~~ it's all about the porn, man.
Feb. 24th, 2004 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI write porn. That's what I do, right?
See, two guys were talking behind me on the bus about what they did-- they were art majors. One was a painter and the other was a sculptor (actually, I think he had a sculpture concentration in a Studio Art major while planning to be a programmer as a life goal, but hey). Kindred spirits, all that, right.
I guess if one actually asked me what -I- did, I'd say, "I write porn". Or at least, that'd be truer than most things. I mean, it's not even "artsy" porn-- it's most definitely intended to be hot. And it's fanfiction. If I called it "art", quite a number of people would just laugh, wouldn't they? But hey, I think so. I'm an artist, even if there's no actual proof.
Roughly speaking, it seems like there are 3 categories of fiction: a) popular fiction-- written for entertainment purposes (porn, horror stories, detective stories, a good number of adventure/violence stories, humor, etc); b) didactic fiction-- written to express a philosophical thesis or to make some point about life and/or the world (myths, some fairy-tales, family & growing-up stories, a lot of love-stories, some historical novels, fables, Ayn Rand, etc); c) interpretive fiction-- written to transmit a certain slant or expansion on "the hard facts" as the writer sees them (some people would put fanfiction here by default).
Inevitably, of course, all these get really confused and mixed together until you can't really separate them at all in practice. But... for some reason, I did feel chagrined when I saw this long essay all about how Gundam Wing (the show) is a victim of "fan rape". Basically, 'cause everyone's writing everyone as OOC and that just... hurts the "artistry" of the show somehow. Dude, that's just freakin' funny.
"Art" isn't a separate thing, an inviolate thing that's confined to the source material of some fanfic. It's a sacred thing, okay, but... everything is art. Fanfiction is art. Breathing can be an art if you do it with -intent-. I've taken whole classes based around the idea of asking "what is art", and there's never been an actual settled-on answer, but I think I can easily say that fanfiction is an art without regard to its adherence to its source or its degree of in-characterness. That's just silly.
Most people would say that "didactic fiction" is closest to "Art" out of my categories, and I think that's interesting in itself, because most people wouldn't claim to write it, and if they do, they'd likely be seen as stuck up. I say I "just write porn" too, even as I fall into that trap myself, wanting everything I write and read to -mean- something, to be "saying" something about... something. Thing is, you can't really escape that. You're always going to be saying "something", simply because meaning exists whether you yourself put it there or not. It can always be -found-. Question is, how well do you as the writer understand what you're inevitably unconsciously saying? How well do you understand the world? How well do you understand yourself? I think one's writing improves with every increase in the level of this understanding.
To me, the dividing line between porn (entertainment) and myth (Meaning) is very thin. I am entertained by meaning and a sense of some sort of mythic significance more than almost anything else, so one easily becomes the other. My need for a certain set-up, a certain background, extends into both characterization and mood as well as the simple mechanics of the scenario-- that is to say, I don't care who's slapping whose ass and who's calling who "Daddy" if you can't make me interested in the various psychological dynamics there. This isn't to say I need "plot" or "story" with my porn-- this is simply to say that I don't get visceral pleasure out of most sexually-based ideas, though I do have a small number of kinks (S&M or vanilla are the same to me, in other words-- doesn't matter). I get this pleasure from a lot of emotionally-based ideas (passion is what matters, and love if you can write it convincingly-- most people... not so much).
My point (to finally get to it), is that in the end, getting worked up on charges of OOC writing is useless. That would only matter if the writer was going for an "interpretive fiction" story, and most people aren't, fanfiction writers or not. Leaving aside the question of whether there -is- such a thing as a solid "canon" in any case ('cause it's -always- going to be 85% individual interpretation). You're still left with the fact that most people read and write fanfic for "entertainment only"-- in other words, it's a form of pornography, or "popular fiction". It's fiction with a -goal- in mind, there to hit specific buttons, even if your button is "this sort of Draco". The fic is there to cater to you.
Personally, I judge stories based on whether they make good -fiction-, not good fanfiction. I don't -care- if it makes good fanfiction, 'cause really, what kind of achievement is that, anyway? Like coloring by numbers, except people knock themselves out harder trying to accomplish it. You could write the most in-character HP fanfic of all time and in a way, it'd be a waste of effort, really, wouldn't it? I mean, what would be the point, exactly?
It seems to me that writing in itself is always an art if that's how you approach it, no matter if you write porn or The Great American Novel. The characters' humanity has to come before their "accuracy", whatever -that- means. It's writing-- a creative process-- not engineering, right? You can't really separate such a complex endeavor as writing into categories, I think. It's always going to be more than would fit into any box; good writing will have overflow, will resist categorization, won't be entirely recognizable as really -like- anything else that came before it. That's what makes it good. That element of surprise, of revelation, of sudden connection. "Good fanfiction" wants to add an element of recognition to the mix-- wants to have it both ways. And people generally have to decide for themselves which of these goals is more important to have achieved.
