Various and Sundry

[neadods]

I have decided on my resolutions for 2013, or more accurately, one overarching resolution: Git 'er done. All the things that need to be renovated, all the places that need to be picked up, all the stuff that needs to be gone through, all the organizing. Git 'er done, so that I can head into 2014 with a clear slate and the ability to find my shit.

This does not prelude my being at Gally and ChicagoTARDIS for the Doctor Who anniversary year, plus worshiping at the altar of Scott The First in Stratford. I *am* a fan, after all.

Speaking of fans, you may be aware that someone famous in comics has mansplained that cosplaying women at comic conventions are not "real" fans. I've seen scholarly takedowns and feminist takedowns, but Dork Towers does the best job of it in 15 panels. Do NOT fuck with costumers, dude; we know from experience just how much damage can be done to the human body with a rotary cutter.

And while I'm on the topic of self-appointed gateway keepers acting badly, the men behind I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere have put their foot in it by getting all "OMG, WTF?" over faunlock - which I had to go look up, but turns out to be BBC Sherlock as a faun. (The Greek mythological kind, not the little spotted baby deer kind.) They're old school Holmesians, so the whole way BBC Sherlock fandom is unabashedly bringing in all the usual media tropes is hard for them to wrap their head around, but don't take this as me making excuses because I've asked to their (Facebook) faces why this is quantifiably different than Basil of Baker Street or Wishbone.

Dudes! There are plenty of fringes that aren't my cuppa (Mystrade? Really? They've never met onscreen!) but picking one to make a public example of and apologize "on behalf of fandom" for? Bad form. VERY bad form. And also? You don't speak for fandom as a whole.

Comments

Another related comic

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

Found via Memebase.

Re: Another related comic

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sad but true.

Re: Another related comic

[glamazonwarrior.livejournal.com]

True story: a few years ago, someone expressed surprise that I was familiar with the word "LARP". They said, "You played in a LARP once?"

And the friends with me laughed and laughed and laughed. (That was while I was still in NM. So, at that point, my LARP experience had been 6 years in the Camarilla, one Nero weekend, a couple of years or so of another monthly fantasy LARP, various troupe games... and that's not getting into SCA-stuff, which is related.)

Re: Another related comic

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*headbang*headbang*headbang* I love the assumptions behind the "once."

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

BBC Sherlock as a faun. (The Greek mythological kind, not the little spotted baby deer kind

What with the what, now? o_O

I must say, for weirdness, that beats 'Spike and Buffy are a sweet couple living in the normal world' all to hell. ;)

(Fair disclosure: I hate fanfic where the characters are completely transformed into other things. HATEY HATE HATE. I read fanfic because I want more stories in my beloved universe. If I wanted to read about Fauns/Satyrs, I'd be reading Camp Half-Blood fanfic. But I am not the High Queen of Fandom - if I were, there'd be a lot more good Farscape fanfic - and one person's personal taste isn't the be-all and end-all. Clearly, there are lots of people who love that kind of thing, because there's fanfic written for them! :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm having the same O.o over the Spike and Buffy idea.

Considering how many Sherlock AUs I've recced, I can't point and laugh too much when I hit one I don't like. But, y'know, I'm not asking them, or you, or anyone to *like* it or even not to snicker loudly or make heaving noises. It's that it was *held up for ridicule specifically* in a public forum that's beyond the pale for me.

More so because they don't know it, but they doubled down today by saying it was a girl in a faunlock costume that set them off. And dudes? Read the Dork Towers cartoon. Costuming is HARD WORK. Even if I don't respect the outcome, I have to respect the effort.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I came across a faun fic, and I thought it was a one off crack-tacular thing. I had no idea it was a thing now.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

There was a link to a tumblr full of (bad) art, so I guess it is.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Even more bizarrely the first commentators on that facebook page were actually dissing the otter meme. I mean, that was a piece of inspired observation that deservedly went viral (including the utterly charming critique by its subject that actually, the paws on the otter in the first pair were in the wrong place and he ought to know).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the first commentators on that facebook page were actually dissing the otter meme

The hell? I missed that, and am glad I did. Who can dislike the otters? The otter thing was genius - and *where* did Ben say that thing about the paws? That's BRILLIANT! The thing I love about fandom as a whole is its joyously batshit creativity.

I've lost a lot of respect for the I Hear of Sherlock people - moreso because a comment on facebook tells me that they said what they did over a cosplayer - a faunlock cosplayer. That, I take personally. Like the outcome or not, I have to respect the work.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Video interview here; it's at the 5.36 section (there's a slightly different and snarkier comment in an interview in Shortlist magazine, about which the great Red Scharlach (who started the whole thing off) had this to say:

1) Because of this interview, I know that BC’s comment that “the people that did it [i.e. me!] could have matched up the pictures better” refers to the top pair of images: he claims that the otter has its hands under its chin, and he has his in front of his mouth. In my defence, I’d like to point out that the top otter DOES have its paws in front of its mouth, and its chin is actually the bit below its muzzly nose. Oh Benedict, I do adore you but your knowledge of otter anatomy is not all that it could be. (But I will admit that the bendy fingers/straight fingers difference in those two pics DOES nark me a teensy bit. Oh well, it’s my own fault.)

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

he claims that the otter has its hands under its chin, and he has his in front of his mouth.
If one were being very uncharitable, one might suggest that this could be because Mr Cumberbatch's chin is hardly his most prominent feature, if indeed he has one.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

To be fair, it's not the most prominent feature of most otters, either which is probably why the joke works. In fact, you'd not want to meet an otter with a chin ("That was the year Holmes solved the puzzle of the Hapsburg Otter, a creature for which the world was most certainly not yet prepared").

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the Hapsburg Otter

Here's the internet you just won. Sorry, it's slightly sticky in places.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Speaking of someone who has a severely receding chin, you can at least see his when he turns sideways. It's just that the cheekbones grab all the attention.

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

You made me do a search on "Sherlock otter", and I got a really varied page of images:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=goodsearch-yhsif&va=Sherlock+otter

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I love the cartoon of the curly-haired otter and the hedgehog handcuffed together. I wonder if you searched on the page long enough you'd find the shot of the hedgehog falling into a teacup with the caption "Sherlock, why did you drug my coffee?" That one made me laugh like a hyena.

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Given according to CS Lewis Sherlock Holmes was "living in Baker Street" during the period when Jadis of Charn was rampaging around London on the top of a hansom cab, the crossover to fauns (especially given the James McAvoy connection ) hardly seems a great leap

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Y'know... I *like* this!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting about faunlock (actually, "fawnlock" seems to be the more common spelling). I hadn't heard anything about it, and I have a friend who will love looking at all that art. So in the end it turns out that the assholes only gave the community a well-deserved publicity boost, which (for the assholes) is its own punishment.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Let's hear it for the Streisand effect!

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

The cartoon is wonderful.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

And so, so sadly true.