There's a big argument going on over use of a racist term in a Harry Potter community's fanfic prompt ("miscegenation" was used; when asked to change the word to "interracial," the community moderators refused).

Links to ongoing discussion provided by liviapenn.

Different things I've read this past week have made me think about what keeps fandoms active as well as what tools people use to find and get involved in fan activities. I've posted a poll at my journal and invite people to stop by and voice their opinion.

feklar writes about a World Wrestling Entertainment tie-in, an adventure novel by the WWE fearturing WWE professional wrestlers as secret agents.

"...But is it fanfic? I used to argue that the WWE shows essentially were RP fic--the McMahons even use their RL names. So is a WWE novel creating an AU about RP fic characters fanfic or RP fic?

It's so meta it makes my head hurt."

Does anyone know if there exists an HP fic-finding community along the lines of lotrips_finders?

angua9 explains What the fanatic Harry/Hermione shippers are thinking. I think.

sidewinder ponders why it's OK to get a profit on fanart and schwag, but anathema for fanfiction or vids.

julietveiled wants to know what's so odd about crackfic.

brodeurbunny30 explores hypermasculinity and the lack of a divide between FPS and RPS in WWE here.

jassanja goes on about RPS and RL wives

taraljc talks about the new Doctor Who series and the main arc of the first season (kind of vague because there are spoilers)

Yours truly needs fandom's help again (and quickly, because I forgot about this community's existence--my paper's due Wednesday) with writing an essay on the connections between the Internet, sexuality, and fanfic writing.

The survey is here. The post also contains a link to my last academic paper on fandom as a subculture.

soupytwist argues that fanfiction and original fiction each have elements of the other within them.

Responding to the latest round of RPS debates (yes, it's that time of the year again :-), ithiliana offers a fascinating reading of the uncomfortable proximities between fannish behavior in general and RPS in Fan as Stalker.

gisho enumerates the six types of pairings.

karotsamused talks about the musical term "canon" and how it compares to the fandom term.

musesfool expounds on why fandom is like the mafia.

I have begun a small new research project examining attitudes toward LJ usernames. If you have ever changed your username and would like to be included as part of this research, or just want to read more about it, please go here.

Thank you.

lolaraincoat interprets the fight scenes in Buffy as allegory and characterization, from the perspective of Asian vs. Hollywood cinema, gender & queer studies, and various martial arts.

an excellent result from the rant meme

paranoidkitten has some thoughts on girl-kisses on TV.

destina has a fascinating discussion of the SG1/SGA Pegasus B universe and collectively written AUverses in general here

slashmommy defines the types of cons.

cereta muses (rhetorically) on Richard Weaver's "Ultimate terms" and fannish versions thereof.

jennyo has an interesting post on sex and fandom.

What is and isn't Darkfic? A thoughtful definition by savageseraph that is not specific to a single fandom, though originating discussion relates to LotR, nor only to fanfiction. Intriguing and sparks some good discussion.

fabu details her personal philosophy on criticism and fanfiction.

mimesere lets loose on Cliches, Bad Writing, and Criticism. Arguments slightly disorganized, but still entertaining and pointed.

Because of a casting spoiler for season 9, many fans of another, now off the air, science fiction show, may well want to jump into Stargate. katie_m offers the best show primer I have ever seen, this one for Stargate, of course

liviapenn makes the point that comic book fans and slash fans both like improbable crossovers, but they like war and we like sex.

cathexys has an interesting question about how much ground the term "popslash" can reasonably be construed to cover. I want to see what you guys think.

ETA: Oh bother. Turns out to be a flocked post. I'll see if I can post an un-flocked version.

ellen_fremedon's posts on the Id vortex that were metablogged Friday have not only made it it to Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog here, but have since spawned discussions among pro writers about fanfic in general in sartorias's LJ where she wonders about Slash the next big wave.

[ETA: And more followup discussions by matociquala here and truepenny here.]

ellen_fremedon talks about the benefits to writers of the fannish suspension of shame and then follows up with what are the tools that you've noticed, as a writer, a beta, or a reader, that work to keep cracktastic, emotionally-charged stories from collapsing?

In response to a narcissic little troll, isntitironic posts an interesting essay on cultural perception of inner vs. outer beauty. I'm posting the links here (it's in three short unlinked sections due to comment restrictions) because it's fandom-based in that A) it was started by a LOTR kerfluffle and B) discusses fictional archetypes.

Fairy Tales And The Cult Of Teh Pretteh
One ~ Two ~ Three

rhipowered is doing a paper on fandom as subversive subculture and i'm spreading the word about her survey. Please go and fill it out.

[And if this isn't allowed, just lemme know and i'll delete the entry.]

tangleofthorns has some interesting ruminations on some of the internal biases within the Harry Potter universe.

telesilla has an interesting theory about the perception by FPFers of RPF as intrusive and tinhattish.

As writers of FPF many of us think we are telling an unseen story. How many times have people said, "I write slash because the powers that be don't/can't?"

So coming from that background, we stumble across RPF and we make assumptions. We assume that all RPF writers are coming from the same place. That all of them have that desperate need to write something they "know" to be real in the same way we "know" Clark and Lex are "so doin' it."

We forget that the F is for Fiction in RPF the same as it is in FPF.

I know the FPF/RPF debate has been done to death a million times over, but I think she really may be on to something. Give it a read.

sistermagpie has a post on whether original fic can be slash, also touching on whether canonically gay characters can be "slashed".

natlyn makes a fascinating attempt to categorize different types of fans in relation to how we engage with the source text, the fan products, canonicity, etc. here.

Read the comments and her responses as well...it's more of a Theory-In-Progress that gets refined and more differentiated along the way...

miriam_heddy has a thoughtful query on the appropriate way to discuss things in LJ

fernwithy lays out Seven (Usually) Non-Subjective Ways To Make A Character OOC -- some HP emphasis but otherwise multi-genre.

i thought i couldn't read another "why we slash" post and be pleasantly surprised, but the_dark_twin managed to do just that with her long, amusing, and seemingly comprehensive essay Why I like slash. Tough Questions. Plain Answers.

commodorified has an interestingly headbendy theory about how men make things slashy.

ranalore rambles thoughtfully about On archetypes, priorities in fanfic writing and reading, and fanon, with interesting points about RPF as compared to FPF.

angstslashhope takes a closer look at the construction of the public persona of a celebrity vs. the private person, and muses on how that translates to boundaries, fandom and RPS.

lexcorp_hope has a great entry on how a script's original draft is rewritten by everybody on set except the janitors. Her examples are specific to Smallville, but apply to all episodic television.

katallison posts a lovely little meditation on the ability of slashers to completely make this shit up by digging deep into the cores of unrelated characters.

ETA actual link to post. Sorry about that.

rivkat has an interesting essay on her path from McKinnonite to slasher in On becoming a pornographer.

Many of you, by now, may have seen Anne Rice's response to criticism of her latest book at Amazon; flummery offers a beautiful rebuttal that makes Rice's reaction look an awful lot like that of many fan writers...

idlerat has a poll about how/whether fan works should be used by people outside of fannish contexts. The discussion in the comments is really interesting.

unholynotion rants on the villainisation of women SOs of celebrities in RPGS.