fandom angsting and moaning

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I also posted The Eighth Tale on AO3 herePeople say I suck at summaries, so I probably didn't adequately explain that fic. It deals with timey-wimey and time paradoxes, possible futures that might also be possible fanfics, Harry/Draco sex, and then a sad ending. The fic was actually the summary of a fic that I'm not actually going to write, so I

Comments

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Well, I also see, "If you haven't heard of this fic, you're not really in this fandom!" The reason these comments bother me isn't really that people are telling me what I should be reading--I mean, because, I do that if I rec all the time! It's meant in a friendly way, imo. What I don't like (personally) is the idea that there's "the fandom" as cleodoxa puts it below. It's so easy to feel like "the fandom" is a certain group who reads certain fics and certain writers. I don't mind that so much as I mind feeling that that groups exists and yet not knowing who's in it and what they read or even where to find out where it's happening, if that makes sense. It's like everyone around you is speaking your language so you thought you understood, but really all the words mean different things, so it's impossible to find a translation guide. I feel like that all the time in fandom, which saddens me, because when I first started on lj, I felt quite differently.

But anyway, thanks. I don't really know how to make my summaries any different. I've tried! Maybe next time I'll ask someone else to write one for me.

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Part of the problem is that fandom builds so much on itself that I do think the "classics" are sometimes important from a cultural and communication standpoint. But yeah, sometimes I think they're extraordinary fics and sometimes I think they are so-so, and sometimes feel that people go one saying the so-so ones are extraordinary because it's the done thing.

I'm fine with being an outsider. I generally am. What I don't like is that I generally fail to see there is an inside and an outside, and sometimes get confused when I feel that I'm outside without knowing that I actually am.

I will write your summaries if you write mine. I am serious about this; I could probably be much less flippant about someone else's fic. Though I make no guarantees.