reenka | ... -.-

All right, so....

How is one meant to deal with people's stupidity without actually biting their head off and/or becoming a bitter bitch who hates everyone--?

I mean, I love everyone (er, in theory-- well, I mean, non-practically speaking... yes, this makes sense to me okay) and am patient (when it's just about thought), just... all from afar. Very, very far. When faced with actual folly, I blow up and have the urge to start yelling, even worse because I actually am a quiet person who never yells. *sigh*

I know most people would just accept it. "Oh look, people are just being dense again, tralala who cares, onwards to the next manga." And... I dunno why it always strikes me again and again, as if it's never occurred to me before. Of course, this is the secret to my happiness as well, because I can easily re-experience joy for the first time also.

I want to yell about how stupid people are, but really, I am aware I'm the one who's being stupid here. I just want impossible things. I want people to think more, and... I dunno, I want them to not hurt my brain by following their logic. Really, what needs to change here is me, not them, because it's not their responsibility to make my brain feel more comfortable, but. I just. This is why I avoid people, I guess... so easily frustrated.... No way of reconciling my own level of understanding with a lesser one without going bonkers. Also why I sort of lose it if I'm misunderstood too much. I should never be a teacher.
Ironically, of course I have an internship/job at the design office at campus teaching an html workshop. *facepalm* And I hope you understand, none of this is actually intended to mean I'm certain I'm right-- just that regardless of what I theoretically know is possible or likely (ie, that I'm at least partly wrong and the other people may also have a point I'm not acknowledging though usually I -see- it, dammit, behind the huge error they'd made), my gut reactions remain.

I mean, my last boyfriend, my biggest issue with him was that he didn't automatically 'get' everything about me, and... I mean, he got 95% of everything which is more than most people get by far, and yet it wasn't enough. Really maybe I'm just high-strung -.-

Perhaps this sort of easily set-off attitude actually comes through unintentionally on lj and this is why people think I'm scary and/or don't talk to me that much. Or something. *sigh* Yeah, that's probably true, isn't it. I mean, I don't precisely -hide- that I'm hard on certain things/ideas (though I swear, it's people's ideas that piss me off, nothing personal-- I really do separate people & ideas even if other people don't)-- so I guess maybe I come off as threatening/annoying but not in a direct enough way so that people would confront me but are rather okay just avoiding me as I avoid them. Er. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Again. ^^;;;;

I mean, I don't think I'm intolerant, really. I just see faulty reasoning, no matter -what- the actual thought is, and react as if burnt. It's not like I can't be disagreed with-- that'd be easier to filter for, if anything, 'cause I could be more careful to only talk to people I agree with (to actually be elitist). But the problem is actually that it doesn't matter if I agree with you or not, if you seem to miss -seeing- (not agreeing with-- that doesn't matter) a point I think is important. It's that 'not seeing' that drives me insane. When I see and others don't see. It's like red cloth to a bull. A very silent yet stewing bull who avoids the red cloth altogether and goes home to rant. That would be me.

Somehow, I don't think expressing my feelings out loud to the people involved is the answer, 'cause then people -would- actually hate me and it would be no use anyway. Le sigh.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

yourpoison.livejournal.com

It's that stuff on Aja's journal where people semi-randomly list authors they like or think are cool as a way of saying 'this is outside fanon', while showing no sign they actually know much about the breadth of HP fic out there to compare it to.... So just the usual frustration with people's half-assed ideas of what's original, IC, non-fanon, etc in this fandom. When someone lists a fic that's well-written but very fanon as unique and unprecedented and/or characterized in a surprising way somehow just because they're 'adults'(??) or just an author they like as if that implies overall semi-objective value.... argh.

But none of this is something I -could- take apart because it's based on extensive secondary knowledge it'd really be a bother to share with all the people involved and really just depends on them reading the damn fics themselves. And also actually thinking about what the question is.

Also, sad to say, I'm nowhere near the master of logical, concise-- hah-- argument that you are, so I just muddle along, ahahaha. :D

From:

sistermagpie.livejournal.com

Ah! Yeah, I couldn't think of anything to contribute because it just seemed like it had no answer--and yet of course I knew it would just get a list of everyone's favorite. (Not that it was a dumb question at all, I just didn't think it could be answered.) Everyone's characterizations are, to begin with, based on canon, so how can you talk about the originality anyway? It's hard for me to imagine a version of a character that isn't some version of the fanon model, and it doesn't have to do with fanon contamination for me so much as just..yeah, that's one way you're going to look at the character. It's sort of like if you were talking about meta and said that so-and-so had a really *unique* take on the character I would assume it was a wrong take, you know? Even if many people in fandom agreed with it. If it's right it should just make you say yes, I see that too instead of "Wow! You're creative!" Sort of the same thing with fanfic. I've read lots of fanfic that I liked and where I really liked what an author did with a character, but I don't usually look for originality, exactly. Even characterizations I've really liked of a character I've had problems with--actually, I can think of one that I really liked that in the end I almost was wary of because it seemed like it was trying too hard to be not be a different kind of fanon, if that makes sense. Like it started to feel artificial becuase it was avoiding stuff usually considered artificial.

