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Jan. 26th, 2003 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katallisonWell, while my entire life is on hold--waiting for the job interview, waiting to see if I'm going to move my entire life across country, waiting for beta comments on the story--I figure, why not leap into the roiling waters of the RPF debate? Ha-HAH!
No, actually, I'm not going to talk about my personal opinions of RPF; it's not something I have strong feelings about one way or the other. But what strikes me is that while this whole issue tends to get cast as a black/white, either/or kind of thing, it's actually much more of a continuum; and I would find it more useful, not to mention more interesting, if in discussing it people tended less to draw battle lines, and more to delve into where on that continuum their comfort zone lies.
Let me (try to) explain, by sketching some points on this continuum, as I see them:
Point A: Fantasies about actors; stuff that stays purely in one's head, unshared. OK, if you try to tell me you've never fantasized about actors, I'll be surprised; interested, but surprised, since I've never known a fan who doesn't from time to time. These can be very innocuous fantasies (e.g. "So I'm visiting Vancouver, and go to Starbuck's, and whoa! Callum Keith Rennie gets in line behind me! And instead of melting into a gushy puddle, I say something sharp and funny that still manages to convey my admiration for his work, and he seems pleased, and then we go our separate ways."). They can be not so innocuous ("...so then he invites me back to his place so we can talk some more, and whoa! he has a hot tub! and ..."). They can veer into the most florid Mary-Sueishness. Or they might not involve the fan in question at all, but rather involve actor A and actor B together, in anything from wholesome off-camera camaraderie to torrid sex. The point is, they're fantasies, I'm sure we all have them from time to time, and they stay private.
Point B: Sharing these fantasies. Say, with another fan, over drinks late one night at a con, usually with much giggling and silliness. Again, I'm betting many of us have done this from time to time. Once we've put these fantasies into words and made them public, even if only by sharing them with one other person, something has changed; they're no longer strictly private. We've begun telling a story. Often, usually, it goes no further than that--fun amongst friends, quickly evaporating.
Point C: We write these fantasies down, in a more or less coherent narrative, however brief or silly--maybe only in a private journal, or an unshared document. However, just as putting a fantasy into shared speech changes it somewhat, makes it a more public act, so putting it into written words concretizes it still further. It makes your fantasy into a story. It *is* a story, a piece of RPF, even if you never share it with anyone.
Point D: Sharing what you've written with a few select friends, via e-mail or on a private list. At this point, the story not only exists but is public. However much you may trust your friends, you can't guarantee that you'll retain control over where that story goes; it's now a public phenomenon.
Point E: Sharing what you've written more widely; putting it on a website or in your LJ or wherever, with disclaimers and warnings and meta robots tags to block search engines and so on.
Point F: Putting your story on a website without any blocks or warnings.
Point G: Taking steps to draw attention to your story, by giving copies to the actors involved, or sending them the URL, or whatever.
Now -- having sketched this continuum, I think it's safe to say that even the most morally scrupulous among us would have a hard time getting very bothered by Point A. It's in your head, it's fantasy, and hey, we all do it, right? And who's it going to harm?
On the other hand, I think most (though not all) of us have major issues with Point G, for reasons I don't need to recapitulate here.
But all of it, really, at every point on the continuum, is, when you come down to it, real-people fiction. We're making up stories about actual human beings, fantasizing about others' private lives or selves.
The question is: where's the cutoff line? Where's *your* cutoff line? How far along that continuum are you comfortable going, and where do you start to feel squicky, and why? And is it different when you're reading and when you're writing?
No, actually, I'm not going to talk about my personal opinions of RPF; it's not something I have strong feelings about one way or the other. But what strikes me is that while this whole issue tends to get cast as a black/white, either/or kind of thing, it's actually much more of a continuum; and I would find it more useful, not to mention more interesting, if in discussing it people tended less to draw battle lines, and more to delve into where on that continuum their comfort zone lies.
Let me (try to) explain, by sketching some points on this continuum, as I see them:
Point A: Fantasies about actors; stuff that stays purely in one's head, unshared. OK, if you try to tell me you've never fantasized about actors, I'll be surprised; interested, but surprised, since I've never known a fan who doesn't from time to time. These can be very innocuous fantasies (e.g. "So I'm visiting Vancouver, and go to Starbuck's, and whoa! Callum Keith Rennie gets in line behind me! And instead of melting into a gushy puddle, I say something sharp and funny that still manages to convey my admiration for his work, and he seems pleased, and then we go our separate ways."). They can be not so innocuous ("...so then he invites me back to his place so we can talk some more, and whoa! he has a hot tub! and ..."). They can veer into the most florid Mary-Sueishness. Or they might not involve the fan in question at all, but rather involve actor A and actor B together, in anything from wholesome off-camera camaraderie to torrid sex. The point is, they're fantasies, I'm sure we all have them from time to time, and they stay private.
Point B: Sharing these fantasies. Say, with another fan, over drinks late one night at a con, usually with much giggling and silliness. Again, I'm betting many of us have done this from time to time. Once we've put these fantasies into words and made them public, even if only by sharing them with one other person, something has changed; they're no longer strictly private. We've begun telling a story. Often, usually, it goes no further than that--fun amongst friends, quickly evaporating.
Point C: We write these fantasies down, in a more or less coherent narrative, however brief or silly--maybe only in a private journal, or an unshared document. However, just as putting a fantasy into shared speech changes it somewhat, makes it a more public act, so putting it into written words concretizes it still further. It makes your fantasy into a story. It *is* a story, a piece of RPF, even if you never share it with anyone.
Point D: Sharing what you've written with a few select friends, via e-mail or on a private list. At this point, the story not only exists but is public. However much you may trust your friends, you can't guarantee that you'll retain control over where that story goes; it's now a public phenomenon.
Point E: Sharing what you've written more widely; putting it on a website or in your LJ or wherever, with disclaimers and warnings and meta robots tags to block search engines and so on.
Point F: Putting your story on a website without any blocks or warnings.
Point G: Taking steps to draw attention to your story, by giving copies to the actors involved, or sending them the URL, or whatever.
Now -- having sketched this continuum, I think it's safe to say that even the most morally scrupulous among us would have a hard time getting very bothered by Point A. It's in your head, it's fantasy, and hey, we all do it, right? And who's it going to harm?
On the other hand, I think most (though not all) of us have major issues with Point G, for reasons I don't need to recapitulate here.
But all of it, really, at every point on the continuum, is, when you come down to it, real-people fiction. We're making up stories about actual human beings, fantasizing about others' private lives or selves.
The question is: where's the cutoff line? Where's *your* cutoff line? How far along that continuum are you comfortable going, and where do you start to feel squicky, and why? And is it different when you're reading and when you're writing?
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-26 02:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-01-26 04:22 pm (UTC)Thanks for the insightful observations, and hang in there.
Killa