This is a scholarly Blog for ENGL 3605 - Theories in Ethics and Racism. More specifically about Encoding Race in Literature. It's been posted as a assignment and is being marked as one. Please keep this in mind.
In all honesty the fact that any shonen jump manga ends up even somewhat coherent is wild considering the authors schedules like all id be able to produce would be rambling fever dreams
Like imagine having to plan, storyboard, and illustrate each new chapter every week on the fly with meetings with editors you have to please and then days of crunch time, like never getting a full nights rest and then doing the same thing next week.
Mangakas have reported a mere couple of hours of personal time a week. Its literally unfathomable to me how anyone can create consistently good work in that industry.
And takahashi being SICK on top of that? Christ dude.
Like look at this one artists schedule and tell me this doesnt make your soul shrivel a little at the thought. They barely have time to SLEEP let alone write and plan
yes this ^^^^^^^ they are heroes
they aren’t heroes, they’re overworked human beings. stop glorifying overwork culture it’s super unhealthy. the manga industry is a grim place and they really, really need to get a fucking grip and stop coming up with bullshit rules.
if they want to release their magazines weekly, they need to come up with a system that doesn’t involve a person having to sleep for 2 hours and eat once in a day. or don’t have a weekly manga magazine at all… and y’all need to stop normalizing and/or glorifying unhealthy work ethics like this, it’s disgusting
Yeah no one send any hate to shapooda but the point of my post was that this is p awful.
No one needs their weekly manga chapter that badly. Imagine how much more time theyd have if it were even just biweekly.
This isnt healthy or sustainable. Its soul sucking and exhausting. One week of this would be enough to burn me out I cant imagine this being my whole existence. Theres no time in here to be a person. See family and friends. Go out and enjoy yourself. Meet people. Try new things.
Look at that monday. He eats at 8 am and then doesnt even get another break until 8 am the next day when he goes to sleep.
i am SO SICK of unhappy endings. idk about anyone else but the #1 reason i like fiction is because everything can always work out no matter how bad it is. “what if the good guys lost” shut up. you are so fucking boring. give me happy endings or give me nothing
There’s something that I fundamentally don’t understand about Article 13.
It doesn’t simply protect copyrighted content, it will also absolutely impact the bottom line of these big businesses too. This is how I see it.
Here’s my current fandom:
How did I get into Kingsman? Was it because I saw a trailer for it on TV and thought, “Hey, I should see that.”
Nope. It was via online fandom content almost two years after Kingsman: The Secret Service was released. I never would’ve given it the time of day if not for gifsets and fanfic that I saw and read before I’d even seen the movie. But I saw those things first, so the movie then caught my interest, and I watched it. Legally. I ended up purchasing movie tickets for the sequel, I bought the movies on Blu-ray, I bought some official Kingsman merchandise (don’t judge me), and I even spent a little money on one of the official Kingsman mobile games (like 20 dolla, and I’m not proud of it).
I spend a significant part of my online time interacting in the orbit of the Kingsman fandom. I look forward to the third movie (the actual third movie, not this weird prequel thing…ugh). I will actively spend money on the movie and probably some official merchandise when it’s released too. I also have an interest in the actors from the movie and legally seek out their other work (even Robin Hood, haaaa). Meaning I intend to SPEND MONEY on things related to Kingsman because fandom content keeps my interest going long beyond its official release. Fandom content is often what will catch my interest in the first place.
My fandom before Kingsman?
When I got into Marvel/Captain America, how do you think that happened?
Did I see trailers before other movies? TV commercials? Was it because of people I knew in real life who enjoyed it? Nope. I rarely see any promotional material for things because I don’t normally take in content in the traditional way (the same as most other Millennials and Gen Z, I’d wager). I knew of them, obviously, because they’re insanely popular. But I didn’t give a shit.
I didn’t give a lick about Marvel and it wasn’t until I saw some fan commentary and gifsets on Tumblr/in fan spaces of Captain America: The Winter Soldier that I was like, “Oooh, this sounds interesting. I need to watch this.”
And I watched it. Legally. And I bought it. Legally. And I went out and legally watched everything else Marvel. I bought legal/licensed Marvel merchandise. I bought Marvel comics, ffs. Do you think I cared about comics before that? At this point, I’ve probably spent a good few hundred dollars on Marvel related content. Probably closer to $1000 than $100. And that’s mild compared to some people!
Do you think I would’ve done any of that if I hadn’t first seen fan created content that technically uses copyrighted material?
I sure the fuck would not. I would’ve gone on not caring about it at all.
My point is, Article 13 is so fucking short-sighted. Fandom and creative content made by people not associated with these businesses often makes or breaks that content. How many people do you think got into Marvel the same way I did? How many millions of dollars have people spent on Marvel related merchandise because fandom content fostered their interest way beyond “See it in the movie theatre, then go home and forget about it?”
Here’s another example for the other end of the spectrum:
Avatar. The James Cameron movie. It made $2.7 billion at the box office worldwide. That’s nice. But does anyone really give a shit about it? I’ve never seen it. Don’t have any desire to see it or the supposed upcoming sequels. The only online content I see about it? Mocks it. There is no fandom.
