Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2007-07-15 05:24 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2007-07-15 05:24 pm
[ SECRET POST #191 ]
⌈ Secret Post #191 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 133 secrets from Secret Submission Post #027.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 ] broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Monday, July 16th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
16: Yes, it's fiction, but are you soapboxing? Are you, as the author, favoring racism or sexism or homophobia in author's notes? Are you mangling characterization to make a main character something he/she is not (e.g. a racist, sexist, homophobe, adherent to a religion he has nothing in common with in canon) without any explanation for it but "I believe that way so he must too?" Are you treating real events like the Holocaust or Hiroshima flippantly, or failing to research an issue/a culture/etcetera?
I completely agree with the idea of fiction =/= reality, but the truth is, if a fair amount of people (or even one) is taking near-personal offense to your fiction, you need to take a long, hard look at it. See if you're creating offense, then see where, how, and if it's worth it or not to keep creating the "offense."
Maybe, in the end, you'll come to the conclusion I did when someone flamed a "controversial" fic: the flamer was being a ship-obsessed asshat who didn't like characterization except for her own OOC characterization and wanted fluffybunny fic rather than darkfic. If that's the case, you can happily move on and ignore whatever the person's saying, because they're the problem, not you. Maybe you'll see that the offended person actually has a good point, something that could be fixed without harming the story or characters. Either way, your fic can only be better for it, whether you decide that you're going to write what you want anyway, or you see something and go "wow, I need to Google that and develop it more/treat it more seriously/be nice."
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-07-16 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)that's rich, coming from you.
some people take offense when it rains.
it doesn't always mean the person who wrote the fic meant to be offensive. sometimes people look for something to be offended by, just so they can get all tl;dr in their righteous indignation.
no subject
By the way, I don't soapbox in fic. Have you ever even *read* my fics? Especially anything I've written in the last two years or so?it doesn't always mean the person who wrote the fic meant to be offensive. sometimes people look for something to be offended by, just so they can get all tl;dr in their righteous indignation.
I even said that in my post. If you bothered to actually read the post, you would have seen it.
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(Anonymous) 2007-07-22 06:29 am (UTC)(link)There are just more useful ways to discuss and try to solve the world's problems then by flailing about in fanfic forums.
Re: 16
Sometimes they do, or can be perceived to be doing so. While fantasy and fiction are just that, and not real in the least, there are times when something like a work seeming to promote overt racism or sexism or scary attitudes toward Nazis/crime/whatever is a worthy topic for metadiscussion. If you don't want to see such discussion, you can treat it the same way you do fic: don't like, don't read.
It depends, again. Yes, trying to address an issue through fandom may be silly, but people have the right to believe what they wish. If I think a certain pairing exemplifies heteronormativity and homophobia from how it's written and the behavior of its shippers as a whole toward slash fen, I have a right to believe that and discuss it. You may think it's just a cool ship, and that's your opinion too. The problem a lot of people don't seem to understand is that yes, EVERYONE can have an opinion.
You're conflating two things: metadiscussion and drama. Yes, they're both often connected, but ANY discussion of anything aside from "squee!" can get drama-prone. I've seen people lower themselves to this over what the proper spelling of the Japanese rockstar Hyde's name is. (Is it "Hyde-sama," "hyde," "Haido," "His Majesty," "Haido-sama," or "Magnum Holster?" Will we ever know? Who even cares?).
Please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. ^_^
Fandom Wank IS the problem here. People who post there often troll discussions they're involved in (even though trolling from there is prohibited), assume everyone has the worst motives, and immediately start crowing wank on and dogpiling a discussion that could get heated at points, but eventually *might* work out somehow on its own.
I think Fandom Wank sucks for that reason: it creates its own disease by causing people to cast a jaded eye on everyone, to assume everyone has the worst motives and the worst intentions, and to in the end work as a jeering circus gallery on debates that should be between the original participants only.