Fandom Snowflake 2018 #4: Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards All

[silveradept]

In your own space, create a fannish wishlist. No limits on size or type of fanwork; just tell us what you’d like to see.

Peace on earth, good will toward all. Inside fandom and outside of it. And not in some Monkey's paw or secretly dystopian way, either.

If I can't get that, though, here's what else might make things nice.

• Helping me get caught up on the last several years of media -- I watched a lot of singing competition shows and CBS cop dramas and not much else over the last several years. I could use a catchup in just about everything (besides bad reality shows) including animation and books and comics and all of it. Not that I'll necessarily be able to get around to catching up, but plenty of y'all are talking about things I have not heard of and have no idea whether I want to devote time to.
• Moar discussion. I like think pieces and meta over large amounts of RP and the endless supply of material chasing megafandoms. Community recommendations or good long form would be great not just for me, but for plenty of others. And if we could manage to stop passing each other as ships in the night, that would be even better.
• A Time Turner or a TARDIS, so that I can both go to work and manage to catch up on the endless supply of interesting things that I have yet to read.
• A fandom matcher. Sort of how AO3 matches people for exchanges, if there are a way we could do that for people, that would be groovy, because I get kind of nervous and then a little burnt out on reading person after person in friending memes, if I'm going to be honest, and often for not a lot of apparent gain. Let the algorithms do the work, and see if they can't match us up reasonably well.
• Commissions. Not getting, but giving, because I see all the great fanart around and I want to support creators, but there's one more thing I need to be able to manage that.
• A forkton of money, so that I can pay debts and buy all sorts of nice goods and prints and stories that I have had my eye on, but realize am far too frugal to ever actually get, because there's always something more practical I could be spending the money on.

And also, possibly? Knowing what the things I really want in fanwork actually are might help. I don't think I've got that, either.

Comments

[teigh_corvus]

I'm not sure how I can be of assistance, but I *want* to be. I really dig the way you're thinking about fandom, and what's needed. I also can't stop thinking about your TAZ mention either.

[silveradept]

Thank you, and if I had a better picture of it myself, I could be more helpful, but at the moment, I'm kind of waiting for the Lucy moment where I look at a thing or listen to it and shout "THAT'S IT!"

[alexseanchai]

Yeah, I was looking at your bullet point the first and thinking how to phrase how to ask "what does silveradept want out of a media experience?" and then I got to the last paragraph... XD

[silveradept]

It's not that easy. You're recommending for someone who thought Downton Abbey and My Little Pony are both good shows, even though I'm a bit more fannish about the ponies. It's a broad sweep, and make the only consistent thing is that I like shows where more than the main character get development and screen time.

[alexseanchai]

ha yeah

I have not personally watched, but have heard fantastic things about, Sense8?

[mekare]

I'd like to second Sense8 then, each of the main cast get roughly the same amount of screen time and development. It's beautifully shot, has interesting settings around the globe and a cool premise. Be aware the story isn't quite finished but I've heard plans for a resolution are in the works.

[killing_rose]

I enjoy Ever After High, Descendants, and about every cop show known to mankind. (Or at least that's on Hulu+ or netflix. My need to catch up Rizzoli and Isles is why I have a Hulu+ sub. I don't regret it, because it comes in handy, even if "in handy" is just "Gee, I found Cold Squad from 199_ and it's really good".)

Wish granted!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Helping me get caught up on the last several years of media <<

I'm not impressed by much modern media, but I adore the TV show Lucifer. It actually started as a comic but that's older.

More variable, but worth watching especially if you liked Star Trek and/or Galaxy Quest, is The Orville. Imagine if Jim Kirk got drunk and stoned, had an orgy, then had to get up early the next morning to write fanfic. That fanfic is the script of this show. It is funnier than it has any right to be, as dorky as it is. So don't watch it with your mouth full, ever.

>> Moar discussion. I like think pieces and meta over large amounts of RP and the endless supply of material chasing megafandoms.<<

My blog has a lot of thinky stuff. Sometimes I write about fannish things, other times meta of my own work. The last one was a comparison of mall socioeconomics between here and Terramagne. Oh, and at least twice I've launched series based on someone else's meta about fantasy motifs. A Conflagration of Dragons started with "The Macroeconomics of Middle-Earth." Kande's Quest started with this essay about "Always Chaotic Evil-Confronting My Anti-Orc Bias." What, nobody's ever written the white demons? I CAN FIX IT! :D

>> Commissions. Not getting, but giving, because I see all the great fanart around and I want to support creators, but there's one more thing I need to be able to manage that. <<

I do poetry rather than art, but if you like it, the bottom run for whole poems is $5 for 1-10 lines, and there's usually an epic or few in microfunding where people put in whatever they can afford to reveal new verses. Except my fans cleared out the last of those in the Holiday Poetry Sale and haven't started a new one yet.

