[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Raison d'Fanfic

[Jen Faulkner]

On Sat, 21 Apr 2001, Rosmerta wrote:

Michela already answered most of these, but since I was the one throwing
out all the unfamiliar terms...

> 1)What're plot bunnies? I'm picturing Gloria Steinem with a cocktail
> tray serving up the denounement to a story, but that can't be right.

See Michela's post, and I'd just add that the use in HP (slash
anyway) fandom is the 'story idea that you don't want to / can't write'
type, often very persistent and naggy.  One often refers to getting
bit(ten) by plot bunnies.

> 2) And what's "ludic" mean? (I'd look it up myself but all the
> dictionaries in my house are currently being used as booster seats).

Well, you might have been out of luck even looking in the dictionary --
my trusty Webster's Seventh New Collegiate doesn't give it.  Didn't
realize I was using a word that uncommon!  It means 'playful', and is
often used to refer to elements of play (with things such as the nature
of genre) in literature.  The OED gives these citations for it:

1940 HINSIE & SHATZKY *Psychiatric Dict.* 323/2 This excess-energy must
be expended (without purpose) in some way, most usually in
play-activity, called ludic activity. 1969 P. L. BERGER *Rumor of
Angels* iii. 76 Ludic, or playful, elements can be found in just about
any sector of human culture. 1971 D. G. BOYLE *Lang. & Thinking in Human
Devel.* vi. 65 Ludic play and symbolism are among the defining
characteristics of humanity. 1972 *Times Lit. Suppl.* 3 Mar. 234/5
Poetry is sacred..for the same reasons that eroticism is sacred: it is
ludic, that is to say useless. 1973 M. AMIS *Rachel Papers* 207 My
existence, too, was a prismatic web of mendacity but for me it was..far
more ludic, literary, answering an intellectual rather than an emotional
need.

HTH!

> 3) And "gen" is general?

Yup.  Stories that don't focus on a romantic relationship (particularly
same-sex ones) and that are rated G through PG-13/R.

> 4) And "het" is heterosexual?

Yup.  Also known as adult, since it refers to R/NC-17 stories, usually.

> 5) Slash I figured out on my own, but it was interesting that Jen
> mentioned the Mona Lisa ("Is an art student who sketches the Mona
> Lisa a forger?
) because the first time I heard the term, it made me
> think for some reason of that guy who slashed the Mona Lisa a couple
> of years ago. (Now there was a real fan, in all senses of the word.)
> So what does the slash refer to
.just the slash between the m and the
> m or the f and the f, or is it something more intriguing?

As Michela mentioned, this naming convention arose from the Star Trek
fandom, with the first Kirk/Spock stories, and that use of the
punctuation mark.  It has nothing to do with, say, slasher films.  (In
fact, it bugs me, and a lot of other slash fen, to be referred to as
'slashers', for that reason.)  It can be used as a verb, but only of the
author's actions on the characters (e.g., "I just slashed Hagrid;
somebody stop me!"), not of the actions of the characters (never, e.g.,
"I just wrote a story where Hagrid slashed Harry").

There's also the category "pre-slash," which is like gen, only with the
understanding that the characters will (either in a sequel or in a later
point in the story's timeline that will remain unwritten) be in a
same-sex pairing.

> I guess that was what I was meaning in my original query
> about the origins of fanfic, because that kind of instant, focused
> audience was difficult to find, even in the zine world it had to be
> built. Now it's there, along with all its subgenres and subsubgenres.

It actually can take a while to build up that sort of community online,
as well.  There are many tiny, tiny fandoms out there, that don't have
the kind of community that, say, HP does.  And the 'instantness' of the
net causes fandoms to be in a greater state of flux all the time.

--jen :)

* * * * * * 
Jen's HP fics:
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~jfaulkne/hp.html
Snapeslash listmom: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snapeslash
Yes, I *am* the Deictrix.