Do You Like Scary Movies?
October 29, 2011 § 1 Comment
Hit mute on the above, and press play. Then play the following, sound blasted to the heavens. And bathe in the glory that is my Halloween costume.
Bryan Pfaffenberger, “If I Want It, It’s Ok: Usenet and the (Outer) Limits of Free Speech” (1996)
Oh Jesus Usenet! No really because it’s 1996, this shit is crazy! Totally new communications medium! Which is why we have to think about how and why we got here — there “here” being a place where everything is tolerated except that which impedes the network from functioning (well sort of). In short, this hasn’t been a smooth or beautiful process! Much CYBERBLOOD has been spilled over the years, this whole puppypile of admins and architects and users all clamoring to control a thing that nobody entirely knew what it was. And even after they did! Because things kept changing! The result of (and also ensuring) persistent social conflict! Like everything worth talking about!
Suzanne Scott, “Repackaging Fan Culture: The Regifting Economy of Ancillary Content Models” (2009)
All sorts of shit can go awry when you try to smash together market and gift economies! The resulting epic fails, however (see: FanLib), often overshadow those spaces where negotiation can be you know like negotiated. Because this idea of “value,” it whizzes all over the place, between markets and producers and produsers and back again, occasionally forming/being harnessed to form “a regifting economy of ancillary content” that reseeds the magic transmedia circle with a precarious hybrid of grassroots and corporate content. So regifting (“packaging”) fandom itself, like on official websites for cult shows. Something about that one Seinfeld episode? Yes! Yes it’s exactly like that, I think.
Look everybody, just in time for Halloween — Beibses’ latest X-mas single!
Money quote: ”Playin for the King, Playin for the title….I’m suprised ya didn’t hear this in the Bible.” Indeed, you flirty rapscallion.
[...] already read the damn thing for my PhD exams–manic, exam psychosis-enduced synopsis here—but apparently forgot. I guess I can’t be too surprised, on account of no one remembers [...]