Pausing to Laugh

[caitri]

So my boss wandered innocently into my office a while ago. (Please keep in mind that my boss, while completely BAMF, is also the most perfect and proper British man and English professor you have ever SEEN.)



Boss: Ah, you've been quiet all day. What are you up to?

Me (blinking owlishly over book fort): Well I'm trying to figure out how to rewrite my paper for an article...

Boss: Oh! Excellent! And what's it on, then?

Me: Well, uh, it's the Star Trek paper I presented at PCA a couple months ago. The tropes in fanfiction...

Boss: Oh really? [He picks up nearby book on Boys' Love Manga, just picked up from the library yesterday.] Hemm.

Me: Yeah, I'm looking at the differences in Original Series versus Reboot fiction. I was rereading Joanna Russ's essay on slash--she published an informal version in Nome #8 and then an academic version in one of her volumes of essays.[Warming to my subject, I pull out another book from a stack and have it with the open zine on my desk.] You can definitely see how tropes have changed over time, but I've been wondering lately how much if any it's influenced by the translation and import of Japananese yaoi manga.

Boss: Which, are, uh?

Me: Gay romances.

Boss: ...What does that have to do with Star Trek?

Me (more enthusiastic than ever): Oh Star Trek has a HUGE history of fan-written gay romances going back to the 1970s! [Pulls some more zines.] It's really interesting because they are all--well, almost all written by women. And there's a huge following of this sort of material in Japan as well, almost concurrently, but it doesn't start getting imported into the US until later, so I'm not sure what's going on, but you definitely see a number of tropes crossing from yaoi into slash in the last decade or so. Like there's wing!fic and--

[Lyndsey stops outside my door and peers in.]

Lyndsey: Wing!fic?!

Me: Yeah, I was just telling Boss about my research. [Brief recap.]

Lyndsey: Oh yeah, good times. You should check out ... [Rattles citations.]

Me: Oooh!

Boss: ... [He looks back and forth between us.] I see I'm quite in over my head here!

Lyndsey looks at me suspiciously.

Me: [To Lyndsey] I kept it tame. [To Boss] It gets much, much weirder, I promise.

Lyndsey: It does. You don't want to know.

Boss: ... And on that note, I believe I shall take my leave. [He does.]

Lyndsey: No tentacles?

Me: Not yet, I'm still looking at the pon farr stuff.

Etc etc.

Yeah. *looks sheepish* Then I had to double-check a couple of citations for novels and decided to write to one of the official authors, and apparently Simon & Schuster only does snail mail, so I had to write to someone on paper. On the plus side, that meant it looked a bit more professional than "I liked your book, now was this one line a joke or actually subtext, and also, can I quote you in my next article?!" but STILL!

So. Uh. What are you guys up to?

Comments

[aadarshinah.livejournal.com]

oh my god. What is your job and how do I get one like it? Because I'm in total spasms of jealousy that you get *paid* for this.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

This (http://library.tamu.edu/directory/ccoker) is a drop in the bucket of my professional life. This (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=book history workshop#page=0) was last week (well the activities, this year's photos aren't up yet). Next week I'm going to corrupt high schoolers with rare books. *G*

[aadarshinah.livejournal.com]

And the spasms just got worse.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

In all sincerity the absolute best part is my coworkers. I mean, they find it perfectly NORMAL for me to have action figures on my desk, talk in geek references constantly, and, y'know, all my other tics. I HEART them.

[karraparis.livejournal.com]

Okay I have to go fan girl On you now! I have two of your books!!! This is soooo COOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!!!

[karraparis.livejournal.com]

Me, put up books, tried to talk coworker into writing McCoy/Sarak fics. Then Delt with a few newschool fan boys woh think the comic world is at an end because DC is rebooting or moving over to a new earth. They make me feel old when I tell them about how ICoNE was a reset and they go Hunn?

So when are you going to shock him with ST IX Jane Austen? Then go for the tentacles?

[caitri.livejournal.com]

XI/Jane Austen kinda makes my brain hurt, and I'm not into tentacles! ;)

[ladyfanfiction.livejournal.com]

Well, just another day at the office then?

[caitri.livejournal.com]

An exceptionally boring day, really. ;)

[karraparis.livejournal.com]

Trade you the library and boring for a bunch of fan boys whinning like babies cause DC's movie focus to another earth. I can't wait for Soonercon this weekend!

[lauriegilbert.livejournal.com]

Can I come be your assistant please? I do windows, clean keyboards, and can follow intellectual ramblings! :D

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*wistful sigh* I'd love an assistant. I might almost be sane if I had one!!!!!

[joirerson.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I join in the envy of your job! That sounds like a hilarious way to bring up tentacle fic and yaoi.

And hee, I believe I shall take my leave. I'm stealing that line.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*G*G*G*G* You must say it with a slight English accent and very slight upwards tilt to the head, as if you're looking upwards bemusedly. :D

[alder-knight.livejournal.com]

I would like to read this paper. haha.

Need a proofreader?

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Not currently. I do have an initial draft of the paper here (http://caitri.livejournal.com/380155.html#cutid1). The entry is f-locked because when I'm done rewriting I'm going to publish it, but if you want to read it let me know and I'll friend you. :)

[alder-knight.livejournal.com]

Oh huh! You are on my friends' page, but I guess I am not YOUR friend. D:

Sure, I'd like to read it!

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Fixed! Sorry about that--I don't always friend people back unless I sort of "know" them already. :)

[suddenlyswept.livejournal.com]

I miss you. That is all.

Oh, except can we both move to San Francisco. Please?

[caitri.livejournal.com]

**EPIC SQUISH** Yes please!!!!!!!!!!

[hyde-the-body.livejournal.com]

I want your fucking job.
>.>
<.<
>.>
........
That is all.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*reassuring pat* You want the fun bits. I bet you don't want to meet with eighty high schoolers next Monday. *perks slightly* Do you?!

[hyde-the-body.livejournal.com]

If it were Tuesday, I'd say yes, but not Monday. *shudder* Mondays.... >.>

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

Dude, I want your life.

Awesome stuff :DD

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*SQUISHES*

[pepper18.livejournal.com]

Hahaha
It does get weirder.

I'd like to read the paper when you're done :D

[caitri.livejournal.com]

I do have an initial draft of the paper here (http://caitri.livejournal.com/380155.html#cutid1). The entry is f-locked because when I'm done rewriting I'm going to publish it, but if you want to read it let me know and I'll friend you. :)

[pepper18.livejournal.com]

That would be great :)

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

I hope you realize I will forever picture you and your boss as Buffy and Giles. There's no going back.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Soooooooo this makes Lyndsey Willow and Todd Xander?

[littlemissgriff.livejournal.com]

... It's frightening how well that translates.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*is grinning from ear to ear*

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

::chinhands:: Can I come hang out in your office? I'll file, and I take dictation...

[caitri.livejournal.com]

PLEASE DO. *CLING*

[spockelle.livejournal.com]

:D That's great! Your boss must be bamf for not freaking out! I know for a fact that no adult male that I know would have lasted past the yaoi explanation.