Filk Is...

[billroper]

I tripped over the definition of filk music on Wikipedia, largely because of the link across from my entry. (Googling your own name and all that.) The main body of the article includes a quote from my good friend, bedlamhouse, saying "Filk is anything that happens at a filk sing."

With all due respect to my distinguished colleague from the great State of Georgia (Whoops! This is what happens when you read transcripts of Senatorial hearings.), I can't concur. The problem is that this definition leads us down a black hole and into a singularity of circular definition. I believe that there are many things that we might do at a filksing that aren't filk; that there are songs written by filkers that are not filksongs; that there are songs written by non-filkers that are filksongs. This doesn't mean that any of these things are bad or wrong, it simply means that a thing is what it is and we shouldn't confuse it with something else.

I think that if we're going to define "filk", we need something along these lines that is less inclusive than some of the definitions that I've seen going around:

"Filk is the folk music of science-fiction fandom including both original material and parodies. Generally, filk will have science fiction or fantasy themes, but may also deal with areas of broad fannish interest such as space flight, computers, and fandom itself."

Now I'm a filker, but not every song that I write is filk. Weird Al is not a filker, but songs like Yoda are pretty clearly filk. And if decadent_dave sings songs by Stan Rogers at a filksing, that doesn't mean that this isn't a filksing, nor does it mean that Stan's music was a filksong.

A secondary definition is that filk refers to the folk music of a particular fandom. Thus, Starsky and Hutch fans might write Starsky and Hutch filk, but that wouldn't normally be what we were referring to as "filk" with no qualifier.

So am I completely off the reservation or am I making sense?

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Heh. I tried to tackle similar issues a while back, though not quite pushing in the same direction.

I think the first question you need to get to grips with is "what are we defining filk *for*?" - i.e. what's the function of the definition. Are we trying to do what a dictionary does - i.e. provide a reasonable summary of the various ways in which the word filk is actually used "In the wild"? Or are we trying to "steer" the popular understanding of the word to conform with our own intended meaning? I think Wikipedia needs to focus on the former goal, rather than the latter. And as such, I'm a lot happier with it's current definition than with some of the others that turn up as apparently definitive! The worst thing about it is the first third word - "Filk is folk music..." - which *must* immediately convey the false impression to many casual readers that filk is "music performed in the style commonly known in the Western World as 'folk'".

For a dictionary definition, I came to accept that the only way we can resolve the conflict between "filk as defined by (traditional) filkers", and "filk as defined by a lots of people in other fandoms who've recently picked up the word and starting using it", is to have two (or more) definitions in the dictionary, just as we have for so many other words.

However, when it comes to how *we* define filk in our own writings (e.g. our own LiveJournals or CD sleevenotes), for the sake of *informing* the newcomer as to what we mean by filk, we're into more complex territory. It's here, if anywhere, that gag definitions like "filk is what filkers do; and filkers are people who filk" can be aired, but to avoid alienating the very people we're reaching out to we need to make the tongue-in-cheekness clear, and provide a more "useful" definition as well. And it's here that it's important to exercise a bit of humility and awareness of teh diversity of human experience, and say "this is what *I* mean by filk. You will other people who mean slightly different things by it. They're not wrong - they're just Hideous Alien Freakazoids Determined To Undermine The Infrastructure of Holy Filkdom(TM). Bless 'em. =:o} "

[billroper]

I agree that there's not much doubt that the dictionary definition for "filk" needs several entries. And I will gladly accept the friendly amendment that would remove "folk" from my trial definition. :)

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Well actually, you've said "the folk music of..." and then identified the folk who make it, which is fine - although it would benefit from then clarifying that you're using the phrase "folk music" in its original sense, rather than as defining a particular style.

The current version of the Wikipedia entry omits the vital word "the"..."of", and presents us with a bold statement: "Filk is folk music" - which it then starts to modify with information about subject matter. But "folk music", used as a definite compound noun, has a different meaning than "the folk music of...": To most Western minds the former defines a particular style or narrow range of styles in which the wielding of a guitar is semi-obligatory. The latter formulation acknowledges immediately that "folk music" is not a single homogenous standard, but rather something that's defined by the community that creates it.

If only I could remember my Wikipedia ID and password, I'd be in there making edits right now...