Very true! But that "liking" can be translated into so much more valuable results than writing slashy fanfic or designing funny photomanips *grin*
I know you were teasing, but do you know that I actually learned to have empathy for men in love with men -- to feel for them and with them -- from reading a slash Frodo fanfic? (A really good one, of course, a serious one.) No amount of intellectual debate or argument could have done it. (I've written this in comments elsewhere, so I hope I'm not repeating myself to you, Ann.) It took my getting involved in a story, a good story, an engrossing story, written from the POV of a character the author made me care for and about, a character with whom I identified. Therefore, when the author led that character into a slash relationship, I was already so involved, I couldn't help but follow. By caring about and identifying with the slash hero, I was able to identify imaginatively enough to live his story with him. Can you believe it? Reading a fanfic changed my perception about same-sex love and about the people who experience it. It didn't just change my head, my intellectual assessments, but the attitude of my heart.
I think this is the potential power of Brokeback Mountain for viewers. It isn't an argument, it's an experience. If the viewer will enter in. and let her heart become involved with the characters, she will go where she may not have gone before, maybe to where she would not have been willing to go before. That is a huge thing, but it is accomplished in a very low-key, subtle way, worming into the viewer's (or reader's) heart.
You are right that becoming an LotR fan didn't make me fired up to go out and change the world, but it fired me up to do other things, to start to create, to start to reach out and read and write and exchange ideas in a way I hadn't for decades.
One of the things that resulted (per the story about reading the LotR slash fanfic), is that I have a much different feeling about the whole issue of same-sex love than I did. Another thing is that I've gained thirty pounds, forget family birthdays and drink more than I used to, LOL! Not everything was to the good, unfortunately.... *wry smile*
I don't think the connection between art and what it motivates people to do is always a direct and immediate one, is what I'm saying, I guess. But that it motivates some to immediate and decisive action is evident *looks Ann's way* -- and that's fantastic. It's vital for change in the world. That you were inspired to go make a difference the way you did is good and necessary. But maybe the rest of us, the more stick-in-the-mud types, will still contribute, although in less outstanding ways -- ways which we may not even be aware of, like modelling understanding and tolerance to our children and community (not just preaching it), even if we aren't actually out there leafletting -- modelling a degree of tolerance and empathy that we simply wouldn not have felt, had we not been touched the way we were in the first place (and thus couldn't model it).
You quoted from James, "Faith without works is dead." Very true, Ann. But there are a lot of kind of works. Your work may be very active -- and that is vital -- another's may be more low-profile. Besides, some of us are just chicken-shits.
Re: My two (or more) cents again: Political activism
I know you were teasing, but do you know that I actually learned to have empathy for men in love with men -- to feel for them and with them -- from reading a slash Frodo fanfic? (A really good one, of course, a serious one.) No amount of intellectual debate or argument could have done it. (I've written this in comments elsewhere, so I hope I'm not repeating myself to you, Ann.) It took my getting involved in a story, a good story, an engrossing story, written from the POV of a character the author made me care for and about, a character with whom I identified. Therefore, when the author led that character into a slash relationship, I was already so involved, I couldn't help but follow. By caring about and identifying with the slash hero, I was able to identify imaginatively enough to live his story with him. Can you believe it? Reading a fanfic changed my perception about same-sex love and about the people who experience it. It didn't just change my head, my intellectual assessments, but the attitude of my heart.
I think this is the potential power of Brokeback Mountain for viewers. It isn't an argument, it's an experience. If the viewer will enter in. and let her heart become involved with the characters, she will go where she may not have gone before, maybe to where she would not have been willing to go before. That is a huge thing, but it is accomplished in a very low-key, subtle way, worming into the viewer's (or reader's) heart.
You are right that becoming an LotR fan didn't make me fired up to go out and change the world, but it fired me up to do other things, to start to create, to start to reach out and read and write and exchange ideas in a way I hadn't for decades.
One of the things that resulted (per the story about reading the LotR slash fanfic), is that I have a much different feeling about the whole issue of same-sex love than I did. Another thing is that I've gained thirty pounds, forget family birthdays and drink more than I used to, LOL! Not everything was to the good, unfortunately.... *wry smile*
I don't think the connection between art and what it motivates people to do is always a direct and immediate one, is what I'm saying, I guess. But that it motivates some to immediate and decisive action is evident *looks Ann's way* -- and that's fantastic. It's vital for change in the world. That you were inspired to go make a difference the way you did is good and necessary. But maybe the rest of us, the more stick-in-the-mud types, will still contribute, although in less outstanding ways -- ways which we may not even be aware of, like modelling understanding and tolerance to our children and community (not just preaching it), even if we aren't actually out there leafletting -- modelling a degree of tolerance and empathy that we simply wouldn not have felt, had we not been touched the way we were in the first place (and thus couldn't model it).
You quoted from James, "Faith without works is dead." Very true, Ann. But there are a lot of kind of works. Your work may be very active -- and that is vital -- another's may be more low-profile. Besides, some of us are just chicken-shits.
*buys a trailer and parks it next to Ennis's*
;)