skywaterblue

So many truths about fandom and marketing stated so boldly here.

This crazy logic also makes me want to cry, because it ignores the power differential at work here. Having men in a fandom *legitimizes* that fandom. Having women in a fandom that still has men in it just means you’ll sell more shit. But having *mostly women* or the *perception* of mostly women in a fandom does indeed mean a loss of respect; your fandom is taken less seriously, even if it sells like hotcakes and makes lots of people lots of money (romance genre, fan fiction, anyone?).

[...]

Because what ends up happening with a fandom (or a job trade) that men want to have more respect for following? They start to push the women out of it, so it gets taken more seriously. Instead of addressing the sexism and saying, “Hey, we can all like this thing and it’ll be great!” what you start to see is dudes shoving out the women who were there all along.

Scrubbing Women from My Little Pony fandom.

This is the story of Star Trek fandom in its entirety. A woman saved Star Trek, women have largely driven the fandom since the 1960s, but when it comes time to market it, Star Trek is for men men men and don't you forget it.

So it turns out that I did get spoiled for most of the major beats of this film...

( Spoilers are gone for ONE day! Spoilers for 'Into Darkness' and the previous franchise shows. )

Yup.



H/T: Bleeding Cool

There have been some spectacularly awesome long fics posted to A03 lately. No idea if they're the product of Big Bangs - I mentioned in the locked post that my ability to access the internet hasn't been astonishingly great since I moved, and one of the consequences of working hard in studio and that has been not checking Dreamwidth or LJ ... well, mostly at all, is that I don't know if these have been rec'ed to death yet or what.

West Wing

War Criminals by FabulaRasa
It's a novella (42,000+ words!) length story slashing Leo McGarry/Lord John Marbury which is a fabulously weird pairing to write 42,000+ words about, isn't it? It's remarkably pacy, despite that, and the author brings in and has equally interesting cameos for many of the other characters.

Except for some structural issues involving how you shouldn't do nested flashbacks of that length in prose, I think it's a wonderful AU story that makes marvelous use of the things West Wing was ABOUT - international politics and the interpersonal crisis of heart that follow - and I genuinely would like to sit in a room and learn from this Lord John and Leo, who sound every bit the international war time consiglieres they are meant to be.

our book won't close by slybrunette

A shorter Josh and Amy fic, post-Santos, that has an all too depressing burnt edges feel in that nothing that happens around the edges is too surprising, but the fact that things fall apart is more Wells and less Sorkin. I like these stories where, rather than the post-admin written during the Sorkin-era, everyone's older and wiser/dumber and politics is meaner and more meaningless. (I think, if you're modeling your life off Leo McGarry's choices - and Josh Lyman very much does so, it doesn't bode well for happy endings.)

DS9

Reproduction by kattahj

It starts off as a zany xenobiology story - the Dax symbiont has to lay eggs! - which morphs into a detailed examination of the issues surrounding Ezri and Julian having children of their own. Much care and thought went into this fic, and it feels both pitch-perfect to the DS9 universe as well as managing to convince me that Ezri and Julian were more than an odd fling.

A Space for Faith by beatrice_otter

An all OC-tale that would fit neatly into the universe of post-canon DS9 novels if you let it. This is a five chapter story of a young Bajoran security officer on the threshold of becoming absorbed into Starfleet, and the older Vulcan officer she becomes friends with through tutoring. (There's a little blip where the two discuss religion that I find jarring in context of what Starfleet science can do - and what Starfleet science teaches about the Prophets, but I think the choice of pairing a spiritual Vulcan with a Bajoran developing long rusty skills is more interesting overall than this blip.)

Star Trek

The Desert Between by beatrice_otter. The Enterprise visits the new Vulcan colony, and Uhura starts to notice something funny about the human volunteers. Of course, in the traditional Vulcan society she has to be vetted to marry Spock and learn about Pon Farr. What I really loved about this fic, besides the immersive way the author has blended the canon and Diane Duane's Vulcan stories, was Jalila, the author's OC. The way it addressed the culture of the Federation's Earth is really interesting.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Misremembering the Alamo by loneraven. Written for lgbtfest. Newly joined Ezri Dax has to come to terms with the symbiont's sexuality. My favorite thing about this fic is the way that loneraven got all the voices of the DS9 crew, and the gentle feeling that they were all a family. Perfection.

Also, if you haven't seen it, Good in My Head is an awesome Kira vid by meddow.

Calvin and Hobbes

Stupendous Man and Pretty Cool Dude (for an old guy) Join Forces by mjules. Uncle Max and his lover take Calvin for the weekend and have to explain to Calvin about being homosexual. I really enjoy that Calvin sounds like Calvin despite the story being told from an adult perspective.

Iron Man

for today or the rest of my life by calicokat. Written before the new movie so it's been Jossed now, but it is awesome. Pepper Potts starts to date a lovely man, who has nothing whatsoever to do with Tony Stark and superheroics. So of course, Tony gets jealous... this sounds like a really stupid summary, but calicokat has perfect voice for these two. And her OC is great.

"Wow. The yuppie who thinks he's going to singlehandedly save the world," Blair jokes at the razor's edge of caution.

He's right in assuming that a woman who laughs at urinalysis humor can treat her high-powered career with levity. Pepper likes that he's willing to take calculated risks.

Pretty awesome!

Concession by obsession_inc. Iron Man dark-fic from before Iron Man 2, with the author taking Howard Hughes example to extremes. Both Tony and Pepper have gone missing, and a global hunt is on. Christine Everhart is assigned to the story and finds herself becoming obsessed, not with Tony, but with Pepper and what happened to her.

