me: *trying to find a good fanfiction*
me: i’ve read that one
me: and that one, too
me: and that one
me: oh, wait, haven’t read that one!
me: *halfway through it*
me: yes i have
Tag: fandom
Indeed, by the year 2000 we can confidently predict that our “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of books will have rendered traditional literature all but obsolete.
R. A. Montgomery
(via jncos)
this is true; i have read nothing but fanfiction since 2001.
(via hellotailor)
That post you reblogged is shitty though because it is important to acknowledge if ship dynamics are abusive or unhealthy because not everyone in fandom is an adult who can tell the difference.
Oh FFS.
I’m probably going to regret this when I’m more awake and haven’t been sitting in the ER for three hours but you caught me in a fighting mood, so. It is what it is.
I’ve been lowkey annoyed at this attitude that seems to be taking over fandom for a while, and this is just the straw that broke it. If you think it’s important to deconstruct the relationship critically and examine why it’s a flawed relationship and/or an abusive dynamic, knock yourself out. That is your perogative as a participant in fandom and I’m sure there are plenty of people that would love to read your meta. But at the point you start coming at other people about how they consume and enjoy media, you’ve crossed the line from litcrit into concern trolling.
It is not my job to protect people from the content of the media or the internet. I am not their mommy. If you consume something that makes you uncomfortable, then sure, talk about what made you uncomfortable. But don’t come in my inbox and tell me I have a responsibility to put up disclaimers beyond tagging my work. As a fandom author, your ONLY responsibility is to make sure the work you’re posting belongs to you and that you tag it accurately so readers know what they’re getting into (CNTW included). If a reader wants to talk to me directly about how something I wrote is not working for them or makes them uncomfortable or triggers them and needs a warning, that’s fine and I welcome it.
But it’s not okay to come up on someone and tell them it’s their responsibility to dissect what they enjoy as escapism. If you want to do that it’s on you. Personally, as someone who enjoys the fascinating and complicated depiction of dysfunctional relationships IN FICTION, I don’t want to take the time to do that. Fandom is the arena I come into to escape having to be on point about real world issues. It’s not the place I want to spend time examining social justice issues, because I do enough of that IRL.
And on an unrelated but equally annoying note, nobody has to disclose their personal trauma or history for fandom to decide they’re “allowed” to write about certain things. It’s super fucking rude to either assume something about a person’s background or, worse, ASK them about it (because wow no, if someone wants to talk to you that’s one thing but asking is fucking invasive and it’s not any of your damn business).
So yeah, talk all you want in your own meta on your own blog about how you dislike XYZ ship for whatever reason, but it’s nobody’s responsibility but yours to police what you consume and make sure it’s “problem free.”
Hell, half the ships I really enjoy, the dysfunction is WHY I enjoy it, because conflict is what creates compelling narratives. I don’t need to be informed about the dysfunction, and I definitely don’t need to slap up giant disclaimers about it. Read tags, avoid things you don’t want to read, and stop lambasting writers or artists who ship things you don’t like. It’s not your damn business.
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Reblogging for the excellent reply.
I’m nobody’s mommy.
listen, there is absolutely nothing that gets me going like mutual seemingly unrequited pining like? i live for both people losing their minds over the other person in bitter silence. savoring every single accidental brush of their fingers, elbows, thighs, every stray glance, memorizing every gesture or expression they catch while the other isn’t looking, all while being absolutely convinced that it’s one-sided only to finally!! finally find out it wasn’t in a triumphant moment of bliss after years and years of delicious, soul-rending, torturous, heart-wrenching pining. i literally don’t care about the fact that this trope is predictable af and always plays out the same way i will still go wild over it every single time like they’ll be doing the same reveal scene i have seen a million times and i’m still on the edge of my seat gasping “are they gonna kiss???”
my single greatest weakness as far as love stories go
is when a story is told through one character’s (pining) point of view, but you the reader KNOW that their love interest loves them back
and the pov character casually says something that you the reader KNOW is gonna be completely devastating to their love interest, but pov character has NO IDEA, like:
“[innocently devastating thing],” said pov character
a strange look seemed to pass over love interest’s face. “yeah, [seemingly casual response that comes off as a little stilted, for reasons pov character just cannot pinpoint],” said love interest.
“uh, [joke that accidentally just DIALS UP THE AGONY TO A THOUSAND FOR LOVE INTEREST],” pov character added, to cut the tension.
love interest step’s faltered for a second. “[seemingly casual response that is FILLED WITH EXQUISITELY REPRESSED PAIN AND LONGING].” it sounded a little gruff. probably love interest was just distracted, or wanted some space. who could blame them?
