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reenkaI have a very strange confession to make. I just need to get it off my chest so I never have to writhe in silent nameless discomfort ever again. Yeah, right.
Squeeing, 100%-positive and yet not really -descriptive- rave recs/reviews of fics make me cringe. No, I lie. I hate them. I REALLY HATE THEM A LOT. RAAAAGE. (Ok, no.)
EDIT - to clarify: by "review" I don't mean feedback, I mean it in the "movie review" sense.
Not only that, they make me violently dislike both the reviewer and the fic, even if I -adore- the fic in question. I have to really bite my lip and repeat to myself "I love this fic, I -love- this fic, remember I -love- this fic!" so that I don't just write an anti-rec right back detailing all the flaws I can possibly think of (there are always some! Jeez!). I realize this is easily seen as hypocritical, considering how excited I get over fics. Still, I could -swear- I've never given what I'd consider pat compliments: Oh, this is great, genius, wonderful, beautiful, amazing. I've never called anyone "extremely talented" or even talented. I've never raved about how worthy someone/something is of their popularity or thought any fic -should- be popular as a sign of its greatness. Of course, I'm sort of elitist and snobbish like that :>
I've never guarranteed anyone would have to like a fic. That just -really- pisses me off. How could anyone assume -any- piece of writing is soooo great, -everyone- has to love it? My god, what arrogance! Not only that, it just feels like advertising to me. I hate advertising, in case that isn't clear. I hate it with all the passion of a thousand burning hells. Nothing rubs me the wrong way like a rave review that could easily apply to -any- fic out of hundreds. Saying only nondescript, gushy things about a truly good, visceral piece of writing just... deadens it.
I actually can't stand reading most positive reviews, though I'm almost always highly entertained by negative ones (they're usually funny, at least). The words one uses in response should contain some tiny spark of inspiration, something that is reminiscent of the fic, otherwise the review is pointless because it doesn't actually -say- anything and all I get is "propaganda-propaganda-propaganda-propaganda". And as should be painfully obvious, I reallyreallyreallyreallyreally despise propaganda quite, quite a lot.
So I'm in this weird place where I'm semi-known for recs and reviews and yet I have very little respect for the practice of reccing & reviewing itself as is commonly practiced. In fact, 98% of all blurbs & mini-reviews and such annoy the living daylights out of me, especially if they're of fics I adore. First of all, if you act as if a fic is -perfect-, it takes away from its actual humanity, from its real worth. It's like, you're not using your brain, so why should I believe a word you say in response, and does that mean -I'm- not using my brain in loving it, too?
If I had time, I'd post a mini-list of all my favorite fics and say only critical things of them to show how much I love them. If one doesn't -think- or express one's feelings in any sort of creative manner, one is just a parrot, someone who likes the shiny thing without really being capable of seeing its true beauty. I think to an extent, the readers help define the fic-- that is to say, if brainless zombies like a fic, you wonder how good can it possibly be. On the other hand, if eloquent, thoughtful people like the fic, one feels the worth of the fic itself is thus elevated.
Because of this, I realized I have a creed-- a set of ethics as a reviewer:
- Never use hyperbole-- say how it affects you in the most direct yet descriptive way possible; pretend you're talking to a skeptic if it helps. Said skeptic will laugh every time you use more than one adjective per sentence.
- Never project your own response onto others-- confine yourself to detailing your own thoughts, leave others to form their own opinions; separate your kinks from those of others and keep it in mind when describing the merits of a fic.
- Never push a fic onto others as if it's a drug-- separate your own excitement and your actual full response to the work.
- Objectivity isn't just for dinner anymore: try it, it works! Don't do the writer or the work the disservice of pretending they've attained perfection: there is no need to be negative, but please refrain from overindulging in the "bestseller syndrome", where mass hysteria passes for literary worth. Treat the writer as "a writer", and the work as "a work", as best you can.
*wankwankwankwank*
Squeeing, 100%-positive and yet not really -descriptive- rave recs/reviews of fics make me cringe. No, I lie. I hate them. I REALLY HATE THEM A LOT. RAAAAGE. (Ok, no.)
EDIT - to clarify: by "review" I don't mean feedback, I mean it in the "movie review" sense.