Christine Everhart gets assigned the story the same day that the search for Tony Stark begin to focus on French Polynesia-- if "focus" is a term that can even be used for an area encompassing approximately fifteen-hundred square miles-- and she finds the parallels apt. Both have a certain needle-in-a-haystack feel to them, with a questionable probability of success that's far outweighed by the public interest in the story. There's pressure that goes along with that level of public interest, to have something timely to report even if accuracy is impacted. Christine hates that kind of pressure, and she's well known for fighting with the editors about it, but she's considered the resident expert on all things regarding Tony Stark, so she still gets the assignment.

Doctor Who

The Angel in the House by cryptile.

So, Harold. Here we are, as was perhaps inevitable: you, huddled in the corner of the kitchen, whimpering uncontrollably, and me, doing this stationary and silent flamenco. I don't enjoy this, you know.

No, well, you don't know. And there is no way of letting you know. Ten years I've been living with you and this farce is the most interaction we've had in this entire time. Of course, 'interaction' is a relative concept as far as I'm concerned, but you get my drift.

Well, no; you don't. My kingdom, my gnome-infested kingdom for a larynx.

Oh. Brilliant. That's it, call the police. What are they going to do, slap a pair of cuffs on me, read me my rights? Lash me to the top of the cruiser like I'm an old mattress? You had any sense, you'd be calling that idiot brother-in-law of yours who works in construction.

You could look away, you know. This is killing my arms.

The most hilarious Weeping Angel POV fic you will ever read. Possibly the only one.

First, I made this weird Hamlet/Doctor Who/Victoria Bitter fanart. It made sense at the time. What can I say?

Speaking of Shakespearean things, I want to recommend this amazing Merchant of Venice fic that selenak recced first. A Wilderness of Monkeys. It's about what happens after, and *fists up to her mouth* OMG SHYLOCK/PORTIA. I ship it so hard and I didn't know it until this fic. It's the ultimate in clever hatesex, but I promise by the second chapter you'll be kind of rooting for this crazy couple to make it work. Which is so wrong in so many ways. (So wrong it's right.)

In fact, I may have cast it in my head so that Shylock is being played by Richard Schiff and Portia is Cate Blanchett.

Unfortunately, there are only two chapters. I live in hope for more.

I also want to rec The Dance by taraljc, which is the history and the culture of the Orion people, widely varied, as told by Gaila. I love that in this story, none of the Orion women are former slaves. I love the way her Orion is matriarchal. I haven't been able to leave a comment because I was trying to write something like this, but she beat me to it and hers is better.

Here's more on Russell T Davies planning on crossing Doctor Who over with Star Trek:

4. Yet another [idea for the 2009 Easter Special] was a kind of Star Trek pastiche – essentially “the Doctor on board the Enterprise, puncturing all that Starfleet pomposity with this sheer Doctor-ness”.

Sounds kind of like a Galaxy Quest thing, which I probably would have really enjoyed. (Also, as if 'Waters on Mars' weren't Trek pastiche enough, though I understand it's also a Troughton 'we're all doomed on a space base' episode.)

Though I have to say, the phrase 'Starfleet pomposity' gives me serious doubts. If you're going to do it, even as a pastiche, you should have a little respect, dare I say love, for the material. Though I guess pomposity also depends on which of the series, and which of the Captains you're most trying to play off... Picard and Archer and Janeway were pretty up their own asses from time to time. Kirk and Sisko would have slapped the shit out of the Tenth Doctor and not thought twice about it.

What I'm saying is: so I'm sad it didn't happen, but at least my brother and I didn't BREAK OUR TELEVISIONS IN RAGE.

In other crossover news, the awesome Una McCormack is writing a Doctor Who novel for the Tenth Doctor! It is called 'The King's Dragon', out in July. I think this is very new news, as I can't find a blurb or anything for this. Based on that title, I dream about a Merlin crossover which I am 100% sure isn't what it will be about, but girls can wish.

This reminded me that I have long-delayed posting about her last Star Trek: Deep Space Nine title, "The Never-Ending Sacrifice", literally a Star Trek book I was SO excited for that I almost pre-ordered on Amazon. It could only be a book about Cardassia with that title, and Una McCormack had previously distinguished herself by writing an excellent Garak.

( I think all DS9 fans, or maybe all people who vaguely like Star Trek should get this, as it was both great and a unique addition to the line. )

So you should pick that up if you like Star Trek. In fact, I'd push selenak to read it, as I think she'd love it. I couldn't put it down.

In other DS9 news, we're getting an ongoing comic series from IDW! I picked up the first issue excitedly.

( Fool's Gold, Issue One )

Anyway, that's shaping up to be a fun trip back to my favorite Star Trek. I hope you all pick it up so they continue to make more comics for meeeee.

I've watched it a couple dozen times already - creepily, when I was watching it with Saba he gave a little Nazi salute. Proof that this shit still works on a subtextual level, but as Saba is basically still pre-verbal I couldn't do much about it aside from push his arm down and say 'NO.'

Other thing that is amusing: remember when we took him to see Where the Wild Things Are last week? All week since then he's been running around growling and stomping things. And we played the iPhone app together - I had no idea that two year olds were that good at recognizing characters, because he clearly knew what it was and liked it. Mark my words, that movie is going to be an hipster cult classic for all eternity. (It was not as cute as the time I taught him how to use the Lightsaber app and he ran around the house making Jedi noises.)

Oh yeah, ( Star Trek deleted scenes leaked )

So on the whole, underwhelming. Looking forward to the making-of features.

So, Margaret Clark got let go today.

I didn't like what she was doing with the Star Trek books, but that still sucks ass and naturally makes one freak out about what's going to happen now. (Since my impression is that the editor of the Trek line is increasingly in charge of deciding the general narrative of the 24th century.)