Random rec and rant

[rivkat]

Little-known fact: back in the day, I read a lot of popslash. I know nothing about the fandom, but I read Helen's stories and expanded out from there; "Cuisine" is probably still one of the creepiest things I've ever read. I did mention that self-destruction for love's sake is one of my bulletproof kinks, no? Anyhow, cathexys pointed to this popslash story, and I don't think you need to know/like/approve of popslash to find this story to be an extremely powerful commentary on modern Internet-enabled fandom. It's AU, I guess, a story about popstars as slashers as writers and stars, and I never thought about the relationship of fandom fame to popstar fame this way before. In the future, we'll all be famous -- not for fifteen minutes, but to fifteen people -- only many of us long for more than that.

So, at Union Station, at the entrance I use, there are two revolving doors flanking a central automatic door. They've put a big sign up in front of the automatic door saying, "Due to inclement weather, please use revolving doors." Does it say "(Except you)"? No, it does not. Then how come half the people who I see approach behave as if they've got a dispensation? Now, anyone who would have difficulty getting through a revolving door -- cane, stroller, wheelchair, big suitcase, arm injury, what have you -- should of course be free to use the automatic doors. But I strongly suspect that most of the people who swerve around the sign in order to use the automatic doors just can't be bothered, and it makes me upset.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_swallow/]

> In the future, we'll all be famous -- not for fifteen minutes, but to fifteen people

I have to say, I don't understand how this isn't the way it is already: for a lot of people, if not everyone. Not just online, but off. Everybody I know in RL is intimately known and talked about within their little group of friends, except for those rare people who practice solitude. I mean.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I think it's about performing for an audience -- of course we're all well known to the people who know us well; what I was trying to imply (without any clarity) was that we are moving to a society in which being "known" is more like being famous, more like being on stage, more like self-consciously putting on a persona the way an actor does. But I think we're well on the way there, so "future" was maybe an exaggeration.