(no subject)

SO! I HAVE ARRIVED.

I always experience a significant amount of terror right before I travel alone -- it got so bad when I was going to Boston that I almost didn't go -- but I'm accustomed to it now and I just ignore the shakes and get on the train and I always have an awesome time once I'm underway.

Riding the train from Chicago to anywhere in Indiana is apparently a pretty bare-bones proposition. There's no first class (which I usually take, it's worth the extra $10) and no snack car, so I was glad I packed dinner. Well, "dinner"; a bottle of water, a Clif bar, and a Snickers bar.

I'll spare you the tribulations I had getting to my housing, but I will say that the Lafayette Amtrak Station is not designed to facilitate a cohesive traffic stream after dark. I got lost in the station. I did, however, finally get where I was going and I got a pretty good night's sleep, though this morning I couldn't figure out how to work the shower spigot and my shower was cooooooold. Still, woke me up.

On the train yesterday I was reading Jonathan Lethem's "The Ecstasy Of Influence: A Plagiarism", which was an article published in Harper's a few years ago and which someone told me I ought to read. Back then Harper's didn't have an accessible online archive, and if you've ever tried to get a Harper's out of a library archive, as opposed to a Harper's Bazaar, it's...difficult. So I never got to read it.

Anyway, happily, a few weeks ago Kate_Nepveu linked to it in a post about fanfic, and it really is a fascinating read on the subject of the relationship between corporate ownership and cultural commons. There are a few rough patches where I don't think Lethem quite got where he was intending to go, but overall it's a great essay.

It did get me thinking about fanfic in a slightly more abstracted way, and about why this current debate over it really enrages me so much. I don't normally weigh in on wanky matters, so to get me to make a statement about it, it must really have got under my skin. Now I think I know why.

( Extribulum and fear. )

So, that's the eventual coherent statement I have: fanfic is inherently valuable as, if nothing else, a document of response to the originating media. To decry the thing is to decry merely the symbol of something you can never control. Stripped to its bones, there's no point in fighting an author about it, because they aren't acting from a place of rationality but one of fear, and fear makes people both incoherent and mean.

See, the thing is, you don't have to fight on behalf of fanfic -- just by thinking independently and having an opinion, you've already won. Which is kind of awesome, really. So the decision you're faced with is not whether to fight about it, but whether to respect an author's foolish, fearful wish and not post it, or publish and be damned.

Given I've already violated the spirit of the wish by having an opinion, I choose damnation every time, myself.

(This is the shit I come up with on trains. Jesus I love trains.)

(no subject)

A TOTE BAG.

I SIGNED IN FOR THE CONFERENCE AND THEY GAVE ME A TOTE BAG.

*dies of lol*

(no subject)

Well, I have had a morning!

I was at breakfast when I mentioned I wasn't registered for any sessions today and was planning on looking around town, and someone turned to me and said, well, that'll take you fifteen minutes.

I stepped off campus and sure enough, fifteen minutes later, I had reached The End Of Town. (Part of this is due to the fact that nothing was open yet.)

I ended up walking down to where I'd been SO LOST last night, a small strip mall with the tiniest Borders I've ever seen. It was huge, and yet, still the tiniest. I hung out there for a while, and then went and got lunch at

*drumroll*

TRIPLE XXX FAMILY RESTAURANT.

Lest you think I'm kidding: They're on the hill but on the level!

I was going to take a Travelin' Jack photo for everyone but I've realised that when a solitary man takes an action figure out of his backpack and photographs it standing next to his root beer, it's very difficult to explain away rationally. I did buy a root beer for later, though.

We're under a boil order here since yesterday afternoon (would have been nice to know when I brushed my teeth this morning) because according to the guy I talked to at TRIPLE XXX FAMILY RESTAURANT, "The main done broke."

I did get to wander through Von's, as someone suggested, which is a cool row of stores all connected by doorways and yet not connected by ANYTHING ELSE. There's a bookstore, a bead store, a record store, and a second-hand bookstore if you turn right as you pass from the bead store to the record store. It was fun! I bought nothing. I have too many books as it is, alas, and my use for loose beads is pretty limited.

I'm back on campus now, and pondering walking back to my room for a few hours before the opening ceremonies tonight (which I will undoubtedly be underdressed for, but whatever, this is my vacation). I'd catch a bus, but this is THE TOWN OF NO BUS STOPS. I see the buses toodling around town, but I think they're just a ruse. Maybe some kind of performance art.

This is a sweet, small-towny kind of town, but there are moments where I think this town is fucking with me. It's amusing so far.

(no subject)

Jack Harkness, size queen.