First of all, I have authored this month's SWG character biography on Uinen for anyone who wants to take a look. I chose her because I thought she'd be easy. Ha! I know ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heartofoshun will relate to the growing sense of panic when the essay you thought you'd easily finish five days ago somehow keeps growing because you keep getting so many damn ideas about this character and how she connects to this, that, and the other. Uinen! The seaweed goddess!!! Who knew.
While working on it, some thoughts really clicked into place that had been sort of amorphous in my head prior to this point. For one, I noticed for the first time that the kinds of descriptions in the Books of Lost Tales that I'd often described as "whimsical" bear a striking resemblance to the kind of "diminutive" fairy-stories that Tolkien would later hate on regularly. The descriptions of the houses of the Ainur are the most salient example to come to mind; I mean, in "On Fairy-Stories," he quotes from a particularly awful (in his assessment) story that includes the imagery of a roof made of bat wings ... and he uses that exact same image in describing Nienna's halls in BoLT1! ("... the roof, instead of slats, / Is covered with the wings of bats" vs. "the roof was of bats' wings" ... HMMMM.) These details came out when he rewrote the Silm in the 1930s. I feel like we're seeing that moment so many of us have had as a young writer where we 1) do things because we've watched enough other writers to know we're supposed to and 2) eventually come to realize that we don't actually have to.
Then of course is my long-running theory that, over time, Tolkien decreased the moral complexity of the Silm characters and tended to push them more firmly toward Good or Evil rather than letting them muddle about in shades of gray in the middle. Uinen keeps with this trend.
On a completely other note, the SWG mods have been having an interesting discussion about fee-for-fandom. On the one hand, as an archive owner myself, I get the need to have costs covered. The SWG's costs aren't that high so I can cover them myself ... but I'm not sure that's ideal in most circumstances. (Maybe not even the SWG's. I can't be unbiased on the matter.) Fandom shouldn't be owned by the highest bidder; obviously, it is better when it is a collective, democratic endeavor. Yet the other side of me lives in an impoverished community and knows that a fee or book or whatnot that's "not that much" is a lot when you're struggling to meet basic needs, and many people are. Add in that fandom is an international community dealing largely with first-world economies, and the issue of exchange rates becomes especially salient: the price for entry for many of our friends becomes unattainable.
There is also the fact that, according to the demographic data in the 2020 Tolkien Fanfic Survey, there are two large groups of "missing" fans, i.e., demographic groups that appear in the Tolkien fandom in much smaller numbers than would be expected: fans of color and fans without college degrees, the latter of which often translates into working-class and lower-income fans. Obviously, fanfic is free, but other aspects of fandom life are not, and especially the shelf full of hard-to-find books that is often perceived as a necessity. (I think there are other issues at work too, but I suspect this is part of it.)
I don't know the answer, but I do believe that asking the question of what we can do differently or better is worthwhile. Do we want the lack of $20 to exclude someone from a membership or resource or event they would otherwise attend? Can we reach a point, as a community, where the loss of that person and the perspectives they might bring is worse than the loss of the 20 bucks?
Last thing and briefly personal: Our new house has arrived and we move in next week. It has been an ordeal, but it is finally almost over.
heartofoshun will relate to the growing sense of panic when the essay you thought you'd easily finish five days ago somehow keeps growing because you keep getting so many damn ideas about this character and how she connects to this, that, and the other. Uinen! The seaweed goddess!!! Who knew.While working on it, some thoughts really clicked into place that had been sort of amorphous in my head prior to this point. For one, I noticed for the first time that the kinds of descriptions in the Books of Lost Tales that I'd often described as "whimsical" bear a striking resemblance to the kind of "diminutive" fairy-stories that Tolkien would later hate on regularly. The descriptions of the houses of the Ainur are the most salient example to come to mind; I mean, in "On Fairy-Stories," he quotes from a particularly awful (in his assessment) story that includes the imagery of a roof made of bat wings ... and he uses that exact same image in describing Nienna's halls in BoLT1! ("... the roof, instead of slats, / Is covered with the wings of bats" vs. "the roof was of bats' wings" ... HMMMM.) These details came out when he rewrote the Silm in the 1930s. I feel like we're seeing that moment so many of us have had as a young writer where we 1) do things because we've watched enough other writers to know we're supposed to and 2) eventually come to realize that we don't actually have to.
Then of course is my long-running theory that, over time, Tolkien decreased the moral complexity of the Silm characters and tended to push them more firmly toward Good or Evil rather than letting them muddle about in shades of gray in the middle. Uinen keeps with this trend.
