Ascendio 2012: A Harry Potter Fandom Event

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The second Ascendio Newsletter was posted today, and it includes updates about making hotel reservations online and how to volunteer, organize a meet-up, propose a programming session. We also announced Mark of MarkReads.net as our first special guest. Click the banner to read the newsletter, and we’re looking forward to seeing you next summer!

NEWS LETTER CONTENTS:

Registration Update
Calling All Artists!: Ascendio T-shirt Contest
Find Us on Facebook!
MarkReads at Ascendio
Call for Formal Programming Proposals
Birds of a Feather — Call for Fan Meet-Ups!
Volunteer for Team Ascendio!
Staff Spotlight — Meet the Minister of Magic, Flourish
Local Spotlight — Loews Portofino Bay Hotel
Other Lodging & Perks
Ascendio across the Web

Ascendio2012, Harry Potter, Harry Potter fancon, Ascendio Harry fandom Wizarding World of Harry Potter fandomy fun

10. 14. 11. 03:04 pm ♥ 8

Plan a Meet-Up at Ascendio!

Love Starkid? Are you a shipper? Or, are you into something else fandomy, like Merlin, Doctor Who, Inception, Supernatural, The Hunger Games? Plan a meet-up of like-minded fans!

Team Ascendio just got back from our site visit, and now that we’ve seen the (ridiculously gorgeous) space, we are ready to coordinate meet-ups! Official con space (ie: where the formal programming is done) is available in the evenings for groups to meet. Even if you meet off-site, we will be including all meet-up info on our website and in our program!

Get first dibs on space and submit your request/info today!

ascendio ascendio 2012 harry potter fandom portofino merlin hunger games starkid

11. 11. 11. 08:36 pm ♥ 1481

heidi8:

hillyhindi:

It’s Friday Friday? NO! It’s Deathly Hallows! If you’re a Potterhead you’ve gotta watch this! REBLOG! ;)

The boy Wizard, Harry Potter takes over Rebecca Black’s Friday! Here’s a parody every Muggle, Squib, Mud-Blood, Witches & Wizard will enjoy! Bloody hell, we even have a feeling “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” would approve. The end may be near, but not without a celebration…

The Hillywood Show® presents you with: HARRY POTTER FRIDAY PARODY! Now, let’s destroy a Horcrux and REBLOG!

Coming full circle, with the Deathly Hallows 2 DVD out today. I still am amazed at how well the “credits” where they’re watching the film match up with the actual movie, even though this was done weeks before the film came out. Bravo, Hillywood!

via heidi8

Harry Potter Harry Potter fandom fandom fan creativity Hillywood Show

01. 13. 12. 08:08 pm ♥ 4

Amanda Hocking, the writer who made millions by self-publishing online

We’re fascinated by Amanda Hocking’s story — inspired by Muppets to publish! Awesome.

Has HP inspired any of you to write?

amanda hocking trylle publishing self-publishing amazon fandom fanfic harry potter

01. 28. 12. 01:17 pm ♥ 52

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My favorite is talking about BNFs of yester-year and getting *really* strange looks from Muggles!

via happynerdythings

harry potter fandom slash

02. 14. 12. 10:11 pm ♥ 110

gemini-melia:

marielikestodraw:

saathi1013:

swedeen:

Entertainment Weekly article on Shippers

I especially love that they got quotes from different showrunners about shipper fans, since I’m working on becoming a showrunner myself and I’ll probably be one of the few who are also part of and understand this type of fan culture.

HA!! Found the full scans for you all! All hail the intarwebs! (Thanks, swedeen!)

Read the full article people, it’s important and also shows how completely fuckin stupid the person who wrote this is. So much mocking, so judgmental, so much “irony”, it’s absolutely disgraceful and reminds me a bit of the Gatiss comment about “middle aged women finding two men together sexy” when slash was mentioned about Sherlock. Why do people do this, why do they refuse to see the big picture?

How about you, awful journalist, get your head out of your own ass and try to investigate PROPERLY about what you’re writing about?

Twat.

