A much more normal post - January 02019

An interesting thing to start - an examination of what people actually say as their last words of life.

And also, The history of the previous generation trying to dunk on the new generation for their wild and reckless behavior. (Although there's even older stuff than what's on that list.)

Lindsay Ellis talks about Death of the Author and The Fault In Our Stars, which will set you back about a half-hour to watch, but it's almost worth it for the 1980s instructional video style before it gets into the meat of how The Fault In Our Stars turns out to be a lot more self-referential, even about author intent, than desired.

I'm going to go and make a blanket recommendation for the new community thisweekmeta, because it has a lot of what I like about fandom and talking about fandom in regular packages, and if I don't endorse the community, I'm going to end up linking to just about everything they post, like why critical examination might mean you end up liking something more, rather than less, because you find the thing you liked in the first place, and it's still there, even if you are now more aware of the things that aren't so great about it. Or asking for marginalized voices to talk about their experiences with fandom. Or a certain amount of Fandom Olds being grumpy about the new kids coming in and not learning from those who have gone before and experienced what they are experiencing now. And also reminding people that what they think is new is not as new as they think, in this case, that Star Wars, for the Prequel Trilogy, was mostly women doing the bulk of fan-anything, and so people thinking that the sequel trilogy is bringing in all the new fans are...misguided on their history. Also, commentary that the idea of shipping being Problematic is an outcropping of the idea that individuals can successfully solve systematic problems on their own.

A Fanlore article linked about the "Three Laws" of Fandom, which is a set of suggestions that form a bedrock of common courtesy between fen. Basically, Don't Like, Don't Read, Your Kink Is Not My Kink, and Ship and Let Ship. Which are the sort of thing that you can sometimes be dismayed to learn that other people don't think of as so fundamental to fandom that they shouldn't have to be explicitly spelled out. And yet.

greywash talked about how Tumblr's tags stood in for the space that allowed someone to distinguish between what was said with the creator's voice and what was said without that voice.

sylvaine asked about whether meta should have a specific class of permissions for being pointed at, because popular meta has the potential to bring a lot of people to your doorway that you may or may not have wanted there. And muccamukk provided contextualization and an example in thisweekmeta, and made some suggestions about being aware when you want to talk about someone being Wrong On The Internet, because talking about someone being Wrong On The Internet has a high combustability factor, and depending on where you post it, there's a nonzero chance The Hounds will be summoned.

That's BAD, because The Hounds don't care who they hurt, even if some of them don't recognize that's what they're doing.

( As you may well realize, there's more to discover underneath the cut )

Last for tonight, the unreality of the coffee shop AU, the ways in which ballet instruction has changed over time, and the idea of having designers create secular rituals for people to do, so as to avoid religious connotations they might not want to experience or don't believe in, without losing the sense of the sacred that ritual brings. (I think it's an idea, and if it's well-designed, why not? We have lots of rituals that are secular that we engage in and accord a certain amount of power to them about it all.)

Things with a more political slant to them - Mostly November 02018 - January 02019

If you have the ability to do so, these entries can be excluded by scratching out the "political links" tag.

( Yet more matters of politics in the States and other countries )

A thing to remember at the end: the work is worthwhile, even if the results aren't immediate. Although, in a lot of places, the results will be immediate, and pretty awesome, too. A small list of ways to get into things without getting overwhelmed by things. Some suggestions for going along the way and building tighter-knit, better communities and networks. And a reminder to give yourself patience, care, and time, because what you are blossoming into will be wonderful.