fandom-ish things: podficcing and reading

[sophinisba]

This has never come up so far, but just in case: if you ever happen to see people talking smack about me at an anon meme or under f-lock or whatever, please don't tell me about it. If you don't see people talking about me at the memes please don't tell me about that either. I really prefer not to know. Thanks!

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Signups are open for round two of chromatic_podfic! Let's participate the hell out of this fest, you guys! I feel like characters of color get even less attention in podfic than in fic, and that's really not very much.

Last year I did medium-sized stories in six different fandoms that added up to something like two and a half hours. This year I'm thinking about doing just one longer one, maybe What We've Become (the Mt. Saint Helens Remix), the Martha-centric remix of the Donna/Martha story I recorded for podtor_who. I meant to do both of them for that fest but I couldn't get in touch with the remix author in time, so this might be a good chance to get back to it. What about you?

I am having such a great time podficcing Arcane Asylum for podficbigbang, you guys! I've done maybe a fifth of the recording and a twelfth of the editing so far, so I still have a long way to go, but gosh is it fun. Yesterday I started in on the part about Merlin's childhood, including the part about wanting to tell his teacher what he is and then having that teacher taken away, and Hunith fighting so hard for him and both of them being so isolated and OH GOD SO MANY FEELINGS.

I'm so glad I decided to jump into this, even though I'd been scared off for a long time by the length. Since it's coming along faster than I expected, I am hoping to have time to do something substantial for chromatic_podfic and a few other shorter things over the next few months.

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I can has a Kindle! For a little over two weeks now, though gosh it feels like longer - I am really reluctant to go back to paper books or reading long fics on my computer screen now (thank you so much to authors who post their fic, especially their long fic, at the AO3!!!!). It was not a Christmas gift but a hand-me-down/loan, an older model which I like very much because it's bigger than the newer ones. I like large print and with this big screen I can still see a decent-sized chunk of text at one time. I have read and enjoyed
-Un Lun Dun by China Miéville, a really great, clever, and surprising young adult fantasy novel.
-The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, a much darker young adult novel. I'm still not sure what I think about this except that it was totally engrossing, and I'll probably read the other two books, which my friend thoughtfully left on the Kindle for me.
-As Soon As I Am Able by allothi, a really delightful Gwen/Morgana AU in which Morgana and Arthur are rival superheroes. I love fics like this that show Morgana as a flawed person (selfish, spoiled, often ridiculous...) but that are still done with love, wanting her to be happy.

Then here are a couple other things I've read today (not on the Kindle):
-Do You Wanna Come Over and Kill Some Time? by amber, Bradley/Colin beautiful angst and porn. Like many people, I suspect, I've been feeling warm feelings about Bradley and Colin since their date Thursday night. I've never really gotten into Merlin RPF but I've been clicking through some of ella_bane's Bradley/Colin recs today and this one is my favorite so far.
-Untitled Porn by riventhorn: "Gwen and Merlin like to be dogs sometimes, and their owners [Arthur and Morgana] have brought them together to play." SO GODDAMN HOT. I love that it is Gwen POV and feel our fandom needs way more kinky porn about Gwen okay.
-Oh and can I tell you a secret? Last month I read this Merlin/Morgana puppy play fic by lolafeist, Come Here, Boy, which briefly mentions Morgana trying to read her Kindle and pretending not to be all turned on thinking about the sex she and Merlin are about to have. And ever since then I've been like, "Kindle! Sexy!" It adds to my reading enjoyment. :D

Comments

[pandarus]

1) WTF is up with this whole mindset of let's-slag-people-off-anonymously-in-public? I DO NOT understand. Because nobody is being forced to participate in fandom, and nobody is being oppressed by anybody through fandom, and there is just no conceivable reason to be shitty about other fans where they can stumble across it in a nasty I-am-Spartacus anonymous fashion. It's cruel and childish and chicken shit. (Not saying people shouldn't be able to vent, but either put your name to it or do it privately, ffs. Anything else is just corrosive.)

2) OMG so much word wrt ibooks! Best. Thing. Ever.

[sophinisba]

It makes me so angry every time I think about it, and the idea that we're supposed to respect it now, just accept it as a legitimate part of fandom, UGH. But I figure I can't make it stop, the only thing I can do is ignore it. Thing is, some of my friends have been trying to ignore it and then their friends email to say "I just thought you should know people are talking about you" and, um, yeah. I really don't! I prefer to sit over here and read some fics and make some podfics, you know?

[kathkin]

I have the same policy about anon memes, though I don't think I've ever posted it anywhere. I doubt anyone talks about me anyway.

On a much more positive not, thanks for the OT4 puppy play rec! :DD There definitely needs to be more kinky fic about Gwen.

[sophinisba]

Yeah, I doubt I'm LJ-famous enough to get talked about there, but you never know. Sort of like the blanket permission for podfics thing, I want there to be a culture where the default is that authors give blanket permission, even if they don't expect podficcers to be interested in them. What I really want is a fandom culture without anonymous nastiness, but since I can't have that I'm asking for help pretending it doesn't exist. :)

You know, it's funny, I had animal play on my kink_bingo card in 2010 and I the idea sort of freaked me out. I didn't write anything and during the amnesty period I did one podfic that was an animal AU (Arthur and Merlin actually were animals) and one with magical animal transformation. But ever since this year's summerpornathon I'm all BRING ON THE PET PLAY! It is one of my favorite things now idek.

[emei]

Ooh, now I want to reread As soon as I am able, it's so great. Maybe I should make a travel collection of good long fic on my e-reader...

