THE ACID
DESK
The Underground XFFanfic Newsletter Vol 1. No.6
Welcome to THE ACID DESK, a bi-monthly newsletter discussing the latest fics, recs, trends, discussions, and even *gasp* gossip in the X-Files Fanfic Community.
All opinions expressed herein belong solely to the author, CiCi Lean.
Write to me and tell me how wrong I am!
CiCi Lean [email protected]
"Ridicule is deadlier than all the arguments in the world." -- Frederick the Great in a letter to Voltaire.
THE ACID DESK MAILROOM:
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FROM THE E-BOX:
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Re: "The Disaster"
I'm not going to pull quotes from the nearly 300 letters I received after my TOSing, mainly because I'm a lazy shit.
All I can say is, to everyone who wrote to me
during that excruciatingly annoying episode, is "thank you."
Thank you for your support, your offers of web space, shared ISP access,
Pendy smut (some of which you wrote completely against your inner muses
and moral authority
It meant more to me than I can say, and I'll admit some of the letters brought me close to tears. (But don't tell anyone that, OK? I have a reputation to uphold.)
So, once again, thank you...and ON WITH THE SHOW!
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HOT BYTES
Great Authors, Stories & More!
"Ninth Circle" by Tim Scott -- Tim's an amazing writer, able to use simple phrases to convey very complex emotions indeed. This post-flick fic is a wonder, full of passion and contrasts, and gets bonus points for quoting my *very* favorite stanza from Dante's "Inferno" -- "You have now entered the City of Sorrows...La Citta Dolente." I can highly recommend ALL his work, which is neat, concise, passionate and lovely. Go to Gossamer, look him up, and send -him- some love letters. He deserves them.
The Fanfic of Plausible Deniability (http:www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/3293/pd/pden.html)-- It took me a couple of fics to really sit up and notice this writer, but when I did...well, I'm sincerely impressed. Not only with his MSRs which are mature and *very* witty, but with his ongoing saga of the infamous CSM/Teena Mulder affair that has intense characterization, angst and a wonderful period feel, including great "music" from the era. Bravo!
THE DEBBILMICE (http://members.theglobe.com/iwonders) : At first, I blew off this page as a rather acidic prank played by a couple of feuding individuals, but I have to say that I'm becoming more and more impressed with this evolving and malevolent band of miscreants who have even LESS reverence than I do for all that's "holy" in fanfic. A series of unflattering "reviews" of "fanfic classics" is followed by the "Tipsy Pitchfork" awards, (two of them already won by yours truly,) and surrounded by a truckload of, God help me, funny-as-hell MST's of fanfics that had me chuckling while I winced. (I'm due for a MSTing of "After The Louvre", and to be honest, I'm sort of looking forward to it.) If you go here with an open mind and a can of beer, you might enjoy this page after the initial outrage has passed. Yes, these folks *are* bad, rotten and evil, but according to their "Empress," they wouldn't have it any other way.
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THE GOSSA-PER
Notes On The Archive of Note
Since one of my last "Special Editions" was on Gossamer, I won't rehash old hat as far as Gossamer's problems are concerned, most of which seem to have boiled down to an severe overload of 5K fics and not enough time in the world to stick all of them somewhere.
I will, however, admit complete and total shock to the reaction to my essay, "The Death Of An Archive," mainly because I had prepared myself for the roasting of a lifetime, and received almost *nothing* but kudos and complete agreement, at a ratio of 200-3. (Two letters that *did* disagree mostly berated me personally for "meanness" and "mud-slinging" which, while always fun to read, wasn't exactly debating the problem at hand.)
I -did- receive an excellent rebuttal from Gem, the Gossamer Database Upkeeper, which was sensible, informative and constructive, the basic gist being that the problems between Gossamer and its users is one of communication. With her permission, I'm going to post that to the Acid Desk Web Page, and I'll let you guys know when it's up. (Hopefully one of us still has a copy after my blow-up.) It's well worth the read.
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GOSSIP CORNER
Eat Your Heart Out, Cindy Adams
Blind Item #1: Which starry-eyed band of fic writers have taken a pilgrimage out to L.A. to learn at the feet of Actual 1013 Writers, for their annual script writing class, a few of them probably hoping somewhere within their ever-optimistic hearts that Vince G. himself might ACTUALLY be blinded by their hereto with untapped brilliance and take them under His Wings of Secret Shippyness? I wish these writers luck, but hope that they brought enough chocolate with them to see them through the inevitable disappointment.
