That word might not mean what we think it means.

[logovo]

Reading some stuff today I saw several people talking about aca-fans (acafans? AcaFans?) and I'm starting to wonder if they mean the same thing I'm thinking when I hear acafans, as in actual people in academia, writing, publishing, teaching or fanlore's entry. Are people now using that word interchangeably with fans who are just into meta? Anyone else getting that impression?

Also, I still haven't watched SPN and I'm trying not to read spoilers but I'M FAILING SO BAD. Because I'm weak and impatient.

Comments

[kass]

I think it's a reference to Sherlock Holmes fandom. "Watsonian" means looking at something the way that Watson would have done -- e.g. we're talking about something from within the framework of the universe. "Doylian" means looking at something as author Arthur Conan Doyle would have done, e.g. from outside the framework of the universe.

So talking about why Sam and Dean have the relationship they have is Watsonian, while talking about why the creators of the show make their decisions is Doylian.

[logovo]

Oh! I should have caught that! I like it. Thanks for the explanation.

::sounds out the words::

Sheesh, I don't think I can even pronounce Doylian.

[anatsuno]

I say Doylist, myself - and I encountered that vocabulary in fandom only. In film studies we used the concept of diegesis: diegetic elements/remarks and extra-diegetic ones. what I mean is that I don't think you'd have gotten those words from a US college (but I might be mistaken about that!!)

[logovo]

The strong consonant at the end helps!

diegesis: diegetic elements/remarks and extra-diegetic ones

OK, those I've never seen before either Had to look theme up), but sometimes I'll read stuff on film where the terms I don't understand sort of slip into the background to poke at later.

[trobadora]

*seconds this* I studied lit, but it was diegetic/extra-diegetic there as well. I've only ever encountered the Watsonian/Doylist terminology in fandom.

[anatsuno]

I honestly think it is born in fandom. I used the words in my viva for my translation Masters (oral presentation/discussion - not a written thing) and I had to explain what they meant / reword it cos both my (lit) profs ignored the words, so. :D

[trobadora]

Yeah - I wouldn't have used the term in a litcrit context myself, except insofar as I've always been tempted to reframe litcrit arguments in fannish terminology. *g*

I googled a bit, and seems the terms may have originated on a Bujold mailing list. Huh.

[anatsuno]

except insofar as I've always been tempted to reframe litcrit arguments in fannish terminology.

Me too! Well, and, the text I translated for my Masters is basically fanfic, so it was even more important to me to do that in that context. :D

[trobadora]

It's amazing how many scholarly controversies over ambiguous characters make more sense when you call the two factions "evilistas" and "apologistas". I still remember when that first struck me ... I couldn't stop giggling all day. (Were you ever in BtVS?)

[anatsuno]

hee. BtvS was my first online fandom, but only in the sense that I read fic for it - I never interacted w/ anyone and I hadn't yet found LJ. I did that just a tiny bit after, when I fell into the HP fandom.

I only knew a little bit about the "redemptionistas", but not the "evilistas" and "apologistas".

[trobadora]

Redemptionista: Sure he was evil, but he doesn't have to be!

Evilista: He's evil! He always was and always will be Every good thing he's done is actually evil in disguise.

Apologista: He was never actually evil, you know. Those other, really evil people made him. Sure, he went around killing people left and right, but he's a fluffy puppy at heart and it wasn't his fault!

... okay, that's grossly simplified, but. And, well, I guess you can tell from those where I fall on the spectrum. I don't pretend to be unbiased. *g*

I actually discovered LJ by following a BtVS writer - rahirah - when she got one. (Before that I'd read things on LJ, I'm sure, but LJ-as-community just wasn't on my radar.) But I only got an LJ myself when I fell into HP in 2004. (I was late to the party.)

[nextian]

I didn't realize it was born in fandom and I have used it in a lit crit setting -- only to have the professors go OMG THAT IS THE BEST PHRASEOLOGY EVER! I seriously thought I was just bringing in something from the UrbanDictionary end of academia, I didn't realize I was championing fandom.

[technocracygirl]

Here from metafandom. My guess would actually be from within fandom -- on the Lois McMaster Bujold List. I joined back in the late 90's, and it was well in use (with that definition) then. I have a vague recollection that someone on the list started it, but I can't know for certain.

It's actually unlikely to come from Holmesians and Sherlockians, because from everything that I've read about them, they work *only* from a Watsonian perspective. ("The Game," as IIRC Leslie Klinger put it.)