there's a link in here

Jun 05, 2011 15:54

So I was all about to write an LJ post about the Eleventh Doctor's rather charming sexual ineptitude and childish "ew" response to intimacy of the physical variety, and how I love it. And then I thought "I bet this is an unpopular opinion in fandom because we're supposed to be striving toward everyone being totally at ease with and open about all ( Read more... )

yes we have no social skills, aww look she thinks she's clever, high-handed preachy bullshit, links, fandom

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Comments 23

coniferous_you June 5 2011, 16:18:25 UTC
All I really want to do is tell stories and have people listen to them and like them.

I think that's what all of the good writers or our time (moral fiction used to sell quite well, so I can't speak for other time periods) really want. But sometimes I think people really just go around in their Internet boat casting a huge net so that they can scrape up everyone who has some hint of privilege or -ism in their writing, and then gleefully scoop them up, gut them, can them, and feel good about having fought the Great Evil (and thus have permission to do nothing about real problems in the world that would require real action).

I used "lame" in a Livejournal post. Of course it is worth your time berating me in a book-length comment instead of helping out at a soup kitchen or, I don't know, a disability access centre.

And then some former 80s synth pop artists developed an obsession with the Soviet Union after it collapsed...

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coniferous_you June 5 2011, 16:19:28 UTC
Personally, having a lesson is literally the furthest thing from my mind when I write. I'm not really aware of this niche of writing so much and I don't write storybooks. I literally don't think about it.

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apiphile June 6 2011, 06:45:59 UTC
ding ding ding nail on head

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soda_and_capes June 5 2011, 16:29:41 UTC
All I really want to do is tell stories and have people listen to them and like them.
FUCKING YES.

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apiphile June 6 2011, 06:45:36 UTC
:D

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wolfy_writing June 5 2011, 19:36:01 UTC
I have a terrible tendency to try to Make A Statement About Issues in my fic. I know it's cheap and lectury and obnoxious, but all of my ideas are for cheap lectury issuefic, or cheap fangirly character-torture, or cheap derivative writing-a-cliche (don't even ask about my love for pseudo-Tolkien), or cheap and shallow and funny (which is what I should stick to, as it involves having one good quality, but I keep wanting to go either "Let me explain that slavery is wrong, in fanfic form!" or "I bet it would be awesome if I really made that guy suffer!" or "I should do yet another Groundhogs-Day-derived AU!")

Anyway, I haven't been able to write in months, so everyone's being spared.

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apiphile June 6 2011, 06:47:46 UTC
See, the latter of those examples seems like a perfectly valid idea to me. "I saw/read thing, it made me want to write thing based on what would happen if thing". That's the complete opposite of "I wish to tell people all about how it's bad to be rude to your parents, I shall do so through the medium of interpretive dance this fic about cardboard cut-outs".

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wolfy_writing June 6 2011, 07:36:18 UTC
Maybe it seems different from the outside? From the inside, it's all just wantiness.

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apiphile June 6 2011, 14:24:48 UTC
I guess I've been fortunate in avoiding the internalisation of "you can't do something just because you want to", I think. It's the best sodding reason to do something!

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swear_jar June 6 2011, 02:12:51 UTC
To be perfectly sincere about this, I have no higher moral calling when it comes to writing and I am not sure I ever have done. All I really want to do is tell stories and have people listen to them and like them.

YES.

(I sure as fuck know I have never even thought about writing anything that's point was a moral or a lesson. I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps by writing some characters who actually have something approaching normal morals, but then, where's the fun?).

And also yes to everything else. Not surprisingly I prefer the hell out of sarcasm and satire and hyperbole and whatnot to earnest, heartfelt declarations too. FUNNY THAT.

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apiphile June 6 2011, 06:45:25 UTC
Yeah I can't imagine anyone taking a moral lesson from your fic beyond "wow, it's hot when Dean loses consciousness".

I just. What. This is ... interaction! Don't TELL people about your hurt feelings because they'll just use that against you! STOP BEING SO TRUSTING, YOU IDIOTS.

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swear_jar June 6 2011, 07:03:28 UTC
"Do not become a favourite character of Jess's because it will end in you being punched" is probably the biggest moral in my deep and staggeringly complex body of work.

... That wasn't quite how I thought of it, but well yes. That too. IT HURTS? WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IT THEN? Oh some people have healthy coping mechanisms okay then

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apiphile June 6 2011, 14:27:30 UTC
I appreciate this important moral and plan on sticking to it at all times. Also I don't want my arm ripped off by a werewolf that I am secretly bromantically in love with?

People and their sanity and their healthy coping mechanisms and their therapists, bah.

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on the subject of fandom. attack_womb June 6 2011, 07:42:09 UTC
i'm pretty sure it was your journal that led me to the hilarious and insightful "Mark Reads Twilight" blog. if you're at all interested in dipping your toe in that world, someone has convinced him to watch Doctor Who. So he does, and reviews it. And it's usually pretty entertaining. You can find it at markwatches.net

:)

and for the record, i don't care why you write, or what your goal is - whether it's moral or not, i'm just really fucking glad you do.

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Re: on the subject of fandom. apiphile June 7 2011, 12:50:42 UTC
Ah yes! I knew he was watching Dr Who but had totally forgotten to go read about it. Thanky ou. :D

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