I haven't read the fandom_wank response in particular, if that happens to be what mainly inspired this post, because in general I find f_w to be kind of disquietingly mob-like even when it's funny. But I have to say I'm on board with everything flummery said, and I do understand the general wave of hostile response.
Fandom is all about responding to our shared texts -- enthusing about them, yes, but also discussing them, critiquing them, writing fanfic about them, drawing art inspired by them, whatever. When an author comes out and tells people that they're Wrong about her work, she's denying the privilege of the reader/fan to get things out of a work that the author didn't intend, to build upon what's been provided. That's pretty much the basis of fandom, and so I can see why the intense response.
I mean, yes, clearly she's not able to step back from her work, and I was wincing on her behalf too, but I also think she was deliberately asserting an unreasonable level of authorial privilege. From her previously-posted comments in the essay, I think it's fair to say that she does in fact believe in that level of privilege, that this was not simply an explosion of frustration. And I think fandom, at least the highly engaged, interactive side of fandom, naturally rejects that notion with great force.
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branchandroot
Thoughts on why the hostile response
Date: 2004-09-22 10:47 am (UTC)Fandom is all about responding to our shared texts -- enthusing about them, yes, but also discussing them, critiquing them, writing fanfic about them, drawing art inspired by them, whatever. When an author comes out and tells people that they're Wrong about her work, she's denying the privilege of the reader/fan to get things out of a work that the author didn't intend, to build upon what's been provided. That's pretty much the basis of fandom, and so I can see why the intense response.
I mean, yes, clearly she's not able to step back from her work, and I was wincing on her behalf too, but I also think she was deliberately asserting an unreasonable level of authorial privilege. From her previously-posted comments in the essay, I think it's fair to say that she does in fact believe in that level of privilege, that this was not simply an explosion of frustration. And I think fandom, at least the highly engaged, interactive side of fandom, naturally rejects that notion with great force.