LJ Dreams

[intertext]

I had my first LJ dream last night (ie a dream featuring LJ) in which oursin posted that she had been reading the childlit mailing list group and had encountered a very interesting member on it who was an LJ user and who had become a "friend." She was urging all of the people on her flist to "friend" this person. I don't remember who it was, except it wasn't Philip Pullman (who does subscribe to childlit, but I don't know if he's on LJ...). This seems, afterwards, unlikely - uncharacteristic of "oursin" I think to proselytize for another user, for one thing - but made me think about the differences between these two groups and why I vastly prefer LJ.

I continue to read childlit mostly for news about books and authors. I find the discussion of books there frustrating, and discourse is touchy, often whiny, frequently deteriorating into flamewars. In this past year, for example, there have been long pointless flamewars about the war in Iraq, Bush's response to the flooding of New Orleans, whether or not we should wish people Merry Christmas (this was just before Xmas 2004), and about spoilerage over HP6. Someone on the list let out big spoilers about 12 hours after the release of the book and then refused to apologize or even recognize that he/she had done anything wrong. Long arguments ensued. There are "famous authors" on it, such as Philip Pullman and Jane Yolen. This can be a liability, however, if one wants to say rude things about their stated views on other authors or their books.

I still long for somewhere to get into really meaty discussions about books - I think it happens; it doesn't seem to happen for me yet. Perhaps I need to build a bigger flist :) I probably need to post more and comment on more people's posts, because it does seem to me that the kind of discourse I'm looking for _does_ happen here...

Comments

[gillo]

It's always possible to start a community for like-minded souls, you know.

But I agree, it's not always easy to find people who really share an interest - I've found it very hit and miss to look up lj userlists of people who express the same interests - as often as not it's a very tenuous link. I'd love to find more people who love children's lit - especially YA fantasy in my case. I'd like to bounce around more ideas about theatre and Shakespeare, also my passions.

There are author-specific lists which branch off into very intelligent discussion, though. The DWJ list discusses all sorts of other good stuff - I've found a lot of things I've enjoyed through recs there. http://suberic.net/dwj/list/

There's also the Compuserve Literature Forum (now called Netscape) and the forum (Books and Writers' Community) has a dedicated child/YA lit section: http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-books

There's a mix of would-be writers and booklovers - the forum section is moderated by Marsha Skrypuch, a wonderful Canadian writer of YA stuff - and it can have some tedious threads, but also some intelligent discussion. I used to be very much a regular there, though it's a while since I've been active.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm always up for a discussion of YA fantasy! I'm reading a wonderful YA novel right now, actually, a non-fantasy, but very good. I'll post something when I'm finished. Rec.arts.books.childrens used to be quite good, but has recently deteriorated to about one person posting birthdays of authors and the odd "do you remember this book" post. Thanks for the other recommendations - and meanwhile, I think you and I have a lot of similar tastes; I look forward to chatting about our reading :)

[gillo]

So do I - I am very glad I found you. Funny how lj works in that way, isn't it?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Some of the best YA lit (and other book-type) discussion takes place in the ljs of specific individuals, in my experience.

[gillo]

I've just been to look at your userinfo - you like Antonia Forest! Please may I friend you?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! - and you know about the lj community trennels, I presume?

[gillo]

you know about the lj community trennels, I presume?

No, I didn't. ::scurrying off to find it now!::

Thank you!

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I agree - I'm still a bit shy about barging in on discussions on lj's whom I haven't "friended" - is there any specific etiquette about that? And I'm not even 100% sure of the etiquette of "friending" - I think at first I was friending first and asking questions later, sorry if that was rude, by the way...

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Some people do get their knickers in an immense twist about the etiquette of friending*: personally I don't mind people just doing so quietly so long as they don't then take this as a licence to be obnoxious and pushy in any discussions taking place on my lj.

*Though probably less so if they are already friended by large nos of people, which tends to happen if they are known to generate good discussion.