I guess what I'm trying to say is... I like my porn to work on many other levels as well, and I'm rather demanding about that. But as far as whether it's in-character... if I really wanted "in character", in the end I'd recommend going to the source. Which is why I get frustrated with people who seem to confuse the interpretative fiction end of things & the actual source. The -source- doesn't have slash. Slash and all other subtext is inherently connected to the source, yes, but it's not really -merged- with it. So any fanfiction playing up subtext is going to disfigure the source in some way.
Fanfic is all about messing with the source, it seems to me, 'cause if you read it to be "true" to it somehow, you'll just be disappointed a lot. Unless -you're- the person writing it, in which case you'll be sure to please yourself (if you write well enough). And of course, now we're back to the porn, as always.
See, two guys were talking behind me on the bus about what they did-- they were art majors. One was a painter and the other was a sculptor (actually, I think he had a sculpture concentration in a Studio Art major while planning to be a programmer as a life goal, but hey). Kindred spirits, all that, right.
I guess if one actually asked me what -I- did, I'd say, "I write porn". Or at least, that'd be truer than most things. I mean, it's not even "artsy" porn-- it's most definitely intended to be hot. And it's fanfiction. If I called it "art", quite a number of people would just laugh, wouldn't they? But hey, I think so. I'm an artist, even if there's no actual proof.
Roughly speaking, it seems like there are 3 categories of fiction: a) popular fiction-- written for entertainment purposes (porn, horror stories, detective stories, a good number of adventure/violence stories, humor, etc); b) didactic fiction-- written to express a philosophical thesis or to make some point about life and/or the world (myths, some fairy-tales, family & growing-up stories, a lot of love-stories, some historical novels, fables, Ayn Rand, etc); c) interpretive fiction-- written to transmit a certain slant or expansion on "the hard facts" as the writer sees them (some people would put fanfiction here by default).
Inevitably, of course, all these get really confused and mixed together until you can't really separate them at all in practice. But... for some reason, I did feel chagrined when I saw this long essay all about how Gundam Wing (the show) is a victim of "fan rape". Basically, 'cause everyone's writing everyone as OOC and that just... hurts the "artistry" of the show somehow. Dude, that's just freakin' funny.
"Art" isn't a separate thing, an inviolate thing that's confined to the source material of some fanfic. It's a sacred thing, okay, but... everything is art. Fanfiction is art. Breathing can be an art if you do it with -intent-. I've taken whole classes based around the idea of asking "what is art", and there's never been an actual settled-on answer, but I think I can easily say that fanfiction is an art without regard to its adherence to its source or its degree of in-characterness. That's just silly.
Most people would say that "didactic fiction" is closest to "Art" out of my categories, and I think that's interesting in itself, because most people wouldn't claim to write it, and if they do, they'd likely be seen as stuck up. I say I "just write porn" too, even as I fall into that trap myself, wanting everything I write and read to -mean- something, to be "saying" something about... something. Thing is, you can't really escape that. You're always going to be saying "something", simply because meaning exists whether you yourself put it there or not. It can always be -found-. Question is, how well do you as the writer understand what you're inevitably unconsciously saying? How well do you understand the world? How well do you understand yourself? I think one's writing improves with every increase in the level of this understanding.
To me, the dividing line between porn (entertainment) and myth (Meaning) is very thin. I am entertained by meaning and a sense of some sort of mythic significance more than almost anything else, so one easily becomes the other. My need for a certain set-up, a certain background, extends into both characterization and mood as well as the simple mechanics of the scenario-- that is to say, I don't care who's slapping whose ass and who's calling who "Daddy" if you can't make me interested in the various psychological dynamics there. This isn't to say I need "plot" or "story" with my porn-- this is simply to say that I don't get visceral pleasure out of most sexually-based ideas, though I do have a small number of kinks (S&M or vanilla are the same to me, in other words-- doesn't matter). I get this pleasure from a lot of emotionally-based ideas (passion is what matters, and love if you can write it convincingly-- most people... not so much).
My point (to finally get to it), is that in the end, getting worked up on charges of OOC writing is useless. That would only matter if the writer was going for an "interpretive fiction" story, and most people aren't, fanfiction writers or not. Leaving aside the question of whether there -is- such a thing as a solid "canon" in any case ('cause it's -always- going to be 85% individual interpretation). You're still left with the fact that most people read and write fanfic for "entertainment only"-- in other words, it's a form of pornography, or "popular fiction". It's fiction with a -goal- in mind, there to hit specific buttons, even if your button is "this sort of Draco". The fic is there to cater to you.
Personally, I judge stories based on whether they make good -fiction-, not good fanfiction. I don't -care- if it makes good fanfiction, 'cause really, what kind of achievement is that, anyway? Like coloring by numbers, except people knock themselves out harder trying to accomplish it. You could write the most in-character HP fanfic of all time and in a way, it'd be a waste of effort, really, wouldn't it? I mean, what would be the point, exactly?
