Thanks so much to everyone who attended our first @dlcplus.org mini-conference on smut and lore! We had such a great time chatting deeply with all of you. Can't wait for the next one!

And in our final presentation of the day, Giang Dang presents a definition of smut that includes as a blend of art and sexual commodity for female sexuality, and uses this definition to analyze Taylor Swift's discography for "good" smut and...not so good dick jokes.

Next, Katherine Woods discusses the visual codes of 'smut' vs. romance novels in the cover art, and how the historical "bodice ripper" "Fabio" clinch covers have faded in recent times.

Our first smut panel was concluded with a presentation by Bran Hurst on how to ethically conduct research, or an ethics of care, when researching at the intersection of smut and marginalized communities.

Starting off our smut discussions with a presentation from Corinne Matthews and Ayanni Cooper on the challenges of studying smut in the academy, and their "semi-scholarly" smut podcast, "Sex. Love. Literature." www.sexlovelitpodcast.com

And that's it for lore! We're pretty sure we got to the core of lore, as @supercamilla.bsky.social put it. Off for a break and then we'll be back with smut! @dlcplus.org

And now Michael Veenstra takes us through how 'lore' is changing in contemporary culture (or, the 'stupidest timeline'), where lore is now a route to belonging, a way of demarcating the in-group, and a part of general popular culture. #lore #popculture #starwars #fantasy

Ananya Mohan has just finished an engaging presentation discussing ethical citation practices in fantasy books--if the fantasy world draws from the real world but doesn't make this explicit, it can further harm marginalized communities. #lore #fantasy #SJM #SarahJMaas

Now to tackle edits to the two articles of my own…