In a message dated 2/26/01 1:23:03 PM Eastern Standard Time, Mac4781@aol.com writes:
<< Those brief answers just might indicate they don't want to be studied. Or as Sally very aptly put it-- "I start feeling uncomfortable, a little like a lab rat who hasn't been asked before the electrodes go in." >>
Yes, well, that was certainly *my* immediate thought in response to Fiona's statements. Uh, maybe I don't want to be studied, especially in such a manner. Maybe I also don't want to have my motives for liking certain types of fan fiction examined and I certainly don't particularly care to be *told* why I like something and what that something "is" (in complete disagreement to my own stated preferences and what *I* believe that something "is").
This is, in fact, the crux of the problem many fans had with Camille Bacon-Smith and Henry Jenkins' books about fandom. Many fans were highly offended that they had been part of some sort of "study." Personally, I have never had a problem with either book or either author... but, then, both authors had spoken directly to both Leah and myself and I remember even signing a release with one of them. So, we *did* know what they were up to. Apparently, there were a good number of fans who didn't know and didn't take kindly to be the basis of someone's academic lab experiment.
Annie