I’m so used to being patronized and condescended to as a crazy fan that this article hardly phased me. It reads like just about any other article on fandom (not counting Lev Grossman’s, which was the most accurate one I’ve come across). It made us all look like a bunch of either a) insane, silly teenagers or b)pathetic, lonely middle-aged women. And then they simple wanted to pat us on the head and say, the show has to make money and survive, so you’re going to have to make due without. There’s definitely a gap between showrunners’ objectives and shippers’, but I think all of the social reasons why people ship were overlooks. Primarily I’m talking about slash, which was glossed over and seen simply as amusing and out-there that they never actually understand that we’re not expecting it to happen on the show. Fanfiction has its own agendas (and they are wide and varied), but anyone over the age of 18 who’s writing slash must on some level be considering norms and issues of sexuality.

But the thing is, I’d say that the majority of EW’s readers couldn’t care less about what shippers actually do. It’s entertainment for the masses, just as television is, so if it’s going to make them money while they simplify and mortify the fans, then they’ll do it. Nothing new there. I’ll stick to my little corner of the internet, where the first rule of fandom is you don’t talk about fandom.

THIS. Precisely why we’re having a “Slash in the Mainstream” panel at Ascendio, which will not only discuss fanservice on shows like Supernatural, but reactions from show creators (like Gatiss & Sherlock) that seem to mock the shippers.

Also why we HEART Lev Grossman — a journalist who *gets* fandom, gets slash, and doesn’t think we’re crazy.

(Source: fuckyeahcaryl)

via gemini-melia

slash fandom meta sherlock harry potter ascendio programming lev grossman

04. 04. 12. 04:00 pm ♥ 1225

We’ll be celebrating Jo’s amazing creation this summer :)

(Source: infinitehogwarts)

via fictiononmyside

harry potter fandom harry potter fandom

06. 06. 12. 05:36 pm ♥ 18108

Fandom is our fandom.

zillah975:

“I adore the way fan fiction writers engage with and critique source texts, by manipulating them and breaking their rules. Some of it is straight-up homage, but a lot of [fan fiction] is really aggressive towards the source text. One tends to think of it as written by total fanboys and fangirls as a kind of worshipful act, but a lot of times you’ll read these stories and it’ll be like ‘What if Star Trek had an openly gay character on the bridge?’ And of course the point is that they don’t, and they wouldn’t, because they don’t have the balls, or they are beholden to their advertisers, or whatever. There’s a powerful critique, almost punk-like anger, being expressed there—which I find fascinating and interesting and cool.”

—

Lev Grossman (via theadventuresofcargline)

We can’t wait to hear Lev talk about fanfic, publishing and his interview with JK Rowling at Ascendio in July!

via zillah975

Ascendio fanfiction fanfic fandom Harry Potter fandom slash Lev Grossman

09. 28. 11. 06:50 pm

Q&A: Is a proposal that is only partially HP ok? [Formal Programming]

Nicole, on our Facebook Page, asked: If a paper proposal is partially HP, is it still acceptable? Ascendio: Absolutely! With closed canon and many Harry Potter fans enjoying and participating in other fandoms, we welcome and encourage those with multi-fandom or cross-fandom interests to propose programming. This might be a comparison of a character in Harry Potter to one in another series (ie: Hermione vs. Bella or Katniss), or a discussion of themes within another series (such as The Hunger Games, Supernatural, Merlin, etc.!) and how they are similar/different to HP. Or it could even be a proposal covering how Harry Potter FANS react to and participate in other fandoms, especially YA and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms. There are many possibilities!

ascendio ascendio 2012 harry potter fandom fandom formal programming q&a

10. 27. 11. 09:03 pm ♥ 8

aimee-carter:

GODDESS INTERRUPTED (3/27/2012)

Kate Winters has won immortality.

But if she wants a life in the Underworld with Henry, she’ll have to fight for it.

Becoming immortal wasn’t supposed to be the easy part. Though Kate is about to be crowned Queen of the Underworld, she’s as isolated as ever. And despite her growing love for Henry, ruler of the Underworld, he’s becoming ever more distant and secretive. Then, in the midst of Kate’s coronation, Henry is abducted by the only being powerful enough to kill him: the King of the Titans.