POV CHARACTER, YOU IDIOT ❤
oh my god, yes. also all and any instances of bystander characters remarking on love interest’s peculiar behaviour around pov character. oh, that does happen, and it probably means they hate me, thinks pov character forlornly. did they notice my feelings. what if I made them UNCOMFORTABLE.
love interest is blushing furiously at bystander character’s remarks, proving that they are, indeed, uncomfortable. pov character decides to back off a bit.
me, reading: omg I’m gonna diiiiiiie
oh my goddddd yes, with optional coda:
“hey, so is everything okay between us?” said love interest.
pov character froze. “what do you mean.”
“it just—” love interest broke off with a frustrated sigh. “sorry, it’s probably nothing, but it feels like [ever since bystander character made that wildly inappropriate joke] you’ve been almost avoiding me? and i wanted to make sure that [bystander character] didn’t—that i—”
“no,” said pov character in a rush. “oh no, there’s no problem, [bystander character] is obviously full of shit, i just—”
“because you can tell me, if something’s wrong,” said love interest. “i mean it.”
“nothing’s wrong. seriously.” pov character tried to smile but only managed a queasy grimace that wouldn’t have been convincing at fifty paces. love interest gave pov character a searching look, and the grimace somehow felt even weaker.
“oh,” said love interest quietly. “okay. great.”
“yep,” said pov character, all but clawing the ground to dig an escape tunnel out of there. “well! it was nice talking to you but i’m pretty busy—”
“yeah. yeah, of course. so, uh—” love interest’s forehead creased. “guess i’ll see you around, then?”
“of course,” pov character lied.
ooh or alternately: if they’re in the sort of psychologically/emotionally draining situation where there’s an in-story reason for adults to be acting like utter children, instead of all the ‘god we’re each trying so hard to do the right thing and we’re each sadly picking up on the subtext that the other person is hiding something but welp, gotta be stoic!’
it’s like:
“listen, asshole, if you want to suddenly, for absolutely no reason, treat me like i’ve got the plague i guess that’s your call, but can you at least grow up enough to tell me what i ever fucking did to you? not that moping indefinitely isn’t a goddamn genius strategy—”
“christ, look, everything is fine, okay? i don’t know what the fuck to tell you. sorry i don’t spend every second of my life trailing after you like a lost puppy, sorry that occasionally people need a goddamn break from each other—”
blinking furiously, voices choked with hurt, etc etc
😀
They’re together and happy, but there’s still ten chapters left.
I have discovered that you do not need to build any tension into a fic in order to maintain suspense. Readers’ own anticipation of impending doom will maintain the suspense for you.
someone: that’s your favorite character? but they’re
me: totally alive
someone: no they’re
me: happy. walking on sunshine
someone: but
me: off having adventures in a faraway land with all their best friends. glad we had this talk
Hurt/Comfort is such an interesting thing. It’s basically an entire genre of fanfiction. I’d argue it satisfies a very basic, vital need–the same way that horror satisfies the basic need to be scared in a safe, controllable space.
And yet it doesn’t really have an equivalent outside of fan culture. "Tearjerkers” can sometimes come close, they’re probably the closest thing to a mainstream hurt/comfort genre that there is. But those types of books and movies don’t usually focus on the “comfort” aspect in the same way, and don’t make use of tension and release.
I think every good hurt/comfort fic makes use of tension and release just as horror does,
whether the writer is consciously aware of it or not. Though of course the tension and release in h/c comes from different sources than in horror. Instead of anticipating something frightening, you anticipate the intimacy and/or validation that comes from the “comfort” part you know is eventually coming. That’s what provides release of the tension built up during the “hurt” scenes.
I could write a goddamned essay about this it’s so fascinating.
This is a great definition/analysis of it! I’ve been interested in this too. It’s always been my favorite fanfiction genre. It’s to the point where reading just angst is not enough, there is something left unfulfilled if the character does not have the ‘tension and release’ and just remains under whatever stressor at the end. I think part of the reason I like it so much, is often in mainstream media characters DO NOT have that ‘healing moment’, shall we say. Too often, there may be a sad/traumatic/stressful event and the character is shown to just pick themselves up from it and move on like nothing happened. Which is not realistic as we all know, so I think the hurt/comfort genre in fanfiction is a kind of a response to that. The “filling in the blanks” of when a character needs a moment of healing or validation to continue onward, because that in a sense is more relatable then the “super hero” character who can move through it like nothing damaged them.
Me: why am I so tired???
Brain: maybe because you read a 200k fanfic instead of sleeping
Me:
Me: well, yeah..
Brain:
Me: it was worth it
Brain: *screams*
I need to stop reading so much fanfiction I mean ffs it’s practically the same damn plot line every time and every time I’m like oh god will they get together like yes you moron jfc
Zynn's Exodus 