Younger Fandom Interviews: Liza
Something that is unique to Star Wars is the generational shifts that have occurred over the past near-forty years, from the older fans, the ones that grew up with the Original Trilogy; the fans like me, who first experienced Star Wars on the silver screen through the Prequels, whose childhood crushes were the Padawan Obi-Wan; and the kids who were introduced to the GFFA through the animated series of The Clone Wars and Rebels. Soon enough will come the generation of the Sequel Trilogy and the Stories.
We are a fandom split across a massive time span. Each generation of fans has a different take on the saga, their own individual part of the galaxy they are drawn towards. I tend to the younger side of my fandom circles, and even then I’m an Old Fart compared to some of my other Star Wars buddies.
Even though I’m relatively young, I notice that voices that are younger still are often ignored, or aren’t given a proper platform to speak about their own experiences with the series and the fandom. Thus I am doing a series of interviews of younger fans, each under twenty years old, to try and capture the opinions of the younger generation—the people that will one day inherit this saga and make it their own.
My first interviewee is the lovely Liza, known as Bookybarnes on Tumblr, a sixteen-year-old student currently living in the States who is a relatively new fan of the galaxy far, far away. Introduced mainly through Tumblr and The Clone Wars, Liza embodies the generation being brought to Star Wars through the animated shows and internet culture rather than the films themselves.
Bloom; a Game About Surviving
When you have a chronic illness, it starts to become the core of your being. It becomes hard to not let your illness define you, to actually live a life. It also becomes hard to explain your experiences to your healthy friends and family and I’m somewhat glad that I have friends with similar experiences for support (though I am not thankful they also have to live with these struggles.)
I’m not sure when I first heard about the interactive narrative tool, Twine, but from the start I had a feeling that, as someone who wants to get into game narrative, it was the kind of thing I’d want to experiment with. My first idea was based around chronic illness, and trying to illustrate what life is when you have one.
And so, I created Bloom.
The Future of Women in Star Wars
If there’s one thing I love unabashedly above all else, it’s women in my sci-fi—specifically, women in Star Wars. My utter adoration of Rey Last-Name-Unknown is no secret, even though I know essentially nothing about her. She, like Captain Phasma, (or Padme, or Leia,) ticks every box: she’s a girl, she’s in Star Wars. Hey, I’m easy. Sometimes all some people want is a scrawny dude in black. Different strokes, folks.
This week has been Women of Star Wars appreciation week on Tumblr, which means that there’s even more positivity about the ladies on that blue site than usual. I don’t do gifs anymore, nor do I even spend much time on that timesink of a hellhole once I discovered the joys of productivity after escaping; that doesn’t mean I don’t want to participate somehow.
One of the prompts (the first one, which leaves me anything but prompt) is Don’t Look Back, which is a great one since I’d love to look forward to the women who will soon be gracing our screens, pages, and shelves in the years to come. The women of The Force Awakens, the woman of Rogue One (an apt name, considering there is only one woman so far), the ladies in the upcoming books Aftermath and Lost Stars, and even the ladies of the comics. Why not appreciate the women who will soon be leading our stories?
Invisibility in Illness
Over the past couple weeks I have consistently come up against walls put up by the biggest challenge of my young life: my illness. It comes and goes in waves, as many of life’s struggles do. One week I might wake up earlier than usual. I won’t get exhausted from showering and dressing and getting generally ready for my day. I’ll be productive, and best of all I’ll be optimistic.
The next week: sleep becomes a struggle, but waking up is like pulling myself from a tar pit. I’ll collapse onto my bed after getting ready and I won’t have the energy to move for another hour. I might have to stop making breakfast halfway through and lie down on the kitchen floor, the world dim and muffled. This, unfortunately, has been the entirety of March for me so far.
Chronic fatigue is balls.
To See Ourselves in Fiction
I’ve always been that person who constantly and consistently fights for other people–be it for better or worse–but has never worried too much about herself. When it came to representation in media, I’ve always been vocally backing up that yes, we need trans people, we need people of colour, we need asexuals and aromantics and all the other facets of the LGBT+ umbrella.
But I never really worried about myself, I never felt I needed to see people I identified with in the shows, books, games and movies I love. Sure, I was bitter at the utter refusal from shows like Orange is the New Black to use the b-word (bisexual, the word is bisexual), but I reiterate that actually seeing a bi gal on the silver screen didn’t feel vital to me. Other people needed (and still do need) that representation more.
And then The Legend of Korra happened.
The Rebels and I
Hearing the news of the cancellation of The Clone Wars last year was like a galactic gut punch to the stomach. Rebels softened the blow, in the way that a cushion softens a skydive-gone-wrong.
But, I am endlessly positive about the future and hopelessly enthusiastic about seeing new Star Wars stories, and so it didn’t take me long to get into the Rebels hype. I was going to miss Ahsoka and Asajj and everyone else with the fire of a thousand suns, but I had total faith that the group working behind it all had plans. I’m endlessly scared of change, but I knew it was time to love a new thing.
PAX to the Future
I started this year with the goal that I will write, and I will write what I’ve planned—even if it takes me far too long to get to it. I said I would write about PAX Aus, and so:
PAX. A huge con that spanned the weekend of October 31 to November 1 last year at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
So many trees in that city! SO MUCH GREEN I’d been dreaming of visiting Melbourne for years, ever since being told it’s a “cooler Wellington”. Being invited along to PAX—Penny Arcade Expo—by my friends was the perfect opportunity to see the city and finally taste its world-class coffee.
(In hindsight, I’m not sure I even drank coffee there.)
2014, One Heck of a Year
Today is the last day of 2014 (at least for me in NZ) and really, I’m pretty excited for the new year. This year hasn’t been bad—it’s had its downs, all years do—but it’s been long. A lot has happened, but it also feels like nothing at all has.
In the end it was a year based on recovery and re-learning my own body after the nightmare of last year. That’s been mostly successful! I can run for far longer than before, I can walk back home after going into the bay, my brain fog has lessened, I don’t get anxious when I get phone calls anymore. I’m not good, but i’m okay—and that is something I very desperately needed.
As for my blog, I’m pretty happy I’m still here and writing (Even if there are sometimes big gaps between my posts!) One of my goals for next year is to kick my butt into gear when it comes to writing and blogging for all the blogs I write for, as well as for the novel I’m slowly working on.
Let’s look back at my year, because it’s far more interesting to write my own “year in review” than let Facebook generate it for me.
It’s Not the End of the World
It’s been well over a month since the fact, but the biggest New Zealand Armageddon, Auckland Armageddon—aka Auckgeddon—has come and gone for the year. I meant to write this the week after the fact, time sure got away from me!
This year was just as busy as last—if not moreso—filled with truly lovely people and spectacular cosplay. Saturday was absolutely packed, it felt like being stuck in a can filled with sardines (note: I’ve never been stuck in a sardine can, but I imagine it’s smelly.)
My favourite part of the con, as always, was the cosplay. Every year, and I’m not exaggerating here, I get to the con and I say, “man, the cosplay community has really raised the bar this year.” Every year! And I’m never wrong when I say this.
Actual photograph of the bar being raised Friends For Dinner
I was born in the year Friends first aired, 1994. I literally grew up with the show, and it was a massive influence on my life. I have become the Friends friend of my group — I’ll literally be able to link anything that happens to me to an episode. Growing up, I wanted to be just like Monica. Now I just want to be queen host; I’m happiest when people are enjoying my food.
This ain’t so much a blog post as a “look at things I’ve made because where else am I going to show them?” kind of thing. I need something positive on here after my last post and really, who doesn’t love looking at food?