It seems to me that writing in itself is always an art if that's how you approach it, no matter if you write porn or The Great American Novel. The characters' humanity has to come before their "accuracy", whatever -that- means. It's writing-- a creative process-- not engineering, right? You can't really separate such a complex endeavor as writing into categories, I think. It's always going to be more than would fit into any box; good writing will have overflow, will resist categorization, won't be entirely recognizable as really -like- anything else that came before it. That's what makes it good. That element of surprise, of revelation, of sudden connection. "Good fanfiction" wants to add an element of recognition to the mix-- wants to have it both ways. And people generally have to decide for themselves which of these goals is more important to have achieved.
I guess what I'm trying to say is... I like my porn to work on many other levels as well, and I'm rather demanding about that. But as far as whether it's in-character... if I really wanted "in character", in the end I'd recommend going to the source. Which is why I get frustrated with people who seem to confuse the interpretative fiction end of things & the actual source. The -source- doesn't have slash. Slash and all other subtext is inherently connected to the source, yes, but it's not really -merged- with it. So any fanfiction playing up subtext is going to disfigure the source in some way.
Fanfic is all about messing with the source, it seems to me, 'cause if you read it to be "true" to it somehow, you'll just be disappointed a lot. Unless -you're- the person writing it, in which case you'll be sure to please yourself (if you write well enough). And of course, now we're back to the porn, as always.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 09:51 am (UTC)Um. That makes me think that there's more than one kind of fanfic reader. Ever ready to categorize, I am~:) Because a number of people like fanon!Draco more than canon!Draco, y'know? There are people who'll say this straight out, even if they like other aspects of canon. Some people straight out don't -like- canon & think they can do better, and prefer their own version of fanon, or some narrowly focused fic like... I dunno... Lucius-centric fic. And you can't really have Lucius-centric fic that's all that in-character 'cause there's so little we know about them. So any fic that focuses on the bad guys to a great extent is going to be pretty OOC even if merely because of that focus, 'cause the fics are so heavily Harry-centric.
I dunno why -I- read fanfic. I've tried reading it for the reason you gave, and been frustrated every time. I seem to always pick these obscure fandoms no one writes for, when I want that. Otherwise, I just go for the biggest, most widespread fandom & pairing, 'cause there's the most selection of quality there. I know I"m not typical, but fact is, most people don't write in character enough for me. I've never seen any writer who really reminds me of JKR's style/plot and whose Harry was really JKR's Harry to me enough to -fool- me.
I think most people are less picky, of course. And I see what you're saying. I was only talking about myself (note all the times I said "to me" or "I think"), eheheh. Yeah, most people read fanfic for that, though I don't. If I did, I'd call it all crap even more often than I already do, man. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 10:51 am (UTC)Well, I've never seen that as remotely necessary (which is why I find the 'it's not JKR, or Harry's not the main character, or such-and-such' argument so infuriating.) The writing style of JKR, and the fact that she has decided to write seven books dealing with the seven Hogwarts years, from Harry's POV, has nothing to do with authenticity of the Potterverse.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 11:11 am (UTC)...
So I'm a tad unreasonable.
I'm a style slut, so that's what I get attached to in fics, y'know? So if I love something, a lot of it's going to be plot/pov-character/style rather than universe. And if you say "you look for what you love & want more of it", well-- I just don't get that from fanfic. It's just. Not there.
Yeah, you can successfully share the universe, but to me that's not the same thing 'cause there's a whole sub-genre of "shared universe" stories, which I"m actually into, like the D&D mass-market paperbacks (although I'm not actually into those). One can easily share a universe but... while that's part of canon, I dunno if it -is- canon, to me. I'm rather particular, though.
All that aside, I -have- enjoyed a number of fanfics set in the Sandman universe, kind of against my will. One was a cross-over with HP, "The Language that God Speaks" and one with pre-show Spikefic, called "The Voice of His Eyes" or something like that. In both cases, I felt Neil's all-sacred "tone" & mood was somehow captured, and by using minor characters. So apparently it can be done. But... I don't think it's common.
You were saying that people read fanfic 'cause of love of canon, and I was just saying that I don't love any canon for reasons most people can reproduce. Mere universe sharing isn't going to be enough if I'm in love with the source-- meaning, in love with the pov & the place-in-time and the tone. Then again, those are the things I notice, and the universe is always secondary and nearly unimportant to me. I think I try to dismiss too much canon consideration 'cause otherwise I'd just be too tough on 99.9% of fanfic, really, to enjoy it, that's all.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 11:56 am (UTC)So we're driven to fic when we want expansion. And this is always a desire for more of the universe, rather than the style, because fanfic is about the author's world and not the authro. So if we love a canon for anything exclusively the author's, such as the author's command of language (which is the crucial thing about Sandman - plenty of other authors have explored merging the mystical with the everyday, but none do it in Gaiman's style) we're just not going to seek about fanfic.
Meaning that those who do seek out fanfic seek it out because of the possibilities the universe creates, and love of the characters. The author becomes quite irrelevant, except that they're the benevolent creator of all this. Aping the author's style becomes irrelevant too as far as what we call canonicity goes, because it's just not about him/her.