fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3295 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3295 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #471.
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.

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05. https://40.media.tumblr.com/8d4e4a9675523db127a5afcb90802053/tumblr_o0hm7o5TaW1sivacmo1_1280.png

Twice I have sat down to read HPMOR and twice I have failed less than halfway through. I think the basic premise is good: Bring logic into an illogical world and try to write it in a way that would actually work. But in practice I have no idea why people like it so much. The characters are so wildly out of character it might as well be original fic, and it's just so. damn. boring.

Also I think part of it is that the author of MoR is kind of a narcissist who thinks his way of thinking is the most 'rational'.

Well, I think you're conflating unlike things there, which is unfair. Sure, Yudkowsky is committed to rationalism as a mode of thought, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. He's also a narcissist, but that's not necessarily linked to caring about rationality.

I've seen the author's webpage and his fic and I DO think he has his head up his arse.

AYRT It's been a really long time since I last tried to sit through it, but I remember thinking that all the characters were really condescending to anyone who didn't think exactly the same way.

Which makes sense since the author himself is really condescending to anyone who disagress with his point of view.

I really, really hate author tract writing in general, and especially in fanfic (published or not) where you are taking someone else's characters and changing them to suit the perspective you want to shill. I hate this fic for the same reason I hate Wicked, which is really the same thing in published form.

DA

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 00:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: DA

philstar22 - 2016-01-12 01:00 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 02:15 (UTC) - Expand

philstar22 - 2016-01-12 02:20 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

ceebeegee - 2016-01-12 06:54 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 23:46 (UTC) - Expand

philstar22 - 2016-01-12 23:50 (UTC) - Expand

You're not alone, anon. A lot of people hate that fic.

So agreed on this secret. I really, really hate that fic. It is awful. There are no redeeming features as far as I can see. I don't get why it is popular. At all.

I don't like them either, and inevitably I find that things are so widely out-of-character that they're just ... why market it as fanfic? Every one I've read is also really, really utiliarian and has the exact same dry writing style.

There's so many in Pokemon fandom. It gets trite.

I feel like you have to be careful with fix fic (which I believe Rationalist fic is a type of fix fic). If you go about it with the wrong attitude than it really does come off as "I know better than the author".

I don't think it's wrong to write fic to address something that bothered you about the canon. Because no canon is perfect. But if your intention is to prove yourself better or "stick it to the canon" explicitly, then it's really going to show in the story and put a lot of people off.

Yudkowsky was pretty explicitly writing that fic to promulgate his ideas, and also kind of... has his head up his ass a lot and has some dumb ideas, so that one isn't surprising.

Haven't read Alicorn's one.

Marketing, basically. Once a fic is on TV Tropes, it'll get a million shills and praises regardless of actual quality. (I've found some of my favorite mediocre fics this way)

I think it's partly that, but also partly that it appealed hugely to an audience outside the typical fanfic-type audience.

Computer scientists and engineers, mostly.

On the other hand, TV Tropes also brings attention to actual masterpieces like Brewdening Love and Starkit's Prophecy. It's a mixed bag.

Wasn't HPMOR written to recruit HP fans to the author's weird Scientology-esque AI cult?

"Recruit" is accurate but "weird Scientology-esque AI cult" not entirely so.

All the community around Roko’s Basilisk is pretty cult like IMO

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 04:13 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 18:00 (UTC) - Expand

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-12 20:36 (UTC) - Expand

The closest to a "rational" fic that I've read was Harry Potter and the Natural 20. A D&D munchkin gets transported into the Harry Potter world and has to adjust to a world that operates on completely different rules than he's used to. It's actually really good and everyone is at least slightly in character.

You're not the only one, anon. I couldn't stand it after the author blatantly set a chapter up so Snape purposely concealed information from Harry Potter in the hopes of getting validation over his Lily butthurt, and when Harry gave as reasonable a response as he could with the information given, Snape sprung the "Ah-ha, I knew it!" extra bit of info on him.

All that, of course, to make Harry look like the bad guy for not psychically knowing it was all about ~Severus and his manpain~.

I liked Luminosity a lot, but I think that was because the prose is vastly better (I found the writing in HPMOR very clunky) and Twilight just begged for that kind of treatment. I couldn't get more than a chapter into HPMOR.

In both cases it's a fine line and I can see why it wouldn't work for everyone.

IA I can understand a fix fic more for Twilight tbh.

I dunno if it's because of HPMoR but there is an abundance of smug "I know better than canon, here's my better version" fics (where often many of the characters are complete assholes or strawmen set up to get a telling off by the "righteous" heroes.)

Thankfully, I can't say I have encountered much of that (outside of, say, published fiction like His Dark Materials and The Magicians, both of which I enjoyed greatly), but I'd say my enjoyment of such things is still dependent on the writer's ability to tell a good story. And also how I feel about the original canon.

I liked that post that was floating around my dash the other day with "alternate titles for Methods of Rationality." http://xdaringdamselx.tumblr.com/post/136915725382/improved-titles-for-harry-potter-and-the-methods

They're all pretty accurate tbh.

Rationalism does tend towards attracting the smug and obnoxious. It is the credo of many self-styled 14 year old lonely-geniuses.