Crowd-Sourced Sirens Fandom Panel brainstorming

[starlady]

So, I'm going to be at Sirens Conference 2012 in Skamania, WA this fall, and I'd like to impanel a panel on fan fiction there. Let me quote the 2012 theme for Sirens at you, and you'll see why:

Within our focus on fantastic women, each year Sirens features a fantasy-related theme—and in 2012, that theme is "tales retold." Women have been storytellers, oral historians, and eloquent entertainers for thousands of years, and in 2012, Sirens will celebrate—and participate in—that tradition. Within the larger question of women in fantasy literature, we will examine and dissect retellings of tales from around the world.

This theme screams "fan fic and fandom" to me, and I'd like to have something about those things at the conference, partly because I'd like to avoid an entirely folklore-themed conference (especially given that the 2010 theme was Fairies), and partly because the last panel about fandom that I attended at Sirens (again in 2010) was…frankly a little bit uncomfortable, and weird. Everyone on the panel seemed ambivalent about fandom at best, and downright negative at worst (to be fair, everyone up there seemed to have been a veteran of the Potter fandom wars), and I wound up being that one audience member who kept disagreeing and wouldn't shut up. My fandom experience has been, on the whole, wonderful, and fandom and the friends I've made here have unequivocally been great forces for good things in my life. I don't want, or intend, to present a "fandom is 100% kittens and rainbows!" because anyone who reads this journal, hopefully, is well aware that I'm under no illusions on that score, and also because I do think the issues of fandom would be interesting to talk about in the context of Sirens' theme.

So, I have two questions, dear readers. One: if you're planning to attend Sirens, would you be interested in being on this panel? And two, what would you like the panel to discuss? Anything from specific topics to suggested ways to frame the panel discussion are more than welcome!

Comments

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested, and I'd like to start off by describing the different relationships fic can have with canon -- AU, crossover, missing scene, invented episode, "fix-it" fic, etc. -- and then talk about what sort of impulses lead to writing them. Because my instinct is that they imply different relationships with canon on the part of the writer, too, as well as the story.

(Just because such things often do bog down this way, and I want to avoid that: when I say "describe," I don't mean "make a rigorous typology and then force everything to fit into it.")

[starlady]

We will not be bogging down if I can help it all, assuming it gets accepted. And I figured you'd be one of the people who'd be interested. =)

[kaigou]

I would have to think a bit (content-wise) before giving any kind of substance to my answer -- only that if at all possible, I'd love to attend Sirens this year, and it'd be icing to share a panel with you.

And I'd probably behave, too, so long as no one claims that because women artists also do it, objectifying women is okay.

[starlady]

Sirens is not the sort of place where people say those things, by and large. I really love it, as a con, and it would be awesome if you could come.

[lnhammer]

I'll be there, and interested in attending but not participating on the panel. I'm particularly interested in a focus on the types of retellings that fanfiction most typically engages in, in comparison and contrast with those of other modes.

---L.

[starlady]

Yay, I'll see you there!

And yes, I think fannish styles of retelling would be interesting. I'll have to actually sit down and think how to think about that in advance.

I'm also really tempted to bring up, specifically, that one monster XMFC retelling of Beauty & the Beast.

[ex_lionpyh573]

I've been thinking about it for a while and really doubt I'll have the money, but if I come into an unknown inheritance or something I will be there (it is close enough that I could just take the train), and WHAT THE HELL, I will throw all caution to the winds and say yeah I'd be interested in being on the panel if I could come at all.

The first thing that came to my mind as a topic for discussion was genderswap fic, which is interesting to me because I feel like it's a relatively recent development as a trend in fandom and I am curious about why, and also because it's a form of retelling that's often almost less about the particular canon than it is about the way society deals with women or whether it makes much difference to the character's brain if their body changes (answer usually no). Also rise of FTM!character fic (I have been surprised and pleased by how this has been handled by the Sherlock fandom especially, which I have not seen screw it up yet), which I never saw before, like, the last five years (which again is intriguing because it's not like there haven't been FTM people for millennia). You could talk about the same principle in published fiction? I feel like there must be genderswapped versions of fairytales out there though cursory googling is not giving me anything, but obviously Shakespeare stagings, from the many female Hamlets to Julie Taymor's recent version of The Tempest. Note my carefully indirect handling of the first sentence here, but I keep wishing someone would do research on this and write about it and I've begun to feel the ominous shadow of So why don't youuuuuu do it looming over me.

[starlady]

Well, if you can come, I'd love to have you! And I'd love to meet you in person.

I was thinking about writing a genderswap post for the *** blog. And then this week crushed me under its boulder-like weight. But that would definitely be a good topic for the panel.

[thistleingrey]

I really like the idea of this panel (this panel with your participation, in particular), I look forward to attending it if it's accepted, and I have no interest in being one of the panelists. :)

[starlady]

I like the idea too, and I will see you there!