I should post this and go to bed before I feel insane
You know how keepaofthecheez does that "Daily Padalecki" thing? [Except where the HELL has she been lately? I would email her but I think her internet is out. I suppose I could call her...but anyway, never mind.] It was occurring to me that I could do an arguably more boring version (you know, without images or Jared) by sporadically posting words that I look up. Because I look up words most days.

Today's word:

con·com·i·tant (kn-km-tnt)
adj.
Occurring or existing concurrently; attendant.
n.
One that occurs or exists concurrently with another.

I see no real distinction between this word and "concurrently" which essentially means "simultaneously" except with the added implication of convergence and harmony. Hmmm, except for the noun version. That serves a separate function, I guess.

This is not a word I think I will be using in my own life/writing. However, it was in TWO different books I was reading today.

That vampire book I was bitching about the other day for having Buffyverse canon errors proved only to annoy me even more by the end because a) the woman had some really good points that I agreed with but her *tone* was annoying and I disliked her whole "I am a fan of *some* kind but watch me refuse to talk about my own fandom" but! b) The smattering of Buffy canon errors were NOTHING compared to the issues in the ways she used fanfic fandom terminology; it was like she's just read all of the "big" books in fandom studies and then some random Buffy porn and decided she knew what she was talking about - which, if you don't understand that slash ALWAYS involves homosexual relationships but does NOT necessarily involve graphic porn or hurt/comfort is just... It was also annoying because of the fact that there are legitimate arguments for say, Buffy/Spike being "slashy" or "queer het" but it is not accurate to say that Spuffy is "canon slash." (Nevermind that there is no such thing as "canon slash.") My point being that saying something is "like slash" is not the same as saying that something is slash when it is not. I wish she had opted for the former. Because then I would not have had to scribble "WRONG" in the margins of my book. And what she was saying would have been more interesting...and made sense.

Also! Buffy fandom didn't invent het and gen! WTF. See, this is a downside to the fact that most of the academic books on fandom have disproportionately talked about slash - at least half the nonfannish academics I talk to who are familiar with the word "slash" use it as a synonym for all fanfiction. And the book was mostly lacking any discussion of community. Urgh. But she made some excellent points about how overly utopian or overly negative generalizations of fandom are not useful. Also, that there are hierachies in fandom. And that it's fucking ridiculous to claim "fans" as an oppressed minority a la "African-Americans." And that external forms of cultural capital play into fandom hierarchies (i.e. people with greater confidence/writing ability that comes from higher levels of education have a leg up at writing fanfic that is considered to be "good.")

And it was also interesting to read because of the way I felt pushed back and forth between being annoyed! and also giving some weight to the portions of her arguments that made sense, especially the way I had to recognize, for instance, that I totally fall into the the fannish equivalent of "art for art's sake" which is "Fandom for fandom's sake." She argues that although this is a rejection of aspects of capitalism or at least an embracement of creative production for the sake of it, that any format like this leads to elitism and stratification.

But then I see discussions happen in fannish LJ space like what just happened today with the number of really interesting posts I read about anti-semitism today and I just...I think: this is not a utopia but it is a discursive space.

I'm glad I read that book though, because it made me think.

Oh shit, what was my point? SHE ALSO DIDN'T GET THAT WOMEN WRITING PORN FOR OTHER WOMEN NOT FOR MONEY JUST *BECAUSE* MIGHT BE, UM, AWESOME. So, now I'm reading another book about porn.

We'll see about the word thing. I might forget a lot or just be worried that I'm boring y'all.