[ SECRET POST #3339 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3339 ⌋

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

01.


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02.
[Taylor Swift]


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03.
(Hamilton the Musical)


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04.
[Pokemon]


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05.
[Supernatural - Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins]


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06.
[Pokemon]


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07. [titc]


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08.
[Battlestar Galactica]


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09.
[Fried Green Tomatoes]


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10. [TW: rape]






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11.
[Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman]
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 025 secrets from Secret Submission Post #477.
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.

Comments

[ketita]

Eh, I feel you. It's like I woke up one day and realized that most romance fics don't actually have a plot, and now I can't really read them anymore.
I've personally also never really agreed with the people who claim that there are fics as good as literary masterpieces - I have yet to encounter any. Some fics are fun, but when you leave the fandom they tend to lose their luster.

[feotakahari]

I've read fics that were noticeably better than the books I was taught as masterpieces in high school. Does that count?

[ketita]

...I'm not sure what you want me to answer?
I mean a) that's your experience, I haven't read anything like that myself
b) not all things taught in HS are actually really good, and there's lots of great literature that isn't taught or is taught badly
c) I don't know what you were taught in HS
d) I don't know what fics you're talking about

[feotakahari]

I'm not really sure which books you mean when you say "literary masterpieces" either. I'm just saying that it seems like kind of a shaky standard.

Someone smarter than me could probably gender this. My experience of "masterpieces" is that they're books that make good use of symbolism, whether or not they have much in the way of character depth. Conversely, fanfics are praised when they have touching relationships between characters, but symbolism tends to be surface-level. Take how often emotional depth is framed as something "for girls," throw in the oft-repeated lie that fandom is a female-dominated space, and you're halfway to an essay on The Mary Sue.

[ketita]

Huh. That's not my experience at all. I think of masterpieces as generally containing excellent prose, believable characters, some philosophical element, speak to Humanity beyond the sphere of the story itself, and ideally lead the reader through some form of emotional transformation.
Symbolism is just a tool of writing, albeit a good one. Equating quality with symbolism is probably what I would refer to as "teaching literature badly".

And I disagree about "emotional depth", because equating feelings with "for girls" is not something that was done in most of history. Plenty of books are exceedingly emotional, and written by men about men. If anything, I'd argue that a lot of fanfics don't truly have great emotional depth, it's just that they wallow in emotions.

[feotakahari]

Okay, I seriously want an example of a masterpiece now. The description you're giving is one that I wouldn't apply to any book I've read.

[ketita]

Well, I should first disclaim that no book is flawless. But I can give a few examples of works that impressed me and stayed with me.

Dusk, by F. Sionil Jose. It's by an Indonesian author, about a family exiled from their home village in the 1880s. I thought there was som real gentleness and humanity in the portrayal, and I liked the way the family was shown. Their connections were so real. Admittedly, the first half of the book worked better for me than the second half, but still. I want to own this book.

Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy. Even though I don't necessarily agree with his outlook on life, I thought that he portrayed some very real characters, and very vividly showed the way people move in society. He also showed the characters themselves warring with philosophy (this is a thing Tolstoy does, haha).

The Last of Hanak'o, by Ch'oe Yun. It's a short story, and normally I'm not crazy about those, but there is just so much to unpack in this one, and the way the author shows the different levels of the story is pretty amazing.

...anyway, these are just some that jumped to my mind/that I've read recently.

[(Anonymous)]

I found The Grapes of Wrath pretty moving, but YMMV.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you me, anon? Because I was seriously about to say this.

I feel something approaching reverence for that book, and for Steinbeck as an author.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I have a similar outlook, which is why I prefer to go for fics that have an adventure as the main plot. If they come with a romance side-plot, then that's good, as long as the romance doesn't take over and sideline the adventure.

[ketita]

Yeah, same. If I read a romance fic, it's got to have a whole *actual* plot outside of the romance - though even then, I've seen fics where the romance overtakes the story, or that the non-romantic plot is just not well done.
It's funny, because in contrast with the OP from lower down, I've found that smut in stories with plot tends to derail. They start off well, but then just devolve into repeated sex scenes.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have seen that happen, and it ends up depressing when you're sitting there thinking "When are they going to move on with the plot?".

That sort of fic also makes me wonder if it is an edited roleplay.

[(Anonymous)]

I love travel and spy stories because I desperately want to explore new cultures even though I have severe anxiety and likely will never travel that much. If a couple happens to have sex in a bunch of pretty cities and maybe even develop feelings for each other along the way, all the better. But I do abhor the superficial pop stories that follow this. So I like schmoopy stuff, but I'm hella pretentious about it.