purplecyborgnewt asked:
I like your new deer. I mean, your new icon.
ahaha it’s throwing me THE HECK OFF I had the old deer for yeeaars, but I suddenly needed a change so am trying out this runner-up little freak:
I mean I think really what I need to do is leave the deer branding entirely, but good lord there’s so many options
(or, what can fandom/fanfic tell you horribly about your own psyche)
I wanted to share what was introduced to me as "fandom spelunking", which is an Ao3 exploration my bestie-since-childhood @dragunovka taught me — so here is a very VERY extremely rough overview.
I like fandom spelunking because it arguably gives one an impression/overview of the general psyche of a fandom (at least those who write and read).*
Here's how you do it:
HOW TO GO FANDOM SPELUNKING (ON AO3)
1. Find a fandom.
2. Look at the top relationships.
3. Look at the top genres.
4. Look at the top custom tags
5. Otherwise explore
6. Draw your very unscientific conclusions!!
I got really interested in this lately for a few reasons, including:
I think that essentially I am interested in what resonates with people and why, and what does this tell us?****
And what, if we examine the story itself that resonates — as well as the stories fans create — can we tell about the demographic or person that is attracted to that story?
For example, in one or two fandoms, it seems like hurt/comfort or otherwise tending-to is a common theme of fics. Why is this, exactly? (And I mean more than like "why are these types of stories appealing.")
For another example, in one of my sisters' fave media (which is a tiny fandom from pre-internet-boom days so it was easy to scan, and whose media features a very sweet if very horny werewolf), here was the general fic breakdown (and I quote from texts haha):
To which she was like "oh that's just my subconscious" haha.
For another example, as my friend pointed out, one of her fandoms has a commonly explored theme of like "these people are fine and competent separately but as romantic prospects they share one (1) brain cell", which doesn't map over to what I find in mine.
Basically we're fascinated by the questions (some of which I'm stealing from my friend who is way more data- and science-minded than I am):
Anyways that's a LOT but I can't stop thinking about it.
If y'all have any thoughts or theories — or other ways you're "spelunking" including actual research you're doing — please please let me know!
*as unscientific one as can be! one of the many reasons i left academia is that i much prefer making sweeping declarations through force of will over proving anything or showing my work.
** to be explored in another post
*** i got fascinated by this years ago when all my david bowie blogs i followed also became hannibal blogs. also so like the likelihood of someone who digs thranduil the elf king also digging say lucius malfoy and jareth the goblin king is very high, and there feels like there's something more to that than "idk i just dig magic blond icy haughty jerks". (are these my own issues? yes obviously. do i have a good working theory about this? also yes but that's probs more for my therapist than here.)
**** my hellish thesis was more or less about this (see single asterisk)
Ah yay found this again buried in my drafts, had wanted to chime in as this is basically the primary way I’ve ever engaged with fanfic, it’s the best! Admittedly, also the only way I really know! Haha
I’ve suspected that the reason my approach to fic has always had an angle that’s like, casually and varyingly but incontrovertibly ~academic~, is because I only came to it as an aimless baby adult about one year past a bachelor’s degree, so from the jump had just been like oh here’s something I can poke around in, what’s this thing’s deal.
In the ten years since (oh boy) I’d say I’ve gone on probably six major, grant-funded fandom spelunking ventures, or as I had described my second foray to a friend at the time:
FANDOM ARCHAEOLOGY
(The archaeological bent definitely came from how that particular fandom was several years dead at the time, so I felt like I was just toodling around with a little dust brush in the ruins of a civilization, going hm hm hmm, this is the third reference to this I’ve unearthed, could this have possibly been one of the Sacred Fanons when this world was thriving??)
But I’d really interested in combining findings, because as you say you have been spelunking to try to glean things about the psyches of specific fandom groups, what makes these ones in particular tick, emotional & intellectually, what Themes and Topics are they enamored of or otherwise troubled by. And meanwhile, very complementarily just focused on a somewhat different part of the field, I’ve been going on digs to look more at like, architecture. My questions tend to run like
Anyway what I’m loving here is that our essential interest in thinking about fic this way still seems to be ultimately the same: “what resonates with people and why, and what does this tell us?”
So if you want to share any specific observations about current fandom preoccupations spilling over onto your dash or some more of your favorite Classic Overlaps or honestly anything you mentioned, oh man I’m all ears
vi0lentquiche replied to your post “Cowboy Bebop intertitles, Hajime Yatate”
Ooh I’ve always loved the ones with the cows, not sure which ep they’re from or even if they _were_ cows.. calves maybe? but they were v Lynchian now that I think about it, you’re onto something there
One of the cows would have been there if I’d had 12 spots for sure!!
curious-kat replied to your post “Only took me three months but I DID IT, I read all…”
that’s the single best description of Kitty I’ve ever heard. Also did you know that Levin is mostly based on Tolstoy himself? Like, down to the details of his proposal and marriage being the same.
Elated to have somehow cracked through to something of value.
