One of the things I'm most interested in is how much of a 'mold' there still is in the uke/seme scheme. The general pattern seems to stay the same, but four or five years ago when I was really into that particular subject, I came across exceptions to the uke/seme rules (like the one about age) very often even without consciously looking for them. Often enough to make me wonder if the uke/seme thing is really as rigid as people think it is. Of course more research is necessary here, but I suspect that European and American fans have preconceptions about how a given pairing should look that are just as 'fixed' as uke/seme (should make that seme/uke, probably). Maybe the preconceptions of Japanese fans are just more 'organized' than those in Western fandom. Does that make any sense at all? :)
Ah, I'm stuck on pretty much the same problem with regards to interacting with Japanese fans. One of the most important things for me, research-wise, is involving others (fans, academics, whoever's interested) as much as possible instead of spending four years just turning my own little theories around in my head. I feel quite comfortable asking people on LJ or IJ what they think, and when I do a final big writeup of the research and ask around whether I'm allowed to quote people, I'm confident that a majority won't mind.
I really want to contact the authors of the djs I use and ask for their opinions (on the off chance they'd volunteer some :) At least, I want them to know I've used their stuff -there's no legal obligation for me to inform them or anything, it just seems like the polite and respectful thing to do, particularly in a fannish context. However, things like the situation you describe make me wonder if it would really be a good idea to contact them. If they asked me to remove all mention of their dj from my research, I'd oblige them, but that wouldn't be very methodologically sound.
Maybe it would be best to stick to the djs and not involve the authors at all. Basically, no problem, since my first and foremost goal is to examine what the content of dojinshi is; speculations about author motivations come second. But I'd feel kind of bad going out of my way to directly involve ficcers on the one hand and totally ignoring djka on the other. At the moment, I don't have any contacts among djka (well, one, but I haven't talked with her about this yet). How do you believe people would react if I contacted them to point out I'm using their dj for research? Would they ask me to withdraw the material?
*roots around in bookmarks* Reminds me of these two articles about online anonimity in Japan: http://clast.diamondagency.jp/en/?p=129 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/26/business/AS-TEC-Japan-Shy-Internet.php
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2009-01-12 12:31 pm (UTC)Ah, I'm stuck on pretty much the same problem with regards to interacting with Japanese fans. One of the most important things for me, research-wise, is involving others (fans, academics, whoever's interested) as much as possible instead of spending four years just turning my own little theories around in my head. I feel quite comfortable asking people on LJ or IJ what they think, and when I do a final big writeup of the research and ask around whether I'm allowed to quote people, I'm confident that a majority won't mind.
I really want to contact the authors of the djs I use and ask for their opinions (on the off chance they'd volunteer some :) At least, I want them to know I've used their stuff -there's no legal obligation for me to inform them or anything, it just seems like the polite and respectful thing to do, particularly in a fannish context. However, things like the situation you describe make me wonder if it would really be a good idea to contact them. If they asked me to remove all mention of their dj from my research, I'd oblige them, but that wouldn't be very methodologically sound.
Maybe it would be best to stick to the djs and not involve the authors at all. Basically, no problem, since my first and foremost goal is to examine what the content of dojinshi is; speculations about author motivations come second. But I'd feel kind of bad going out of my way to directly involve ficcers on the one hand and totally ignoring djka on the other. At the moment, I don't have any contacts among djka (well, one, but I haven't talked with her about this yet). How do you believe people would react if I contacted them to point out I'm using their dj for research? Would they ask me to withdraw the material?
*roots around in bookmarks* Reminds me of these two articles about online anonimity in Japan:
http://clast.diamondagency.jp/en/?p=129
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/26/business/AS-TEC-Japan-Shy-Internet.php