Fanfiction

This is going to sound weird coming from me because even though I was a fan of the show "Sherlock" I have not been active in the fandom. Deb is involved enough for all of us. At one point she told us of an event attended by both Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. At one point a reporter by the name of Caitlin Moran gave them a printout of a Sherlock fanfiction story and had them read it.... out loud.

I'm presuming most of you know or have heard of FanFiction. If you haven't, these are stories written by fans of a particular TV series or movie. Sometimes these are simple stories of friendship. But often times they are out and out explicit erotica. As a rule, these stories are written by women, most of whom have very active imaginations and have very excellent writing skills.

The aftermath of Caitlin Moran giving Martin and Benedict that story has been pretty much unanimous, and it's not very nice. Anger is putting it mildly. Fanfiction authors are, for the most part, very private because oftentimes it is not in their best interest for their hobby to be known. Many have never told their families about their hobby.

One writer, known simply as Dangermouse, pulled all her work off the Internet when someone found out her real name and threatened to not only tell her family, but also her employer. She wrote fanfiction for the show Stargate CG1. Very homoerotic fanfiction. Having her family and her employer learn of her hobby of writing what some would characterize as "smut" could have had detrimental effects on her life. So, rather than take the risk that the person was merely making idle threats, she pulled everything off the fanfiction sites on which she had posted and remove her alias from the Internet. Which is sad because she was such a gifted writer.

As with any work of fiction, one needs get the author's permission before printing out or publicly publishing a story. While many of the characters may be from a copyrighted series, the fanfiction itself is the intellectual property of the fanfiction author and permissions must be granted before any sort of publication. Even if the writer is from another country, there are international laws concerning the theft of intellectual property. It doesn't matter where you find it, if you have not asked permission, or properly cited the work, you Can Not just take it. Plus, it's simply common courtesy. 

So the reporter, Caitlyn Moran, goes to a fanfiction website, finds a Very explicit Sherlock story, prints it out, and hands it to the stars of the series to read in a public venue. Did Caitlin Moran get permission from the author to print out this story?? No! Did she get permission to give the story to the stars of Sherlock?? No!! And did she get permission to let the stars publicly read the story out loud in a public venue??? NO!!! What she Did do was publicly embarrass herself by showing the world that she's the worst sort of reporter by pulling such a stunt, and she embarrassed the stars by showing them what their "pathetic" fans write about their characters. And she managed to inflame the ire of every fan of Sherlock fan, not just the ones writing fanfiction. Hence the reason for this post.

Probably the worst part of the fallout from Caitlin Moran's publicity stunt was the reaction of Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. He has been a victim of a stalker before, and had been ubducted at gunpoint about 10 years before while in South Africa. So, after reading this story he was visably upset and was observed being comforted by Martin Freeman and his partner, Amanda Abbington.

How many people out there realize that this modernized version of the Sherlock Holmes stories was in itself fanfiction? Think about it. Anytime Anyone writes stories based on another story they are writing Fanfiction!

This version of the Sherlock Holmes stories was a vanity project for Showrunner Steven Moffat and co-writer Mark Gatiss. Martin and Benedict were never under contract to do the show, they were doing it because it appealed to them. The producers could have canceled the show after the end of the Second Season when Martin signed the contract so he could do "The Hobbit", and Benedict signed to do about 10 films including "Star Trek: Into Darkness", "The Fifth Estate", "12 Years a Slave", "August: Osage County", and a many others. (Honestly, when did the man sleep!) The point is that the producers could have decided to pull the plug on the whole thing at any point. (Though in hindsight, they probably should have stopped after the 3rd season since the 4th season was so bad. But thats a whole other blog post.) They didn't. And when a show has a devoted following, people, usually fans, will write stories about it.

The upshot is this. The writers of fanfiction are Not pathetic. They are gifted writers just looking for an outlet. Let them write! Who knows, maybe they'll be become published authors like what's her name who wrote the Fifty Shades books. She started out writing "Twilight" fanfiction.  So to the fanfiction writers out there I say, Write On!

I Want My Knee Surgery!!!

If you've been watching the national weather for the Northeastern US, or if you live in Upstate New York, you know it's snowing. In fact it's been snowing almost continually since Thursday (12/12/2013) and it looks like it's going to continue until maybe Wednesday. A full week. Cool!! It looks like we will be having a White Christmas this year.