As the other gods prepare for a war that could end them all, it is up to Kate to save Henry from the depths of Tartarus. But in order to navigate the endless caverns of the Underworld, Kate must enlist the help of the one person who is the greatest threat to her future.

Henry’s first wife, Persephone.

TEAM ASCENDIO is enchanted to announce that Aimée Carter, author of The Goddess Test and next January’s Goddess Interrupted (both from Harlequin TEEN), will be attending in July. Aimée has written fanfic and original stories for nearly fifteen years, and has long participated in the Harry Potter fandom; she was on staff for POAIMAXNYC in June of 2004.

Aimée will be doing readings and signings at Ascendio, and participating in panels on writing, including the differences between writing fanfic and writing in a self-created universe. On her website, Aimee wrote that fanfiction is:

“how I learned how to write, and there is nothing like the kind of feedback you get online from total strangers who just want to read a good story. Talk about toughening you up. Most of what I wrote was Harry Potter fan fiction from roughly 2000 and on, but I did dabble in Hanson fan fiction before then.

Yes, I am a geek and totally proud of it.”

via aimee-carter

Harry Potter fandom, Harry Potter fancon, Harry Potter fanfiction, Ascendio Fancon Fandom HPEF Writer's Track Aimee Carter YA YALit YA Lit books are beautiful Young Adult

12. 02. 11. 02:01 pm ♥ 487

dearharrypottercharacters:

(by britishmenwillbethedeathofme)

This is why we have cons! *hugs everyone*

via letterstomrpotter

fandom harry potter this is why we have cons get your con on ascendio

01. 24. 12. 01:25 pm ♥ 3

6 Made Up Nerd Words That Made it to Common Usage, and 8 That Should

heidi8:

As a geek or a nerd, you get introduced to new words all the time! Science fiction and fantasy are practically in the business, not just of creating new place names, which is practically a given; but also of making new nouns in general, new verbs, and new adjectives. And while some of those concepts might not be particularly useful outside of their fictional setting, others have, over time, been accepted wholly by the English of reality. With some of these, we’ve forgotten that they were ever words in fiction to begin with.

MUGGLE is word #3! But they focus too much on Nancy Stouffer, despite her “pattern of intentional bad faith” - when they could have nattered more on how the term Muggle is now used in ordinary parlance.

Linguists, what do you think?

Fandom-coined terminology and fandom-appropriated language are terrific subjects for formal programming proposals at Ascendio. If you’re interested in presenting such a paper or being on a panel, let us know via the Formal Programming Submission Form.

via heidi8

HPEF Ascendio Harry Potter fancon Harry Potter fandom fandom linguistics fandom anthropology fandom

02. 05. 12. 03:59 am ♥ 2663

Organized fandom is, perhaps and foremost, an institution of theory and criticism, a semistructured space where competing interpretations and evaluations of common texts are proposed, debated, and negotiated and where readers speculate about the nature of the mass media and their own relationship to it… Within the realm of popular culture, fans are the true experts; they constitute a competing educational elite, albeit one without official recognition or social power.

Henry Jenkins, 1992, Textual Poachers, p.86 (via fanthropologist)

#Most accurate definition of fandom as a construct I have ever seen #I approve

(via amorremanet)

#can i major in fandom #can i write my dissertation on fandom #can i be employed in the fandom workforce

me too please.

(via hippieashley)

YES. This. I’ve tried to explain this to non-fandom people and most of the time they still just think I’m crazy and far too emotionally invested in fictional things. *sigh*

(via gemini-melia)

(Source: phdfan)

via gemini-melia

henry jenkins fandom acafannish

02. 22. 12. 06:25 pm ♥ 59393

Fandom is focus. Fandom is obsession. Fandom is insatiable consumption. Fandom is sitting for hours in front of a TV screen a movie screen a computer screen with a comic book a novel on your lap. Fandom is eyestrain and carpal tunnel syndrome and not enough exercise and staying up way, way past your bedtime.

