Something Quiet

D. Literature nerd. Dad jokes.

[tothechaos]

me trying to convince myself that the whole spectrum of human emotions is a good and necessary thing to feel even if its not comfortable while im actively experiencing emotions that make me feel like my bones are being dissolved in acid

[computationalcalculator]

[the-bar-sinister]

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything. Fanfiction is a weird little niche and fics are not something with massive cultural impact.

[marshemillow]

Even if you were to be REALLY generous and say that every single story on the most popular fanfiction website AO3 glorifies something immoral (meaning all its users are exposed to that no matter what) and it was an unchanging fact that you absorb every single message from every fic you've ever read (which is absolutely ridiculous) AND you were to assume that every registered user account on AO3 belonged to one person (meaning nobody has more than one account) that's still only 6 million people out of a population of 8 billion who have absorbed bad ideas from fic.

That's literally less than 0.1% of the overall population.

Even if it were possible to completely brainwash every single person who read the most popular fic in the world into believing that something plainly immoral was perfectly acceptable, it still wouldn't make a DENT in the wider cultural consciousness.

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Hey you know most classic or canon literature is fanfic, right?

[likorys-shimenawa]

Dante's Divine Comedy became universal model of how people view hell - despite being completely fake and not at all compliant with the Bible - because it offered concept of Purgatory, which was a last chance between binary hell or heaven for a global at the time religion.

I'm gonna take a wild guess no fanfiction has nor will ever achieve the same level of influence.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Have you read any Shakespeare?

[likorys-shimenawa]

Are you capable of taking part of the discussion, or is throwing aggravating questions all you can do?

Shakespeare is irrelevant in this discussion - his RPF fanfiction was supported by machine of mainstream entertainment, so they're equivalent of any modern blockbuster involving real people. I don't think anyone thinks Lincoln actually killed vampires, so RPF fanfiction proves nothing by existence alone.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Except…Shakespeare (and many other authors, his contemporaries included) also wrote fanfic that wasn’t RPF. You can call it “irrelevant” just because it was mainstream, but that doesn’t make it so. Cultural influences are often, by definition, *mainstream*

[likorys-shimenawa]

Shakespeare is irrelevant as a single author - all of the 'classics' were only able to influence culture due to extremely different environment we no longer live in. No modern fanfiction has the same machine of power behind it to give it the same level of influence any classical literature had.

There is no monarchy to have a prince promote a fanart and that be a pressure enough for everyone in academia to talk about it.

There is no illiterate society (1 in 2 for yeomen and trade- or craftsmen, 1 in 5 and less for peasants and manual laborers) to have only rich able to write and read, let alone hand-writing to make production of text scarce.

[And when any fanfic does get the capitalist machine of power behind it, it stops being a fanfic - it must be rewritten and become unrecognizable as a fanfic, as to be sold requires it to be as far from copyright/trademark infringement risk as possible.]

Can you stay on topic, or are we ending this discussion?

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

You give an example of something massively influential as fanfiction, but you then change the definition when it doesn’t suit you.

You’re also massively oversimplifying early modern culture and literature. It’s really easy to say “only the rich could write,” but that doesn’t invalidate the point. (I’m also guessing that you don’t want to discuss literacy rates today. There’s a reason that modern fanfic started in the US)

And, obviously, it changes shape under capitalism (everything does), but you’re ignoring a substantial portion of copyright law.

We know Shakespeare’s work was more influential as a performed medium than a read one because everyone was illiterate. It was affordable entertainment, for most people. It was more akin to sports than the opera, as we conceive it today. Still, these were stories everyone already knew, whether or not they were literate, because cultural modes of replicating stories and knowledge weren’t limited to writing, much like today.

You’re right that Shakespeare alone can’t make that point, which is why I expressly didn’t only refer to Shakespeare. And obviously we live in a different environment. Each era is a different environment. We can’t collapse that. However, it’s a gross oversight and mischaracterization to assume that it couldn’t happen in a different environment. It’s happened in many different ones.

But yeah. Let’s end the discussion. You want to move the goalposts, and I’m not interested in that.

[tifferini]

teen wolf: faux corporate office business cards click to enlarge

[eusexuanal]

Settles down on your dashboard gingerly and with a big heaving sigh

[halorvic]

[gaeliclass]

[adruze]

All of us, cause we know…

[the-bar-sinister]

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything. Fanfiction is a weird little niche and fics are not something with massive cultural impact.

[marshemillow]

Even if you were to be REALLY generous and say that every single story on the most popular fanfiction website AO3 glorifies something immoral (meaning all its users are exposed to that no matter what) and it was an unchanging fact that you absorb every single message from every fic you've ever read (which is absolutely ridiculous) AND you were to assume that every registered user account on AO3 belonged to one person (meaning nobody has more than one account) that's still only 6 million people out of a population of 8 billion who have absorbed bad ideas from fic.

That's literally less than 0.1% of the overall population.