On a completely other note, the SWG mods have been having an interesting discussion about fee-for-fandom. On the one hand, as an archive owner myself, I get the need to have costs covered. The SWG's costs aren't that high so I can cover them myself ... but I'm not sure that's ideal in most circumstances. (Maybe not even the SWG's. I can't be unbiased on the matter.) Fandom shouldn't be owned by the highest bidder; obviously, it is better when it is a collective, democratic endeavor. Yet the other side of me lives in an impoverished community and knows that a fee or book or whatnot that's "not that much" is a lot when you're struggling to meet basic needs, and many people are. Add in that fandom is an international community dealing largely with first-world economies, and the issue of exchange rates becomes especially salient: the price for entry for many of our friends becomes unattainable.
There is also the fact that, according to the demographic data in the 2020 Tolkien Fanfic Survey, there are two large groups of "missing" fans, i.e., demographic groups that appear in the Tolkien fandom in much smaller numbers than would be expected: fans of color and fans without college degrees, the latter of which often translates into working-class and lower-income fans. Obviously, fanfic is free, but other aspects of fandom life are not, and especially the shelf full of hard-to-find books that is often perceived as a necessity. (I think there are other issues at work too, but I suspect this is part of it.)
I don't know the answer, but I do believe that asking the question of what we can do differently or better is worthwhile. Do we want the lack of $20 to exclude someone from a membership or resource or event they would otherwise attend? Can we reach a point, as a community, where the loss of that person and the perspectives they might bring is worse than the loss of the 20 bucks?
Last thing and briefly personal: Our new house has arrived and we move in next week. It has been an ordeal, but it is finally almost over.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 12:57 am (UTC)You nailed it on the hidden costs of enjoying fandom. There are also levels of sacrifice one is willing or unwilling to make depending upon their responsibilities and lifestyle, women with a decent income and young children might have less disposable cash than an impoverished pensioner like me! I would like to make room for the categories of people you listed above. Maybe there is a way to do both--like charge a minimum and encourage people to pay more? Personally I will have less spare cash floating around than I did before I moved into my own space and no longer share expenses. I have been looking carefully at things I was paying for like Netflix!
I do think that there might be various ways of allowing people to be able to afford a small fee or even qualify for a "scholarship" but that kind of thing can be administratively overwhelming. Just some random thoughts.
I am cutting Netflix! But fannish pursuits are normally more important to me. I was paying for Questia to enhance my character bios and was devastated when they went out of business.
You have not been seeing any progress on my current WIP character bio because I need a new giant-sized computer monitor. I hope to pull that off very soon--another invisible cost of fannish participation. On the other hand there are kids who write on their phones! OMG! I cannot even imagine that.
So, so happy about the house! I follow Bobby for updates. I hope you have time to get into the new place before it snows. It was in the 40s here last night! I was pretty excited but am praying for a long, long fall and not an early winter.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 01:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 02:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-26 05:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-26 05:02 pm (UTC)We ended up coming down on just having a free-response field, and participants who wanted to respond could enter whatever term or terms they felt best identified them. This made the data messier to analyze but ultimately more accurate and less skewed toward a U.S. understanding of race/ethnicity.
I presented some early analysis at the Tolkien Society Seminar in July and posted it on the SWG as well. Scroll down to the second graphic for race/ethnicity data.
70% of participants included in their response a term like "white" or "caucasian." Of course, there will be people in the other 30% who have that identity but did not include it in their response. The "person of color" or "BIPOC" terms were applied, with my U.S. understanding of those terms, after the fact; they're not going to capture all participants who might identified (or be identified) in that way because not everyone will have included that information; nonetheless, 13% of responses could be categorized as "BIPOC" based on the U.S. understanding of the term.
Regardless of the terminology used, the survey data shows that, among participants in the survey, Tolkien fic fandom is predominantly white and U.S./Eurocentric.
I think the bigger issue is what Lyra identified: that the survey represents a pool of people who knew about the survey, and dissemination is far from universal among Tolkien fanfic writers/readers. There are definitely pockets of fandom being missed, including potentially non-U.S./Western Europe groups/fans who didn't see the survey or who didn't see it as being "for them." (And, yes, the question about race/ethnicity could have contributed to that.) However, among the fandom groups that did participate, it seems there are "missing fans" in a couple of demographics, one of which is fans who do not identify as white.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-27 09:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-27 11:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 07:40 am (UTC)I don't know the answer, but I do believe that asking the question of what we can do differently or better is worthwhile. Do we want the lack of $20 to exclude someone from a membership or resource or event they would otherwise attend? Can we reach a point, as a community, where the loss of that person and the perspectives they might bring is worse than the loss of the 20 bucks?
