![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaMasterlist of Questionable Opinions (just in case you want to defriend me today, or actually want a recap of what I think of ze Fandom Issues ahahah). Hopefully, this means I shall never have to write on these topics again. Hey, one can hope. :P
- Realism in general: when writing purely for self-indulgent escapism it's for the dogs; if you can't be bothered thinking about the logic of how people in general and these characters in particular would behave, whether or not you're writing Deep Important Epics or PWPs, I can't be bothered reading your fic because I'll bet you much it's gonna SUCK. Writing for pleasure is one thing; writing sloppily is another. 'It's a kink' may be a reason why you wrote Harry turning to the Dark Side just to have S&M subtext with Draco, but it's not an excuse unless it's pure porn. And yes, plots need to make sense in the context of the characters' lives/experiences too, or you wind up with fics where characterization gets twisted out of all proportion just to get the characters to do something they don't wanna do. Even professional writers (*cough*JKR*cough*) could benefit from listening to their characters more rather than their ambitions for what they want the plot to do.
In other words: I think realism should support the depth & breadth of whatever the writer's endeavor is. In a sex-scene, yes, it's important to know something about how gay sex works, though you don't have to write it the way guy A + guy B would 'typically' fuck-- you just write it within the limits of plausibility of the two or more characters as well as two human males of a certain age (and hopefully cultural background as an extra-yummy bonus) & you're fine on the non-suckiness dept. Likewise, in terms of characterization, there's only so far you can stretch things and still be writing something other than 'bodyfic', which uses only the character's hair-color/eye-color. I believe you can write almost any situation plausibly & well, btw, it's just that if you want Harry to fuck Lucius and call him baby, you gotta do a lot of homework & also footwork. Tons. And I mean metric tons. (A notable exception is humorfic or fic where absurdity is the point.)
In conclusion: attention to realism + plausibility of any & all aspects = maketh goodfic wherein escapist/cracked-out scenarios or pairings may thrive. By 'plausibility', I also mean taking the time and space needed to make any development believable, rather than having the fic use a superficial excuse like 'he grew up' or 'he's different now' or 'he was only pretending to like girls' or 'well, he was never really that bad, he just got a bad rap-- and besides, LOOK, HE'S HOT!!1' in whatever way. Extra negative points for 'but he always loved him!' :P
- Queer realism in slash specifically: no, slash isn't about 'gay men' or anyone's rights, liberation, or pet cause. Slash is about a) shippy writing; b) our fantasies/wishes/feelings about canon; c) being fannish about characters specifically. Obviously, one is, in fact, queering characters by slashing them, so there's stuff that could be explored there, but it doesn't have to be; even so, the question of realism remains. It just really gets to me that 'realism' gets defined so narrowly as 'queer!realism' or 'canon!realism' or 'sexual!realism' whatever. As far as I'm concerned, all that should ideally happen is 'writing things as you want them to be as if it was how they are'.
I suppose this, as everything, depends on definition. I'm all about escapism, I just want things to make sense in context, otherwise you're not escaping so much as jumping off a tall building while forgetting a parachute :P Oh, and I get especially annoyed when people think 'realism' = 'current social environment', though of course it's a type. I suppose it's a basic extravert vs. introvert thing, looking within vs. looking outside, but I just think it's very possible to have all sorts of things happen in any society or time period-- it's not like 'Brokeback Mountain' was the only possible story for an equivalent romance in the American West in the 1970s. It may be one of the more realistic scenarios, maybe, but it's not like you can ever really say 'this is how life is for people like us' in a general sense. Of course, I say this 'cause I've always felt separate from 'my' culture and even 'my' time to an extent-- like, I can tell it's really 'opt out' in many ways, it's just you pay the consequences of separation :P
- Characterization specifically: yes, I believe there are 'plausible' (good) and a 'implausible' (sucky) extremes in the range of possible characterizations, and if you consciously (hard to do much about 'unconsciously' except-- uh-- refamiliarize self with canon?) choose to ignore character plausibility as best you can determine it, this is bad writing. I'm not going to come to your lj to harsh your buzz, but I will still intensely dislike that sort of fanfic and get annoyed when I accidentally read too much of it. I will probably rant in my little corner, too, because I have the right to rant the way you have the right to write whatever you want. :P
Also, after HBP, no one has any real excuse saying Draco Malfoy 'isn't well-characterized enough in canon' so you can do whatever you want. Too late, he's A Real Boy now; he has characteristics that will not float away on the breeze. Gotta deal if you want your writing not to suck (though he's A Real Boy in CoS, too-- because even hints/tidbits create an outline).
