Intersections of blogs and fiction
Fiction and hoaxes are:
- on a spectrum of truth, openness, and secrecy with no clear ethical line
- on a spectrum of depth, thickness, messiness
*Fanfic
Ideas to keep in mind:
Social contracts in rpg theory.
Consensuality, fanfic warnings
Authenticity violations
Arrogation of community, identity, "representing".
Cultural appropriation. Members of dominant culture speaking for others in a way that is more palatable to the dominant culture than the voices of those others.
Postmodern construction of identity, authenticity
We are capable of deep relationships to fictional characters
Multiple instances of a persona or a character are possible and good
Depth of world-building
Lessons to learn from alternate reality, role-playing games, larps
Open source fiction!
Real life social networks should provide space for fictional layers
Establish deep online presence. Sleepers and moles.
Online annotated maps for fictional worlds and cities
Who owns hermionegranger@twitter will become an IP issue
Networks will build of fictional, historical characters in relation to each other & us
Liz: Memoir writing is testimony. We write testimony before an imaginary courtroom of witnesses, something that was made suddenly clear to me by listening to Beatrice Sarlo talk about testimony and memoir in Argentina, in the Dirty War. When our belief in one person's testimony is destroyed, it violates a sort of social contract, and all testimony is undermined, and I believe that to be the worst and strongest effect of this kind of lie. See Sisela Bok, __Lying__.
Advice:
Corporations, publishers and content producers are and will be doing this.
Try new models for commercializing fiction and fictional worlds
We need more monetization models
If you're astroturfing or a sockpuppet, you'll be caught eventually. "Name and shame."
So keep it consensual. No outright lies. Articulate social contracts.
And do it with artistry and style so you don't get mocked. Treat it as an art form.
Hire novelists, role-playing gamers, playwrights, screenwriters, and bloggers as professional identity-constructors and world-constructors.