Not only that, they make me violently dislike both the reviewer and the fic, even if I -adore- the fic in question. I have to really bite my lip and repeat to myself "I love this fic, I -love- this fic, remember I -love- this fic!" so that I don't just write an anti-rec right back detailing all the flaws I can possibly think of (there are always some! Jeez!). I realize this is easily seen as hypocritical, considering how excited I get over fics. Still, I could -swear- I've never given what I'd consider pat compliments: Oh, this is great, genius, wonderful, beautiful, amazing. I've never called anyone "extremely talented" or even talented. I've never raved about how worthy someone/something is of their popularity or thought any fic -should- be popular as a sign of its greatness. Of course, I'm sort of elitist and snobbish like that :>
I've never guarranteed anyone would have to like a fic. That just -really- pisses me off. How could anyone assume -any- piece of writing is soooo great, -everyone- has to love it? My god, what arrogance! Not only that, it just feels like advertising to me. I hate advertising, in case that isn't clear. I hate it with all the passion of a thousand burning hells. Nothing rubs me the wrong way like a rave review that could easily apply to -any- fic out of hundreds. Saying only nondescript, gushy things about a truly good, visceral piece of writing just... deadens it.
I actually can't stand reading most positive reviews, though I'm almost always highly entertained by negative ones (they're usually funny, at least). The words one uses in response should contain some tiny spark of inspiration, something that is reminiscent of the fic, otherwise the review is pointless because it doesn't actually -say- anything and all I get is "propaganda-propaganda-propaganda-propaganda". And as should be painfully obvious, I reallyreallyreallyreallyreally despise propaganda quite, quite a lot.
So I'm in this weird place where I'm semi-known for recs and reviews and yet I have very little respect for the practice of reccing & reviewing itself as is commonly practiced. In fact, 98% of all blurbs & mini-reviews and such annoy the living daylights out of me, especially if they're of fics I adore. First of all, if you act as if a fic is -perfect-, it takes away from its actual humanity, from its real worth. It's like, you're not using your brain, so why should I believe a word you say in response, and does that mean -I'm- not using my brain in loving it, too?
If I had time, I'd post a mini-list of all my favorite fics and say only critical things of them to show how much I love them. If one doesn't -think- or express one's feelings in any sort of creative manner, one is just a parrot, someone who likes the shiny thing without really being capable of seeing its true beauty. I think to an extent, the readers help define the fic-- that is to say, if brainless zombies like a fic, you wonder how good can it possibly be. On the other hand, if eloquent, thoughtful people like the fic, one feels the worth of the fic itself is thus elevated.
Because of this, I realized I have a creed-- a set of ethics as a reviewer:
- Never use hyperbole-- say how it affects you in the most direct yet descriptive way possible; pretend you're talking to a skeptic if it helps. Said skeptic will laugh every time you use more than one adjective per sentence.
- Never project your own response onto others-- confine yourself to detailing your own thoughts, leave others to form their own opinions; separate your kinks from those of others and keep it in mind when describing the merits of a fic.
- Never push a fic onto others as if it's a drug-- separate your own excitement and your actual full response to the work.
- Objectivity isn't just for dinner anymore: try it, it works! Don't do the writer or the work the disservice of pretending they've attained perfection: there is no need to be negative, but please refrain from overindulging in the "bestseller syndrome", where mass hysteria passes for literary worth. Treat the writer as "a writer", and the work as "a work", as best you can.
*wankwankwankwank*
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 09:32 pm (UTC)mostly... there's this twilight land between rec and review where people post a link and some blurb of why this is the best thing since sliced bread... which also applies to the reviews left to the author, but annoys me more in reccing. i don't think constructive critique is needed, really, just a few words that are... well... more descriptive than hyperbolic, you know what i mean?
like, it'd make me happy to see, "this is great -because-" rather than "this is brilliant, omg, beautiful, perfect, genius hotness and joy". like, instead of saying (about you)-- read aja! her fics are so romantic and beautiful and hot and awesome and omg, h/d 4evah!!... you could say...
read aja-- her fics are deeply felt, emotionally focused, psychologically intense and personal. sweet and times and bitter at others, her writing spans the range of human emotion and leaves me breathless and heartbroken and transformed in ways i never expect even after numerous readings.
or something. blah~:)
something shorter. but that's about the length of most of those things, though.
i hate the -patness-, the cookie-cutter blandness, the mindless squeeing of it, more than the lack of critique, you know? since i know -i- don't con-crit all the time by any means~:)
and again, i'm not really talking about on-one-one feedback to the author, anyway.
though i hope you do know that i, at least, live and breathe for as much pain as anyone wants to throw at me ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 09:51 pm (UTC)really, what this boils down to is that i just don't like having to *think* about my recs, hahaha. i would rather read it, go 'oh my god this is good!', put it in the bookmark file, and then compile the list later and be done with it, then to have to revisit why i think a fic is a good one. just because i am lazy, and, like, for me, putting time and effort into my reviews results in a 20-page review of a DV chapter, and putting time and effort into my recs results in a Niffler-quality post that I rarely if ever give anymore. So, it's ultimately, I guess, that I see you're right, and I know that's a flaw in my own way of reccing and describing things, but it's not one that I'm really willing to change, because I'm not necessarily dissatisfied with it.
