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[kiwisue]

This has to be April Fools, right? I mean, who in their right mind would create a comm called "fanspastic"? And use shit words like 'retarded'... and create journals to go with in the month of March

Nope, no linky - despite references to the broccoli test, which is pretty much a US-based Pros fandom thing anyway AFAIK.

ETA:They've changed their name when they realised there was an issue. Dreamwidth did it for them, no problem.

Comments

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of the broccoli test; I've learned something new. Thanks for that! (sits here a moment before clicking "Post Comment", distracted by the lovely Ray pic in your sidebar)

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

distracted by the lovely Ray pic in your sidebar

Hee! Thank you - I wanted something to go with "A butterfly net for orchids", and the pic was perfect.

Check out Fanlore: http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Professionals
for more good history stuff :)

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Another site I'd not seen before - thanks for that! Now safely bookmarked.

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Hee, I'd never heard of the broccoli test. Thanks for that :)

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Very much an American fandom moment - I don't know when broccoli became a staple vegetable in the UK, but it wasn't one in NZ back then. It's a fun thing, but not really a B/D thing if you get my drift :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh gawd - scarily enough it sounds all too believable to me...

And I'd not heard of the broccoli test before either - innit funny how some things stay one side of the pond and some things the other...

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I like the concept of the test (sans the second-hand reportage, you can search for it on fanlore directly), but I think I relegate it to the realm of "things people think of in moments of fannish experience that are cool for them, so yay", rather than a part of our fandom, if that makes sense.

I didn't eat broccoli until well into the 80's, and then in Chinese food - do you remember it from early days in the UK?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Interesting question... My dad grew most of our veg, but I don't think I remember much broccoli, if any (though I think it can be hard to grow too, I remember trying once and it was eaten by caterpillars within minutes of sprouting, it seemed!) so he just might not have been bothered with it... Or maybe he did, but there was never as much as there was spinach, so I'm forgetting!

I do remember broccoli from when I was in the UK, because it's one of the few veg I don't mind boiled (if I have to... *g*) and so I'd be relieved if that's what was served... Mid-eighties though that was, from 1985. I'll try and remember to ask my mum tomorrow when we skype!

"things people think of in moments of fannish experience that are cool for them, so yay"
Yeah - although if they spread, as the Fanlore page suggests "the broccoli test" did, does it make them more generally "fannish"? What are the boundaries between the one and the other... For instance, the whole "hatstander" thing, and the enamel frog brooches - are they just things that are cool for them so yeay, because they were relatively limited in the number of people they reached? But then things didn't spread as far and fast pre-internet, they couldn't, so... What would be a measure, I wonder? And - hmmn - what is it we're trying to measure?!

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I like most veg as long as they aren't cooked the way my mum did it! Cauliflower, for e.g. is wonderful if very lightly steamed and presented warm with bagna cauda (ask Garibaldi) or raw, but I can't stand the smell of it boiled. Things in white sauce disgust me, but I'm very happy with the veges themselves otherwise. I have learned to like broad beans cooked middle eastern style, for e.g.

About ideas spreading - I tend to think of numbers of fans, and gatherings, and so forth. Sebastian and HG and 'two in a bunk' I think of as very Pros, and mostly contained within the fandom, while the broccoli incident I see as starting in Pros but spreading outwards. Could be talking through my hat again, I suppose *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

*is almost tempted to think the broccoli test is an April Fool thing too...*

Whoever made the comm, if it was a joke, has too much time on their hands, anyway!

And I love your sidebar, too, especially the Doyle pic.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

*is almost tempted to think the broccoli test is an April Fool thing too...*

It's not, although one might be tempted to think that - I definitely read about it ages ago. One of those 'moments' that assume a significance that's maybe a little too great for the origin? Although fun and good times for the participants, of course.

And thank you for the sidebar comment!

[sineala.livejournal.com]

The word "spastic" is actually not perceived as insulting at all, in the US, in my (bitter, bitter) experience. Many people are unaware that it refers to any kind of medical condition. They just think it's, you know, a totally funny way to describe things.

(I have spastic cerebral palsy.)

So it could be a joke, but really the kind where they do think they're being funny and edgy or whatever.

I do like the broccoli test, though.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Just popped back via KWS's reply to me, and saw your comment... How much of an excuse is ignorance, though? I mean, if someone says they didn't know what "nigger" or "Paki" meant, does that make it okay to create a comm that bandies around those terms as insults? And I loathe it when "gay" and "you girl" are used as insults... it's not edgy, it's... it's making excuses... (not you, obviously - them! *g*) Just - grrrrr, this sort of thing really bugs me! I mean, there must be people/places in the US where the actual meaning of the word is explained to such idiots?

Sorry - eta because I can't spell or type, some mornings!

[sineala.livejournal.com]

How much of an excuse is ignorance, though? I mean, if someone says they didn't know what "nigger" or "Paki" meant, does that make it okay to create a comm that bandies around those terms as insults?

Right, that would be bad, but based on the popular US meaning of "spastic," they wouldn't even know it was a group-based insult. Maybe they thought, "oh, our love for fandom in an ironic and edgy way is something like making us flail about and forget things and be uncoordinated."

(Which is, I swear, the extent of what spaz/spastic means to most people. They just don't *know* there's any kind of condition they could be describing. And any explaining is handled on an individual level. I read an anecdote once where a guy with CP kept getting called "a spaz" by his colleagues for displaying, say, the exaggerated startle reflex. Eventually he said, hey, guys, you know I'm actually spastic, right? And they were completely shocked that the word actually meant that, and that they'd been insulting him. It would be nice if United Cerebral Palsy had some kind of awareness campaign, but I don't think they're going to. Because people aren't generally calling people with CP spazzes -- they're calling us retards because they think we all must have mental disabilities. In my experience, anyway. They're calling other people spazzes, and they don't know we exist as a group.)

I have seen cross-cultural misunderstandings of "Paki," even, mostly because in New England here "packie" is short for "package store," the regional name for a liquor store.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Seems they've changed their name.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* People are just so "aaargh" sometimes (my lack of words, let me astound you with them). I've had a closer look at the comm and I do get the feeling that they're trying for something edgy. But all the major posters have journals created in the last month, which makes them, well, players rather than participants, if there can be a difference (I feel there is).

And *hugs* for having to deal with this sort of shit in your life.

[siskiou.livejournal.com]

It's now clear I'm living under a rock! Never heard of the broccoli test before! :D

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I think it was a moment that was mostly known within the participants' circle until it got added to fanlore. Which brings to mind the old story of trees falling in the forest - guess you weren't there at the time *g*.