My thoughts on yaoi - I mean fanfic warnings
I can already hear Kat: "Oh my god you're STILL mad about this?" YES I AM and I might as well rant about it on my LJ, because that'll guarantee no one will read it. *shot*
On fandomsecrets the other day there was a big kerfluffle (but then isn't there always?) over a secret saying that a fanfic author shouldn't have to warn for every thing, like character death, especially if it'll spoil the story. During the brouhaha that followed, somebody was like, "Well if you're okay with being unpopular in fandom or causing breakdowns, go for it."
Breakdowns. Seriously. Breakdowns. Over the death of a fictional character. IN A NON-CANONICAL FANFICTION. If you're in such an intensely distressed state of mind that reading a fanfic by some random jagoff on the internet about a fictional character dying is enough to put you over the egde, you need to get the hell off the computer and into a hospital, because clearly you are unwell.
When challenged, this same person said "Well it might affect someone who's recently lost a loved one." Well at the risk of sounding like a jerk (too late) THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD. What, I'm supposed to gut my story of any kind of emotional impact just in case one of my readers is having a shitty week? What if two characters in my story are in a relationship but they break up, should I warn for that in case it reminds my readers of a recent break up? If there's an inordinate amount of bacon in the story, should I warn of that so I don't offend Jewish readers? 8P
There's no way an author can anticipate what readers will be offended by, and I don't think he/she should have to. Now I'm not saying there should be no warnings on fanfics, you should at least put "darkfic" if the content is disturbing, but I don't know. I guess I feel like people are overreacting because I rarely am affected by text. Visuals speak much louder to me that words. The last time I cried over a book was years ago when I read The Yearling...oh god I'm getting teary just thinking about it. But I've never cried over fanfiction. If a character dies, so what? If the fanfic is written well I might get a little sad, but the character is probably still alive in canon. And even if he/she isn't, he/she will still live on in other fanfics.
I don't know why I even care, it's not like I write a lot of fanfic anyway. Especially not darkfic. YET.
On fandomsecrets the other day there was a big kerfluffle (but then isn't there always?) over a secret saying that a fanfic author shouldn't have to warn for every thing, like character death, especially if it'll spoil the story. During the brouhaha that followed, somebody was like, "Well if you're okay with being unpopular in fandom or causing breakdowns, go for it."
Breakdowns. Seriously. Breakdowns. Over the death of a fictional character. IN A NON-CANONICAL FANFICTION. If you're in such an intensely distressed state of mind that reading a fanfic by some random jagoff on the internet about a fictional character dying is enough to put you over the egde, you need to get the hell off the computer and into a hospital, because clearly you are unwell.
When challenged, this same person said "Well it might affect someone who's recently lost a loved one." Well at the risk of sounding like a jerk (too late) THAT'S TOO DAMN BAD. What, I'm supposed to gut my story of any kind of emotional impact just in case one of my readers is having a shitty week? What if two characters in my story are in a relationship but they break up, should I warn for that in case it reminds my readers of a recent break up? If there's an inordinate amount of bacon in the story, should I warn of that so I don't offend Jewish readers? 8P
There's no way an author can anticipate what readers will be offended by, and I don't think he/she should have to. Now I'm not saying there should be no warnings on fanfics, you should at least put "darkfic" if the content is disturbing, but I don't know. I guess I feel like people are overreacting because I rarely am affected by text. Visuals speak much louder to me that words. The last time I cried over a book was years ago when I read The Yearling...oh god I'm getting teary just thinking about it. But I've never cried over fanfiction. If a character dies, so what? If the fanfic is written well I might get a little sad, but the character is probably still alive in canon. And even if he/she isn't, he/she will still live on in other fanfics.
I don't know why I even care, it's not like I write a lot of fanfic anyway. Especially not darkfic. YET.