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Apr. 8th, 2006 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nnyA sign of increased confidence, of late, that I'm really rather enjoying: I've started weighing in on discussions. Even in people's journals that I don't even know. I've always been far more likely to avoid discussions altogether, for fear that I'll say something stupid, for fear that I won't argue my point well enough or I won't even understand it. I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that I'm entitled to have an opinion. And I'm entitled to express it.
More than that, though - it's not an embarrassment to admit that you hadn't seen things in a certain way before. It's okay to say that someone has changed your mind about something, or to admit that you don't know/haven't heard of something. It's okay to be wrong, so long as you don't cling to it and start wank just 'cos you're afraid to admit it. *grins*
I don't think I've ever really been afraid of appearing stupid. It's actually something of a defense mechanism at times, to stop people from expecting anything from me. Truth is, I'm not, though. I'm not nearly so well educated as a lot of the people I come across online, not so well as many people on my friendslist; this is something that's largely my fault. I don't learn very well in a lecture environment - I've learned far more reading on my own and scouting about on the internet and browsing my friendslist than I did at University, in some ways. I need to read something to have it sink in, and I need to work on that further and try to advance my own learning.
But I'm not stupid.
It makes me want to take more of an active part in fandom, as a whole. Maybe read Good Omens again, maybe try and write something vaguely coherent about the A-C dynamic and why the Crowley=demon=bad=DOMINANT assumption makes me grit my teeth rather and wonder if people have actually read the book.
If anyone knows of any places I could find discussions, I'd be interested. Most of the communities and such that I'm member of tend to be all-fic, all the time. And I just... don't find myself so interested in fic as I used to be. I've become more discerning in my old age, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hth_the_first wrote an interesting entry on so-called 'emo porn' that made me start to think about why. But that's a different subject entirely.
More than that, though - it's not an embarrassment to admit that you hadn't seen things in a certain way before. It's okay to say that someone has changed your mind about something, or to admit that you don't know/haven't heard of something. It's okay to be wrong, so long as you don't cling to it and start wank just 'cos you're afraid to admit it. *grins*
I don't think I've ever really been afraid of appearing stupid. It's actually something of a defense mechanism at times, to stop people from expecting anything from me. Truth is, I'm not, though. I'm not nearly so well educated as a lot of the people I come across online, not so well as many people on my friendslist; this is something that's largely my fault. I don't learn very well in a lecture environment - I've learned far more reading on my own and scouting about on the internet and browsing my friendslist than I did at University, in some ways. I need to read something to have it sink in, and I need to work on that further and try to advance my own learning.
But I'm not stupid.
It makes me want to take more of an active part in fandom, as a whole. Maybe read Good Omens again, maybe try and write something vaguely coherent about the A-C dynamic and why the Crowley=demon=bad=DOMINANT assumption makes me grit my teeth rather and wonder if people have actually read the book.
If anyone knows of any places I could find discussions, I'd be interested. Most of the communities and such that I'm member of tend to be all-fic, all the time. And I just... don't find myself so interested in fic as I used to be. I've become more discerning in my old age, and
hth_the_first wrote an interesting entry on so-called 'emo porn' that made me start to think about why. But that's a different subject entirely.