However, any honest interpretation of canon is not equally okay, no. It's quite possible to be on crack. For instance, if you honestly think Draco's a smooth criminal and/or some sort of sexy-arrogant uber-snarky godlike being in canon, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. Likewise if you think Harry's a fluffy bunny who WUVS Draco, I mean, he's obsessed (with his arse), ISN'T IT OBVIOUS. No, it's not. Why? Because you need to back up any opinion with actual canon fact and not interpretation if you want it to be taken seriously; hey, it's fine if you don't, you go on with your bad self. However, it would really help everyone's peace of mind if you knew the difference between fact and interpretation before starting to talk.
- Feedback in general: no one owes anyone a bloody thing in fandom as far as I'm concerned. Yes, this is a community; no that doesn't give any of us responsibilities outside of basic netiquette. If you wanna become well-liked and maybe even well-known, go ahead: create archives, do lots of positive feedbacking, write longfics for popular pairings, service the fandom, etc. But if you wanna be a lurker, a leecher, a porn-reader, a ranter, a complete lazy-ass bum-- go ahead. That's what we're here for. That said, if you want to meta-rant, it would help if you learned some basic rules of debate and/or knew what the hell you were talking about.
On a related note: people's sensitivities and expectations are different. The only thing that's to be expected is a certain amount of tolerance. If you think people 'should' or 'shouldn't' be writing a certain type of pairing, story, style, etc, you're automatically a jackass. Note-- you can rant or complain till you drop, just don't expect anyone to do anything or imply they ought to 'cause you're the Grand Poomba and/or their moral compass. That would make you Jackass x1,000, so.
This also applies to what kind of reviews/recs people leave or don't leave: if you can't deal with either honesty, mindless squeeing, non-intellectual brownnosing as well as rambly analytical concrit, get out while you still can, because fandom? Is going to bite you on the ass eventually.
- Concrit in particular: first of all, this is not the same thing as a review, precisely (though it's a subset), and definitely not the same thing as a rec. Concrit is always intended for the writer; a real REVIEW (with or without caveats, however honest or gushy) is often intended at least partly for other READERS (either skimming the feedback on the fic before reading or reading a review page or lj). A review can also be intended for the writer of that review to get their thoughts in order and leave their impressions, if a fic touched them or disturbed them enough-- though this happens more with actual movies/books/etc.
Anyway, unsolicited concrit is an iffy proposition, usually quite useless if the writer doesn't feel like revising or learning more or whatever, and even more useless if the person writing it just isn't very good at editing/analysis. Most people listen more to people they know or trust the opinion of; conversely, a lot of people who do see 'problems' in a piece of writing actually just have an agenda or a squick (like, you could honestly think bottom!Harry is OOC or it could just be a squick, and it's important which it is if you wanna do concrit). Critique in general has a bad rep, at least in HP fandom, 'cause most people AREN'T ANY GOOD AT IT (and also most writers don't really want it or don't find it useful). Anyway, all this being as is, I think inflicting concrit on someone is slightly rude, though a review with caveats is okay & should be seen as a normal part of internet interaction one can't avoid or rule out. Difference being: one is a solicited opinion if the comments were left open, while the other is unsolicited advice.
- Slash romance vs. gen non-romance vs. het or long-plotty-fic vs. PWPs: god, I wish people would quit wanking about this, seriously. Both have their merits, and both the character-centric romance writers & the plot-heavy gennish writers have something to learn from each other. I personally get annoyed at things done badly, not what is being done; long plotty fics have certain strengths and certain weaknesses-- ideally, of course, they can combine their traditional stregths with those of another genre/type of story, but I'm not holding my breath, much as I'd like to see it more often. But if I hear one more time about the inherent inferiority of slash or het or PWPs, I'm going to bust someone's nuts, I swear. Though I must say slash wank gets to me in a special way.
YES, you can slash anyone if you put real effort into it; some characters are canonically straight, 'tis true, though a lot are ambiguous, especially in action-genre canon. This doesn't mean you can't find some loophole-- hell, write AU, write amnesia fic, write 'everyone is dead except the two of them' fic. There are no rules to slash or fanfic or writing except 'don't SUCK' at whatever you do: learn how to do it well based on what you've got to work with. If you slash indiscriminately, it's the same as doing anything indiscriminately in writing: you're setting yourself up to suck. That said, the most important thing (I think) is realizing whether you're working with open or ambiguous or 'closed' canon, to what degree and in which area of the characterization.
