Anderson Cooper is in ur dumpster, saving ur world.

[charlieblue]

And now, in other slightly irrelevant, utterly frivolous news:

New layout!

charlie_d_blue


-- --

Also, an insta!Rec: Souvenirs by tearful_eye.

It's been around for a few weeks now, but for anyone who watches Life, is vaguely intrigued as to what this Life show lark is that everyone's talking about, or just in general enjoys a beautifully crafted, intense, rockin' vid, take a look. It's only a minute long.

And in non sequitur conclusion:

After reading all the brilliant pundits-meta over at the journals of bessemerprocess and sarken, I scribbled down some:



One of the reasons I adore political and pundit fandom so damn much? Apart from everything else that is wondrous and awesome (and made of impossible bumblebees, sparkly unicorns, lollipops, soapboxes and bantery coffee) about it, there is the fact that it is so much more open to the naturalized incorporation of actual ongoing international affairs and political process than pretty much any other fandom, West Wing included. (In West Wing, it is trickier to employ real news, because so much of it relates to the Bush/Obama presidencies, which are not canon in the West Wing. That is not to say that certain things, or even Bush and Obama cannot be incorporated, only that it takes much more skill and very careful manipulation of presidential timelines to make it believable.)

On the other hand, writing about real life pundits and presidents? Being able to using real, ongoing issues and events - for me at least - adds a whole new dimension to a fic, because now it is not only engaging on the level of having characters adapted from real life personas, but also from the extrapolation of the status and possible consequences of political affairs and phenomena that affect me, as a human being and a citizen of the world.

A lot of pundit fics do not focus on politics at all, and that 's fine, in fact, a lot of the time, it's much better and more enjoyable than plot-based fic, but the brilliant thing about this fandom is that politics, the broad, all-encompassing issues of the socio-politico-geographical world, that is our context, that is our canon and that is the highly influential background of the pundits.

And maybe it's just me, but that is precisely why this fandom is swiftly becoming one of, if not the most impressive I have ever encountered.



Peace out.

Comments

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Life. It's so good. Charlie is made of awesome. *goes to watch vid*

[bewarethesmirk.livejournal.com]

All right, you've convinced me. I think I have all the makings for someone who needs to get in political/pundit fandom(s). Your thoughts on incorporating RL political, socal & etc. affairs really gets me to thinking. So, I am coming to you for help.

What do you read, write, enjoy? What are good comms, or do you have any recs? I'm a political news junkie, so I've interested in reading almost anything especially if it's slashy.

[sirdrakesheir.livejournal.com]

This layout is a fucking beautiful thing.

[latara.livejournal.com]

I like that, even when we aren't directly dealing with it, there's some sensitivity to it. We pretty much all know somewhat what we are talking about re: public affairs, which is nice for me because I feel like I have all these interests which are kept separate but here I have fandom + politics together! Whereas some of my friends are like, "why are you watching some other governor's press conference?" we are like, "OKAY BLAGO, LEGO MAN OR CABBAGE PATCH KID?"

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Isn't he brilliant? ♥

Cumquat.

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

HEE!!!

*sunggles pineapple*

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Haha! I have corrupted another! ;)

Well, for Pundit fic, I'd direct you straight to camera3, where a large majority of the kind of shared pundit universe we tend to operate on started, and from there, the best writers in my opinion (and keep in mind, that I am still very new to this fandom too) are bessemerprocess, sarken, and cosmic. The main community is fakenews_fanfic

I got into political fandom through rahmbamara, which I highly, highly recommend. It's not about serious discussion of politics (you might want to try a place like ontd_political for that), it's more about all things brilliant and fannish about the Obama administration and has been extended to include the pundit arena as well. It's pretty insane, but everyone is brilliantly open and friendly, not to mention that most are extraordinarily intelligent and well-informed. If you want fic, check out the comm's delicious page, which is linked to in the sidebar, you'll find everything from the comm organized there.

