Final thoughts on Beholder

[magnetic_pole]

Those of you following hp_beholder will have seen by now that this year's round was the fest's last. Like many of you, I'm truly saddened to see this chapter draw to a close. In the sense that it's basically a rare pair fest, Beholder has challenged us to take on new characters and new pairings, and it would be have been a valuable part of fandom just for that. But to me at least it's always seemed like something more, this wonderful site of creative experimentation and alternative fannish possibilities.

Have you heard of the concept of the heterotopia? It's a term devised by the philosopher Michel Foucault to describe spaces that operate outside society's usual systems of norms and values, like museums (heterotopias of time, where all cultures and all periods are represented under one roof) or honeymoon hotels (heterotopias of crisis, where couples come of age outside everyday life). Beholder seems to have been that kind of site for fandom. What if we took characters who didn't seem interesting and made them our protagonists? What if we tried to love characters who seem marginal or unlovable and reward them (to the extent that fandom "rewards" with narrative events) with sex and romance and intimacy? I think part of the reason Beholder's always been such an interesting, engaging fest has something to do with its heterotopic qualities. It offers us this alternative space that encourages us to imagine the world differently.

Thanks to our mods bethbethbeth and delphi for all their hard work, and thanks to all the authors, artists, and watchers who sustained it. I'll miss it enormously.