Also, if you're too certain you 'can't slash' anyone because it's just OOC by nature, I think you're off your nut. I'm not going to beat around the bush with this subject. Not liking PWPs/romance is a matter of taste alone (though it'd help if one didn't say they all sucked and/or were OOC or pointless garbage). Not liking slash is also fine; judging slash as unworthy? That's not fine. That's FUCKED UP.
- Wank/meanness/fandom etiquette: straight up, the Cult of Nice gets up my nose something fierce. There are always mean people and assholes around, and it's always good to be polite and thoughtful, etc-- but once you start prescribing behavior and judging people when they don't meet your standards of 'civilization'? We have a problem. And you know what? I think I'm being more nice by being on the 'mean girls' side than if I was on the 'morally right' side, btw.
Wankery and mockery serves a social function-- ideally, it slaps us on the arse & makes us laugh at our own idiocy, the way compliments and communal bonding over porn & pretty boys serves to balance this. Obviously, it doesn't often work that way, but then 'nice' polite exchanges are actually often the most hurtful and subtly devastating. You can never control-- should never strive to control-- other people's reactions to anything. While you can define your own mini-fandom and choose where you hang out, trying to bust in on other people's hang-outs and ways of interacting or participating? SERIOUSLY. NOT. COOL.
It's not just about 'getting along' as if we're in a Barney show and are all a bunch of toddlers on LSD; it's about acceptance and tolerance, the true definition of which means accepting that which does not please you in others. Fics are fics-- inanimate objects, subject to revision and improvement. Human beings? NOT SO MUCH with the improvement by the disapproval of strangers. However, those strangers retain their right of speech, debate and discussion (no matter how stupid/juvenile) among themselves. As long as they're not trolling you? It's your. bloody. problem if you troll THEM and see what they're doing. Case closed, and a good day to y'all.
- Realism in general: when writing purely for self-indulgent escapism it's for the dogs; if you can't be bothered thinking about the logic of how people in general and these characters in particular would behave, whether or not you're writing Deep Important Epics or PWPs, I can't be bothered reading your fic because I'll bet you much it's gonna SUCK. Writing for pleasure is one thing; writing sloppily is another. 'It's a kink' may be a reason why you wrote Harry turning to the Dark Side just to have S&M subtext with Draco, but it's not an excuse unless it's pure porn. And yes, plots need to make sense in the context of the characters' lives/experiences too, or you wind up with fics where characterization gets twisted out of all proportion just to get the characters to do something they don't wanna do. Even professional writers (*cough*JKR*cough*) could benefit from listening to their characters more rather than their ambitions for what they want the plot to do.
In other words: I think realism should support the depth & breadth of whatever the writer's endeavor is. In a sex-scene, yes, it's important to know something about how gay sex works, though you don't have to write it the way guy A + guy B would 'typically' fuck-- you just write it within the limits of plausibility of the two or more characters as well as two human males of a certain age (and hopefully cultural background as an extra-yummy bonus) & you're fine on the non-suckiness dept. Likewise, in terms of characterization, there's only so far you can stretch things and still be writing something other than 'bodyfic', which uses only the character's hair-color/eye-color. I believe you can write almost any situation plausibly & well, btw, it's just that if you want Harry to fuck Lucius and call him baby, you gotta do a lot of homework & also footwork. Tons. And I mean metric tons. (A notable exception is humorfic or fic where absurdity is the point.)
In conclusion: attention to realism + plausibility of any & all aspects = maketh goodfic wherein escapist/cracked-out scenarios or pairings may thrive. By 'plausibility', I also mean taking the time and space needed to make any development believable, rather than having the fic use a superficial excuse like 'he grew up' or 'he's different now' or 'he was only pretending to like girls' or 'well, he was never really that bad, he just got a bad rap-- and besides, LOOK, HE'S HOT!!1' in whatever way. Extra negative points for 'but he always loved him!' :P
- Queer realism in slash specifically: no, slash isn't about 'gay men' or anyone's rights, liberation, or pet cause. Slash is about a) shippy writing; b) our fantasies/wishes/feelings about canon; c) being fannish about characters specifically. Obviously, one is, in fact, queering characters by slashing them, so there's stuff that could be explored there, but it doesn't have to be; even so, the question of realism remains. It just really gets to me that 'realism' gets defined so narrowly as 'queer!realism' or 'canon!realism' or 'sexual!realism' whatever. As far as I'm concerned, all that should ideally happen is 'writing things as you want them to be as if it was how they are'.
