And that, in fact, my first reaction had been to think that fanfiction making women poor was a silly idea, which is why I'd decided to examine my assumptions about it and see if I was just knee-jerking in reponse to something I didn't want to hear.
[ETA: I'm really glad I did ask the question. It was so worth it. What a great discussion has come out of it!]
I wonder if I should have said I'd published original fiction before I ever published fanfiction, and that I was personally happy with that split? Maybe I made the rest of the essay too personal, so people assumed my final argument was as well, and that I wanted to flood the market with my fanfiction even though I did state I had problems with the capitalist system. ETA: Or maybe people only engaged so passionately because they thought they needed to counter the suggestion, in which case perhaps it's as well I didn't make it clearer.
How much context is needed for a hypothetical question, anyway?
One of the things fascinating me most about the discussion flowing out of " How Fanfiction Makes Us Poor" is how some people are sure--sure--I'm arguing for the commercialization of fanfiction in the essay. I thought I'd contextualised it well enough that it was clear I was raising the question for discussion, but didn't have a cogent answer to offer. And that, in fact, my first reaction had been to think that fanfiction making women poor was a silly idea, which is why I'd decided to examine my assumptions about it and see if I was just knee-jerking in reponse to something I didn't want to hear.
[ETA: I'm really glad I did ask the question. It was so worth it. What a great discussion has come out of it!]
I wonder if I should have said I'd published original fiction before I ever published fanfiction, and that I was personally happy with that split? Maybe I made the rest of the essay too personal, so people assumed my final argument was as well, and that I wanted to flood the market with my fanfiction even though I did state I had problems with the capitalist system. ETA: Or maybe people only engaged so passionately because they thought they needed to counter the suggestion, in which case perhaps it's as well I didn't make it clearer.
How much context is needed for a hypothetical question, anyway?