So I have mixed feelings about calling fan productions “Lord King Bad Vids” and the like, because deep in my heart and shallow in my heart I love this stuff, and I don’t want to have to disavow my geeky and inappropriate joy to be cool in fandom, of all places.
Interested me. Because I've been thinking about this a lot lately. See, there's a story that the writer calls a Lord King Bad Fic, and I love it and have it in the recs set I'm posting next. And for a while, I really resented that label - I love the story! It is not bad! But I was confused, because obviously the writer loves the story, too; she put in too much work and effort and sheer brilliance not to love the story. And, in fact, I know it's one of the things she's written that she's most attached to.
So while I was thinking about the LKB concept, prior to writing up that rec, I realized: it isn't being ironically bad, and it isn't about being deeply cool. In fact, it's precisely the opposite; setting out to make something that is deliberately LKB frees the creator to be as geeky as she wants to be, to take seriously a concept that she knows is, well, totally unironic and kind of pathetic but really, really fun. It's like - it's a way of choosing to shut down all your grownup filters and reaching directly into your secret adolescent heart.
In that way, the LKB label is very much like the Harlequin label. They both accomplish the same thing, and have the same appeal, and are the same amount of fun. Because the key to a LKB anything, just like with a Harlequin, is doing it superlatively well and truly believing in your concept, doing it with sincerity and love, and in that way it's just an intensification of fandom.
So my next question is - well, but then why do we need the LKB label at all? This is fandom. We're all free to be dorky, all the time. But, at least with vids, I really, really love the overt labeling of something LKB, because it frees not just the vidder but me. I can laugh at the vid (even as I love it) without feeling bad, because I'm not laughing at the vidder. I can discuss it freely, and I can say that, well, it's precisely what you'd expect of a Matrix vid set to "Man in Motion," and that's why I love it, without worrying that I'm going to hurt the vidder's feelings.
So I have decided that from now on I'll translate LKB labels as "this is the work of a true fangirl." That doesn't sound judgmental to me, and as far as I can tell it means exactly the same thing.
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Date: 2006-09-06 10:34 am (UTC)So I have mixed feelings about calling fan productions “Lord King Bad Vids” and the like, because deep in my heart and shallow in my heart I love this stuff, and I don’t want to have to disavow my geeky and inappropriate joy to be cool in fandom, of all places.
Interested me. Because I've been thinking about this a lot lately. See, there's a story that the writer calls a Lord King Bad Fic, and I love it and have it in the recs set I'm posting next. And for a while, I really resented that label - I love the story! It is not bad! But I was confused, because obviously the writer loves the story, too; she put in too much work and effort and sheer brilliance not to love the story. And, in fact, I know it's one of the things she's written that she's most attached to.
So while I was thinking about the LKB concept, prior to writing up that rec, I realized: it isn't being ironically bad, and it isn't about being deeply cool. In fact, it's precisely the opposite; setting out to make something that is deliberately LKB frees the creator to be as geeky as she wants to be, to take seriously a concept that she knows is, well, totally unironic and kind of pathetic but really, really fun. It's like - it's a way of choosing to shut down all your grownup filters and reaching directly into your secret adolescent heart.
In that way, the LKB label is very much like the Harlequin label. They both accomplish the same thing, and have the same appeal, and are the same amount of fun. Because the key to a LKB anything, just like with a Harlequin, is doing it superlatively well and truly believing in your concept, doing it with sincerity and love, and in that way it's just an intensification of fandom.
So my next question is - well, but then why do we need the LKB label at all? This is fandom. We're all free to be dorky, all the time. But, at least with vids, I really, really love the overt labeling of something LKB, because it frees not just the vidder but me. I can laugh at the vid (even as I love it) without feeling bad, because I'm not laughing at the vidder. I can discuss it freely, and I can say that, well, it's precisely what you'd expect of a Matrix vid set to "Man in Motion," and that's why I love it, without worrying that I'm going to hurt the vidder's feelings.
So I have decided that from now on I'll translate LKB labels as "this is the work of a true fangirl." That doesn't sound judgmental to me, and as far as I can tell it means exactly the same thing.