#non-pearl

[pearldefiance]

No one will hear me say this

It's been six years. I just wasn't able to execute on my writing back when I was deep into Pearl. But I found someone else, someone whose arc of personal growth matches mine so well I can write her story a million times; someone I can carry in my heart to my original works and celebrate for the rest of my life; who I both AM and WANT TO BE and want to understand. She's everything I ever hoped for.

I wrote one of the biggest (and maybe the best for what it does) romance fics in my rarepair and I followed the dream until I became healthier and stronger than ever and now I can make it all happen. I can't tell you who it is or where I'm at because I will be identifiable there and there are people here I hope never to see again.

I'm surrounded by friends and loved ones and I'm fighting for my dream. I won't be backfilling my Pearl fanfiction, though; there's too much pain here for me.

Thank you to those who loved me and stood by me. You did more than you know. You got me through the worst by caring. You made it all possible.

[pearldefiance]

The difference isn't "people write fanfiction now and it's fundamentally unserious and unworthy to be Culture." People who break out the smelling salts and head to the fainting couch when they hear "Dante's Divine Comedy was fanfiction" are ignoring the point that cultural production is the same as it ever was: Any foundational cultural myth has hundreds to thousands of different versions that each reflect the experiences of contributors from different times and places. Look at Robin Hood. Look at King Arthur. (I'm picking those because they're the easy ones most Westerners know. What I'm saying is broadly applicable.)

What has changed is that corporations now own the majority of foundational cultural myths and leverage them as capital. That gives them carte blanche to claim that derived works are fundamentally lesser and subject to their authority, a claim most people accept uncritically. "Fanfiction" has always been going on as long as you recognize that "fans" are the folk in folklore. They receive something from a storyteller, they change it, and their versions drastically outnumber the so-called official version. For most of history, the folk have defined the grounding myths that underpin their social consensus. It was very difficult to nearly impossible to point back into history and say "this was the first, canonical version from the real author." In many cases, we still can't figure it out. And it's probable we never will, because narratives weren't (that kind of) capital for most of history.

This is just another way fences are being placed around the commons and we are all being robbed of something intrinsically human, the right to shape and share the collective semiotic space.

[pearldefiance]

I don’t even go here, but it’s obvious who’s going to defeat the bad guy at the end of The Owl House (spoilers):

Philip immediately identifies his childhood goal of being witchfinder general (a terrific line read by the actor, by the way). In reality, that was this guy, who died shortly after the Wittebanes entered the Demon Realm:

In other words, the ancestor of this dude:

Not much needs to be said about how the descendant of the “prestigious” witchfinder general (never a real title held by anyone -- somewhat like how the title “Emperor of the Boiling Isles” was completely made up) is a paranoid conspiracy theorist. 

Even more to the point, he’s just some ordinary person, a fate that would be inconceivable to Philip (who, unlike Luz, never got over his Main Character Syndrome.)

Philip and Caleb are already memorialized as the founders of Gravesfield, which should be more than enough for anyone; but Philip will ruin that too by pursuing his quest for vengeance now that he knows Hunter has his brother’s palisman. He will not only be identified by Jacob after Jacob meets one or more of the kids, but ultimately will meet his downfall as a direct result of Jacob, who will thereby “redeem” himself.

[pearldefiance]

The Devil isn’t someone who tempts you to throw away your principles and live a lavish life of selfish hedonism.

The Devil is someone who tempts you to believe your principles require you to be mediocre, live small, and die.

[pearldefiance]

We’re only halfway there on how bad this “Tumblr+” thing is.

Yes, don’t put fanworks behind a paywall. That’s absolutely crucial advice, but it doesn’t go far enough.

If you put ANYTHING behind a paywall, you CANNOT have any fanworks on your blog, full stop.

99.99% of modern digital businesses work this way:

They post some free stuff (usually just so you can find them on Google)

They get you to join a mailing list by offering Slightly Better Free Stuff™

Once on the list, they wear down your resistance until you buy a thing

From the perspective of, say, Disney, if you reblogged an Owl House meme yesterday and today you have a totally unrelated piece of original content behind a paywall, you have effectively monetized Disney content because it was the free thing used to attract and entice people to buy the paid thing.

Tumblr talks about fanworks as if they will co-exist seamlessly with whatever you decide to monetize, when, in fact, the only way to monetize ANYTHING safely is to have a blog that contains no outside IPs of any kind. If you follow all the other rules but still reblog fan content (like a normal Tumblr user) you are still at risk!

[pearldefiance]

After months of total silence, my blog activity currently looks like an M.

One person is singlehandedly bringing me back from inside my gem by liking and reblogging my entire back catalog.

[pearldefiance]

Five spam bots a day is more spam bots than the last time I was here.

[pearldefiance]

SO a lot of legit research has come out in the last few years about how “gratitude” really is good for your mental health and it isn’t just a weird thing in self-help books. I’ve always had trouble being told to “list things you’re grateful for” and stuff like that because that doesn’t really make me feel a genuine emotion. I found a bunch of artists with Pearl backlogs I can reblog for days and days and I’m so happy looking at her. Every time I go through one of these images and list what’s good about it, THAT’S my gratitude practice. I completely forgot. I thought there was just going to be not enough Pearl ever again. But Pearl is real and she’s here and she changed my life and I’m tearing up for real in a way that just making a list of things would never do. I feel so much relief and joy that’s just been missing from my life. Thank you all for being with me to remember and celebrate her. I <3 you!