I suppose this, as everything, depends on definition. I'm all about escapism, I just want things to make sense in context, otherwise you're not escaping so much as jumping off a tall building while forgetting a parachute :P Oh, and I get especially annoyed when people think 'realism' = 'current social environment', though of course it's a type. I suppose it's a basic extravert vs. introvert thing, looking within vs. looking outside, but I just think it's very possible to have all sorts of things happen in any society or time period-- it's not like 'Brokeback Mountain' was the only possible story for an equivalent romance in the American West in the 1970s. It may be one of the more realistic scenarios, maybe, but it's not like you can ever really say 'this is how life is for people like us' in a general sense. Of course, I say this 'cause I've always felt separate from 'my' culture and even 'my' time to an extent-- like, I can tell it's really 'opt out' in many ways, it's just you pay the consequences of separation :P
- Characterization specifically: yes, I believe there are 'plausible' (good) and a 'implausible' (sucky) extremes in the range of possible characterizations, and if you consciously (hard to do much about 'unconsciously' except-- uh-- refamiliarize self with canon?) choose to ignore character plausibility as best you can determine it, this is bad writing. I'm not going to come to your lj to harsh your buzz, but I will still intensely dislike that sort of fanfic and get annoyed when I accidentally read too much of it. I will probably rant in my little corner, too, because I have the right to rant the way you have the right to write whatever you want. :P
Also, after HBP, no one has any real excuse saying Draco Malfoy 'isn't well-characterized enough in canon' so you can do whatever you want. Too late, he's A Real Boy now; he has characteristics that will not float away on the breeze. Gotta deal if you want your writing not to suck (though he's A Real Boy in CoS, too-- because even hints/tidbits create an outline).
However, any honest interpretation of canon is not equally okay, no. It's quite possible to be on crack. For instance, if you honestly think Draco's a smooth criminal and/or some sort of sexy-arrogant uber-snarky godlike being in canon, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. Likewise if you think Harry's a fluffy bunny who WUVS Draco, I mean, he's obsessed (with his arse), ISN'T IT OBVIOUS. No, it's not. Why? Because you need to back up any opinion with actual canon fact and not interpretation if you want it to be taken seriously; hey, it's fine if you don't, you go on with your bad self. However, it would really help everyone's peace of mind if you knew the difference between fact and interpretation before starting to talk.
- Feedback in general: no one owes anyone a bloody thing in fandom as far as I'm concerned. Yes, this is a community; no that doesn't give any of us responsibilities outside of basic netiquette. If you wanna become well-liked and maybe even well-known, go ahead: create archives, do lots of positive feedbacking, write longfics for popular pairings, service the fandom, etc. But if you wanna be a lurker, a leecher, a porn-reader, a ranter, a complete lazy-ass bum-- go ahead. That's what we're here for. That said, if you want to meta-rant, it would help if you learned some basic rules of debate and/or knew what the hell you were talking about.
On a related note: people's sensitivities and expectations are different. The only thing that's to be expected is a certain amount of tolerance. If you think people 'should' or 'shouldn't' be writing a certain type of pairing, story, style, etc, you're automatically a jackass. Note-- you can rant or complain till you drop, just don't expect anyone to do anything or imply they ought to 'cause you're the Grand Poomba and/or their moral compass. That would make you Jackass x1,000, so.
This also applies to what kind of reviews/recs people leave or don't leave: if you can't deal with either honesty, mindless squeeing, non-intellectual brownnosing as well as rambly analytical concrit, get out while you still can, because fandom? Is going to bite you on the ass eventually.
- Concrit in particular: first of all, this is not the same thing as a review, precisely (though it's a subset), and definitely not the same thing as a rec. Concrit is always intended for the writer; a real REVIEW (with or without caveats, however honest or gushy) is often intended at least partly for other READERS (either skimming the feedback on the fic before reading or reading a review page or lj). A review can also be intended for the writer of that review to get their thoughts in order and leave their impressions, if a fic touched them or disturbed them enough-- though this happens more with actual movies/books/etc.
