As the Tylenol kicks in, I begin to abuse 'XD'

[petronia]

Unlocked yesterday's meta post in case anyone wanted to, yanno, refute me publically or something. XD Although I was talking to worldserpent afterward and it made me think that I didn't manage to properly state my thesis. I have a headache so this is going to come out sounding more irritated than it should, but: it is not so much people who criticise and/or exhaustively analyze and/or make fun of and/or negatively review other people's fic who get my goat (I have my doubts regarding motivation in some instances but it serves me not a whit to be cynical, especially as a generalisation). It is the fact that writers are routinely called whiners for daring not to like it that gets my goat. Most writers are not going to like it, in the amateur or professional arena. If one is to judge them on how well they bite their tongues one may as well judge their readers on how well they bite their tongues. I do judge, to a degree: the ability to bite one's tongue is a sign of maturity and civility. But it's both sides or none.

(Charmian and I part ways on this issue like no other, because in the age-long war between critic and writer her allegiances are entirely with the former and mine with the latter. XD She would rather read a meta-dissection of a fic than the fic itself, and I would rather a hundred badfics be praised uncritically to the skies than one goodfic go unposted because the - admittedly wussypants - writer was intimidated by the tenor of discourse in her fandom. As fannish attitudes run both are fairly extreme, I think.

I have had people tell me they can't imagine what my and Charmian's MSN conversations are like. XDDDDD)

As for the rest I was just trying to explain what a freak I am personally. ^^;v dipping_sauce linked me to isiscolo's entries on the beta process, which I found highly illuminating (well, all this stuff may well be obvious to someone else XD). In fact it goes some way to explaining why I keep rewriting other people's fic when I beta - I do all this stuff for myself, when I say "I'm going to post this and look at it again" or "I'm going to wait until tomorrow morning and look at it again", and I'm so used to doing it for myself that I never saw identifying the problem and fixing the problem as two separate steps. "Here's the issue; now you take care of it." It must be so... different... not to be a control freak. XD;;;

In other news: what do you mean, Russian LoGH fans aren't all male and yaoi-friendly? XDXDXDXD

In other-other news: WHY AM I NOT IN SINGAPORE.

Comments

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Russian LoGH fans aren't all male and yaoi-friendly? XDXDXDXD

mmm? they aren't? i hadn't noticed.

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

There are others beside me??? ?!? !!!

...speaking of which, picked up a *gorgeous* Gaiden poster at Otakon: Sieg and Reinhard and a bunch of people I don't know, and OMG*so*CUTE!!!...

...yeah.

[re-miel.livejournal.com]

Well, firstly - there is me. :)
Secondly - there is a whole community for russian LOGH fans:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/logh_ru/
with 300+ comment threads and some very, very sharp people involved.
However, they happen to be vehemently anti-yaoi. Their kicks are politics, multi-layered intrigue and discussing the nitty-gritty of each of the Oberstein's little maneuvers. ;)

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

Ой, бля, ну всё, прощай работа. Хотя ну чё, 142 поста, если в комменты влезать не буду, как раз к обеду до первого доберусь ^^;;;

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Wha? They're selling LoGH merchandise at Otakon? Wouldn't have supposed the series was popular enough with English fans, judging by its presence on lj.

(Congrats on the find. XD)

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

For a *very* limited definition of 'merchandise' - but there's always an artbook and a couple of cels around, and once every other year or so, a poster or two. Way back, in 2001 maybe, I even managed to snag the wallscroll ^^

I mean, hell, there are plenty of other series out there that are *far* more obscure. Granted, there's also a *reason* for that, but that's neither here nor anywhere...

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

It survives with Reinhardt's tenacity and Yang's (desired) inconspicuousness! Makes sense, really. :D

I mean, hell, there are plenty of other series out there that are *far* more obscure. Granted, there's also a *reason* for that, but that's neither here nor anywhere...

Ahh sigh. I suppose the dated art and unremarkable beginning aren't terribly effective fan draws -- of the half-dozen or so people I've managed to drag firmly into the fandom, most spent the first few episodes BREAKING MY HEART by mocking everything in sight. (Of course, I claim the last laugh. *g*)

Was talking to a friend who mentioned that what she found attractive about the series was its consistency in terms of characterization and plot, how everything was played through to its (often painful or sordid) conclusion -- the kind of quality that would take a few eps to become apparent, while most people have no reason (= person with Big Stick hounding them to watch) to stick with it that long.

Conclusion: More LoGH fans should employ Big Sticks.

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

Hee. In my experience, the easiest thing to do is just to assume a priori that you're *not* going to get your standard anime fans to get this thing...and *will* get your hard-SF fans, and your military history geeks.

Like Sue Shambaugh said, 'Boring Hapsburgs in Space'...and that is *all* you ever need to know.

...having said that, sometimes, mocking is just *too* easy. Golden Wings/stroke it, STRO-O-O-KE IT!!!...anyone?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

And where are you? :0 Talk to meeee!

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

BTW, I was curious and used the magic of systran. They do have a concerted faux-naive trolling campaign that looks hilarious when processed through the software.

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we know. Am still a bit puzzled as to the point of clumsy attempts at politeness when the bashing was going on just a few clicks away and unlocked, but then, people are very strange.

[quixotic-sense.livejournal.com]

That's because bashing in a language other than English has the same effect as an automatic f-lock, apparently. I don't think it ever occurs to them that if you put all of iserlohn's members together, we can pretty much read almost all the major world languages. And there's always Babelfish.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I guess they were just dumb enough to think that no one reads Russian? Really, you never know whom you're dealing with on the internet.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

What? They can't imagine? But didn't you post some excerpts? XD

[squidlet.livejournal.com]

Not liking unsolicited fancrit is one thing. Wangsting about it is another. I mean, there are much better things to get into a righteous indignation over.

But seriously, my sympathies, like Charmain, lie towards the critic more than the writer. In the end genius works for an audience, and everyone's a critic.

[serendip.livejournal.com]

I think I fall slightly more on your side, Sabina, but quite honestly, I don't really care what it is as long as it's well-written and engages me XD And really, there's so little of either well-written meta or well-written fic that I feel this is sort of an exercise in futility XD

[tokagemusume.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about the beta process and constructive criticism. I also do my own editing, usually a day or two after writing so I can properly distance myself from the composition. The "beta" concept freaks me out although I see it has a BIG place in fan fiction culture. This culture strikes me as so aggressively personal at times that I don't know how any writer could fail to take negative feedback personally or why they should even pretend not to... Good grief! If you tell someone that your mother-in-law is alwasy criticizing you, they commiserate, they don't ask if you found the feedback useful!