Even if it were possible to completely brainwash every single person who read the most popular fic in the world into believing that something plainly immoral was perfectly acceptable, it still wouldn't make a DENT in the wider cultural consciousness.

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Hey you know most classic or canon literature is fanfic, right?

[likorys-shimenawa]

Dante's Divine Comedy became universal model of how people view hell - despite being completely fake and not at all compliant with the Bible - because it offered concept of Purgatory, which was a last chance between binary hell or heaven for a global at the time religion.

I'm gonna take a wild guess no fanfiction has nor will ever achieve the same level of influence.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Have you read any Shakespeare?

[the-bar-sinister]

If we're calling Shakespeare "fanfiction" the word had simply lost all meaning.

This post is refering to modern fanfiction posted on the internet, not pillars of English literature taught in high-school class.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Yeah that’s not how that works. You can’t just change the definition when it suits you.

[the-bar-sinister]

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything. Fanfiction is a weird little niche and fics are not something with massive cultural impact.

[marshemillow]

Even if you were to be REALLY generous and say that every single story on the most popular fanfiction website AO3 glorifies something immoral (meaning all its users are exposed to that no matter what) and it was an unchanging fact that you absorb every single message from every fic you've ever read (which is absolutely ridiculous) AND you were to assume that every registered user account on AO3 belonged to one person (meaning nobody has more than one account) that's still only 6 million people out of a population of 8 billion who have absorbed bad ideas from fic.

That's literally less than 0.1% of the overall population.

Even if it were possible to completely brainwash every single person who read the most popular fic in the world into believing that something plainly immoral was perfectly acceptable, it still wouldn't make a DENT in the wider cultural consciousness.

Fanfiction literally cannot "normalize" anything.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Hey you know most classic or canon literature is fanfic, right?

[likorys-shimenawa]

Dante's Divine Comedy became universal model of how people view hell - despite being completely fake and not at all compliant with the Bible - because it offered concept of Purgatory, which was a last chance between binary hell or heaven for a global at the time religion.

I'm gonna take a wild guess no fanfiction has nor will ever achieve the same level of influence.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Have you read any Shakespeare?

[likorys-shimenawa]

Are you capable of taking part of the discussion, or is throwing aggravating questions all you can do?

Shakespeare is irrelevant in this discussion - his RPF fanfiction was supported by machine of mainstream entertainment, so they're equivalent of any modern blockbuster involving real people. I don't think anyone thinks Lincoln actually killed vampires, so RPF fanfiction proves nothing by existence alone.

[actualbisexualchandlerbing]

Except…Shakespeare (and many other authors, his contemporaries included) also wrote fanfic that wasn’t RPF. You can call it “irrelevant” just because it was mainstream, but that doesn’t make it so. Cultural influences are often, by definition, *mainstream*

[skunkbear]

This is one slice of an incredible high resolution, enhanced color image of Pluto, recently released by NASA. You can see the full, larger version here. 

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

[noknowshame]

I know we’re all like lawless nonconformists but you really can’t be texting and driving. that’s one of the ones you’ve gotta listen to for real

[inner-muse]

Not even at stoplights!!! I know it’s so so tempting to just glance at your phone when you’re stopped, but there’s actually something called “distraction hangover” where even once you put your phone down, your brain is still processing the interaction and isn’t fully paying attention to the road for up to 30 seconds afterwards. So it’s still really dangerous even if you’re stopped when you look at your phone. If you need to check something on your phone, pull over.

[theperksofbeingahugefuckingcunt]

this especially applies to people with adhd. you know that symptom you may have heard of called “difficulty transitioning between tasks”? you don’t want piloting a ton or two of potential death to be the task you can’t mentally switch back to.

[captain-acab]

Interesting! I hadn't heard of the "distraction hangover" before, turns out because it's pretty recent research!

[parakeet]

Some of you are using pov (point of view) when you mean to say mfw (my face when). Get the word out

[deervsheadlights]

just the ol' nine-to-five

[another regular day at work || a regular workplace relationship]

[bittergoldilocks-deactivated202]

The way men view women in movies is so funny because Rey with the Force shouldn’t be able to do all that and Carol Danvers with Superpowers shouldn’t be able to do all that but Singular Cop Dude with No Powers Trapped In A Building can take down 20 genius terrorists Alone (Die Hard)

[bittergoldilocks-deactivated202]

wow people big mad on this post to-nite…. stay pissed off boo that doesnt make it less true

[bloodyhandprint]

did you know avoidance only makes all of your problems worse. no one has ever discovered this before

[transcyberism]

I've suspected this for a long time but I usually try not to think about it

[jewfrogs]

falling asleep during the day: slipping away on a clouds so easy

falling asleep at night: I heard an ant gasp downstairs

[mtfoss]

I do suffer the american condition of liking to drink huge drinks

[luxwing]

Lemme get a little sippy

[bisexualadamparrish]

saw this post & blacked out for 30 minutes & came back to awareness having had created this. the creative urge overtook me.

[theweirdwideweb]

Hey check your titties for any lumps

[epsilon-delta]

My dash did a thing