I've definitely stopped being amazed at what people will call "In Character." Sometimes it's something that's blatantly fanon--myself I sometimes get more annoyed by the sort of thing I described above, where somebody thinks that doing the opposite of the hated fanon version of something is being IC. It's just so hard to do since canon is right there and not like any of it, you know? I suspect the fics I like are more the ones that are obviously commenting on the text than trying to fill in.

You know, I think that's actually kind of a thing I do straight down the line is liking things that are sort of blatantly saying this is fandom-generated rather than this is canon, if that makes sense.

From:

bookshop.livejournal.com

I suspect the fics I like are more the ones that are obviously commenting on the text than trying to fill in.

Thank you, I have to go mull this over now. Very nice insight and not one I've ever thought about before regarding fanfic of choice. I think I'm very much inclined to agree with you.

From:

yourpoison.livejournal.com

Everyone's characterizations are, to begin with, based on canon
....Ahahah, I would take issue with this (if anything, 'cause for the longest while -mine- weren't except in the most indirect of senses), but I see what you're getting at ;) It's just... well, a lot of times they really aren't, not even indirectly, except for a similar environment & the names being the same. For serious, a lot of people's Draco makes me wonder what evil Harlequin character took over the poor boy's soul... and then ate it and spat it out. :>

I agree there's no real answer (which I sort of implied in my own comment because I kept getting side-tracked by stylistic originality because I really couldn't find any characterization that was both outside fanon & somehow 'original' or unique or consistent or what have you). However, I think it's possible to be uniquely right to some extent, just rare-- like, I think Silvia and Breed (and say, Ste) are both right and write IC!Draco and yet are all pretty different, y'know? Ste is actually a great example of someone who's read a lot of fanon and yet writes like no one else... but then, that's at least partly a style thing, again.

I know what you mean about agreeing with a characterization vs. thinking it's 'creative'-- though sometimes stories can surprise you and sort of, um, sell themselves to you, I guess? I find that a good fic will do that particularly well. I'm a grand believer that you can go with nearly any characterization -if- you build up to it and sell it believably, and of course next to no one does that. However, 'originality' per se is sort of a funny term to use about fanfic in general, of course--- though I think it's possible to be outside fanon in its most glaring incarnation even if you're not original in respect to canon-- I mean, you usually go with one or the other, though the absolute -best- fanfic (to me) is the one that synthesizes canon & its own fanon with flickers of other influences to produce something-- surprising yet satisfying. This is generally a question of the quality of the writing itself rather than the characterization per se however, I believe....

I think fanon itself annoys me whether or not it thinks it's not being fanon, if that makes sense~:) Purposeful fanon is okay if it's tongue-in-cheek and/or ironic or comedic in some sense, but serious twisting of a character especially with the purpose to glorify.... Well, we all know how I feel about fanon!Draco, no need to go into my desire to disembowel him and burn all fics containing him yet again~:)) I think that's less a hatred of fanon and a love of canon and more a hatred of fanon!Draco and that particular archetype/stereotype being admired/liked by Harry. It's like... personal to me. But then I also really hate it when you have weepy soldiers or flowery declarations of love from cops or, HELLO, HARRY BLOODY POTTER WAKING UP ONE DAY TO DECIDE MALFOY IS OMG SO COOL WITH HIS MYSTERIOUS SLYTHERIN WAYS. *sigh*

I think I like fics that comment on the text in specific ways (like, I don't like fics the entire purpose of which is to disprove the 'hegemony' of the text-- like, though I like Ste's writing, my god, does she ALWAYS have to take everything Harry cares about apart from Draco away from him??!?) I've never sought out 'fill-in' fics (I mean, god, I write H/D, how many of those -are- there-- 3??!), but at the same time I'm pissed by the obvious anti-canon fics because they're OOC and unbelievable as the Harlequin rip-offs.

I just want something that's fanon-generated but -incorporating- canon as a starting point in some way. Is that so hard?? Argh, fandom. Argh.

From:

sistermagpie.livejournal.com

....Ahahah, I would take issue with this (if anything, 'cause for the longest while -mine- weren't except in the most indirect of senses),

Aha! But I'm including the indirect sense. His name, his world, his background. Even the Harlequinized Dracos, as far from canon as they get, are jumping off of some of his vital statistics. There's a reason they're picking him rather than Ron to put in their story, even if it's just the hair. Something in the character inspired them to write...whatever they wrote.

I mean, you usually go with one or the other, though the absolute -best- fanfic (to me) is the one that synthesizes canon & its own fanon with flickers of other influences to produce something-- surprising yet satisfying. This is generally a question of the quality of the writing itself rather than the characterization per se however, I believe....

Yeah, I think so too. I mean, let's face it, the people who write good X-character probably are good writers, period. Or they just have interesting ways of looking at characters that they put in their writings. *All* the characters are going to be filtered through that fic writer's sensibilities, so you know everybody's personalities are going to sort of work around whichever one bothers you.

I think that anti-canon is probably just one of the main uses of fanfic, really. Like I remember this one very bitter woman in XF fandom that wrote Scully/Krycek and really, she just hated Mulder. Hated him. So the whole point of the pairing was that Mulder found out and felt betrayed--which was right of Scully to do because TAKE THAT, MULDER! And sure if I actually read these I'd probably think, WTF? but it did make sense to me as something somebody would write as fanfic because that's probably what she thinks when she watches the show. For her, that was what M/S was about.