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[issen4]

Chapter 90 of A Year Like None Other, HP, by aspenlight

If You’ve a Ready Mind, part 3, Draco-as-Ravenclaw AU, HP, by Maya (mistful)

Gara janai (Not his Style), HnG, by umeko_pyon

Pray Your Gods, Tenpou/Kenren (Hakkai/Gojyo) slash quasi-xover AU crackfic, Saiyuki Gaiden, by ciceqi. Mention of Tentacles.

ETA:

Building Towards, Touya and Shindou friendship, HnG, by Osmalic.

Comments

[ramble_corner]

Hehe that's just tempting fate to put in summary ^^

[issen4]

Even more confusing are the ones that admonish you "DON'T READ THIS!!!"

So... I don't. That's the right response, isn't it?

*scratches head*

[anonymous]

Yes and no! See, on one hand they said it themselves and you'd be agreeing with them, so not that bad. But on the other hand they're saying it only because they want people to say "omg, ur fic iz so good!1!!!!!!1one plz rite more!" and saying the fic sucks defeats their TRUE purpose in life. It's like when someone says "review or I won't write more!" and they don't really want a genuine review saying "your plot is weak, you've turned Akira into a girl with a penis, and you've totally misrepresented an aspect of japanese culture" they want you to say "i luv it! rite more!" The intent behind those type of statements is not in any way tied to the literal meaning. Not that that stops me from leaving signed negative reviews on ff.net sometimes.

[issen4]

But... but... if the fic is good, I'd say so. Why should I have to do some persuading--"ooh, don't cry, here's some candy, this fic isn't bad"--before I can say whether I enjoyed it or not? Seems like extra work to me.

I understand the "review or I won't write more" statements, 'cos who doesn't like reviews? Even if it sounds ungracious?

[anonymous]

For some reason a lot of people in fandoms seem to think you can't say anything at all that could be construed as negative. I'm not sure how this all nice all the time thing got started, but I've gotten into fights over it since 1998. Certainly it hurts to find out that something you've spent a lot of time and energy on is not universally admired, and I guess a lot of people simply cannot cope with that. I've been told numerous times that "fanfic isn't serious writing, it's just for fun, so you can't critique it" in which case I think if that's really true we should do away with reviews entirely

[issen4]

This idea that you must be nice all the time is damaging, because then how do you get an honest opinion? But it certainly seems like some writers find it more desirable to have niceness than anything else, like conviction and honesty--which is what I don't quite understand, because the reason I like fanfic (well, one of the reasons, at least ^^) is because I get to read about the writer's idea of how, say, Hikaru and Akira get together, or how Ryouma from Prince of Tennis secretly lusts for Tezuka, or even how some American Mary Sue goes to Japan and falls in love with Ogata (hee) and it's a fairy tale ending, etc, etc.

I mean, if the writer likes a pairing or a scenario so much, and they believe in it enough to write a fic (even a crazily characterized one, like a feminized Akira), then why would they fuck up their One True Pairing by accepting fake reviews?

Then again, if it's all surface decoration they want, I guess fake reviews work too. *deflates*

I guess I have an idealized view of people at times.

Like this 100 chapter

[issen4]

I am very tempted at times to write a comment asking what the heck the writer has been thinking.

Sometime I feel like that, too! ^^ But I hardly ever comment on fics where I don't like the characterization/spelling/grammar because I can't bring myself to finish those. Commenting is hard. Sometimes I'm tempted to say "nice", "interesting", etc, because of time constraints or because I don't know any other suitable description.

If it's really good, though, I try. Sometimes I save the link (as on lj) so I can go back with a longer comment while I think the fic over.

Lurker at heart~