In Which Sara Goes All Meta....
About a week or more ago, isiscolo posted to one of the due South communities making recommendations of her favorite stories from the dS Secret Santa.
In her post, which was public, so I don't feel bad about quoting it here, she said:
Most of the DSSS stories are fairly good, although many of them are - hmm. I guess I'd say they remind me of packaged snack food, in that they are predictable, tasty, enjoyable while consuming but not particularly memorable. (To me.)
I know what she's talking about. I've read, and really enjoyed, a lot of those stories. I'm just trying to decide if I think they're a bad thing or not.
My first thought is that calling these stories "snack food" is an unfortunately perjorative analogy. They're more like the standard fare that feed a fandom and keep it going. The daily sustenance. A hamburger and fries. Every once in a while a fandom is gifted with a truly exceptional story, fillet mignon and steamed asparagus, but most stories are serviceable, enjoyable, fun. But not especially memorable. Burgers. Not fillet.
And I'm not being at all critical of anyone else's writing with this. I mostly write hamburger-type stories. I'd be shocked if anyone still remembered "Constellations" in two months, I'd be shocked if anyone still remembered "Crazy" or "Out of the Ashes" now. They're just not exceptional stories. They're burger and fries. But I know I'll never forget Shadow's "Decompression" or Sasquash's "Sweet Memory" (which I couldn't find a link for online) or any of a fairly large bunch of other truly *brilliant* stories. Stories that just amazed me.
I love the comfort of those everyday fare stories. A well-turned TS first time, with Jim and Blair confessing their love and then having hot sex is a good thing, like a favorite meal. Comfort food. A story doesn't have to be amazing to be just exactly what I want. I don't always want a feast--sometimes I just want the comfort and familiarity of a hamburger.
At the scale of the fandom as a whole, if it got nothing but fillet mignon stories it might wither on the vine waiting for them to happen, because they're not all that common.
In her post, which was public, so I don't feel bad about quoting it here, she said:
Most of the DSSS stories are fairly good, although many of them are - hmm. I guess I'd say they remind me of packaged snack food, in that they are predictable, tasty, enjoyable while consuming but not particularly memorable. (To me.)
I know what she's talking about. I've read, and really enjoyed, a lot of those stories. I'm just trying to decide if I think they're a bad thing or not.
My first thought is that calling these stories "snack food" is an unfortunately perjorative analogy. They're more like the standard fare that feed a fandom and keep it going. The daily sustenance. A hamburger and fries. Every once in a while a fandom is gifted with a truly exceptional story, fillet mignon and steamed asparagus, but most stories are serviceable, enjoyable, fun. But not especially memorable. Burgers. Not fillet.
And I'm not being at all critical of anyone else's writing with this. I mostly write hamburger-type stories. I'd be shocked if anyone still remembered "Constellations" in two months, I'd be shocked if anyone still remembered "Crazy" or "Out of the Ashes" now. They're just not exceptional stories. They're burger and fries. But I know I'll never forget Shadow's "Decompression" or Sasquash's "Sweet Memory" (which I couldn't find a link for online) or any of a fairly large bunch of other truly *brilliant* stories. Stories that just amazed me.
I love the comfort of those everyday fare stories. A well-turned TS first time, with Jim and Blair confessing their love and then having hot sex is a good thing, like a favorite meal. Comfort food. A story doesn't have to be amazing to be just exactly what I want. I don't always want a feast--sometimes I just want the comfort and familiarity of a hamburger.
At the scale of the fandom as a whole, if it got nothing but fillet mignon stories it might wither on the vine waiting for them to happen, because they're not all that common.