Lumos report #2: The crack panel

[emmagrant01]

I had hoped that this would be a fun panel, and it was -- for me, certainly, and it seemed for everyone else. The idea for the panel came about during The Witching Hour, actually, when I was going to lots of great panels and trying to think of something that hadn't been discussed yet but would make an interesting topic. I had just started seeing the term "crack" used a lot on my flist, and I started playing with the idea of putting together a panel discussion about it.

Frankly, I was surprised that the proposal was accepted, because I thought it might be a little to "inside" a thing for such a large symposium. And maybe that's why they put us in the smallest possible room in the Marriott? But of course, at least a quarter of the people who wanted to come were turned away at the door, so we could have gone a little bigger. On the bright side, our panel didn't get any anti-slash shit from Emerson. (On second thought, that would have been fun to watch.) Yay for the recording, though -- I can't wait to get that CD in the mail!

The makeup of the panel was originally quite different, but due to people having to cancel their trips to Lumos, in the end it was furiosity, geoviki, and scarah2. And they were, all three of them, amazing. I can't thank them enough for doing such a great job! They were witty and thoughtful and even occasionally brilliant, which considering the topic, is pretty damn cool.

It was so much fun that I thought I'd give those of you who didn't get to go to Lumos (or those of you who did, for that matter) join in the discussion.

But It’s Just Crack! The Role of Crack Fiction and Art in Subverting and Contributing to Fanon

Here is my opening opinion, which I read at the start in an attempt to focus the discussion:

In the last few years, a new genre of fan creations has emerged: crack. It is difficult to characterize precisely what “crack” fiction and art are; definitions vary from “all fan creations are crack” to “crack is good writers writing ‘bad’ fic”. Crack fiction and art are usually humorous and often tongue-in-cheek. These works may be parodies of common fanon tropes, or they may contain bizarre situations which the author or artist thought would be fun to explore. The work may be the result of a challenge, or it may have been a spontaneous creation.

One interesting facet of crack fiction and art is that the writers and artists label their own work as crack, and thus signal to the audience that this work is not to be taken entirely seriously; it will deviate from canon and perhaps even logic, but it will most likely be entertaining. The need for such a label is surprising, considering the tremendous variety of fan works on the internet. Why do writers and artists feel compelled to distinguish these works from mainstream fan fiction and art? There is a sense in which labeling one’s work as crack is a signal that the writer or artist does not consider the work serious enough for close critical examination. In fact, the practice is criticized in some fandom circles as an excuse for laziness on the part of the writer/artist.

However, many who create crack works will argue that they put as much effort into them as they do their more mainstream fiction and art. Some assert that crack is a means of subverting fanon, just as fanon itself is a subversion of canon; that is, labeling one’s work as crack can be considered a way of breaking away from the hegemonic standards of the larger fandom and still creating fan works that are considered legitimate by the community. Labeling one’s work as crack enables the writer or artist to continue to be taken seriously as someone who contributes to the fandom, but also allows her to deviate from the creative norms of the community whenever she likes, without fear of losing her status as a legitimate fan fiction writer or fan artist.

In this panel, three writers and one artist will discuss their own experiences of creating crack works. Each has a different perspective on the genre and different motivations for creating crack works. To begin, each one will introduce herself and read or show an excerpt from her work.
~~~

Following that, scarah2 started us off by showing some examples of crack art she had drawn the night before. geoviki read an excerpt from Never Mind The Bollocks, It's Draco/Harry, giving it quite a poignant introduction. furiosity read from My Big Phat Hogwarts, and I followed that up with an excerpt from phaballa's The Death of a Soul, A Blowjob Beneath a Table, and the Rain of Toads That Followed. And then we all wiped our eyes, picked our asses up from the floor, and settled in for a surprisingly meaningful discussion about crack fic.

I don't think a consensus was really reached, and I didn't expect that to happen. The original idea for the panel was to put together people whom I knew would have very different opinions on crack and get them to argue with each other. And that's pretty much what happened, with great commentary from Scarah along the way! Rather than rehash the discussion here, I thought I would try to get some of y'all involved and see what you think about crack.


[Poll #784859]


Please feel free to add any comments below. Let's pretend we're all still at Lumos and talking about fun things (instead of wanking about meaningless things)!

Thanks again to the panel and to everyone who attended for making it a fantastic time. And hey -- how many panels generated their own icons (courtesy of coffeejunkii and fiona_fawkes) and FANFIC (courtesy of mijan)? *grins*

Comments

"crack fic is like the teller of tall tales..."

[verdenia.livejournal.com]

This completely reminded me of one time when I went River Rafting, and I just had to share.

The guide said, "Know what the difference between a Fairy Tale and a River Guide's story is?"

"A Fairy Tale starts out, 'Once upon a time...', and a river guide story starts out, 'So there I was, no shit...'"

;D