Fandom is people you don’t tell your mother you’re meeting. Fandom is people in the closet, people out and proud, people in costumes, people in T-shirts with slogans only fifty others would understand. Fandom is a loud dinner conversation scaring the waiter and every table nearby.

Fandom is you in Germany and me in the US and him in Australia and her in Japan. Fandom is a sofabed in New York, a roadtrip to Oxnard, a friend behind a face in London. Fandom talks past timezones and accents and backgrounds. Fandom is conversation. Communication. Contact.

Fandom is drama. Fandom is melodrama. Fandom is high school. Fandom is Snacky’s law and Godwin’s law and Murphy’s law. Fandom is smarter than you. Fandom is stupider than you. Fandom is five arguments over and over and over again. Fandom is the first time you’ve ever had them.

Fandom is female. Fandom is male. Fandom lets female play at being male. Fandom bends gender, straight, gay, prude, promiscuous. Fandom is fantasy. Fandom doesn’t care about norms or taboos or boundaries. Fandom cares too much about norms and taboos and boundaries. Fandom is not real life. Fandom is closer than real life. Fandom knows what you’re really like in the bedroom. Fandom is how you would never, could never be in the bedroom.

Fandom is shipping, never shipping, het, slash, gen, none of the above, more than the above. Fandom is love for characters you didn’t create. Fandom is recreating the characters you didn’t create. Fandom is appropriation, subversion, dissention. Fandom is adoration, extrapolation, imitation. Fandom is dissection, criticism, interpretation. Fandom is changing, experimenting, attempting.

Fandom is creating. Fandom is drawing, painting, vidding: nine seasons in four minutes of love. Fandom is words, language, authoring. Fandom is essays, stories, betas, parodies, filks, zines, usenet posts, blog posts, message board posts, emails, chats, petitions, wank, concrit, feedback, recs. Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve. Fandom is finally calling yourself a writer.

Fandom is signal and response. Fandom is a stranger moving you to tears, anger, laughter. Fandom is you moving a stranger to speak.

Fandom is distraction. Fandom is endangering your job, your grades, your relationships, your bank account. Fandom gets no work done. Fandom is too much work. Fandom was/is just a phase. Fandom could never be just a phase. Fandom is where you found a friend, a sister, a kindred spirit. Fandom is where you found a talent, a love, a reason.

Fandom is where you found yourself.

http://hesychasm.livejournal.com/187818.html

(via bbcsherlockftw)

Fandom is writing for the first time since you were twelve.

Misting up a little…

(via beg-for-mercy-twice)

via bookaddictang

fandom harry potter ascendio

05. 29. 12. 05:24 pm ♥ 5504

We planned international events, meetups, read-alongs and operas on the Internet

anarchicarchaeology:

“We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although surprising from your point of view, difference: we do not ‘surf’ and the internet to us is not a ‘place’ or ‘virtual space’. The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman to you, the analog, we could say there was a natural Internet aspect to every single experience that has shaped us. We made friends and enemies online, we prepared cribs for tests online, we planned parties and studying sessions online, we fell in love and broke up online. The Web to us is not a technology which we had to learn and which we managed to get a grip of. The Web is a process, happening continuously and continuously transforming before our eyes; with us and through us. Technologies appear and then dissolve in the peripheries, websites are built, they bloom and then pass away, but the Web continues, because we are the Web; we, communicating with one another in a way that comes naturally to us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in the history of mankind.”

—

Piotr Czerski (via azspot)
the rest of the talk via the previous link (via brosophila)

We could post for days about the ways that fandom - not just the Harry Potter fandom, but all fandoms since - were changed by and because of the internet (we don’t like to capitalize it; it’s not a place, it’s a thing, like tennis), how the concept of fandom is different, mainstreamed, a topic and a focus by multinationals and of people who want to share their love for something.

And we will, when we liveblog discussions on this subject, and related things like the Future of Publishing, from Ascendio this summer.

via anarchicarchaeology

Fandom Harry Potter fandom Ascendio the future of publishing fangirls fanboys