I found the Hunger Games totally engrossing too. Mostly the first and second book, I think - the third one seemed to aim high and not manage to hold it all together quite as impressively. Anyway, some excellent fic on the AO3 once you're done with all of them. :)

[sophinisba]

I had seen a lot of recs for As Soon As I Am Able when it came out, had read the first few paragraphs and somehow gave myself the idea that I didn't like how it was written or that it had errors in it or something. When I went back I realized that there was actually nothing wrong with the fic, it just had a couple names I didn't know how to pronounce and because of that my mind had sorted it as "would be difficult to podfic" and I'd gotten that mixed up with other stories that are difficult to podfic because they have errors. Anyway it was awesome, so funny and smart and sweet.

I've heard a lot of people say they didn't care for the third Hunger Games book. Er, pretty much everybody I've talked to about it actually, and mixed reviews for the second. I will probably read them both anyway though because of the suspense!!

[meri]

I like your anon-meme policy up there. I'm thinking about adding something similar to mine. Anon memes seem to me one of the most toxic aspects of fandom now. I'm not surprised they come up so often as places where wank, discontent, and bullying leak over into fandom at large. I really do think that what they offer as a benefit to our community is largely overridden by the hurt and pain they cause.

[sophinisba]

Yeah. I really wish that they did not exist, even though some friends have tried to talk to me about the benefits. yue_ix did tell me that a well-moderated anon meme can be a good place for discussion, and of course we have the kink meme that's been so wonderful for the fandom and where wank is quickly nipped in the bud (except for that one time when people decided to attack the mods). But when you have a meme that's designed for nastiness and where anything goes... well, whatever, I keep resolving to stop talking about it. I don't think I can do any more than ignore it. :/

[meri]

I guess I've never seen a well-moderated anon meme aside from our wonderful kink meme. Thanks for reminding me that it's anon. That helps me remember that anon spaces aren't all toxic. I do think that anon spaces explicitly set up to be nasty (as our anon meme is) makes me sad face.

[yue_ix]

Butting in to say: there's several places lots of people visit in fandom that have a large anonymous part but that we forget about because it's managed positively. Kink memes are one of them; gift exchanges, polls with results kept anon, anon commenting turned on for people crossposting, and love memes are a few others. For all these, an atmosphere of kindness and sharing is expected and encouraged from the start, and people naturally go with it. If we see someone being a brute on a love meme, our reaction would be "wtf? get out of here". But there's been a built-up of a different kind of expectation out of certain places (fandom secrets, confession places, etc) that I think encourages the other side. I've ranted a bit about this here.

All in all, I just wanted to add my two pennies that I think we can be a bit too quick in blaming anon memes in general. For me, the problem with certain places has little to do with anonymity and more with expectations and culture, which does link in to what you said about places set up explicitly to be nasty, just not the anon part.

Full disclamer: a great deal of my LJ contributions are anonymous and behind-the-scenes, so I felt like sort of presenting my point of view on the whole (though I also know what you meant). ^__^

[yue_ix]

Excited about your podfics, as ever! Let me know if you'd like a second pair of ears for them? Or, idk, covers. I like making covers for you. The fact that I get to listen to your podfics in loop helps. chromatic_podfics didn't seem to have anything in its challenge allowing artists to sign up.

The animal play popped up on my reading circles too and were a lot of fun! (ahaha, I hear you in finding out one of our ticks in a sexy fic and then feeling better about it since). I have a few ideas that just won't get out of my head, too, like Morgana in only a shirt and stretching over the top of sofas as the shirt rides up, or Arthur taking pride in being treated like a stallion and standing taller after playing (Merlin/Gwen/Uther/any stable person examining Arthur's teeth, his calves, his soles, grooming his body hair with a thick rough brush and passing commentaries all the time about his good price and worth) with the great possibility of figging, Morgana and Merlin fighting+making out as 'pets' kind of like hate-sex but as a planned fight by their masters, etc. There's a lot of possibility, it hits my interest in reversing some tropes, and works with my like of objectifying characters tenderly...

[sophinisba]

I have thought about similar situations for Arthur a lot! Well I did that one podfic where Uther and all his advisers were sizing up nekkid Arthur and talking about how much they could get for him, and then there was that wonderful prompt at the kink meme for something following the goblin episode where Merlin uses symbols of Arthur being a donkey to remind him when he needs to be humbled. For a while I was trying to write a fic for kinkelot that was about Gwen and Merlin making toys for Arthur, a bit and a tail with a butt plug and some donkey ears. !!

I will go ask the chromatic_podfic mod about cover art!

(I love it when you make covers for my podfics!!)

[yue_ix]

I love how we have such matching love for putting Arthur (and Gwen, and Merlin, and Uther, and weeee) in all kind of situations and explorations. I loved that text and your podfic of it! And yesss, that Arthur-treated-like-an-ass prompt, oh, how I fanned and had ideas for it but they sputtered out way too quickly to amount to much. Other animal play involving Arthur, too, though often more as mentions than real body of work. Gwen making toys is guh. Way to hit competency, foreplay and toys kinks all at once.

Thank you kindly for all you do. <3

[meri]

Ummmmm...OMG THE ARTHUR AS STALLION IN PONY PLAY YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Wow, okay, so that was a kink found. :)

[yue_ix]

\o/ It's always a victory when we discover a new aspect of something to love. That image won't leave me. Arthur's rippling back, tight and proud, feeling the dichotomy of how his people saw him and how his lovers saw him and linking the satisfaction he gets from both. Studying horses characteristic, comparing himself, challenging himself. Being distracted in rides, staying in the stables for a long time to watch how people treat horses. Discovering what he likes out of this kink and helping his lovers get there, or reaching that point together in wonder... *happy sigh*