I wonder if it might be possible to create some kind of resource ‘pot’ where someone who would like a book (or even attend something that costs money) can dip into. Perhaps people could add books they would be willing to give, or buy for people (or because international postage can be brutal) pay for? Or put money into the pot to be used. Because you’re right that £20 or so is for some people food, sanitary products etc. I have been that poor when younger and I know what it’s like.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 11:00 am (UTC)Speaking as someone who has, in the past, paid for someone to attend a fandom event close to their heart and also sent books to folks who long for them, I like this idea very much.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 11:45 am (UTC)I don’t know how it might be set up, something like a ‘Resource shop’ within SWG where people could go and list what they needed/what they could offer? I’m absolutely hopeless at organisation but it might be possible and I think it’s a shame if people feel somehow debarred from entering the fandom because they feel they should have books they can’t afford — or would love to attend events but can’t do so. I don’t think wanting to do that should be an affordable pleasure and if you can’t afford it, tough on you. I hate that.
(I know that there’s a lot of information you can get online but some people like books — I prefer them; they’re kinder on my eyes than the screen — and to be able to sit and study them and (if they’re like me) make notes. Horror! I’m so hard on books :)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 08:05 am (UTC)Beside fee or free, in fandom, there is also the donation model, but it tends to come with its own associated problems: unpredictability, admin, etc.
In the case of the books, the pricing of those is beyond fandom's immediate control, so all that can be done is try and lower the bar in other ways, as try not to exert peer pressure about owning them. And the wikis and other online resources do go some way to make up for what people don't own.
How are you doing for books yourself now?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 11:42 am (UTC)As for the payment aspect - although I don't mind paying for things dear to my heart (and SWG certainly is that), I know there are others who might not be as able to do so. It's a quandry. Perhaps a voluntary payment basis that goes into a pool to support the website as well as those who would love to help financially, but simply can't? It's quite easy to me to add SWG to my annual "charities" list, and I'd be happy to help out, but I know not everyone has that bit of extra cash available. Especially these days.
Here's hoping your move into your new place goes smoothly.
- Erulisse (one L)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 04:58 pm (UTC)As for fee-for-fandom. Yes, its a conundrum. Personally, until very recently, I would not have been able to participate in a lot of fandom had it required payment for entry, and having been a queer, neurodivergent teen whose primary means of survival was internet commmunity--and Tolkien fanfiction & forums!--it does raise a lot of complex concerns, as you're well-aware. Running drives or donations is another option, but--as himring pointed out--that can be unpredictable. Still, it feels like the more ethical option, though I don't run a website and wouldn't know all the considerations.
As far as books go, I do keep my own collection of PDFs that I still refer to and happily share with others if they need access. I still don't have all of HoME in print because these things cost money and, for some fans, shipping cost makes buying books online entirely prohibitive. I feel somewhat differently about things like edited collections of scholarship because those numbers matter to libraries and authors, but... I do think younger fans and poor fans would feel a lot less guilt if we, as a fandom, chose to turn a blind eye to the quiet exchange of Tolkien materials. I didn't own a single HoME except for the BoLTs until I was writing an actual paper and needed citable page numbers. I just couldn't *buy* them until now, really, and it breaks my heart that cost is a barrier to fans' ability to participate in the ways they would like to. (Especially in a fandom where 'knowledge' is a sort of social commodity, increases one's 'fan capital,' per se, etc etc)
Sounds like you have a lot going on in life and your brain and SWG right now! So pleased about the house. I can't imagine your relief.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-26 11:59 am (UTC)(Given Hostetter has said clearly that he will be able to edit more of Tolkien's linguistic writings once he is retired, it is not as if there was no correlation at all between these things. Although he may have never considered retiring early, of course. But it is not reasonable to expect speed of output at no cost.
And already in some areas of publishing, copy-editing and printing is being outsourced to India and China because it is cheaper. That is not a very equitable situation either.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-26 04:02 pm (UTC)No, I think you make really good points! And I don’t disagree either, it’s all so complex.To me, the problem it comes down to is, as with most things, the inequities capitalism creates, and the way those inequities disallow certain people from pleasure and recreation. So in the system we function within—in which almost everyone is “working hard” but few of us are duly rewarded—what can we compromise on that allows all of us to survive enjoyably, and not just a few of us? I don’t have the answers, but these are definitely some of the things I’m thinking about when I decide which books I’m okay with using free of charge (and sharing) and which ones I’m not.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-24 04:59 pm (UTC)I'm not even sure it's that (or only that). I think part of is also simply a change in personal taste as Tolkien moved further and further away from Romantic Victorian literature and delved into the actual medieval material that inspired a lot of it, and realised how far apart they are and that he happens to prefer the original. I'm sure he did like the image of a ceiling made of bats' wings back in 1917. (IIRC, Edith was very fond of Victorian-style fairies, so that might also have been a bit of an influence...)
I love the idea of a community fund or resource shop that's been raised in other comments. It won't solve all problems with the inequity in fandom, but it could be a move in the right direction.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-07 07:16 pm (UTC)Sites like Wikipedia and AO3 annually ask for contributions from users. That way the ones who can afford it may decide to pay for their services and those who cannot do not need to and of course will remain anonymous. It's an idea.