fuck jane eyre, where is my dinner

[apiphile]

So here's a thing that's tiresome - when people rather gauchely feel the need to point out something that everyone else has been hinting around. There are different levels of this, so if everyone has been hinting very heavily and someone brightly and ironically just smashes it out of the park then it's a fair cop, because everyone ELSE was being

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[wolfy_writing]

It will start the tedious eReader enthusiasts off on another defensive rant about how everyone who likes books is an elitist luddite cunt who needs to shut their goddamn whore mouth. Leaaaaaaave the Kindle-users alone. They have their eReaders for whatever reason is relevant to them (weight, accessibility, long journeys, eyesight problems, just liking gadgets a lot) and starting the whole thing off again is just bastard annoying and means I have to use the scroll wheel more to get past the unending squabble over APPROXIMATELY NOTHING.

I hate the book-versus-eReader argument. It is boring, and being one of the people who owns both (I finally got one! And yes, I did buy your books!), I'm tired of being told that I'm simultaneously a technophobic Luddite with a paper fetish and a soulless gadget-junkie who doesn't really read books.

On the subject of "don't rag on people for writing Mary-Sues" - there is nothing feminist about shitty writing. Shitty writing is shitty writing. You write your wish fulfillment character with flare and a good plot and technical aptitude and I don't care if her name is one letter removed from yours and she does everything you wanted to. But for god's sake don't let your politics blind you to whether or not something is ANY GOOD.

This! If your version of feminism is that we all need to applaud any literary diarrhea that's produced by a woman because it's women having DREAMS and FANTASIES of their own, and CREATING STORIES, and womankind consists entirely of fragile little flowers who would never be able to endure the horrible pain of being told they weren't writing well, or actually make an effort to improve, and therefore need to be given praise with the same quality-indifferent encouragement usually shown to a three-year-old who's just worked out how to show off his crayon scribblings by shouting "I made a picture!", your version of feminism sucks donkey balls.

(Plus, aren't most Sues these days the ultra-victimy types who spend all of their time being beautiful and accumulating a tragic history until a man saves them from everything? I seem to run into those types constantly, and I don't see how it's So Very Feminist to cheer that shit on.)

[apiphile]

YAAAAAAY. So you manage to occupy BOTH SIDES of the argument at once...

Plus, aren't most Sues these days the ultra-victimy types who spend all of their time being beautiful and accumulating a tragic history until a man saves them from everything?

Precisely, a lot of them are, but apparently just making a woman the central character in your story is something we must uncritically applaud and WOMEN ARE WRITING and it's important not to tell them to maybe WRITE SOMETHING BETTER. IDK. I am against this notion that my sex are unendingly fragile (I am also against associating with people who are unendingly fragile).

[wolfy_writing]

YAAAAAAY. So you manage to occupy BOTH SIDES of the argument at once...

Yes, and everyone seems to agree on only one thing - I am READING BOOKS WRONG by using the wrong type of technology.

I am against this notion that my sex are unendingly fragile (I am also against associating with people who are unendingly fragile).

Yeah, on a political level, actively encouraging the "I am just a fragile little girl and if anyone says anything mean or critical to me, I'll cry!" attitude among women by setting a social standard that makes "Yay, your story consists of words! Good for you!" 'support' the only acceptable response seems like a really bad idea.

On a personal level, I'd rather stick my head in a piranha tank.

[apiphile]

Well at least you're reading them at all ;)

It seems to be the opposite of everything we were working for in the first place? But then I am unsure as to what it is we're supposed to want now.

So would I, if only to get a better look at the piranha - primarily insectivores!

[wolfy_writing]

Half of the online feminist advocacy these days is "How to turn personal preferences and disagreements into proof of one's political and moral superiority."

It would be kind of cool being able to see them up close.

[apiphile]

For real and I just ... do we not have other shit to deal with? Like rape and FGM and broadening pay gaps and reproductive rights and ...

[wolfy_writing]

But dealing with rape is hard, and the only people you get to go around feeling morally superior to are rapists! Feeling superior to people who mock bad writing puts you much higher up the moral ladder, and can be accomplished with a single internet post!

[apiphile]

I had a quiet epiphany this afternoon where I realised that these are the same people who would debate things to death in coffee shops in order to score rebel points but never do a damn thing, and that therefore their opinions are WORTHLESS.

And I felt better!