Earis is Back, and She is Participating!
Aug. 26th, 2022 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
earisparticipatesHi! My name is earis, or at least that is says on my AO3 account - earis. Here, on dreamwidth, I am earisparticipates, and on Tumblr as earisridesagain. I also am on Twitter as archaelologog and EarisRecs.
I’ve had the opportunity to take some time to reflect on fandom and fannish activities, especially as I am coming up on 20 years of participation in fandom. A variety of recent events, talking on a podcast about my experiences, some popular writers taking down works or leaving fandom, researching the intersection between massive ip and fanfiction, and the increasingly loud and troubling voices who advocate for censorship, have encouraged me to think about who I am as a fan and who I want to be.
I remember reading a book that opened with a discussion of broken hyperlinks. As a fanfic reader, when I find a fic I like, I bookmark it, or the site hosting it, and return to it when I need to. But eventually, links break, people leave, and fics are taken down, either by the author or someone else. And while a broken link is not the burning of the library of Alexandria, there is still a loss when it happens.
The ephemerality of fannish activities and the ‘products’ of fandom is part of what makes participation precious. We revel in works, and then they are lost. We lose ourselves in a fandom, and then our enthusiasm wanes. We join servers and then abandon them. We forge intimate friendships, and then we drift apart. We get hooked on a fic, and it is never finished.
I am tempted to look back and forward with no small measure of despair. And if I did, that would be my experience in fandom. Doom, gloom, and mourning something that may have never existed.
Instead, I’ll do something different. I’ll celebrate. And my favorite way to celebrate fandom is by recommending fanfic, and other fannish things I adore.
Rec’ing is one of the great joys of fanfiction. Sharing a wonderful piece of writing with the world - or at least the portion of it that pays attention to me on the internet - makes me feel connected to readers and writers.
I used to make reclists all the time, on my livejournal (RIP). But, now that I am on twitter (mostly), there isn’t space to do it justice. So I am going to do something different. I am moving back to the blog - specifically, to dreamwidth. And I am going to put together recs for people to enjoy.
So strap in, because earis is back, she is participating, and she is ready to rock.
I’ve had the opportunity to take some time to reflect on fandom and fannish activities, especially as I am coming up on 20 years of participation in fandom. A variety of recent events, talking on a podcast about my experiences, some popular writers taking down works or leaving fandom, researching the intersection between massive ip and fanfiction, and the increasingly loud and troubling voices who advocate for censorship, have encouraged me to think about who I am as a fan and who I want to be.
I remember reading a book that opened with a discussion of broken hyperlinks. As a fanfic reader, when I find a fic I like, I bookmark it, or the site hosting it, and return to it when I need to. But eventually, links break, people leave, and fics are taken down, either by the author or someone else. And while a broken link is not the burning of the library of Alexandria, there is still a loss when it happens.
The ephemerality of fannish activities and the ‘products’ of fandom is part of what makes participation precious. We revel in works, and then they are lost. We lose ourselves in a fandom, and then our enthusiasm wanes. We join servers and then abandon them. We forge intimate friendships, and then we drift apart. We get hooked on a fic, and it is never finished.
I am tempted to look back and forward with no small measure of despair. And if I did, that would be my experience in fandom. Doom, gloom, and mourning something that may have never existed.
Instead, I’ll do something different. I’ll celebrate. And my favorite way to celebrate fandom is by recommending fanfic, and other fannish things I adore.
Rec’ing is one of the great joys of fanfiction. Sharing a wonderful piece of writing with the world - or at least the portion of it that pays attention to me on the internet - makes me feel connected to readers and writers.
I used to make reclists all the time, on my livejournal (RIP). But, now that I am on twitter (mostly), there isn’t space to do it justice. So I am going to do something different. I am moving back to the blog - specifically, to dreamwidth. And I am going to put together recs for people to enjoy.
So strap in, because earis is back, she is participating, and she is ready to rock.
