fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3259 ]

[ SECRET POST #3259 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3259 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

__________________________________________________

13.

__________________________________________________

14.

__________________________________________________

15.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #466.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I get judgy about people who don't read anything but fanfiction. It's the lack of variety and maybe being a little TOO immersed in fandom that weirds me out.

I don't judge them, but I do assume that they have emotional problems of some sort. This is usually an escapist move.

How is that any more escapist than reading nothing but regular novels, or comic books?

Fanfiction is a very self-indulgent thing (which is by no means bad, mind). Much more self-indulgent than most published stuff. One can easily find exactly the thing that caters to their id and contains no topics that might upset them, and that's exactly what the vast majority of fans use fanfic for.

To be fair, I'd probably think the same thing about someone who reads nothing but cheap published romance. Either they're running away from something or they're so tired out by their RL that they need to read lots of self-indulgent nonsense to relax.

I completely agree with this, and I do read a lot of fanfic (as well as a lot of other stuff). But I'm very aware, when I'm reading fic, that it's a self-comforting behavior. It's not only self-comfort, it's also entertainment, but I think what makes it so potent is definitely the id factor.

SA

I do realize that some people are very busy and just don't have much time or energy to read a lot, though. Like, if you have a lot of free time and still all you read is fanfic, that's one thing. But if you work your ass off every day and you choose to spend the limited free time you do have reading fanfic, that's different.

Basically, if you have room for three "helpings" of reading in your life for a given amount of time, and you always choose three helpings of fanfic, then that's where I agree with dreemyweird about emotional problems being a factor. Whereas if you only have room for one helping of reading in your life, and you choose fanfic - well, yeah, why wouldn't you really?

I can see your point with comics, but fandom is much more of a subculture than "people who read novels".

You're judging them.

School ruined non-fandom reading for me, because when you read nothing but stuff that DOESN'T pique your interest, it burns you.

Same. I read some again now, but I didn't read books for YEARS because of bad school experiences.

Pretty much. It's even worse for me, I imagine, because I was an AP kid. All AP. We did so much outside reading, and often of things that were boring or not vary well written. (In Cold Blood is forever an annoying example because the author kept going off on barely-related tangents that had nothing to do with the crime he was telling us about.)

"Gifted", by any chance? Because lord knows I could write a book about that. And not a fun one.

I sort of hate that they managed to ruin it for me, though. And it bothers me that by doing the opposite of what was expected of me - well, I'm still influenced by it, I'm just expressing it as a counter-reaction. I think reading fanfic was one of my little rebellions.

That's a shame, but it's very common for a lot of people to get turned off of books because of school. I hope you'll give them a try again sometime, anon. It's entirely possible to find books you enjoy and love as much as fanfiction and you don't want to miss out because of a bad experience.

I know it is, it's just that it'd made reading so draining overall. Fanfics tend to be much shorter, and the computer screen is actually easier on my eyes.

Understood. If and when you feel like giving it a try, I highly recommend delving into YA (because there's so much of it out there to explore and it often offers shorter stories that still pack a narrative punch) and ebooks. Short fiction is also a good one to try. Here's one of my favorites, Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples":

http://thedreaming.joefulgham.com/1999/10/10/snow-glass-apples/

You know whats free? Fanfiction. You know what's interactive? Fanfiction. You know what's not free?Books. You know whats not interactive? Books. I cant make friends with the writers of the books. I cant leave comments that I'm fairly sure the writers will read. I dont have a chance at being friends with someone who inspires me - emotionally and financially - fanfiction is the better option. Not to mention - aint no queer representation like fandom queer representation. And I scoured the queer book stores in ATL during pride. There just aint much quality out there. The quality of product for fic is just SO HIGH that I have a hard time leaving.

Library books are free.

The gas required to get to the library two towns over isn't.

The thing is, I had extreme difficulties with reading comprehension as a child. I couldn't understand the components of a story, didn't know the what, how, and why of two things that were linked together, could barely get the definitions of new words. On top of that, I had to read boring books I didn't give a shit about. I got poor grades in school as a result.

The only thing that seemed to help was fanfiction. Why? It was relevant to me, and something I could understand. Because of fanfiction, I could follow plots, see signs of an upcoming event, understand the motivations of characters, and if anyone used a word I didn't know, well guess what? I looked it the fuck up, because I actually gave two shits.

While it's true I would eventually branch out to regular fiction, for a while, I was reading nothing but fanfiction. So really, you have no idea what might drive a person to read it.

I do that. I find it very uncomfortable to read about people that I don't know or know if I'll like. If I don't know you, I don't want to be inside your brain.

With movies or TV shows I already know the characters and the settings and I have no problem getting into the stories.

If it wasn't for fanfiction, I wouldn't read literature at all.

I read plenty of non-fiction, so this isn't a reading in general problem.

Er, but... how you manage to consume any media at all, such as TV or movies? You also won't know if you'll like a new TV show or the characters in it. There's always an element of "don't know if I'll like it" when you try anything new, so why does it only matter in published fiction? Everything you like now was once totally unfamiliar to you. You like it now because at some point, you decided to give it a chance.

I'm sorry. I really don't understand your reasoning at all.

TV/movies is a lot more fast paced, plus it's more removed. It's not as demanding of you as reading something. But time definitely plays a factor. It takes me a couple of weeks to read a 200 page book and an hour and a half to watch a movie spanning the same time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3259 ]

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for

Re: Opinions people judge you for