This is legit
Tag: A+
Archive your fandom stuff
As we sit on the cusp of changes to the Internet, after your other activities to support Internet freedom, archive your
fandom stuff.Save the electronic files of your favorite online fandom works. Consider print-outs of your favorite online
material. And save paper
ephemera from fandom events.Why save? Because you put the effort into a fanwork. Because you may be surprised when a fandom stays alive for years, or gets revived, or when an academic asks to cite your work. Because it’s stupidly hard to find items on Tumblr. Because, lo, in ages past, many fandom archives have risen and fallen, taking favorite fics off the ‘Net. Because it made you happy, makes you remember. Because you never know.
What can
you save?
- Fanart
- Stories you wrote
- Epic comments on stories you wrote
- Stories you love that other people wrote
- Meta and meta-related discussions
- Translations others did of your works
- Physical items: paper ephemera, clothing, accessories, art prints and drawings.
Behind the cut…saving from Tumblr and AO3, delving into lost web sites, how to save computer files for the long term, and why I’m glad I saved physical fandom items from 10+ years ago.
So I am going to add onto this because there is, in fact, a professional archival interest in preserving fandom as well. I’ve spoken with some people about this before, but here’s the bottom line: PROFESSIONAL ARCHIVISTS WANT TO PRESERVE YOUR STUFF! HELP THEM DO THIS!
There are pre-existing fandom archives. Where are they?
- The University of Iowa Special Collections. U o I is partnered with the Organization for Transformative Works (which runs AO3) to help collect and preserve fandom. They’re one of the biggests out there. Here are some of their existing collections
Pete Balestrieri, who curates the collection, is the man to talk to about this. Please consider giving him your stuff!
- Marquette Archives has all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s materials, which includes a fandom content as well.
- The Library of Congress has been archiving select webcomics, and now maintains the Web Cultures Archive which includes sites like Cosplay Paradise.
These are the big institutions doing collecting, but the archival profession and fandom need to start talking more. Born digital material is always at risk, and at present, it is mostly Western fandoms being preserved! Moreover, some facets like cosplay are currently overlooked, and that is something that needs better documentation!
About once I year I have a Must Archive Everything Panic, and honestly I think that’s healthy.
i just imagined orcs getting into fights over how their wife is the biggest, most beautiful with the sharpest teeth.
“HOW DARE!!! THROG’S WIFE SHROKKA IS 10 FEET TALL, HER TEETH BREAK BOULDERS, HER BEAUTY SHAMES THE SUN”
turambar-masterofdoom
replied to your post “Can we braid Sauron’s chest hair? Is there even enough of that…”
*adds this to the list of potential means of everlasting vengeance*
dO NOT
caranthir’s workout tips for the furious and lazy
(borne out of a conversation with @cygnete, who should know better than to make clever offhand jokes in front of me lest i grab them and drive them into the ground)
Muscle sculpting:
For jaw muscles that could snap bone (and also give you blinding tension headaches), practice restrained fury grinding at 2 hour intervals throughout the day. Grinding sprints can be undertaken during visits home to your parents or conversations with philosophy students.NB: While this activity builds facial muscles the size of biceps, do not undertake if you currently enjoy the look and shape of your teeth.
Legs:
Every day is leg day with obsessive leg bouncing! Develop knots in your calves the size of golf balls as you jitter furiously under your desk and try not to say something rude to your econ professor, who is demonstrably WRONG about Keynes.NB: Side-effects may include the conspicuous over-development of your preferred jiggle leg compared to the other, and comments like ‘what’s vibrating like that? Is that a tremblor?’
Cardio:
These days fitness experts say short, uncontrolled and sporadic bursts of activity are the best thing for heart health and lung capacity. Engage in these bursts by muttering furiously under your breath for ten minutes then leaping to your feet in a burst of uncontrolled rage. You can choose between 1) wild arm waving – consider knocking something over for dexterity practice! or 2) flipping a table, if you are looking to build strength.NB: A variation on this is fist pounding, which strengthens the forearms and has the added bonus of being alarming and noisy and can effectively clear the room if you’re feeling encroached upon.
Abs:
Nothing builds a rock-hard tummy like angrily clenching every muscle in your torso as you chew your tongue and try to avoid erupting into physical violence. The great thing about this activity is that there is no limit on how long you can sustain it. Try starting with minutes at a time the next time your brother says something idiotic and work your way up to near constant rigidity as you reflect on the inherent stupidity of literally all life forms.NB: Some of you may be able to start with the latter right off the bat. It’s easier than you think!
Headcanon: burials.
This is a headcanon that shamelessly builds on canon and is, thus, not entirely justified by it.
The Fëanorian Noldor, after the Dagor nuin Giliath, developed the custom of burning their dead and scattering the ashes in clearings located either between the mountains or in the hills. Naturally those clearings assumed thus a great significance for the local exiles and so, as a way to signal such a place to each other, the Noldor started planting three cypresses huddled together in their center.
This went on for the whole of the first Age and some surviving “loyalist” kept the tradition well into the third, before passing or sailing.In Fëanor’s case there never was a grave because the wind swept everything away, and it almost became part of his mythos: for his followers somehow believed that he could not have a final resting place as long as there was a fight to fight. Still some of his sons do have a “grave”, albeit a secret ones. After Celegorm, Curufin and Caranthir died their bodies were burnt and their surviving brothers scattered their ashes in a clearing deep inside the Blue mountains, near mount Reirir. The same happened for the bodies of Amrod and Amras, they were recovered, burnt and their ashes laid to rest in the same place.
The ones who know about this spot are few and become fewer and fewer as time passes, still the remaining “loyalists” that still search for Maglor have traveled to the spot several times, since it survived the ages and the flooding of Beleriand, and always found the trees in its center somehow “cared for”.
So much that there is the legend that as long as the trees are alive so will be Maglor.
Maedhros: How was Nargothrond?
Celegorm: Nice.
Curufin: Very nice.
Maedhros: *stares at them*
Celegorm: We might have lost an ally though.
Curufin: And our people.
Celegorm: And Thingol might want to kill us.
Curufin: Some people in Brethil too.
Celegorm: And Felagund died.
Maedhros:…
Curufin: And this guy stole my knife.
Celegorm: The girl stole my dog.
Curufin: And my son doesn’t want to be my son anymore.
Celegorm: We are homeless.
Maedhros:…
Curufin: I almost died.
Celegorm: He almost died.
Curufin: Could you please… give us a hand?
Maedhros: Sure.
Maedhros: *throws prosthetic hand in Curvo’s face*
i stayed up till 4a.m. devising a monetary system for the Noldor in Beleriand and translating one sentence into quenya, kill my ass
it is now six in the morning and i know some khuzdul words for coins and weight measurements
six thirty in the morning and I’ve looked up the comparative scarcities of seven different metals and constructed three compound nouns in khuzdul for alloys that don’t exist in the dictionary.
I’m going to try to sleep, pray for me so i don’t stare at the ceiling for another hour figuring out fantasy exchange rates for fantasy dollars
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 