Fourth wall, lack thereof, and LJ/IJ/DW vs Tumblr

[firefly124]

So, someone on my flist had just made a very thoughtful post about the effects of AO3 and Tumblr on fandom as a whole and LJ in particular (IJ and DW by association). It took me a minute to process that the "lack of fourth wall" the poster was describing was between us as fannish creators and the rest of the world. I'm not used to thinking of

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[wonderfulwrites]

I am right there with you on the reverse fourth wall. I barely even use my LJ anymore, and when I do, it's to peruse my friends page and for fic reading. But over the years, I stopped posting a lot of detailed personal stuff, because the internet is forever and as a teacher, I am not willing to risk letting my real life intersect with my super secret fanfic writing life. Because some of the stuff I've written? Not going to go over well with the Muggles

[firefly124]

I fell into Supernatural fandom last April and tumbled through the Destiel looking-glass. :-D

Yeah, I saw someone comment a while back on Tumblr that they feel anxious when someone's profile doesn't list their name. My response: I feel anxious about you folks randomly throwing your full names out there! Especially since so many are so young! But I guess that goes with the frequent URL-changes over there, you need something to stay solid, but imo a handle does that quite nicely. (And I don't get the URL changes, but whatever.)

[wonderfulwrites]

Tumblr is a strange and unknowable place for me. I don't understand how it works or how people interact. Sometimes I consider getting an account, but anytime I try to poke about over there and see what the fandom is up to, I inevitably end up stumbling onto some kind of insane wank and I just have to leave. It's probably for the best, though. Fandom takes up enough of my time as it. I think Tumblr could easily eat up the rest of it.

[firefly124]

Tumblr is a huge time-suck. The thing that saves me from most of the lunacy, I think, is Tumblr Savior, a browser add-on that lets you filter keywords. Wincest and wank are high on my filter list. Not everybody tags their wank, but those who are prone to it and don't, I just unfollow. It is much harder to get to know people there, because a) they change their flipping URLs every time you blink, and b) there aren't "communities" as such. There are networks, but I can't quite figure them out. Most of the people I actually know on there are either people I knew before Tumblr or else the very small handful I interact with regularly as opposed to just viewing and liking or reblogging their stuff.

[the_silver_sun]

I'm not as active in fandom as I was, and the series that are currently on that I would like to be in the fandom of don't have a fandom to speak of, Peaky Blinders and Shetland to name two. Nothing seems to have grabbed my imagination like Torchwood did though, and I can't see those sort of fic writing days for me returning again any time soon. Too much other stuff going on right now.

I've never really got the hang of tumblr, and with Facebook I ended up making two, one for fandom stuff and one for everything else (which is probably still fairly odd by a lot of people as as its full of RPG players, LARPers and medieval reenactors, as far as I know though only one writes fic and she does fluffy, mostly canon pairing pg rated Harry Potter stuff. Mostly I use Facebook keep in touch with the reeactment groups and family members - as most of them live 100+ miles away. I've just started to use Pinterest to keep track of images of medieval clothes for the purposes reconstructing costumes, and I've got a few recipes on there, but other than

[firefly124]

I tried the two Facebook thing and ultimately gave up on the fannish one. I barely keep up with my regular FB for that matter.

Good luck with the o-fic!

I'm not so much concerned with whether it's the right/wrong way as whether they're going to end up harmed. It's true, there is definitely something to be said for the "take me as I am" approach. I just worry that the older generation of lawyers and employers may not see it that way.

[firefly124]

It's true that it shouldn't matter. But apparently it matters if I even have a glass of wine at dinner and anybody who might someday be or have been a patient hears about it, so ... *bleh*

I've noticed that I tend to box myself in when someone gets me into a conversation on the topic of writing. Once things stray at all into fiction as opposed to academia, I find myself using awkward terminology like "pastiche."

[firefly124]

Give me a semester or two and I'll get my "hotshot professor" voice down. LOL You're right, of course. That is exactly the tack to take, especially within academia.

[chamilet]

I'm of a bit of the "older" generation (early 40s), but I don't have a problem letting anyone I know know that I write fanfic. I also don't mind if they know it's porny. I work in a place that caters primarily to children, so perhaps that makes me a bit naive, but whatever. I'm willing to fight for the right to read/write whatever I choose in my spare time/lunch break.

[firefly124]

Mid-40s here, and yeah ... I'm a bit more nervous than most, I guess. I agree that we've got the right to read/write whatever during off time, but who's safe to know about it still seems like an issue.

[slytherinlaurel]

With a relatively recent career change into the educational field, I find myself suddenly becoming very concerned with what's visible. I even went through old posts to make sure nothing was out in the open or questionable. The younger generation really doesn't seem concerned about image, which still leaves me a little uneasy. I ask my students to share an interesting fact about themselves on the first day of class, and one student discussed the HP fandom with no hesitation. Inwardly I cringed, wondering if she had seen anything of mine. Not that I have anything that questionable, but that wouldn't keep a parent in a conservative state from calling the chair of my department. Inwardly I also cringed on behalf of that student, in case she had anything sitting out there when it comes time for her to apply for jobs. *sigh

Am I changing what I do? No. I'm just much more cautious about how I go about it. And I would have advised that student to do the same, if I was willing to risk discussing my fandom knowledge.

[firefly124]

Yikes! Yeah, that's the thing. I just worry that they don't realize that these risks even exist. Whether or not they should exist is a separate matter.

[slytherinlaurel]

I agree, whether or not they should exist is definitely a different matter. It's frustrating that what I enjoy doing in my free time should be my employer's business when it doesn't affect my job performance. I've worked professionally long enough to know that in practice image is important enough to potentially make it my employer's business, but it angers me a little that I have to think through these things. Being in any fandom or enjoying fan works that have mature content doesn't make me any less of a person, or an instructor.