#nb4r I'm just having thinky thoughts on this fine monday evening

[naranjapetrificada]

Ship Manifestos?

Do any of my fellow OFMD fans who are also Livejournal veterans remember how common ship manifestos used to be? I'm not saying they were exclusive to LJ, just that I tended to see them more commonly there, and as a discrete thing from the way general meta seems to take shape on tumblr dot com. Which is fine! The medium is the message etc, but I just started thinking about how I never see them anymore.

I think I'm thinking about this because more than in any other fandom I've ever participated in, I find myself baffled by A Few Particular non-canon ships in a way I can't possibly account for. Even with the requisite probable lack of hinges, I find myself missing the ship manifesto as a form in this situation. It's making me feel old and nostalgic and also like, fundamentally divorced from the way my brain used to handle even those ships that weren't for me.

Beyond the obvious internal fandom discourse we've had at length (and don't need to rehash) about the ways shipping does and does not feel different with ofmd, I wonder if this is more of that "we're so used to queer romance as subtext or afterthought that we handle queer-centric stories strangely" phenomenon?

#not trying to start anything #that was my posts this morning lol #nb4r I'm just having thinky thoughts on this fine monday evening #long-term participation in fandom is an interesting thing ain't it #ofmd meta #fandom meta #gentlebeard #blackbonnet