begin again

[regndoft]

I have for a while now been meaning to dust off this account, and every time I'm held back by the simple fact that I'm not sure anyone here even remembers who I am, and a re-introduction seems like a very complicated and awkward thing. My last entry was in 2015, and the irony of me lamenting that I need to post here more often is not lost on me.

Here's what changed: I lived in Uppsala for five years before moving back last september and I miss it every single day. I did get my BA in religious studies, and am still working on an MA in Cultural Anthropology; something I should've been done with years ago, but turns out I have ADHD and a global pandemic isn't super conducive to studying anyway. Still grappling with that and what I want to do with my life. Since I married my girlfriend (!!!) and moved back to Stockholm I am technically a housewife, and thus spend most of my time on chores, going to therapy, and fighting off existential ennui.

Fandom-wise I'm still writing, and after a decade I might even be kinda sorta decent at it. I got back into anime and manga again, something I honestly didn't think I ever would (though I'm not actively keeping up with anything atm). Barring those two weeks in summer 2020 where I listened to literally nothing other than Les Misérables cast recordings and spent three months rereading the same j/jvj fics, I've mostly been dabbling in MXTX/danmei fandom for the past couple of years. Right now I'm having a great time with the Malevolent podcast and reading Weird Fiction.

I still care very much about Nordic folk culture and inflicting my extremely niche taste in music on unsuspecting bystanders, too.

Tbh I don't know if I'll be very good at updating here now either. But after spending almost a decade on Tumblr and Twitter, where I have for various reasons (including but not limited to being in some fandoms with major harassment problems) posted less and less of my own thoughts and works, the idea of going back to what is essentially Journalling In Public is very appealing.

Comments

[straightforwardly]

I'm not great with Discord servers either, so I feel you there. It's just too fast-paced for me. Surprisingly, despite me being initially very skeptical at the idea of Twitter being used for fandom, that ended up working really well for me. It's not slow-paced either, but it's more manageable for me than Discord has ever been, and there's just more people there than over here on DW, as much as I love DW. I feel like a combination of DW + twitter is the fandom interactions that make me happiest at the moment.

Poor Scum Villain, always the relatively unloved older brother. Though, while I fully agree with you about the how interesting the meta-narrative is, I think that could also play a role in why it's not as beloved. So much of it is in conversation with its genre and the other elements you named, and combining that with SQQ's role as a narrator (and how he both fails and succeeds at perceiving the world around him) gives it much of what fascinates and charms me about it, but also could possibly limit its broader appeal to readers not as familiar with the concepts it's engaging with.

And then there's Bingqiu, which seems to be pretty divisive in a way that Wangxian and Hualian aren't. Which is a shame, because yeah, easily my favorite main couple too! And, honestly, just a favorite ship in general; I don't think I've ever shipped a pairing harder than I did with them at the height of my fannish SV-related passion. Their dynamic is just so fascinating and so good, and offers so many different storytelling opportunities depending on where in canon a fic is set.

[regndoft]

Discord servers move very fast and I tend to become saddled with a pretty bad case of FOMO. I wish I COULD find one I felt chill with, because I like the idea of talking to people?? But in practise it hasn't worked out for me. And I agree my best time with Twitter was when I used it as a complement to Tumblr, as an isolated social media platform I think it's too hard to find and archive stuff for it to work for me, but it was a nice way to interact more casually with authors and artists I like haha.

I wonder if it's also because it hasn't had a hugely successful adaptation tbh?? I read the novels first, but I've got the impression I'm in the minority in that regard-- MDZS got a lot of attention with donghua, manhua and live-action, and I saw a lot of people get into TGCF through the donghua and then use the manhua as a start-off before tackling the (admittedly hellishly long) novel... SVSSS has a cancelled manhua and a donghua that's not exactly aesthetically appealing to the average anime/manga fan lol (plus it's the hardest story to adapt under censorship).

BINGQIU IS SO GOOD they're the only mxtx main couple I've actively searched for fanworks of. TT0TT

[straightforwardly]

lr, as an isolated social media platform I think it's too hard to find and archive stuff for it to work for me, but it was a nice way to interact more casually with authors and artists I like haha yes, this! in my previous comment I was struggling a little with putting my feelings about twitter for fandom into words, but this is exactly it. I value it for the ease of interactions, but imo it definitely works best in conjunction with another site.

Oh, that's a good point about the adaptations! I wasn't even thinking in that direction because the short-lived Scum Villain manhua is the only MXTX adaptation I ever checked out, but you make a good point about the other two novels both having multiple accessible points of entry and being easier to make a censored version of than SV.

Bingqiu... ♥ The number of fics I wrote for them are in the double-digits, and that's not including the horde of unfinished WIPs I still have hanging around in a folder somewhere. They're so inspiring!