random

This is utterly random, but why not? I was browsing google (searching for researched articles on fanfiction, actually) and I found this. Of course, the first mention of "Harry Potter porn" had me jumping on it... but then I saw this:

A Google.com search lists more than 70 Web sites devoted to Harry Potter slash with some as hosts to 100 or more stories and others featuring vast galleries of fan art picturing Harry and his boarding school chums in flagrante.

"Only 70?! WTF? When was this thing written?!"

Answer: 2001. I lol'd.

Also, proof that a lot of author's miss that line between trademark and copyright by a pretty wide margin can be found here.

FAIL.

Age =/= Wisdom (or How I Found Rock'n'Roll)

Warning: 2000 words of tl;dr ahead.

It may shock many who don't share the interest, but I spent a number of happy hours today surfing through the academic and journalist sections of the web. Part of the reason why isn't very admirable. There's a sick, subversive joy in reading about an outsider's view of my "inside group", and then writing a post about how they're doing it wrong. I also find it extremely interesting to read the rare article that has its hamsters in a row. They have a way of making me think about myself in relation to what I do, as well as in relation to what I don't do, and who I don't do it with. Say what you like, but as long as I'm being accused of over-thinking, I'm not being accused of failing to think at all.
( But this is the downside of that. )

Every generation has its achievement and its tragedy. My grandparents had WWII and the Great Depression. My parents had Free Love and Viet Nam. I think perhaps my generation has the Iraq War, and if so I can only be thankful that we've come so far that the Iraq War is considered a true tragedy. But what is our achievement? I think it will be the empowered discourse created by the internet—a language of "we" rather than of "I". It will be a refusal to accept anything "because it is" and instead investigate it for what it can be. I think that, the greatest achievement of my generation will ultimately be the ability to laugh at itself, to accept mistakes and continue the dialogue into improvement. We're very good at taking ourselves serious, and addressing any criticism as a personal affront rather than an alternate view. That ability, to laugh, accept and adjust, to exist as a group and not as a million individuals, is something I don't think has ever truly been embodied in the American spirit.

Maybe it's time it did.