on writing: wank edition.
I have a general policy of non-wankiness. It's the "ignore it and it will go away" policy. I don't comment on wanks, don't encourage wankers, don't take things too seriously and never, ever defend any actions that I don't think need defending (such as personality traits).
Personalities clash. That's fine. As long as you're not signing me up for mailing lists and sending bed-wetting pamphlets to my house (which happened to me in junior high, Thanks Caryn Peterson!) or dumping bottles of water on my head (Michelle, Driver's Ed), you can make whatever judgments about me you'd like. I don't like coffee. I never will. Some people don't like me. Never will.
I'm pretty sure I don't offend Juan Valdez or the coffee producers of Colombia, and none of those people offend me.
By posting this, I'm going against my "ignore at all costs" wank policy. Sigh. But there's one point that my attention was drawn to in a case of fandom v. drama that I feel needs to be made.
Does anyone really have to personally like an author/writer to read and enjoy their work? If so, that's truly unfortunate. I may not like all of an author's work, or care about him/her as a person. Even when I care about an author as a person and really like everything they have produced, I may not read all of their work, especially if they're writing in a new fandom. Does it mean I don't like their writing any more, don't like what they wrote in the past? No.
An author may write fics I love and admire and envy in their perfection. That same author may also write fics I think need a lot of work. An author may even write a fic that I love irrationally, even while I know it has issues with characterization or punctuation, just because it hits a certain love or kink or chord with me - outside of fandom, Cecily VonZiegesar's Gossip Girl novels come to mind. Do I know they're brand-dropping, flatly characterized tripe? Yep, sure do. Does it stop me from having just checked out the most recent one from the library? Hell no.
People like what they like. From the lowliest ff.net drabble to the most lauded work in fandom. What I like is not what you like. What you like, maybe not what I like. I assume we've all tripped our way onto this particular livejournal because we have a certain brand of shared enjoyment, but I don't expect a hivemind from fandom. Not even close.
But when I like a fic, I'm damn well sure I like it. My mind won't change if I discover the author eats baby sandwiches. Where the bread is made from puppies.
I judge not on what I have heard of assholery, but on the quality of the product that is created by the asshole. Viz: Veronica Mars.
I don't believe it will happen, but I think if any of the people who judge writing based on the personality of a writer should soon discover that if they had to dislike - on principle, because of the creator's ego/appearance/sexual preference/mom - all of the creative works that they enjoy, they would soon find that they had very few creative works TO enjoy.
And to me, that is sad.
Personalities clash. That's fine. As long as you're not signing me up for mailing lists and sending bed-wetting pamphlets to my house (which happened to me in junior high, Thanks Caryn Peterson!) or dumping bottles of water on my head (Michelle, Driver's Ed), you can make whatever judgments about me you'd like. I don't like coffee. I never will. Some people don't like me. Never will.
I'm pretty sure I don't offend Juan Valdez or the coffee producers of Colombia, and none of those people offend me.
By posting this, I'm going against my "ignore at all costs" wank policy. Sigh. But there's one point that my attention was drawn to in a case of fandom v. drama that I feel needs to be made.
Does anyone really have to personally like an author/writer to read and enjoy their work? If so, that's truly unfortunate. I may not like all of an author's work, or care about him/her as a person. Even when I care about an author as a person and really like everything they have produced, I may not read all of their work, especially if they're writing in a new fandom. Does it mean I don't like their writing any more, don't like what they wrote in the past? No.
An author may write fics I love and admire and envy in their perfection. That same author may also write fics I think need a lot of work. An author may even write a fic that I love irrationally, even while I know it has issues with characterization or punctuation, just because it hits a certain love or kink or chord with me - outside of fandom, Cecily VonZiegesar's Gossip Girl novels come to mind. Do I know they're brand-dropping, flatly characterized tripe? Yep, sure do. Does it stop me from having just checked out the most recent one from the library? Hell no.
People like what they like. From the lowliest ff.net drabble to the most lauded work in fandom. What I like is not what you like. What you like, maybe not what I like. I assume we've all tripped our way onto this particular livejournal because we have a certain brand of shared enjoyment, but I don't expect a hivemind from fandom. Not even close.
But when I like a fic, I'm damn well sure I like it. My mind won't change if I discover the author eats baby sandwiches. Where the bread is made from puppies.
I judge not on what I have heard of assholery, but on the quality of the product that is created by the asshole. Viz: Veronica Mars.
I don't believe it will happen, but I think if any of the people who judge writing based on the personality of a writer should soon discover that if they had to dislike - on principle, because of the creator's ego/appearance/sexual preference/mom - all of the creative works that they enjoy, they would soon find that they had very few creative works TO enjoy.
And to me, that is sad.