Blind Item #2: Which list owner has done such a good job at making a whole batch of bitter, life-long enemies, that these folks have actually banded together to start their own secret society, its only goal being to devise ways of making their former tormentor miserable?
Blind Item #3: Congratulations to two very well-known, respected fic denizens who have just recently gotten engaged! Good luck, and if you need names for the kids, I have a WHOLE list of pseudonyms that I haven't used yet. [grin]
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ATXCARAMBA!
The Latest From The Usenet Front (alt.tv.x-files.creative -- Deja
News)
FESTERING: Now just -where- did I put my can of "Asshole-Away!"? Yes, folks, "Fester" is back, even MORE aggravating, even MORE maniacal than ever. (No, I wouldn't have believed it possible either.)
Yes, Dark Nascent's favorite stalker, the prophetess of 1013's wrath against fanfiction that is Not Nice is on the prowl, posting and pushing all the buttons she can, trying her hardest to make us all nuttier than a bag of peanuts in an asylum.
Yeah, yeah. YOU know she's full of crap, I know she's full of crap, but unfortunately, I've finally figured out that the -real- problem with "Fester" is...
She's insane. Literally.
I'm talking stairs not reaching the attic here, folks. I'm talking The Big Hot Wheel Down The Klonopin Highway, boys and girls.
For, not only does she *deliberately* start flame wars by pushing the very buttons that she knows will set us all off, she also expresses a sincere disappointment that atxc "isn't used to prolonged flame wars" and I suppose she intends to teach us a thing or two about them.
And, sweetheart that she is, she intends on taking a few of us down that ol' Lithium Lane with her. So, while we'd all like to lock her in the mythical cyber-attic, besides shoving some serious anti-psychotics down her throat, there's not much else we can do but ignore her. Killfile her.
Pretend she's so much wind at our backs.
And then, MAYBE she'll crawl back to atxf and let us post in peace. Along with that adorable little prodigy of hers, "Cyberpunk."
God, where are my dart guns when I need them?
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THE SLASH CAFE Reviews From The Wild Side
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This week featuring reviews by the Fabulous Kassandra!
[email protected]
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'Radar Love" by Anne Zo (M/Sk) -- I miss so much because I don't check back to Anne's site often enough. Evidently, some people were expecting the usual humorous Mulder/Skinner interaction, and she's going to kill me for reviewing it, but I loved it, I loved the angst, the schmoop, the lack of serious resolution, why? Because guys don't talk!!!! Maybe more realistic than some people like, but one of my favorites recently: Rating: 5 Lashes (Sue me, I love those guy talks that don't solve anything)
"Other Paths series" by Te (K/Sk/M) -- The pain, the angst, the schmoop, the pain. I'm going to hurt Te if she doesn't give us the next installment because she's breaking my heart. Rating 5 + Lashes
"Mercy" by DBKate (Parts 1-5 - P/M/K) -- I confess, I'm biased, I love this story because I love the little details that Kate weaves into the background, never quite explaining them, but evoking richness that makes me want to tie her down and tickle her until she expands the story. Krycek's sorrow and sacrifice are painful, not maudlin, and everything fits together beautifully and I want more. Now. Or soon, at least. Rating 5+ Lashes
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TALK, TALK
Discussing The Discussion Lists
XFCTalk - Well, since my blow-up, I no longer belong to this list, and according to my sources, it's been as quiet as its wont. I'm sure all discussion lists will heat up after the November premiere, and hopefully this one will too.
CHAOS FICTALK: I still belong to this list, which is getting a spooky quality as of late, like a country road at five a.m. I'm considering delurking, as the List Mom and I made up our differences after the Reign of Terror of '97. And yes, Sci, I *promise* to be good. Well, mostly good. Okay...as good as I can be. All right, maybe I'll just keep lurking. {g} Anyway, I think this list is deserving of some newbie blood, so why not join?
