Category Archives: Half-baked

I will write a paper about it. Someday.

On bodilessness [5]

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게임과 추모 (This Is Game, 16 April 2024)

“2020년, 코로나19로 사람들이 모이기 어려웠던 바로 그 때. ‘416을 기억하는 숙명인의 모임’은 <모여봐요 동물의 숲>을 통해 온라인에 추모공간을 만들었습니다.”

“Actually, Indian”

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Upon reading the article that revealed what has really been going on behind Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’, and appreciating social media responses such as “AI = Actually Indian”, I thought I’d save some other related readings in one place for future reference.

Déjà vu, déjà entendu [24]

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Seen all these.

We ship you and we ship you hard. [4]

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Goncharov: why has the internet invented a fake Martin Scorsese film? (The Guardian, 25 November 2022, first learnt via this tweet; see also the Shazaam story)

Neil Gaiman: With the greatest possible respect, “has decided they are in love” is fandom’s default mode. I could have put up pictures of Maggie and Nina and talked about how they hate each other and were each other’s worst enemies and fandom would have nodded its collective head and muttered “ah. Friends to enemies trope. They are in love.” I’m just looking forward to everyone loving Maggie and Nina as much as I do. (7 October 2022, via this tweet)

RT @DiscussingFilm A feature film adaption of Ali Hazelwood’s ‘THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS’, a novel that was originally ‘Reylo’ fanfiction, is in the works. (Source: Deadline) (7 October 2022)

RT @Stormy_Robyn *whispers* my favourite fanfic author just posted a story after years of silence and I am freaking the fuck out (18 April 2016; apparently this is not an uncommon experience, as shared in similar tweets such as this and this, especially during the heights of the pandemic…)

We ship you and we ship you hard. [2]

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Recently, and quite serendipitously, I fell into the rabbit hole of fan-generated derivative works of K-dramas, including what’s called 연성, dispersed across YouTube, Twitter, Postype, Pushoong, and Peing. I am no stranger (read: 고인물) to fandom culture in Korea, but it looks like I have missed some interesting and sophisticated developments of late while being busy with 현생.

At this point, if the term ‘fanfic’ comes to your mind first, let me tell you — that term does not adequately capture the dedication, ingenuity, and multimodal skillsets of participants in the fandom space. No doubt that creating a new fictional universe from scratch is a Herculean task, but here what they do, which is extremely challenging in its own right, is to create a new universe while drawing on, and being loyal to, elements of the universes that others have already created, so that fellow fans can recognise shared referents. I guess the process is comparable to playing jazz variations.

I find such works in the form of micro novels on Twitter to be particularly fascinating, as I witness how creators turn the platform’s technical constraints to their advantage. Now I truly understand why scrolling is likened to pulling a slot machine.

Of course, not every thread is equally “delicious” (in the insider lingo). A bit hit-and-miss, I must add, and some were indeed way off the mark that I didn’t have enough 항마력 to read through. In any case though, I personally loved the prolific energy; everyone wants to create more content, everyone is hungry for more ideas and prompts, and, above all, everyone is willing to take the narratives into their own hands.

Besides, there was something else about the space that struck me familiar. There is an old Friends episode where Phoebe talks about how her mother would protect her from the sad endings of movies or TV shows when she was small. Not to that extent, but I do have a similar childhood memory. On occasions, after I watched or read something that ended ambiguously, my mum would come up with some ‘epilogues’ suggesting a happier ending. It looks like I was in fact introduced to the concept of 상플 very early on!