I guess what I mean is--obviously you and S both know that I'm capable of writing coherent and well-thought-out and constructed reviews or we all wouldn't be having this conversation. So why, if you know it, should I have to do it for every single fic that I like? Can't I just say, "I like this fic" and have that be enough? I know, logically, why it's not practical, of course--witness S having to wade through all the treacle of H/D forevah-evah! fics that make me smile and make her groan. I was just going to say "I could always just make different categories of fics" but I see you have just beaten me to the punch; and I can certainly do that. I just feel like investing even more energy than I already do into reading and organizing all those fics will make me dread doing it rather than enjoy it.
*is lazy bum*
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 10:01 pm (UTC)i mean... there should be a difference between "good" and "great" and "brilliant". it would be nice. otherwise you equate everyone who's merely "not bad" or even "really good" like cinnamon with like... silvia & maya & cassie & olympia & so on. y'know? yeah -.-
as far as -your- recs... i totally dig that, 'cause i'm as lazy and probably moreso. laziness, i understand :D
you do have a pretty high tolerance for... you know... sap in the service of H/D (*laughs*) which i also understand.... but i do know that some people don't trust your recs as much even though they know you can objectively see fics -and- h/d in general. i myself am a sucker for a lot of cutesy h/d (and i -think- s. is too, kinda, eheheh), but even i wouldn't really go for some of them.
so yeah, maybe label them.... but still, i didn't mean this to be a "OMG AJA'S RECS PISS ME OFF" post, ahahah. 'cause they don't. i mean, -dude- i read random favorites lists in ff.net profiles. *shudders*
i read h/d badfic that makes my hair straight and i don't -close the window-!
in the last fic i read, DRACO GAVE HARRY A THONG BECAUSE HARRY LOST A BET TO WIN AT QUIDDITCH!!1 >:O
hehehe i can't talk, obviously >:D
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 10:17 pm (UTC)The only thing is, one man's "good" is another man's "brilliant"--even among people who know all about good writing. Eventually even with categorical recs there will still be a line where I rec something in one place and everyone will go, "my god this fic sucks what is it doing here?" or alternately "this fic is brilliant!"
and, also, if you get into things like "read this only if you're into H/D sap" you're *bound* to offend somebody who doesn't think their work is Sap, dammit! *eyeroll*
The thing is, I never tried to condense my recs just for one audience. It's rare that I read outside of H/D, and what I do read outside of H/D I nearly always like because it was recced or written by people I trust. So within that spectrum, it's going to be difficult to know what *kind* of H/D fans I'm working with. And, really-- people already think I'm snobby and egotistical as it is. IF, just IF, I were to make some sort of proclamation that such-and-such a writer, such and such a fic, were on a par with Sylvia or Maya or Cassie, who's to say that there wouldn't be people bitching, because where do I get off deciding what fics or writers deserve to be in that higher tier anyway?
Can you visualize my paranoia? :D
that icon always makes me so happy. glock icons are a very good thing.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 10:50 pm (UTC)and i think you're running into the thing where you both want to just say whatever you feel like -and- you want to please people. and of course you can't please everyone all the time, so you're stuck with censoring yourself in some sort of awkward compromise. (and most people who annoy me, i think they just say these bland sugary things because that's all they -want- to say).
but er... it shouldn't matter if someone -else- thinks something's good rather than brilliant or vice versa if it's -your- rec, right?~:) your opiinion, your lj, your powah. or something ^^;
depends if you want to be liked but not necessarily respected for rigor or respected but not always liked for sweetness. the majority of people who read your lj probably can't tell the difference anyway, of course. heh. *snobs*
and then there are all the people who can't handle the truth.
and then there are the people like -me- and s., who just want to read fic without gratuitous thongs unless absolutely necessary :>
no subject
Date: 2003-09-29 11:07 pm (UTC)this is the crux of the issue, with me, anyway. haha. i just want everyone to love me all the time--but i also want to be wanky and say whatever the hell I like. so, obviously, conflict. :D
seriously, i want to have my cake and eat it too--i want the masses to go "whee, fic recs! yummy!" and the elitists to go, "aja always recs the good shit." but of course that will not happen because the two things DO NOT MESH, thereby proving that I AM AN IDIOT.
Hee hee.