Re: IZ HAPPY NOW (2) and, Authorial Intention!
So where am I in the acafan-nonacafan discussion?
Irritated, usually, with both sides. They each *grossly* stereotype and overgeneralize the other for the sake of argument - no, trolling. That's what most of it ends up being.
"A pox on both your houses," is my feeling. Some in each camp are fighting to be queen bee, which is obnoxious, and mischaracterizing a good half of fandom as "just like us" (not) or "one of them" (like they would know) is worse. It's enough to make me go back to simply lurking. Which is about what it's done this year after all the flagrant assholery in and around OTW (by arrogant individuals on both sides).
I agree strongly that the questioning of authorial intention is one touchwood area (if that's the right word: like tinder, something can ignite quickly and explosively). I notice that most of the JKR and HP wank over on Fandom_Wank boils down to adoring JKR and disparaging anyone who would question her interpretations and pronouncements, no matter how inconsistent, unsupported, and post-hoc they may be. At the same time, most FW wanks concerning HP are filled with anti-HP mockery. The key to understanding how FW'ers can simultaneously deride HP fandom, but also revile anyone in less than total lurve with HP's author, is to track how respect for the author weaves through both. The author is above both her work and her fandom; the audience of fans are at the bottom of the hierarchy, and should meekly accept whatever they're told. Any fan who questions the work or the author's interpretation is in a sense, a traitor. And even worse than being in a despised fandom is being a traitor within it.
Personally, I think it's not just the Know-Nothing anti-education sentiment that runs rampant through American libertarianism - which with its "new frontiers; no boundaries" individualism has been heavily influential on the internet from its start. It's also the extreme property-fetish of western capitalism, especially the US. On the internet, there's no "real property," little "private property" of any sort. Is fighting over social turf the substitute?
Yep, a great discussion! Thank you all very much. Elf, are you sure you're not an "aca" fan? Maybe in the closet... *g*