It's all gone a bit quiet round here...

[dolorous_ett]

This is mostly because large parts of my life as it now stands involve sitting around and waiting for things to get started. Nothing worth angsting about, but it's playing hell with my concentration. My story is stymied too - Hagrid's got into a long conversation with the Weasley twins and I'm having problems bringing the conversation to an end and getting them out of the house.

So - to keep things ticking over on my poor journal until something happens - a couple of fairly random questions.

1. Is it cruel to shave a dog in hot weather? (This is a long-running RL argument which I would really like to be able to put to bed once and for all).

2. Do a lot of RL people know about your fanfic habit? (If you're reading this journal at all, I assume you have one - or once did). I'm very much in the closet - my parents have read "Furious Wielder of Storms" and my partner knows because I don't want him thinking I'm conducting a furtive Internet affair - but apart from that, that's it and I have no urge to widen the circle of those in the know. In fact I'd go to some lengths to avoid it. Is this normal?

Comments

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

We shave our dog. Often it's a necessity: removes ticks, makes it cooler for the dog, and makes it easier to find ticks, which is absolutely important if you live near scrub at all. Also, makes it easier for taking them on walks.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Ha! I knew it! I knew it!

Cheers, Gun!

(why does it make it easier to take them on walks, by the way?)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

2. Something similar with my parents - tends to be more to do with the creative writing angle. Not that I make a big thing about writing stories in any case - not everyone around me would be sympathetic even to that.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

1. Can't see any problem, except that they may feel the cold a bit at first.
2. Himself knows, can't remember if my dad does, no one else!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

2. I'm starting to see a pattern here...

Which is odd, because I'd assumed I was the only one being so paranoid about it.

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

1. It's cruel NOT to shave some dogs in the hot weather. If you want the look of a dog with, say, lots of feathering, you can just shave the center of his/her belly to get him/her some air.

2. Well. You know all about that. :(

A Vet Writes...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

1. Well, you ought to know - thanks for lending your authority to the pro-shaving lobby!

2. I do. And I still think they were way out of line. Sneaks.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

1) I have no idea, but I guess it would depend on how much the individual dog hated being shaved.

2) No. I've mentioned it once or twice, and I suspect my office-mates may know if they've looked at the browser history or accidentally opened the wrong file on our (shared) computer, but it's certainly not something I advertise. I suspect the general attitude among most people I know would be "why are you wasting your time writing stuff you can't publish or lay claim to in public?"

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I suspect the general attitude among most people I know would be "why are you wasting your time writing stuff you can't publish or lay claim to in public?"

Mine too. And on one level they have a point.

However, on another level they are totally missing the point. What's wrong with writing what you enjoy?

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

1. No. My parents have it done every summer, and it makes the dog much happier.
2. Yes. My parents have read most of my fics, they have shared them with their HP reading friends. With my very first fic, I printed it out and sent it to all the friends I have who read Harry Potter. I was so proud of myself for writing a story!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I think yours is by far the healthiest attitude.

Unfortunately, so far you seem to be the only one!

Silly, really. There's a lot of really excellent fic out there whose writers should be shouting it from the rooftops...

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

oh m ygod. no-one knews about my lj and fanfic and so forth. (nothtat I have a lto of rl friends butthe one i see most doesnt' seem itnerested i nfanfi and my parents..well I don't know..they'd wnt me to bundle it ia nbook :P
Plus once i changedm ystupid msn profiel naem fro mm yrealname to Selune jsutto let lie kto itnernet friends recognize me m ybrother came up and asked' who the hack is this' and m yparents thoguth someoen had pushedi ntotheir contact listand deleted me. *snerk*
notthat I" Mwriting fic or busy wit hany kidn of meta these days...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

The parents story made me laugh. I've had similar experiences - notably a Very Important Email from a lawyer that I found nearly a month later in my spam inbox...

We both seem to have a lot of company in our closet, don't we?

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

1. This seems to have been answered already. Besides, I'm a cat person. :)

2. No. My family has some vague idea that I play around online with other HP and SPN fans, but they don't know I write fanfic. I'm not even sure they know I write original fic, or at least that I still do, because I've always been weird about not letting anybody reading it. And I don't really want them know.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

But do you shave your pussy when things get hot?

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

1. Never thought about it but it does seem a good idea.

2. Hubby knows I write the stuff and he's a bit sniffy about it but he tolerates it because it makes me happy. He did read The Affairs of Wizards and enjoyed it, though. His position can be summed up as, "Why not concentrate on your original writing instead of producing derivative stuff based on someone else's?" I've not told any of my friends. I don't think they'd care one way or the other.

