Truth is stranger than fan fiction.
So, I spent way too much time reading this. I don't know why I invested so much time. I don't know any of the people involved in the events described, and I don't share the major interest that connects all the players in this story.
I guess I was hooked because it feeds my unending lust for gossip (even if it's about people I don’t know--'cause when has that ever stopped me?). Really, this story has everything: ancient and bitter social rivalries, underhanded schemes to curry favor with the upper echelon, people (well, person) who sign up for extra LJ accounts to *attack themselves* and garner sympathy, deliberate mistaken identities, lying, cheating, IP address logging, and back-stabbing. It really could be something out of Vanity Fair.
And it's epic. Someone said it clocks in at around 90,000 words. By my calculations, that's 30 times longer than the typical magazine article. It traces events chronologically starting with things that happened in 2001. I can't even remember what I did last weekend, let alone make such a detailed account of something that started five years ago.
About halfway through, it hit me what I was actually reading. The whole thing, all 90,000 words and countless hurt feelings, was about Harry Potter fan fiction. I only mildly like the Harry Potter books, so I don't certainly don’t read its fan fiction. Actually, I don't read any fan fiction. (I feel some of the epic was lost on me because I don't know fanfic lingo. I thought "shipping wars" were about cargo trade routes.) I was aware that it existed, but I had no idea how contentious the whole thing could be. The writer of the epic traces the whole thing back to bitter feelings that developed between those rooting for a Harry/Hermione romantic paring and those who wanted Harry/Ginny. As if that is fundamentally important. It seems as if you could have said, "Are you in favor of Harry/Hermione?" in the same manner people say, "Are you a Republican?" There comes I time, I believe, where someone should step back and say, "Hey, I loves me some fanfic, but if it comes with 90,000 words worth of BS, the whole thing isn't worth it."
I officially recognize, though, that I am the biggest loser of them all, having read the HP fanfic saga all the way through despite having zero reason to care.
Anyway, I think I should start writing my own fan fictions, about the players in this epic story. Then I'll become Internet-famous, and people will write be inspired to write fanfic about me. Which will obviously be awesome. People will be all uppity about writing me/Jesse fanfic, because that's canon. [ETA: Right, that's one "n" in "canon."] Others will slash me with, I dunno, Rayme or someone. I'll join communities under fake LJ names and start leaving comments saying, "Wouldn't it be totally rad if someone wrote fanfic about her and Damon Albarn?" Then people will respond saying, "Hey, we know that's you. We already told you we know your IP address, and will you just give it up already?" I'll be banned from the community, then get pissed off and start anonymously harassing the people who banned me. I'll find a way to blame it on the M/J shippers, who would get aggravated and respond angrily to the M/R shippers. The two communities will go to war. Then it will come to light that everything traces back to me, I'll be exposed in a 90,000-word epic, and the whole thing will wind up in fandom_wank.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Get writing, people.
I guess I was hooked because it feeds my unending lust for gossip (even if it's about people I don’t know--'cause when has that ever stopped me?). Really, this story has everything: ancient and bitter social rivalries, underhanded schemes to curry favor with the upper echelon, people (well, person) who sign up for extra LJ accounts to *attack themselves* and garner sympathy, deliberate mistaken identities, lying, cheating, IP address logging, and back-stabbing. It really could be something out of Vanity Fair.
And it's epic. Someone said it clocks in at around 90,000 words. By my calculations, that's 30 times longer than the typical magazine article. It traces events chronologically starting with things that happened in 2001. I can't even remember what I did last weekend, let alone make such a detailed account of something that started five years ago.
About halfway through, it hit me what I was actually reading. The whole thing, all 90,000 words and countless hurt feelings, was about Harry Potter fan fiction. I only mildly like the Harry Potter books, so I don't certainly don’t read its fan fiction. Actually, I don't read any fan fiction. (I feel some of the epic was lost on me because I don't know fanfic lingo. I thought "shipping wars" were about cargo trade routes.) I was aware that it existed, but I had no idea how contentious the whole thing could be. The writer of the epic traces the whole thing back to bitter feelings that developed between those rooting for a Harry/Hermione romantic paring and those who wanted Harry/Ginny. As if that is fundamentally important. It seems as if you could have said, "Are you in favor of Harry/Hermione?" in the same manner people say, "Are you a Republican?" There comes I time, I believe, where someone should step back and say, "Hey, I loves me some fanfic, but if it comes with 90,000 words worth of BS, the whole thing isn't worth it."
I officially recognize, though, that I am the biggest loser of them all, having read the HP fanfic saga all the way through despite having zero reason to care.
Anyway, I think I should start writing my own fan fictions, about the players in this epic story. Then I'll become Internet-famous, and people will write be inspired to write fanfic about me. Which will obviously be awesome. People will be all uppity about writing me/Jesse fanfic, because that's canon. [ETA: Right, that's one "n" in "canon."] Others will slash me with, I dunno, Rayme or someone. I'll join communities under fake LJ names and start leaving comments saying, "Wouldn't it be totally rad if someone wrote fanfic about her and Damon Albarn?" Then people will respond saying, "Hey, we know that's you. We already told you we know your IP address, and will you just give it up already?" I'll be banned from the community, then get pissed off and start anonymously harassing the people who banned me. I'll find a way to blame it on the M/J shippers, who would get aggravated and respond angrily to the M/R shippers. The two communities will go to war. Then it will come to light that everything traces back to me, I'll be exposed in a 90,000-word epic, and the whole thing will wind up in fandom_wank.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Get writing, people.