Anyway, unsolicited concrit is an iffy proposition, usually quite useless if the writer doesn't feel like revising or learning more or whatever, and even more useless if the person writing it just isn't very good at editing/analysis. Most people listen more to people they know or trust the opinion of; conversely, a lot of people who do see 'problems' in a piece of writing actually just have an agenda or a squick (like, you could honestly think bottom!Harry is OOC or it could just be a squick, and it's important which it is if you wanna do concrit). Critique in general has a bad rep, at least in HP fandom, 'cause most people AREN'T ANY GOOD AT IT (and also most writers don't really want it or don't find it useful). Anyway, all this being as is, I think inflicting concrit on someone is slightly rude, though a review with caveats is okay & should be seen as a normal part of internet interaction one can't avoid or rule out. Difference being: one is a solicited opinion if the comments were left open, while the other is unsolicited advice.
- Slash romance vs. gen non-romance vs. het or long-plotty-fic vs. PWPs: god, I wish people would quit wanking about this, seriously. Both have their merits, and both the character-centric romance writers & the plot-heavy gennish writers have something to learn from each other. I personally get annoyed at things done badly, not what is being done; long plotty fics have certain strengths and certain weaknesses-- ideally, of course, they can combine their traditional stregths with those of another genre/type of story, but I'm not holding my breath, much as I'd like to see it more often. But if I hear one more time about the inherent inferiority of slash or het or PWPs, I'm going to bust someone's nuts, I swear. Though I must say slash wank gets to me in a special way.
YES, you can slash anyone if you put real effort into it; some characters are canonically straight, 'tis true, though a lot are ambiguous, especially in action-genre canon. This doesn't mean you can't find some loophole-- hell, write AU, write amnesia fic, write 'everyone is dead except the two of them' fic. There are no rules to slash or fanfic or writing except 'don't SUCK' at whatever you do: learn how to do it well based on what you've got to work with. If you slash indiscriminately, it's the same as doing anything indiscriminately in writing: you're setting yourself up to suck. That said, the most important thing (I think) is realizing whether you're working with open or ambiguous or 'closed' canon, to what degree and in which area of the characterization.
Also, if you're too certain you 'can't slash' anyone because it's just OOC by nature, I think you're off your nut. I'm not going to beat around the bush with this subject. Not liking PWPs/romance is a matter of taste alone (though it'd help if one didn't say they all sucked and/or were OOC or pointless garbage). Not liking slash is also fine; judging slash as unworthy? That's not fine. That's FUCKED UP.
- Wank/meanness/fandom etiquette: straight up, the Cult of Nice gets up my nose something fierce. There are always mean people and assholes around, and it's always good to be polite and thoughtful, etc-- but once you start prescribing behavior and judging people when they don't meet your standards of 'civilization'? We have a problem. And you know what? I think I'm being more nice by being on the 'mean girls' side than if I was on the 'morally right' side, btw.
Wankery and mockery serves a social function-- ideally, it slaps us on the arse & makes us laugh at our own idiocy, the way compliments and communal bonding over porn & pretty boys serves to balance this. Obviously, it doesn't often work that way, but then 'nice' polite exchanges are actually often the most hurtful and subtly devastating. You can never control-- should never strive to control-- other people's reactions to anything. While you can define your own mini-fandom and choose where you hang out, trying to bust in on other people's hang-outs and ways of interacting or participating? SERIOUSLY. NOT. COOL.
It's not just about 'getting along' as if we're in a Barney show and are all a bunch of toddlers on LSD; it's about acceptance and tolerance, the true definition of which means accepting that which does not please you in others. Fics are fics-- inanimate objects, subject to revision and improvement. Human beings? NOT SO MUCH with the improvement by the disapproval of strangers. However, those strangers retain their right of speech, debate and discussion (no matter how stupid/juvenile) among themselves. As long as they're not trolling you? It's your. bloody. problem if you troll THEM and see what they're doing. Case closed, and a good day to y'all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-08 10:52 am (UTC)And! No, I haven't read it, but it sounds interesting, going by title at least :))
no subject
Date: 2006-08-08 01:18 pm (UTC)Aw, the book is adorable. I'm not sure if it's his first one (he has several out at this point) but it's autobiographical in a very disjointed-time way. Eventually it moves from all the crazy shit he did in New York to living in Paris with his boyfriend. And it is definitely one of those books where you will find yourself accidentally laughing out loud on the bus and receiving strange looks from the other passengers. XD