MM

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

He both has a point and doesn't have a point, I think.

I mean, your original writing is going to take you further in the end - but I don't see why that makes doing fanfic for fun a bad thing...

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Hello! First of all, great to hear that Q has got his visa! Can quite see that the time until he gets here must have a peculiar quality...

1)I don't know anything about dogs!

2)More than a few RL people know about it, but I wouldn't say I go around discussing it openly. I feel a bit cross with myself with this, because I do enjoy it (it's got me writing for the first time in ten years, and the whole LJ community thing is such fun - she says, after another of her disappearances...) and I can't help feeling I'm being dictated to by fear of what other people might think of me, and their ideas of what is 'cool' instead of being confident in myself. But then I think that there's nothing wrong with being different things to different people, so...

The thing that makes me most cross with myself is that I suspect I might be more open about it if it weren't HP fanfic, which seems remarkably disloyal to books which have given me such pleasure.

[tree_and_leaf]

Case in point: I never even knew you liked HP until our paths crossed on LJ.

Mind you, an aquaintance from college was helping me move stuff, saw my large foil map of middle earth, and said enthusiastically "I had no idea you liked fantasy too!".

[waterbird.livejournal.com]

1.) I've never had a dog, but I've also never thought it cruel to shave dogs during the summer. Especially dogs that are native to colder climates and really haven't evolved to deal with 30-degree weather.

2.) The only RL people who know that I write/read fic are my husband (though I've never let him read anything) and one RL friend I work with -- we figured out within a few weeks of working together that we were both in the HP fandom. I have other RL friends who are into HP, but I haven't let on how much of a lost cause I am, as I assume they won't really get it. OTOH, I also have a couple of fandom friends who I now also know in RL, which is very nice. :)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

The dogs I wanted to shave were in 40 degree weather! And I hadn't thought of the evolved-for-colder-climate thing.

2. If I found out one of my RL colleagues was in fandom I'd be terrified. Not that it's likely to happen. They have other things on their minds, or so I devoutly hope!

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

1. We always had short-haired dogs (mostly Dobermans) when I was growing up, so this was never an issue. My only concern would be if the dog was fair-skinned it might get sunburn if it spent a lot of time outside in the summer.

2. Oh, god no! My family already thinks I'm a freak for reading "kids books" as it is; I think the very concept of fanfic would cause my mother's brain to short-circuit (hm ...). They know I write original fiction (or did, until I was infected by fandom) so when I talk about my "writing" they think I'm talking about original fic. It's sort of a "don't ask/don't tell" policy.

I have two friends who've read the books; one knows about fandom (she's participated in LotR and Buffy fandoms) but she looks down on HP fandom, and HP fanfic in particular, so I've never told her I've written anything (or that I participate in famdom, for that matter). My other friend who has read the books was perplexed by the very concept of fanfic when I mentioned it to her in a non-specific, round-about kind of way. So I keep my mouth shut about it; I think everyone's happier in the current climate of deceit. *g*

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

1. The sunburn angle hadn't occurred to me - but since the place where I wanted to shave dogs was also smoggy I doubt it'd be much of a problem.

2. "everyone's happier in the current climate of deceit" - nicely put!

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Hmm...several of my friends know, but they're also involved in fandoms of various sorts so that wasn't terribly difficult. My sister knows, and apparently some of her friends at some point read 'Be All My Secrets Remembered' (a slightly surreal feeling for me, to say the least), but nobody else knows, as far as I'm aware. If my boyfriend ever found out, he'd probably find it hilarious, but I don't think I've quite got the nerve to say it.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It must be nice to share that kind of thing with a sibling. I can't begin to imagine my brother's reaction... wouldn't be good in any case.

And I'm curious - given that your boyfriend is on Livejournal and presumably reads yours, how has he managed to overlook all your mentions of BAMSR?

Good luck with the Oxford project, on another subject entirely. I have a nasty feeling I may never have had the time to say this on your journal, even though I've read the entries....

[tree_and_leaf]

My boyfriend knows. My mother has possibly guessed.

Other people? Well, I had a discussion about reading fan-fic with a girl who used to come to my seminar, but that was before I wrote it myself. I'd probably have told her if she was still about. Otherwise, no.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It's funny how everyone tells partners. I suppose it's to avoid the suspicion of having some dodgy online relationship...