AOL FANFIC JUNKIES BOARD: Since my blow-up, I have snuck back on under a borrowed screename, basically because I can't resist it. This is the *only* area of AOL I miss, and that's because the people who post here are just too smart, funny and cool. (And yes, they occasionally disagree with me, so this isn't some air-kissing exercise.) I'll admit I got a ton of support here, much to the consternation of the AOL monitors who had a miserable time trying to defend The ISP That Can't Be Defended. If you are on AOL, go Keyword: X-Files, then to the Forum, then to the General Discussion Message Boards to find the land of Angsty Readers of WIP's, Primal Screams and some awful nice folks. Tell 'em CiCi says "hi." [g]
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GRATUITOUS PENDY MENTION OF THE WEEK
(A.P.I.G.P: All Pendrell is Good Pendrell)
The Pendrell Fic List is going strong, with 55 members and lots of great stories, slash and gen. All Pendy fans are welcome to join us, Pendy haters, or the "He's Dead, Are You Blind?" folks can go hang out somewhere else, like Siberia, or Mars, for instance. [grin]
TO JOIN: An E-mail to:[email protected]
All Ages Welcome.
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RANT-O-RAMA: Ravings From The Acid Desk:
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This Week's Rant is by The Lovely Sheare Bliss!
[email protected]
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The Unbearable Wrongness of TOSing
Well, well, well, what have we seen of late but a veritable tempest of people using the Terms of Service of various providers to shut down various web sites.
It does seem to be that slash is pretty heavily targeted, but other sites have also been hit hard.
We don't know how many sites might have gone under before Cici Lean's very visible TOSing. I know of one site belonging to a slash writer whose stories were among the best that was taken down without notification by Geocities.
Then, Cici Lean's site--in such a way as to be very suspicious. First, the Acid Desk was TOS'd for one phrase: "Holy Shit".
Now, the Acid Desk was distributed to a fairly wide audience, if I'm not mistaken, and I certainly don't know the membership of the XFCTalk list, on which it was featured. But I seriously doubt that AOL was just browsing through the Acid Desk issues, looking for TOS issues. I could be wrong, but I think that even with recruited monitors of such things, they've got far too many subscribers and problems to lurk around looking for a "holy shit".
Which suggests logically that someone deliberately reported the Acid Desk for this mild profanity.
Moving along, Cici's Socks site was TOS'd a week or two later. Yes, it was not only slash, but Pendrell slash. That was on Monday.
On Friday, Cici was permanently TOS'd from AOL for the contents of her Genfic site. Which contained, among other thing, After the Louvre, which was NC-17.
Offensive content.
Sometime shortly afterward, or perhaps at the same time, Sheryl Martin had a page of NC-17 stories TOS'd. Her archivist was at least alerted, but that may be the difference between Geocities and AOL, who knows.
We've had discussions about TOSing people for mistings (or mstings or whatever we call it) of their work, for copyright violations. We've had discussions on whether or not slash is okay, or considered offensive, of whether NC-17 stories are considered offensive regardless of which gender.
We come back to offensive content.
There are certain things that I think we can all agree are offensive. Hate sites targeting people for race, creed, or belief. Sites created by pedophiles for targeting and luring children. Sites containing child pornography. These are past offensive merely to me or you, these are violations of law.
Once we get past those obvious choices, what we have left is a shifting matrix of moral evaluations. You may find that a slash site is offensive to you; it is not offensive to me. You may find Gay and Lesbian sites offensive to you, they are not to me. You may find romances so offensive that you wish they could be removed; I'm not a romance fan, but as a TOSable offense? Please, reality check time.
I have a few hot buttons of my own, and none of them involve romances of either flavor, slash or hetero. My personal BIG HOT button is atrocious writing. Not that I claim to be the best--God, I wish--but Jesus please us, have you seen what's out there? Only a few of the really awful can claim that English is not their native language, the rest have no excuse.
I mean, if we're going to start TOSing people right and left because their writing isn't to our taste, I have, as Gilbert and Sullivan wrote, a little list! They never will be missed.
Well, maybe they will. We should all miss them, if they've been shut down because someone has a personal grudge, as I suspect in a number of these cases. I'm not sure if the grudge is merely against slash, against noncanon presentations or against actual writers. I'm not sure it matters--once we take this kind of censorship into a realm where there is ANY personal bias, all fanfic in all fanfic realms is going to be at risk.
