I think it's that the privileged adopt the language of ownership rights. The author uses the language of ownership rights because his culture tells him he has ownership over his book.
Ownership rights. That is *exactly* the phrase I'd been unable to peg. That sums up a lot of the meandering!
Although for the last bit, I'm not sure we're at disagreement. What I meant was that to condemn authors as though they are equivalent to the classic/traditional oppressor doesn't feel right. It's overlaying a line of exclusion (oppressed on that side, oppressors on this side) where nothing else tells me, really, that there is any exclusion at all. The only place/way I see that that/this kind of opposition is in the language authors/writers use to debate (defend, attack) the merits of fanfiction.
ETA: Maybe I should've gone with the colloquial and said from the very start that watching the author/writer fanfiction debates reminds me of having chills, nausea, and a bad cough -- but that the doctor keeps saying you don't have the flu. Here's all the symptoms, but the usual culprit is nowhere to be found. So why, then, the symptoms? And do the identical symptoms mean we use the same treatment, or do we have to dig deeper and treat the cause?
All that is probably just a slightly longer way to say that your observation -- we've created a subculture of privilege that happens to use language of opposition -- feels very spot on, to me. But then that raises the question of how to undo/repair/restore communication when this language of opposition has become so common?
no subject
Date: 23 Feb 2011 07:50 am (UTC)Ownership rights. That is *exactly* the phrase I'd been unable to peg. That sums up a lot of the meandering!
Although for the last bit, I'm not sure we're at disagreement. What I meant was that to condemn authors as though they are equivalent to the classic/traditional oppressor doesn't feel right. It's overlaying a line of exclusion (oppressed on that side, oppressors on this side) where nothing else tells me, really, that there is any exclusion at all. The only place/way I see that that/this kind of opposition is in the language authors/writers use to debate (defend, attack) the merits of fanfiction.
ETA: Maybe I should've gone with the colloquial and said from the very start that watching the author/writer fanfiction debates reminds me of having chills, nausea, and a bad cough -- but that the doctor keeps saying you don't have the flu. Here's all the symptoms, but the usual culprit is nowhere to be found. So why, then, the symptoms? And do the identical symptoms mean we use the same treatment, or do we have to dig deeper and treat the cause?
All that is probably just a slightly longer way to say that your observation -- we've created a subculture of privilege that happens to use language of opposition -- feels very spot on, to me. But then that raises the question of how to undo/repair/restore communication when this language of opposition has become so common?