And in fact I did, as the translators had provided a big ol’ introduction including everything from differences in how Russian and English feel about repeating words, to Levin being a Tolstoy self-insert. I would then spend the whole book squinting suspiciously that I didn’t know enough about Tolstoy to gauge if he’d be self-flagellating enough for Levin to biff it as big as he might have.
platoapproved replied to your post “My Favorite Films of 2020”
i love your movie opinions so much thank you for always sharing them! 💚
Oh my goodness I am so flattered!
I hope you find a fave or two in last year’s batch, I think it was actually a really strong year!
sonictoaster said
your movie opinions ARE excellent
Ahahaha, folks, you should know that the friend’s father whose testimonial graces the top of Watch Log dot Blog, is none other than sonictoaster’s. I seem to have an outsized influence on this family and I DO take this responsibility seriously!!
Oh and you should also probably know that Jody has worked at actual film festivals, super credentialed, and really should be dropping her picks as well hint hint
platoapproved replied to your post “My Favorite Films of 2020”
i love your movie opinions so much thank you for always sharing them! 💚
Oh my goodness I am so flattered!
I hope you find a fave or two in last year’s batch, I think it was actually a really strong year!
spaceoperetta replied to your post “My Favorite Films of 2020”
Bad Education was SO GOOD
It’s like a perfect movie. You sit there thinking about it like, screenplay? Masterly. Editing? Pristine. Performances? Across the board gangbusters. Mood? INTRIGUE, one of the best moods.
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD - ★★★★
This is a miniseries gamely stuffed into the space of a movie and it shows in the occasionally harried quality of the storytelling mechanics, but did I love watching it anyway? Girl yes!
Probably seven synonyms for ‘sprightly’ but no spoilers here
#so fucking pumped for this flick!!!
@antiquesfreaks - Oh, oh, a personal anecdote for YOUs about The Personal History of David Copperfield: at one point I had to SCRAMBLE up close to my TV because I thought Tilda Swinton had on her table, steady yourself for this concept, HOT PINK LETTUCEWARE, and I was ready to scream at the top of my lungs!! But on closer inspection, it was just a regularly shaped fuchsia tea set with a pattern on it vaguely reminiscent of cabbage leaves in form. Still, the concept of period-appropriate Napoli/Victorian ~nature majolica~ pottery in vivid pink is something I would totally have expected of this film’s production design, so that should give you a hint of what you have ahead of you !
thesharpestblade asked:
Hey, Tarra. Happy new year!
I have a random question: how did you end up working at Food Network? I always wonder how people land cool-sounding jobs, especially when the path there isn't so obvious. Thx!
Hello hello! Sorry for the delay, things have been, hm, lately, but happy to answer, it is quite simple: nepotism.
I got drinks with the nephew of a family friend and his wife (neither of whom I had ever met) about a week or so after I landed in New York. From this evening they knew that I was looking for a job, and like a week after that, she texted me asking if I’d like to interview at Chopped, where she was a supervising producer, as they’d fired their production assistant that day because he just…stopped coming into work. Now in any job, just not showing up with no notice is not a great look, but such is the nature of unscripted TV post production that everyone has to be there at your 10 hour shift every day Monday-Friday in order for the machine that makes the show to not break down and keep delivering new episodes to the network 51 out of 52 weeks a year. So not coming into work, for any reason—if you have not begged & pleaded in advance and arranged for some sort of coverage from one of your coworkers and it’s only going to be the one day, just the one day and then you’ll be back—means you’re just choosing to abdicate your position, and you will promptly be replaced.
By: me, that time! I had a background in theater management but I really don’t think they cared, definitely the most important interview question the post production supervisor who would become my boss had for me when I came in was, “Could you start tomorrow?” (The Machiiiinnee)
And while the editors have to go to editor school, generally it seemed that among the producers, maybe about half had gotten some sort of relevant education in the field (my closest colleague/buddy was the post coordinator and he had a bachelor’s degree in production from Syracuse University, which offers those sorts of things), but the other half just kinda fell into the work. By the time I left I was some sort of junior/assistant story producer and would have been a fully titled producer in like another month, all just from starting as a PA with zero television experience two years earlier, so I would have absolutely been in that latter half.
I also should probably clarify that I did not actually work for the Food Network, I worked for Notional, the production company that makes Chopped. This is shifting around fairly rapidly these days with things like Netflix’s in-house production arm and whatever the fuck Disney+ has going on now, but the traditional American television model that most of the cable networks still follow is that the shows are made by independent outside production companies (their logos will air at the end of the episodes—my example is always Bad Robot because people tend to remember the little robot zooming in the field beeping out “Bad robot!” at the end of Lost episodes), and the network is then buying the show from the production company to distribute. So ABC aired Bad Robot’s Lost, and the Food Network airs Notional’s Chopped.
There are obviously contracts in place to manage the financials, obligations, etc of these business arrangement, and some [shhh] scuttlebutt for you is that when Notional signed their deal with the Food Network for Chopped back in 2009, it was NOT advantageous to Notional, or what a lawyer might call “a smart thing to sign,” so even after Chopped rocketed into popularity, Notional was still only getting a rather modest cut of the ad revenue their show was generating, while the Food Network just raked in all the rest for itself.
Anyway, this has been Into the Weeds of Unscripted Television, let me know if there’s anything else about this bonkers industry I can ~illume~ for anyone
