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Thursday, May 23, 2002

Another salvo in the copyright wars -- an amicus brief (PDF) filed by the National Writers Union, in the Eldred vs. Ashcroft case, with an impressive list of signatories (including Ursula LeGuin, Wendell Berry, Guy Davenport, Peter Mattheissen, Barry Lopez). Don't let the legalese bog you down; go to page 14 and start reading a lovely defense of the creative artist's "retelling of stories," the legitimate use of previously-created material in inspiring new work.

"If the goal of copyright law is to “stimulate artistic
creativity,” then the integrity of the public domain must not
be compromised. The creation of new works is largely dependent
upon access to the varied language, research, images, and other
content of previous works. The concept that all, or even most,
new works are wholly original is unfounded; rather, many
great works have been the artful retelling of others’ stories. ...
Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful
as underprotecting it. Creativity is impossible
without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely
nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new:
Culture, like science and technology, grows by
accretion, each new creator building on the works
of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the
very creative forces it’s supposed to nurture.

To be honest, I have no idea whether those filing this brief would be willing to extend their approval as far as fanfiction--I think we're at best out on the far margins--but I find this document a wonderfully heartening thing to read, and I think this is a controvery to which we should be paying close attention.

Posted @ 08:21 AM CST [Link]5 comments

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

A few brief Buffy finale comments . . . [more]

Posted by jones059 @ 09:16 AM CST [Link]4 comments

Monday, May 20, 2002

Heeeee. Oh, the snark is flying fast and free on the TWoP boards anent tonight's Angel. I am torn between giggling like a mad thing, and feeling genuine sympathy for those who are still emotionally invested in the show. (For myself, hey, it's one more thing I can scratch off the list of Stuff About Which I Give a Flying Frap.)

One thing that made me very happy about tonight's episode -- I finally figured out who the hell it is Cordelia's been reminding me of, all season, most especially since whatever that episode was with the AU where she has a sitcom. It was driving me nuts, but at last-- during the final sequence -- it hit me with the thudding force of a thousand falling anvils.

Ready?

She IS --

the young Mary Tyler Moore.

OK, so this may have been noted elsewhere by others, but I was so pleased with myself to finally get that figured out! I mean -- the teeth! the bone structure! the facial-rictus grin! the godawful hair! the perkiness!!

Mary Tyler Moore, totally. (Or, uh, the Flying Nun [reprise manic giggling].)

Posted @ 10:18 PM CST [Link]8 comments

I was going to say some more stuff about the XF finale, but on reading through my daily blog list, I find that Destina's said pretty much everything I would have, better than I would have. Just wanted to add that the thing that most shocked me was -- no insanely overwritten purple pretentious voiceovers! Dude, I would've bet the farm we were going to get at least one of those!

I'm certainly not going to argue with anyone who found the episode dreadful, deeply disappointing, etc. I certainly don't think there's any way it could have been good good, in the sense of providing any coherent summative conclusion, but then I gave up on that a while ago. All I really wanted was ... well, imagine you're sitting up with someone who's dying, someone you used to be in love with, who bedazzled you, whom you never truly understood, who pissed you off, who did bizarre, hurtful, inexplicable, self-destructive things and let you down and broke your heart. And who is now dying, and the two of you are having one last conversation. At that moment, it doesn't really matter to hash over all the stuff that went wrong, revisit all the pain and work through all the issues; it's too late for that. All you really want is to remember the good times, remember why you loved this person so much, be reassured that you weren't a total fool for having cared. And I got -- enough of that last night; not a lot, but enough to feel at peace.

(And why is it that when discussing X-Files I always go straight for the love-affair-gone-bitterly-wrong metaphors?)

Posted @ 07:58 AM CST [Link]3 comments

Sunday, May 19, 2002

Comments on XF finale (or: cue the Hallelujah-Chorus-singing-flying-butt-monkeys ...) [more]

Posted by jones059 @ 10:08 PM CST [Link]6 comments

So. Tonight, at 7:00 p.m., I will grab a bottle of Jamison's, wrap myself up in the Cloak of Deep Bitterness, grit my teeth, and watch the final episode of X-Files. I will move all throwables out of arm's reach. I fully anticipate that two hours later I'll be drinking straight out of the bottle.

In one sense I'm a little surprised at my own bitterness. I mean, I've had plenty of time to detox, haven't even watched a single episode all season. I've been following along only by reading Jessica's great recaps over at TWOP. ("Bud peers inside the sliding glass door and whatever he...okay, I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. I just can't. This is the penultimate episode of The X-Files and it's about The Brady Bunch? Think about it. No, think about it. Are we setting anything up for the finale? No. Talking about aliens? About CSM? Krycek? Scully's fertility? The black oil? Super Soldiers? The bees? The clones? The alien bounty hunters? Mulder's mysterious brain disease? Mulder, period? Hello? God! And 1013 promises that everything will be revealed in the finale? I have a feeling the only thing that will be revealed is my inner rage. Anyway.")

But after all, the X-Files was my first real fandom, it's where I lost my fannish virginity, and so watching it tank has been like watching one's first true love turn into a greasy paunchy two-timing crack-smoking sleazeball. That'll make a girl bitter and sad.

God, I can remember way back (I was in grad school at the time) when I'd avoid scheduling any classes for Monday morning, so I'd have that time free for all the feverish morning-after discussions on the mailing lists and newsgroups. I remember the obsessive three-and-four-times checkover of the VCR to make sure it was set correctly. I remember the time I almost got a speeding ticket, when the VCR was on the fritz and I was racing home from a Superbowl party to watch Leonard Betts. (I didn't tell the officer why I was driving so fast, and he let me off with a warning, and I got home just in time.)

It is, of course, ludicrous, hilarious, to get that emotionally invested in a TV show. For sure I'll never be quite that naively whole-hearted a fan again. Just as in relationships, I've learned some stuff about keeping a healthy sense of distance.

(And, of course, the finale could actually be good. Uh-huh. Right. And monkeys could fly out of my butt and sing the Hallelujah Chorus.)

Posted @ 11:11 AM CST [Link]6 comments