All right, so I've been reading some of the discussion about the new SGA lit-crit/discussion community, and I understand that people get their feelings hurt easily by criticism and we're a fandom community rather than a bunch of mercenary professionals, and we're all swimming in the same fishbowl and a lot of writers just write fic only for fun-- all right, I understand that and I fully agree that we should be kind and considerate to one another and to others' emotional attachments to their fics. But.
What most writers who say 'but can't you be nice?' don't understand fully is that almost any opinion, however it's worded, that's not actual praise could be construed as 'mean' or unfriendly or... not sweetly encouraging. And that's where I pretty much balk.
I read, therefore I write. It even goes in the opposite direction-- I write, therefore I read. It's that simple for me. Fiction bleeds into nonfiction for me, nonfiction into poetry, poetry into fiction. I react.
( And onwards... )
Fan to fan, reader to reader: we have questions. We want answers. Why do we like what we like? Why do we dislike certain elements of fanfic, certain tropes, and can accept others in one context but not another? How does this character work in a number of fics of a certain theme, like hurt/comfort, and what does this say about his canon relationship with that other character? What drives us to reading fics that do this one thing to a character, and why doesn't it work in that particular fic? How do we relate to this characteristic of that character in this story? How does it clash or reflect on canon? And so on and on and on.
~~
The whole idea of writing the author directly to give one's con-crit misses the point entirely, because there's a large difference between positive/negative/mixed feedback (intended for the author) and a positive/negative/mixed review (intended for other readers). The assumption that all discussion on a story has to basically double as direct feedback sort of... bothers me. A lot.
Not that this is an excuse to be rude, nasty and inconsiderate, not at all-- nothing is an excuse for being an arse. It's just... writers have to understand that readers want their space too, their own shop-talk that isn't about the writers. It's like-- a lot of women like to talk about some things with other women, things that just feel more comfortable or understood in that venue, things they couldn't quite express correctly or be understood in mixed company. Readers want to talk with readers. Readers don't exist for the sake of writers' egos or to fulfill their needs, even in fandom. Fannish readers could easily have something to say that's meant only for other readers of like mind-- that's all.
What most writers who say 'but can't you be nice?' don't understand fully is that almost any opinion, however it's worded, that's not actual praise could be construed as 'mean' or unfriendly or... not sweetly encouraging. And that's where I pretty much balk.
I read, therefore I write. It even goes in the opposite direction-- I write, therefore I read. It's that simple for me. Fiction bleeds into nonfiction for me, nonfiction into poetry, poetry into fiction. I react.
( And onwards... )
Fan to fan, reader to reader: we have questions. We want answers. Why do we like what we like? Why do we dislike certain elements of fanfic, certain tropes, and can accept others in one context but not another? How does this character work in a number of fics of a certain theme, like hurt/comfort, and what does this say about his canon relationship with that other character? What drives us to reading fics that do this one thing to a character, and why doesn't it work in that particular fic? How do we relate to this characteristic of that character in this story? How does it clash or reflect on canon? And so on and on and on.
~~
The whole idea of writing the author directly to give one's con-crit misses the point entirely, because there's a large difference between positive/negative/mixed feedback (intended for the author) and a positive/negative/mixed review (intended for other readers). The assumption that all discussion on a story has to basically double as direct feedback sort of... bothers me. A lot.
Not that this is an excuse to be rude, nasty and inconsiderate, not at all-- nothing is an excuse for being an arse. It's just... writers have to understand that readers want their space too, their own shop-talk that isn't about the writers. It's like-- a lot of women like to talk about some things with other women, things that just feel more comfortable or understood in that venue, things they couldn't quite express correctly or be understood in mixed company. Readers want to talk with readers. Readers don't exist for the sake of writers' egos or to fulfill their needs, even in fandom. Fannish readers could easily have something to say that's meant only for other readers of like mind-- that's all.
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