To compare fandoms on Ao3:
No one gives a shit. No one is looking for Avatar. Maybe the sequels will do well, I’m not a psychic. I have no idea. But my point is, there is no longevity there. No one is looking for official Avatar merchandise. No one is creating works about it that keeps interest going years after it was released. And continued interest means continued profit.
So Avatar did really, really well at the box office. Exceptionally well. And then?
Are people buying Avatar clothing? Books? Mugs, tchotchkes, spending thousands of dollars to meet the cast and creators at conventions? Special editions of the movies? Collector’s items?
Google “Avatar pop” and what do you think comes up? Pop! figures for the Avatar movie? Nope. There aren’t any. Are there Pop! figures for Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has a healthy online fandom presence? Yep.
Supernatural is an excellent example as well. A small show on a struggling network. Isn’t it on season 247 at this point? What do you think helped it last as long as it has? All that sweet network promo? The A-List status of its stars (hahahaha)?
HAAAAA! NO! It’s the fucking fan content! All the fanvids, fanfic, artwork, gifsets, commentary, discussions, meta, and beyond. All those creations get seen by hundreds, thousands of people who may have never heard of it before. But it’s that kind of content that sparks an interest. If you’re in that fandom, think of the coolest piece of art (or the best fanfic), that’s what inspires people to seek something out. That’s what cultivates an interest for years, including purchasing god knows what for god knows how much money. Terribly photoshopped ~official~ promo pictures and a couple commercials ain’t gonna do it.
Does the below image make me go “LOL WHAT? wats happening? wats going on? wat is this????”
Ya. Dark, morbid, funny. Sounds interesting…
Does the below official image make me go, “Oooh, gotta watch whatever that is!”
It sure the fuck does not. Sorry Jensen Ackles, you’re good looking and all, but nah. Can’t say I have any interest in whatever that is. WHY ARE YOU IN A CAGE? WHAT IS THAT CHAIN FOR? help me i’m scared
ANYWAY. Which content style above is going to inspire and cultivate enough of a longterm interest that people are willing to buy board games, clothing, jewelry, DVD sets, magazines, go to conventions, buy god knows what else, and spread the word about the show? For over a decade? It ain’t the second picture, I can tell you that much.
Fan content creates new fans and cultivates longterm interest which earns big businesses more money.
That is one of many reasons why Article 13 is shit. For fan content creators and for big business. It’s not a threat to the big business bottom line, it’s free promotion.
I BEG YOU. DO NOT SCROLL PAST THIS.
Need the EU’s Directive on Copyright
Article 13 explained to you or a friend in a different way you might get? READ OP’s post now and pass it on!
I mean… what keeps a fandom like Supernatural alive constantly throughout 14 seasons?
Fic, art, gifs, meta, and a thriving fandom that creates this community. This is the community that drives people to buy all the official merch, to support the charity events run by the actors, to spent big bucks on official conventions, and keeps people engaged with the show. Would a fandom like this have any hope of surviving without the fan-created content? If we were forbidden from creating this family online?
Yeah, this is important. Article 13 MUST NOT happen.
Hey assholes!
If you’ve found my blog, there’s a good chance you like STAR TREK.
What elevated Trek from a corny niche telvision show cancelled after 3 seasons to a media juggernaut spanning 6 spin-off TV shows, 13 films, countless novels, comics, and unbelievable amounts of liscenced material?
FANS did that.
Fans who organized letter-writing campaigns, wrote zines, taped shows on VHS and replayed them for their friends, made cosplay, and hosted fan conventions in their own homes. Fans who grew the audience for this fictional universe by devoting their time and passion to creating for it. Fans who used existing characters, universes, and stories, but transformed them with their own talents, skills, and desires into something entirely new.
We would not have the majority of Star Trek canon we have now without the fans. And the Internet is our modern public forum, without which we cannot organise and support fandom to the extent it is now.
I realize I’m preaching to the choir here, but legal decisions like these won’t stay regional. The Internet is one of the few truly global spaces accessible to most people, and legal changes that affect parts of it will have chain reactions in other regions and nations.
If you love memes, fan content, and other derivative works, you must speak out and defend your right to create and consume them.
The alternative is a censorship that will defy anything seen before.
if you ever try to befriend me and you expect to be in frequent contact with me i am so sorry. i do that with maybe two people and even then i often go days or weeks without saying anything before talking daily for a while.
the point is if we dont talk that doesnt mean i dont like u and think about u a lot im just terrible at maintaining close relationships
If you ever tagged me to do one of those tag game thingies and I never did it:
1) Thank you, seriously. Those are fun and being included shows that my followers care enough to want to learn more about me.
2) Very sorry about that, it’s extremely likely that I said to myself “Cool! But I’m busy at the moment, I’ll have to do this later today or tomorrow” before proceeding to just straight-up forget, now it’s too far back in my notifications and/or your blog to find again.
There’s also 3) Tumblr failed to pop a big oo’ notification and I never fuckin realised
Artisan Scribbles 