ALL fanfic. Not just X Files. ALL fanfic.
And once the egomaniac doing it moves on from fanfic, where will they go? If you have a site that expresses your personal beliefs, what then? You're TOS'd because someone finds your personal beliefs 'offensive'?
Because someone finds your sense of humor, however lame, offensive? Because you've parodied something and they find THAT offensive?
Hey, I have an unfinished authorized parody of Oklahoma, and far from being offended, both authors reportedly laughed their asses off. I know Goo did, she did it in my ear over the telephone. Heck, she snorted a piece of grapefruit through her nose and nearly choked to death.
And even if I had my way and only TOS'd really atrocious writing, I'm not God, I'm not foolproof, I'm not the sole arbiter of taste for the world.....and nothing gives me the right to make that kind of judgement for others. Sure, I have certain standards for writing. Sure, I'm probably well enough educated that I'm not always completely off base. But I sure as hell am not the Diva of Critique.
Are you?
I doooooonnnnnn't Think So, Rubber Ducks!
So where do we draw the line?
We draw it at the end of our noses, I would say. If we are offended by something, and it doesn't fall into the areas I mentioned above, let's use our native intelligence and not bookmark the place, okay? Let's stay the hell away from it, and let other people enjoy as they will.
I don't like Muldertorture, so I stay away from the Muldertorture site. Shirley Smiley is a nice lady, and just because the idea of site dedicated to Muldertorture creeps me out doesn't mean that my personal feelings oughta rule the Net.
I know some folks who really don't like slash. You know how they deal? They don't read it. They don't TOS it.
I'm not a big romance fan. I'll read 'em by writers I know and respect, but I avoid them the rest of the time.
I vote with my feet, not with bogus and spurious complaints that they're 'offensive' to my sensitive widdle eyes and feelings and therefore must be removed from the Net like a spreading plague.
I'll even go one further. As someone wisely suggested--let's not support the sites that allow this petty sort of retaliation, let's support the ones that do. Let's make 'em feel it in their bottom line. Heh.
There isn't a lot we can do about this epidemic. We can keep backups of our sites, we can keep backup ISP arrangements on hand. But that's really a damned shame for a community that started out to be fairly cohesive, despite differences of opinion.
Whoever opened this very nasty door deserves a whuppin'.
And while I hate to see a jihad started against anyone without foundation, I would be very interested indeed in seeing if ostracism would work against the perpetrator--should we ever discover who it is.
And we very well might.
Whatever else I believe about the world, I do believe we pay for all. The old saying, what goes around comes around bears a certain truth, to it.
So let's try our best to deal with the Unbearable Wrongness and Do Right.
Or, as Eliot Ness in the Untouchables movie ungrammatically said, Let's Do Good.
Either that, or we can burn him/her at the stake.
bliss
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NEW!
DO YOU HAVE A LITTLE "ACID" IN YOUR BOOTIE?
I'm now opening up the Acid Desk to contributions!
If you have a batch of reviews, some good gossip, a rant you just HAVE to let out, why not send them in to me, and have the whole world know about it?
Contributions must be short, concise, have an irreverent, objective attitude (ie, no gushing, mushing or back-scratching) and are published at the editor's discretion.
So, don't by shy. Send some ACID my way!
CONTRIBUTIONS TO: [email protected] with the word "ADSUB" in the subject line.
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That's it for this edition. THANKS to Sheare and Kassandra for their contributions and all my anon blind item contributors, especially "Love Dingo" for the updates on the 1013 Screenwriting Class!
Come again next time, and I'll have some more snarky rants, squealing raves, gratuitous Pendrell Slapping, filthy gossip and a whole lot more!
THE ACID DESK is, hopefully, a bi-weekly newsletter, written & created by CiCi Lean. All opinions expressed within belong solely to the author.
This newsletter may NOT be copied, forwarded or posted to any other list, USENET news group of web page without express permission of the author, CiCi Lean ([email protected]). In short, if you sneak it around, I'll catch you and eat you alive. (And I chew 100 times per bite, just like Mama Lean taught me to.)
[email protected]All comments
are welcome.
For HOME DELIVERY OF THE ACID DESK, SEND AN E-MAIL TO: [email protected]
Go back to: The Circle of CiCi