thread: 2012-12-07 : Positioning: Legitimacy and Occult Co-ownership
On 2012-12-20, Roger wrote:
Hmmm. There's some interesting things going on here, so here's an omnibus comment.
I'm reading 'assent' as something slightly (I think) stronger—'adopt as currency' (to harken back to some earlier anyway.) There's probably a spectrum, I suppose, from embracing something to not really caring to vehement opposition.
One of the trickeries of the two timelines is that it sort of implies that the fictional timeline keeps marching along forwards along with Real Time, which of course is not the only way (or even a very common way, I might suggest) to do it.
I withdraw my earlier objections about 'yeahbut what about fanfic etc etc.' In fact, audiences regularly refuse to assent to the authority of nominal canon—'There was only one Highlander! etc' Which comes as some surprise to me.
I think there's something sneaky going on with what I might call 'assent in abeyance'—like, in the moment, I'm not really sure if your current move is kosher or not, but I might be willing to let you run with it for a bit until I can tell. Or maybe I'm not.
Hiding in the corner behind the couch I can see an elephant: the basis on which a particular person comes to conclude the legitimacy of a move. I have a pretty strong hunch that it's the same elephant we all know and love: Creative Agenda. But maybe I'm just seeing what I expect to see.
That's probably enough for now.
This makes R go "Assent in abeyance?"
Is this any different from first assenting and then withdrawing your assent? I don't believe we need to read "assent" as something final and non-renegotiable.
This makes R go "Also, as a possible solution to the 'trickery'..."
may I suggest that maybe Vx's "fictional timeline" is not, in fact, a fictional timeline, but a real and concrete timeline of the fiction?
This makes VB go "Let me think about that."
There was some reason I wasn't going that way, but maybe I should reconsider.
This makes Rog go "Yes and No"
I'm inclined to draw a line between 'I'm saying yes now but I might change my mind' and 'Right now I can't decide what to say; let's see where you're going with this.' I might be splitting a hair though.