If my knees were less worrying I'd be out in it like a kid. I love snow. I want to go out and make snow angels and have snowball fights and build a snow fort and just have fun. But I can't because if I fell on my knees I'd never get up, at least not without a hoist. So I sit inside and watch the snow fall and am envious of everyone who can go outside. I'm angry that my body won't allow me to be the person I want to be. I'm also angry that various doctors have decided that I am the average patient and that I cannot get surgery that I need in order to be able to move around like a person without arthritis!

Supposedly I am too much of a risk. Mostly because of my weight. According to a WebMD article, "Obese people have a much higher risk of potentially deadly complications following surgery, a new study shows." And an article in the Orlando Sentinel explains the reasoning.

"Morbidly obese patients also have a harder time breathing when sedated. Because their airways tend to close when they're under sedation, they need breathing tubes inserted more often. Getting a tube into their airways is more challenging. Their necks are bigger, so it's harder for anesthesiologist to see their vocal cords. The intubation often requires video assistance. By comparison, intubation on a very obese patient can take 30 to 45 minutes, whereas for a normal-weight person, it takes only a few minutes."

It also tells of a possible solution.

"Sometimes the anesthesiologist can't intubate the patient at all, and we have to call off the surgery. To address the airway problem, bioengineering students at Rice University in Houston recently invented a suction device that hoists the abdomens of obese patients up and out of the way while surgeons operate. The respiratory assist device uses suction cups attached to horizontal bars to lift the bellies of the obese to help them breathe."

That would make for some unusual bruising, but what the hell.

And then there's the study done by the Hospital for Special Surgery that seems to say differently. Though they are mostly talking about pain after knee replacement.

Besides, I'm not going for belly surgery, I want my damn left knee replaced. And maybe my right knee if it gets any worse. I need to be able to walk normally again. Maybe not like when I was a kid, or even a teenager, but like I did 20 years ago. Most of the studies out there are showing that folks who have a maximum Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 are best cases.

The problem with a lot of surgeons is that they've made their decision before they even walk into the exam room to talk to you. If you're obese and have a BMI of over 40 then they want nothing to do with you. The last time I talked with an orthopedic surgeon he all but kicked me out of his office and told me that I was a malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen. Never mind that I told him I would be able to lose weight after the surgery because then I'd be able to move without pain and would be able to get back into my belly dancing. Ignorant Sod!!

I didn't use to be afraid of walking. But now I am because it's gotten extremely hazardous for me, especially this time of year with all the snow and the ice. And I want to stop being afraid of going up or down stairs. I live in fear of tripping and landing on my left knee because if I did I would be totally unable to walk anywhere. We'd have to move into a completely handicap accessible apartment because there's no way I could have a wheelchair here. Hell, there's hardly room enough for our little shopping cart to get through the front door. I simply want an orthopedic surgeon to listen to me, not make a snap judgement before even coming in the room. I tell everyone I meet in social organizations that if I should ever fall and land on my left knee to just call 911. That will be the only way I will get off the ground.

One time in Kansas, when I was taking classes, I was on my way to the bus stop to catch the bus to school and I slipped in the mud under the hole in the fence I went through to get to the bus. My ex-husband was the only family member home and the maintenance man was replacing our roof. My ex has health problems of his own and can't life very much. At the time I was between 400 and 425 lbs so the ex wasn't lifting me, no way, no how. (The ex is 5'2" and about 110 lbs.... maybe.) So the maintenance man starts to lift me. I warned him I was over 400 lbs and he just kept telling me to put my arm over his shoulder. I did and he helped me get up off the ground. Don't remember if I went to school that day, though I found out later from one of the landlords that the maintenance man had thrown his back out because of me. He's tall and skinny, but muscular, and probably weighs about 120... maybe.

But I digress.

I will concede that getting any surgery can and will put stress on my body. After all, it is an invasion of the body. And having an over abundance of fat will cause even more stress. So guess I will start a fat loss regimen to at least get me to the 40 BMI max. As of my last visit my BMI was 68.54 so it looks like I have a ways to go. There is an exercise room in the office building of our apartment complex with all sorts of machines,including a weight machine, and I need to get my fat ass over there. Tough with all the snow we've gotten so far this week I may delay that till I get my new boots.