That discussion about discussing fanwork
So, there's been two intermingled discussions lately about publicly talking about fanwork in less than glowing terms. The one is about "should you post concrit to a gift exchange fic" and the second is "is concrit socially acceptable?"
My answer to both of these questions is pretty clear (not as a comment to the version of the fic presented as a gift to the recipient, but on another copy or as a public review is good; yes, yes, yes.)
On the other hand, I am so completely goddamned frustrated, bored, and tired of these discussions being structured in terms of concerns about "making better writers fancreators" or "not driving writers fancreators away from the media fandom community."
Fuck fancreators.*
In the fandom of my dreams, critical discussion is for readers. In the same way that I tl;dr about Glee or Smallville or The X Files, I want to tl;dr about fan stories. I want to compare mpreg stories and tell you which is better and why. I want to deeply examine why I like some stories in the Ladies' Choice collection and why some of them leave me cold.
Even more, I want to read what all of you and you have to say about stories you have read or vids you have watched. (Sorry, fanartists, I don't like pictures.) I want to talk about podfic (will be setting up podfic discussion comm after
3_ships is safely out the door) with other people who like podfic, even if they are never, ever, ever going to read it.
You are smart people, who have interesting thoughts. That is why I have subscribed to your journals! And many of us have this specific thing in common: we like fanfiction! fanvids! archives! podfic! And I would like us to be able to talk about this thing we have in common. Because, at the end of the day, no one has explained to my satisfaction why Kripke is fair game for criticism, but
kanata is not. No one blinks an eye if I talk about the heartache Glee brought when I watched the show, but if I talked about
gblvr's femslash** wounding me in my soul, I would be a terrible, terrible person.
And I think that critical comments appended to a fanwork are a good place for the critical comments (with the exception of the recipient's copy of a gift) because the people most likely to be interested in further thoughts on a fanwork are the people who have just finished experiencing it. I am just sayin'. Most archive and journal commenting systems allow the OP to control whether or not they receive comments on a given work. They also allow the OP to control whether commenting is allowed at all. Not to forget, one has the power of the editorial note to say things like, "Not interested in critical discussion of the work; it is what it is."
But even if the poster of a work says, "Please don't tell me your thoughts on my yaoi," it is totes legitimate for me to write up my thoughts on yaoi and then link to the poster's work. For no other reason than I want to share my thoughts with my circle, and get their thoughts in return.
*Metaphorically: that is to say, stop making them the only people of concern in this recurring discussion. If you want to talk about literally fucking my fellow fans, all I can say is: if you are a female fan who's going to be in the DC area and would like to get together for sexytimes, drop me a line. I am easy and I closely resemble my usericon.
**AFAIK,
gblvr has never written femslash. (But,
gblvr, if you have, you should submit it to Ladies' Choice!)
Original post at Dreamwidth. Read (
) comments or reply there using Open ID.
My answer to both of these questions is pretty clear (not as a comment to the version of the fic presented as a gift to the recipient, but on another copy or as a public review is good; yes, yes, yes.)
On the other hand, I am so completely goddamned frustrated, bored, and tired of these discussions being structured in terms of concerns about "making better writers fancreators" or "not driving writers fancreators away from the media fandom community."
Fuck fancreators.*
In the fandom of my dreams, critical discussion is for readers. In the same way that I tl;dr about Glee or Smallville or The X Files, I want to tl;dr about fan stories. I want to compare mpreg stories and tell you which is better and why. I want to deeply examine why I like some stories in the Ladies' Choice collection and why some of them leave me cold.
Even more, I want to read what all of you and you have to say about stories you have read or vids you have watched. (Sorry, fanartists, I don't like pictures.) I want to talk about podfic (will be setting up podfic discussion comm after
3_ships is safely out the door) with other people who like podfic, even if they are never, ever, ever going to read it.
You are smart people, who have interesting thoughts. That is why I have subscribed to your journals! And many of us have this specific thing in common: we like fanfiction! fanvids! archives! podfic! And I would like us to be able to talk about this thing we have in common. Because, at the end of the day, no one has explained to my satisfaction why Kripke is fair game for criticism, but
kanata is not. No one blinks an eye if I talk about the heartache Glee brought when I watched the show, but if I talked about
gblvr's femslash** wounding me in my soul, I would be a terrible, terrible person.
And I think that critical comments appended to a fanwork are a good place for the critical comments (with the exception of the recipient's copy of a gift) because the people most likely to be interested in further thoughts on a fanwork are the people who have just finished experiencing it. I am just sayin'. Most archive and journal commenting systems allow the OP to control whether or not they receive comments on a given work. They also allow the OP to control whether commenting is allowed at all. Not to forget, one has the power of the editorial note to say things like, "Not interested in critical discussion of the work; it is what it is."
But even if the poster of a work says, "Please don't tell me your thoughts on my yaoi," it is totes legitimate for me to write up my thoughts on yaoi and then link to the poster's work. For no other reason than I want to share my thoughts with my circle, and get their thoughts in return.
*Metaphorically: that is to say, stop making them the only people of concern in this recurring discussion. If you want to talk about literally fucking my fellow fans, all I can say is: if you are a female fan who's going to be in the DC area and would like to get together for sexytimes, drop me a line. I am easy and I closely resemble my usericon.
**AFAIK,
gblvr has never written femslash. (But,
gblvr, if you have, you should submit it to Ladies' Choice!)
Original post at Dreamwidth. Read (
) comments or reply there using Open ID.