Welcome. And a short meditation about identity and fandom.

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There are two new people on my friends list and I feel friendly today, so here's an official welcome post!

New friend number one is aprivatefox in whose journal I found this very articulate, personal explanation of furry fandom which prompted me to give him a link to my recent thoughts on fandom and fetishism which prompted him to reply this which prompted me to reply this and this and basically led to us friending each other. *g* So, welcome aprivatefox!

New friend number two is actually an old friend: frank_altpeter is a veteran German Scaper ;-) whose interests according to his user info include 'whiskey' and 'whisky', but no Farscape - I'm shocked! ;-) Nah, not really - I do realize that some people do move on, and moreover, that fandom is not as central to everybody's identity as it is to mine. Anyway, welcome to LJ and my friends list, Freddy!

And, speaking of identity and fandom... yesterday cathexys posted some thoughts about slash, fandom, identity and activism in her LJ (which unfortunately is friends locked, so you won't be able to go there and read them, sorry). Those thoughts sparked an interesting discussion (as happens almost on a daily basis in cathexys's journal, since she is almost scarily perceptive and articulate, and so are most of the people who read her LJ, it seems), and in the course of that discussion I posted this:

>>Well, I'm not a real slasher, having only written one slash story, so slash is certainly not central to my identity per se. However, slash is a part of the larger culture of fandom in my eyes, and being a fan *is* very central to my identity. And I *would* liken being a fan almost to something like a sexual identity, although it is of course about much more than sex. (But then, if you're a homosexual to whom being homosexual is of central importance in terms of identity, chances are that it's not just about the sex, either, but also, like fandom, about community.) Maybe a cultural identity is a better way of putting it. And putting it that way, it's absolutely central to my identity. Not because I have no life, but because it describes my way of relating to people, and to fictions - and indirectly, to life. A large part of being a fan, for me, is to take fictions seriously, and appropriate them, and make something new of them. I have always 'lived' very much 'in' the books I read, and I have always, in my mind, expanded the stories, written fanfic, if you will. Fandom is a whole culture of people doing the same; people who *communicate* that way. People who speak my language. A whole culture of people to whom imagination is a crucial quality to cope with life.<<

So there. My credo. In not so perfect English, and far from the brilliance that some people in that discussion displayed, but, even rereading it today, I still like it. It still rings true. This is me.

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Embarrassment...

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I was prepared to feel *really* embarrassed when we met Virginia Hey. I fully expected her to feel annoyed/bored/insert appropriate unpleasant sensation here by us and show it. Fortunately, the event turned out so much nicer than we expected... :-)