~~ wank.

[reenka]

I 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*

Comments

in which I angst.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Even though you/I know that it is to be expected that we will not all always like the same stuff (and it shouldn't be a cause of embarrassment or cause a crisis of self-worth), it's still a queasy feeling to have someone you respect lay out their long list of obvious flaws in a story you liked.

I seem to be using "Empty Chairs" as my case study here. The other day, on shadowluck's journal, she made a really gushing post about how much she liked that fic, how she thought it was far superior to plague of legends, etc. and everybody started commenting to her about how much they agreed with her. that really annoyed me and so I spoke up and said how much I hated it. but just saying "i hate this fic" felt like an unjustifiable approach, so i c/p'd part of the entry that i made on lieblich about it months ago, which of course you remember.

so there i was--i'd justified my position; but i FELT HORRIBLE. I felt like an ogre, attacking this fic that shadowluck had gone out of her way to praise, saying less-than-positive things about an author who was probably on her friends list and who probably would have read it and been hurt by it, and even though i feel absolutely certain that my criticisms of the story were thorough and justified, i STILL FELT HORRIBLE about it. so i deleted it. and that has been the only time i've ever even attempted to make a public negative statement about somebody's fic in, oh, well over a year.

pointing out a fic's flaws will cause unease to the author. it's inevitable. even if you're an author who loves constructive criticism, there's always insecurity associated with letting somebody else read and possibly take pot shots at your work, even if they do it under the guise of friendly discussion.

Now I am going to reply to S below, and angst about my own intellectual inadequacy. :D

Re: in which I angst.

[conversant.livejournal.com]

I did see the post in praise, and I declined to read the comments. I wouldn't have seen yours, in any case, because I'm always coming to these things late. Too little online time here. I sympathize both with your reason for posting and your reason for deleting and I'm guessing you have angst about what those who saw the comment and then noted the deletion think of that... Guh. I wouldn't be vanityfair for a million years, Aja. I think you do an admirable job with the pressure that has come of being watched by so many folks. I don't have to worry about that at all, and I *still* have issues with making my responses to fics public.

By the way, how do you read reviews at ffnet? I didn't even realize that a R&R click over there put my response on view, but I'm sure that's where I read the fic in question and where you must have seen the response. I'm getting more and more curious about what I said in that post!

Argh. On one level my response to Reenka's wish for substance in reviews is that I don't think I owe anyone anything. I'm here for my own enjoyment. It's my right to furtively read a million fics a day at ffnet and never let on I read them. It's my right to read an LJ fic and write a long response to its first part and then short votes of encouragement for subsequent parts. It's my right to decide that I want to take time to write 20 pages of critique for each chapter of some fic I get a kick out of thinking through, but it's also my right to not give that sort of response to other fics I also like but don't have the time or inclination to make that investment in. I think the solution may be to restrict myself to sending authors my responses, but that's often more difficult to do than it is to click the button at the bottom and post to a review thread.

I think I'm still unclear about what sort of post in what location Reenka really means. I seem to have been wrong in my assumption that she meant posts to review boards at FA or ffnet and to LJ comments for fics read over here. I also don't think that the Armchair will ever be a venue where long, substantive reviews raise issues that inspire long, substantive arguments from other participants.

I agree that pure squees at the Armchair are a nuisance, mostly because I get the daily digest (ok, right now I get nothing) and the one liner just adds space I have to scroll past (and don't get me started on the ones that don't erase the long post they replied to).

However, nothing is stopping thoughtful reviews but inertia, busyness (*raises hand*), and hesitance. I don't see why the two things can't stand there side by side: the list format doesn't make it easy to track duelling conversations, but it doesn't really make them impossible to track, either. I do think that all in all, LJ seems to be the better forum for such conversations because of the way it lays out the threads. However, long threads are as difficult to track over here as anywhere else (witness this conversation which has now been reduced to outline form).

Re: in which I angst.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I wasn't really calling for -substance- in -reviews- (if by reviews you mean feedback to an author rather than to whoever reads your post). And by substance I didn't necessarily mean long, thought-out treatises-- like S. said, I'd be happy with something even remotely descriptive when people link to fics, something that isn't just "SQUEEEEE! GENIUS!! PERFECTION!!1"

To be v. specific, it was this (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Armchair_Slash/message/3092) post on Armchair that set me off-- it was to introduce Cinnamon as Author of the Month. This isn't really about one-liners-- annoying, but whatever. This was supposed to be some sort of -comment- on her work, and it amounted to "OMG, YEAY!!" which kinda bothers me even -more- because I really enjoy Cinnamon's work.

This is about the times when a link to a fic is meant to -rec- and guide people to the fic. It seems natural to me than when you're talking about a fic to people in general, you shouldn't engage in false advertizing or hyperbole, not because it's some sort of duty, but just because it's nicer to the author -and- the readers.

I would prefer, "this was really sweet and gently touching" over "it was beautiful and gorgeous and perfect", or whatever. But by now I just feel like I'm harping on about this small, pointless little pet-peeve of mine and blowing it all out of proportion. Basically, I dislike the way other people rec because they sound like car salesmen and it makes me feel dumb by association, by liking the fic as well.

This is mostly -my- problem, however, not theirs -or- the readers in general, as far as I know~:)

Re: in which I angst.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

i totally empathize with you, you know, and would never demand/expect anyone to always be able to be critical of a work. you are far, far from the only one who keeps silent about the works that don't do it for them out of desire to avoid conflict. this is a sensitivity that comes with being a person who cares about others' feelings, and is hard to avoid. this isn't academia, and the reality is that yes, you can't be sure people will take it in the spirit it was intended.

i was mostly saying that the positive reviews could do with a dose of er... explication. i.e., the "why" of it all-- like shadowluck had done. for instance, -i- don't really give negative reviews/recs all that much-- but there is that middle ground between squeeing and ranting, i hope, especially on armchair, which is what inspired this rant. i really can't stand the mass adoration in a forum where discussion is -supposed- to happen. i mean, okay, let's adore, except articulately, that's all i'm asking. articulate. gaaaaaaaahh.

on the other hand, i think there's a place for con-crit in fandom-- and i -don't- think that it's only in locked posts and on-on-one emails. there's a -lot- of people who -want- to hear the reservations and problems people have, who outright -ask- for them, and no one says anything. there should be a place for the basic workshop atmosphere to prevail. i -want- that to be true. the people who don't want to hear it don't have to, but people should -still- be able to discuss if they want to, workshop if they want to. but of course, also -refrain- if they don't want to~:)