[snorkackcatcher]

1. Can't remember any of the family doggs (I actually did type that without thinking, Steve Rowland would be pleased?) ever being shaved, but anyway -- it's cold climate England, not hot climate China. :)

2. My mother knows -- she was a bit critical sometimes (when she came to call) at what I was wpending so much time doing on the PC, but switched round pretty much when I showed her the nice comments on the Niffle post at FAP and became quite proud. She mentioned it to a couple of other relatives, but I doubt they understood what it was all about!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

2. That's rather sweet. And nice that she understands why you're doing good work, as well as just being proud because that's what mothers tend to do...

1. Doggs? Very cool spellingg.

[jin-fenghuang.livejournal.com]

The only RL people who know about my fandom activities are those that I met through fandom.
I just don't feel like defending my hobby.
Fandom activities are often considered worthy of redicule, I really do not need that.


As for the dog: Inner Snape suggests an eppilier machine, you know those that plug out the whole hair. But then, he is thinking about Sirius ;-)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I completely understand about not wanting to expose your hobbies to ridicule, since that's more or less exactly the line I take myself.

*cringes horribly at the idea of eppilier machine* - I've never understood how someone could do that to themselves - but as a torture device it makes a certain amount of sense....

[fungus-files.livejournal.com]

1. Ditto what Gun said. Esp if you live in tropical/sub-tropical areas where humans are wilting and having 3 showers a day and they're not covered in so much furry stuff. ;)

2. Only one close friend knows I write/wrote fanfic and about my LJ (I sorta started my LJ to keep in touch with her more consistently), one has read a fanfic story but doesn't know about my LJ. My partner knows I have an LJ and that I've written a couple of stories, but he doesn't read any of it (LJ or stories) and I don't go out of my way to encourage him. No-one else knows about this stuff and, like you, I'm in no hurry to change this.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

1. True. While waiting for the visa in Chongqing I'd have shaved my own hair off for two pins. And I rather like my hair!

That's the first ARnold icon I've seen! Did you make it yourself?

[ajat.livejournal.com]

1 - I'd prefer to snip a bit, rather than shave entirely.

2 - No. No ! No !! Absolutely No !!! EEE !

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

2. Now that does surprise me. I would have thought you were rather in your face about it... but I can quite see why you wouldn't want every Tom, Dick and Harry to know. I wouldn't.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

1 seems to have been answered to your satisfaction!

2 - like you and various other people, my boyfriend knows I write fanfic (but not about the LJ - that's my private space). And my best friend knows about the LJ, but nobody else knows anything - I hope!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Interesting to see how many people do have partners at least partly in the know - I suspect it's to avoid suspicions?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

1) I can see the practical arguments for it, and don’t really think it’s cruel (as long as it’s done on a tranquilised dog if the animal gets stressed), but in certain circumstances would argue that the need should be obviated by better selection of the dog breed concerned – don’t keep a husky in Morocco.

2) One of my sisters knows and has read because she writes fic herself, in a different fandom, and we exchange ideas, though have a gentleman’s agreement not to read one another’s LJs. My parents know, but haven’t read it (and aren’t fans to any extent that they’d be interested, though given that my father’s response to Jackson’s The Two Towers was “Is the book that homoerotic?” I suspect he would find the fandom phenomenon very interesting, if only from a theoretical point of view), but they don’t get to read original fic either – I tell them they can when it’s in final proof form should I ever get that far. Other sister knows, but isn’t a fan type.

Three RL people know and have read, one of whom does not have an LJ, but with whom I’ve talked about Chalet School fanfic a lot, and two of whom are on my Flist and both found me via trennels (one making not-too-hard a guess from existing knowledge, the other being a bit more of a detective).

Another couple of RL friends know, but I haven’t been foolish enough to give them a sample of fic they could Google for because they would mock me mercilessly (in a nice way), though they have read my Watership Down/Star Trek slash fic, written to demonstrate the truth of the Geek Hierarchy.

In general, I admit reasonably freely that I write fanfic (if necessary pointing out its long and respectable history, and that if William Makepeace Thackeray could write very shippy fic and have it published by the OUP, then why should I be ashamed?), what I don’t do is tell people where they can find it. I haven’t mentioned it to my colleagues, but then I hardly mention anything about my private life to my colleagues.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

1. I promise never to own a husky in the Sahara!

2. That's very interesting - and thanks for such a long answer! It sounds like the more experienced and prolific end of fandom are a bit less shy about it.

I'm sure your attitude is the right one - being pretty open about it, and backing it up with knowledge.