Once upon a time, long, long ago, I used to post at the TWOP House forums as 'swatkat'. The episode/character threads were lovely, but slowly, the boards became scarier and scarier - a problem, that I realise now, had to with the fandom itself. As the show went on, fans formed Opinions and shipwars happened and... it wasn't pretty. This was compounded by a scary mod who started moderating every discussion to the point where the fans had to stage a mass walkout from the boards and start up elsewhere. So unfortunately, my TWOP experience has been tainted by those particular forums - for a very long time, I associated TWOP with rabid anti-fannishness and shipwars, which didn't make the intelligent discussion worth the effort. Imagine my surprise when I waded into the TGW forums and discovered that no one was fighting over ships or bashing Alicia for breaking Will's heart (and so on)! It was like discovering a whole new world! DW/LJ on the other hand has long been my refuge away from that sort of thing, so I think the bias very definitely shows when I say 'oh look, even TWOP is capable of not having shipwars!' I like how laidback the TGW forums are (and I've loved your posts there!) - it makes me want to drop by the Fringe forums, although I haven't gathered the courage yet (fanboys tend to dislike the very things I like about the show, and I'm very, very defensive when it comes to that show).
When I say 'meta', I am using it in a looser sense of the term - not specifically as commentary on fandom, but an umbrella term for commentary on the show itself, episode reactions, character analysis and motivations, intelligent discussion, and yes, also commentary on fandom and writing and such.
I follow Nussbaum on Twitter - her tweet just filled my soul with sunshine and rainbows. ♥♥♥ Alicia is so bad at these things that she has to be talked into it - by Owen, usually, because she talks to Owen; two pivotal character episodes for her have Owen being the plot device that pushes her to process her feelings and understand what they really are. She is always pleasantly surprised when other people come up and say that they admire her - be it for her strength or her skills or whatever; it's as though she doesn't expect to be thought that well of (I wonder why). It doesn't help that either Will or Kalinda NEVER TELL HER THINGS. Contrast Alicia with her children - 'We don't keep secrets here.'
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-01-29 05:40 am (UTC)When I say 'meta', I am using it in a looser sense of the term - not specifically as commentary on fandom, but an umbrella term for commentary on the show itself, episode reactions, character analysis and motivations, intelligent discussion, and yes, also commentary on fandom and writing and such.
I follow Nussbaum on Twitter - her tweet just filled my soul with sunshine and rainbows. ♥♥♥ Alicia is so bad at these things that she has to be talked into it - by Owen, usually, because she talks to Owen; two pivotal character episodes for her have Owen being the plot device that pushes her to process her feelings and understand what they really are. She is always pleasantly surprised when other people come up and say that they admire her - be it for her strength or her skills or whatever; it's as though she doesn't expect to be thought that well of (I wonder why). It doesn't help that either Will or Kalinda NEVER TELL HER THINGS. Contrast Alicia with her children - 'We don't keep secrets here.'