The Last Leg And A Fractured Femur

in reply to 'The Last Leg' by Laura, 22nd February, 2002

well I don't have as many friends because
I'm not as pretty as I was
Hey,

And I blamed the lack of motivation on two terms of soul-crunching uni courses, studying great writers of the last 2,900 years.
As a fellow writer, I know the "I wanted to congratulate you for writing..."s spark not much more than an ironic smile. So no point in saying that, although I've been trying to express my own disillusionment with Hansondom for almost a year, and you basically said it all.
I don't know, maybe it's enough to say that reading your article(/piece/column/open letter) spurred me to take the time to reply. Discussion doesn't exactly seem to be at a high level in the Hanson online community right now; readers don't respond because authors can hardly be bothered replying to an email they've replied to 100 times before, and authors are moving on because their inboxes tell them no-one's reading.

did I forget to thank you
for the ride I hadn't tried?
Your point about hanson.net really struck a nerve though (don't worry, I agree with you). Hansonline at the boiling point of hype was never more than mediocre, and now it's a complete joke. Everything is at hanson.net – I see it as the epitome of Ebeneezer-Scrooge-McDuck greed and media conglomerate indifference that fans have to pay for the privilege of information. In part one could argue that we brought it on ourselves, since a lot of people only signed up for preferential seating during the TTA tour then withdrew, but wasn't that because even then people were arguing that the price was too high?
I come from Australia. I would never have used an American ISP (is it even still running?), let alone one as expensive as hanson.net. But still, I considered forking out $200+ a year to join, simply for access. In essence, since being from Australia would have excluded me from most of the competitions and preferential ticket allocations meant nothing, I would have been paying $200+ for pictures. That's all. Pardon me, but is there something wrong with this situation?

well I've handed all my efforts in
searched here for my second wind
is there somewhere here to let me in I asked
It's been so long since I've been an active part of the hanfic world, the only 'new' trend I know about is the over-abundance of badly written slash. Now, even parodying it has grown stale. Funnily enough, one of your more recent posts about non-updates and the have-to-be-a-grown-up-now jitters inspired me to attempt what I thought might just be the gentle electric cattle prod the hanfic community needed. In four months, I've yet to be able to finish the first chapter – how's that for lack of motivation?
The main problem as I see it now, is that no-one seems to care anymore. As you say, we're all bored and waiting for something to come along to drag us out of this communal apathy. And from what I've heard of the new material Hanson are coming out with, it's more than likely not going to be the new album. Is Hanson above criticism? God no. This 'new material' to my ear is dry, and has nothing at all exciting about it. I'm sick to death of hearing the same sounds coming from Messieurs Hanson, Hanson and Hanson's mouths that I heard four years ago. The entire community, Hanson included, needs a breath of fresh air. The only question now, is where's it going to come from?

I think I'll get down off my soap box now *chuckles*. Your work always seems to inspire me to write something, and as insignificant as that might be, it's the highest praise I can personally give. Thank you for keeping going. You never know, a Renaissance may be just around the corner – the Dark Ages must have seemed pretty apocalyptic too.

and you'll be The Captain
and I'll be no-one
and you can carry me away if you want to
...
cos you're The Captain, I am no-one
I tend to feel as though I owe one to you

(musical credit – 'The Captain', Kasey Chambers)

RESPONSES

Laura did respond to this email, but asked that her reply be kept private.


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