Re: Wish granted!

[ragdoll]

Just seconding The Orville because everyone should love the Orville! :D

Re: Wish granted!

[azurelunatic]

My household has been watching The Orville together over dinner. No actual spittakes ... yet.

Re: Wish granted!

[silveradept]

The Orville has been one of the few things I have been watching, and it is a delight to see. I had been looking at Lucifer, but couldn't decide on yes or no, so the recommendation will help on that.

[jadesfire]

(here from the Snowflake Challenge :))

As someone who is BAD about keeping up with media, if you're looking for something light and low-commitment, I'd definitely recommend Brooklyn 99. The episodes are short, the characters are adorable, and the writing is sharp.

For books, my big one of the last few years has been the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Especially if you like audiobooks, because it feels like he wrote them to be read aloud, and the reader is stunning. There are 6 novels, a novella, some short stories and some comics, so lots to the world if you want it.

And oh gosh, if you find the fandom matcher, please let me know! Reading the Snowflake Challenge entries has made me realise just how many there are out there. I find friending memes hard, but at least the Snowflake challenge is taking me out to meet people :) And so many have said "more talking please" that it's something I'm determined to work on this year!

[ragdoll]

I don't know if I can help you at all re: catching up with media especially since my tastes are very eclectic, but I saw your comment about Downton Abbey and My Little Pony so maybe I can be of assistance. Besides, you're listening to Murray Gold so obviously our tastes line up a little. I'm not one of the cool kids so I may be way off the mark with my weird interests, but I'm more than happy to try!

[silveradept]

I will take the help I can get, and I like people with eclectic tastes, because they often find that little out of the way thing that you go "YES. THIS IS PREFECT." over.

[ragdoll]

Okay, if you like costume dramas I would recommend: Grantchester (1950s era murder mysteries from PBS), Call the Midwife (late 1950s into early '60s drama about midwives in London -- one caveat is it can get gory sometimes, also PBS), Poldark (late 1700s, early 1800s romance/drama set in Cornwall also PBS), The Crown (the sweeping of Queen Elizabeth II and her family from the same team that did The Queen and The Audience, Netflix. S1 is on dvd/blu-ray), Murdoch Mysteries (late 1800s/early 1900s murder mystery/comedy/drama with steampunk elements from CBC -- also on Acorn and the Ovation channel, plus in syndication on some US stations.)

Science Fiction: I love the Orville which is Seth McFarland's love letter and fanfiction to Star Trek (esp Star Trek: TNG). I know McFarland isn't to everyone's tastes normally, but this is far less Family Guy/American Dad/whatever than expected, with some amazing characters. The early episodes are a little more jokey, but as of episode 3, it suddenly hits you over the head with social commentary. There are only 12 (I think) episodes in S1. It was on Fox but still may be on their On Demand or Amazon/iTunes etc.

[ragdoll]

Oh, oh and American Gods (the tv series) and the first two and a half seasons of Penny Dreadful too.

[silveradept]

Thank you for the recommendations! (The Orville is fantastic.)

[ragdoll]

You're very welcome.

[thewayne]

Seems to me that even if you have a time turner or TARDIS that you'd still need immortality as you're still going to metabolically age.

[silveradept]

Fair point. Time Lord biology, then, so that I can regenerate as needed to keep things going.

[mierke]

A fandom matcher. Sort of how AO3 matches people for exchanges, if there are a way we could do that for people, that would be groovy, because I get kind of nervous and then a little burnt out on reading person after person in friending memes, if I'm going to be honest, and often for not a lot of apparent gain. Let the algorithms do the work, and see if they can't match us up reasonably well.
YESYESYES :D

[silveradept]

Right? I don't know how it would work in practice, but I'm pretty sure the principle wouldn't be much more than the same way the exchanges matchups work...

[azurelunatic]

I think, unfortunately, that this exists already but just alienated a large number of the compatible fanpeople by floating a wallet name policy, even though they then walked it back to "in person spoken name".