First, thanks. It's always flattering when someone reads something that's not necessarily their thing.
I think maybe if your eye is twitching, the writing you are twitching over really isn't that great. Could that be?
I'm not sure. I'm reluctant to dismiss a good writer--who not only words things beautifully, but thinks with wonderful insight and care about who the characters are and what they would do--who doesn't like B/A, but took serious time and effort to write it and to write it well--as having written the pairing sub-par merely because it didn't sell me on B/A.
I'm not the authority on the characters and pairings I love. That's, of course, one of the cool things about it: my B/A is not your B/A is not Whedon's B/A. But when I see B/A (or any pairing or character I really care about) that is a serious attempt at acknowledging, respecting, and honoring B/A, and yet at the same time gives me the impression that this author really doesn't understand what people who love B/A love about it, or what *I* think it's really about--it makes my stomach lurch. Is it bad writing because I recieved that impression from it? Possibly, but I'm more inclined to credit that to a difference in view point between me and the author.
And yet, that simple difference in view point, while in my head I'm *glad* to have it, in my stomach, when I'm reading it, it's hard to take. It makes me want to say, "This IS bad writing! This author just doesn't UNDERSTAND!" When really, it is myself who is being small minded. Or, you know, small stomached.
I think maybe if your eye is twitching, the writing you are twitching over really isn't that great. Could that be?
I'm not sure. I'm reluctant to dismiss a good writer--who not only words things beautifully, but thinks with wonderful insight and care about who the characters are and what they would do--who doesn't like B/A, but took serious time and effort to write it and to write it well--as having written the pairing sub-par merely because it didn't sell me on B/A.
I'm not the authority on the characters and pairings I love. That's, of course, one of the cool things about it: my B/A is not your B/A is not Whedon's B/A. But when I see B/A (or any pairing or character I really care about) that is a serious attempt at acknowledging, respecting, and honoring B/A, and yet at the same time gives me the impression that this author really doesn't understand what people who love B/A love about it, or what *I* think it's really about--it makes my stomach lurch. Is it bad writing because I recieved that impression from it? Possibly, but I'm more inclined to credit that to a difference in view point between me and the author.
And yet, that simple difference in view point, while in my head I'm *glad* to have it, in my stomach, when I'm reading it, it's hard to take. It makes me want to say, "This IS bad writing! This author just doesn't UNDERSTAND!" When really, it is myself who is being small minded. Or, you know, small stomached.
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