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask. :D

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

I thought so too. Many motherfucking thanks. ♥

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And it's a bit of chicken and the egg for me. It was the politics got me into the fandom, then the fandom encouraged my stamina for politics, and that in turn inspired further fandom-activity, which required greater research and understanding, and so on and so forth. I find it a beneficial, if slightly addictive process. ;)


FOR THE RECORD? LEGO. OH MY GOD, HE'S SUCH A LEGO DUDE.

[latara.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for me, I was just quietly obsessive, and now it's like, LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY! YOU ARE NOT ALONE! But it definitely has heightened my knowledge too... I wouldn't necessarily know like, every single aide or random information about Tim Geithner or whatever.

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh god no. Encyclopedic knowledge of every single White House staffer is an admirable pursuit, but I cannot handle it. I'm more about the Russian warship maneuvers in South America and the strange and unexpected effect of every single democratic government in the world falling in puppy-love with Obama on the heretofore rational theories regarding international relations. ;)

[bessemerprocess.livejournal.com]

I love the general level of political/current event awareness in these/this fandom and getting to roll it up all together and create amazing stories. Generally, I see all fiction as a way of dealing with/learning from/analyzing the world we live in, and being able to do so without having to fictionalize the events and politics makes the work stronger, or at least, more immediate.

Also, I just love all of you guys and all of this fandom's amazingness.

[yukitheawesome.livejournal.com]

Okay, first things first: I love the layout, I love your music title, and I REALLY love your comment links.

And yeah. Pundit/political is the greatest thing since sliced bread. (Because, you know, before, we had to tear at politics and eat it. Now it's all nice and neat.)

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly what I was trying to get at, except put much more eloquently. And succinctly. :)

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Haha, thankyou!

I like your metaphor very much, especially as I am now imagining fandom in the early days as a bunch of primitive cro-magnons. ;)

[yukitheawesome.livejournal.com]

…Wow, I just realized I left out the word "fandom." Good to know that you got it, though. Ahahaaaa, *fail* XD

re: cro-magnons
Dude, have you seen the Twilight fandom?

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh hell no. I stay well away from that shit, man. No good comes of it. You read one little drabble, think, oh everyone's doing it, you get the high, feel the rush, but think, yeah, I can control this, then 6 months on you're lying in a gutter having spent your last dollar on an Edward Cullen action figure instead of the rent.

It is a dark road, my friend, and these people need help.

:D

[vvvaudevillian.livejournal.com]

At 3am, I can but coherently say to your entry, oh hell yes.

[irenak.livejournal.com]

Life! Huzzah! This is totally my ninja fandom, slowly taking over my flist one obscure fruit reference at a time.

I have to say as someone who's only peripherally involved with political fandom, I'm absolutely fascinated by it. I think it's partially because, well, these are Real Live People, doing Real Live Things and getting fanboy-ed/girl-ed as a result. It's not something you expect from geek culture, let alone from late Gen X-ers and Gen Y, who all very much have a reputation for being disengaged (though not always deservedly so). It's exciting to see people engage on this level, especially after experiencing such an extended period of time frustrated with the political process, rather than inspired by it.

Also, the fact that it's so utterly embraced the lulzy-ness of it all slays me. Fandoms with a sense of humor about themselves tend to be a rarity, so it's nice to see one that doesn't take itself so seriously.

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Now that's what I like to hear. :D

[charlie-d-blue.livejournal.com]

Lingonberry!

I like what you said, because it encapsulates exactly how I feel about political fandom. It actually engages people in the real world, in political process, and such is the nature of fandom that very rarely do little things, that might one day have far reaching consequences, go unnoticed.

And oh yes, everyone is so friendly and open and fully ready to laugh at themselves at the drop of a hat. I feel like politics inspired the fandom, which then inspires an even deeper interest in politics, and so on and so forth until one day we're all gonna inevitably end up ruling the governments of the world and writing fanfic about ourselves. ;)

[bewarethesmirk.livejournal.com]

These are a lot of great places to start! Thanks so much.