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You know what bothers me? When I read a fic that comes highly recommended or has glowing reviews, and it sucks. A lot. For a long time, this completely baffled me. Was I so out of touch with what is considered good?! I mean, I consider myself fairly well-read. Not as well-read as some, but I'm no slacker. I'm an English major, and I'm doing splendidly in my classes, thankyouverymuch. I'm not saying this to be a snob, but to point out that I literally live to read and write. Really. It's what I want to do with the rest of my life. It's all I do with my spare time. Metaphors make me all hot and bothered. A book rich with symbolism is like porn to me.
So what the hell was I missing? What the hell am I missing still?
Because there is still mediocre fic being lauded out there, even by people I respect. I mean, there are some fanfic authors more popular than "real" authors--and I just don't think they're that good....my confusion abounds.
Now, I have a working theory, but that doesn't apply across the board. My theory is mainly for all the awful fic on FF.net. Quite simply, the majority of the people who read and post there simply do not read a lot of non-fanficfic. They don't know what is well written. They don't know what a story should be or could be. They just don't have the education, and so really can't be expected to write great stories or recognize great stories.
But that theory doesn't really apply to every fanfic writer and reader, right? Of course not. So what else is going on?
I have another working theory. In this theory, the author only needs to write one good fanfic. This fanfic needs to be so good that even the big readers are suckered in. This fanfic needs to be so good that readers feel that the author is a kindered spirit--somehow said author captured something beautiful and elusive and shared it with the rest of the fans and they all responded. And it was a wonderful thing. Now, the ones who also work within my first theory are also suckered in, completely and utterly bowled over. So then the author has a huge fanbase, who will keep coming back. They will keep coming back even if the followup efforts don't knock them on their ass. Why? Because there's always a possibility that the author will write something amazing, truly amazing, again, and they want to be there when it happens.
So then I come along, and hear that this new story is absolutely amazing. I read it, and I'm less than impressed. And because it's the first one I've read by that author, I miss the intial rush. ANd because of that, I'm less forgiving than everybody eles. Or alternately, I catch the initial rush, but it's simply not enough to keep me interested when the following fics just aren't up to par.
I guess what I've just described is a cult of personality.
And I'm not impressed.
Especially when authors start relying on their popularity to carry them through, and give up turning out work of quality. People are going to read it anyway, right? why keep putting the effort into it...Why indeed.
Ok, that's my ramble. Hope it made sense.
So what the hell was I missing? What the hell am I missing still?
Because there is still mediocre fic being lauded out there, even by people I respect. I mean, there are some fanfic authors more popular than "real" authors--and I just don't think they're that good....my confusion abounds.
Now, I have a working theory, but that doesn't apply across the board. My theory is mainly for all the awful fic on FF.net. Quite simply, the majority of the people who read and post there simply do not read a lot of non-fanficfic. They don't know what is well written. They don't know what a story should be or could be. They just don't have the education, and so really can't be expected to write great stories or recognize great stories.
But that theory doesn't really apply to every fanfic writer and reader, right? Of course not. So what else is going on?
I have another working theory. In this theory, the author only needs to write one good fanfic. This fanfic needs to be so good that even the big readers are suckered in. This fanfic needs to be so good that readers feel that the author is a kindered spirit--somehow said author captured something beautiful and elusive and shared it with the rest of the fans and they all responded. And it was a wonderful thing. Now, the ones who also work within my first theory are also suckered in, completely and utterly bowled over. So then the author has a huge fanbase, who will keep coming back. They will keep coming back even if the followup efforts don't knock them on their ass. Why? Because there's always a possibility that the author will write something amazing, truly amazing, again, and they want to be there when it happens.
So then I come along, and hear that this new story is absolutely amazing. I read it, and I'm less than impressed. And because it's the first one I've read by that author, I miss the intial rush. ANd because of that, I'm less forgiving than everybody eles. Or alternately, I catch the initial rush, but it's simply not enough to keep me interested when the following fics just aren't up to par.
I guess what I've just described is a cult of personality.
And I'm not impressed.
Especially when authors start relying on their popularity to carry them through, and give up turning out work of quality. People are going to read it anyway, right? why keep putting the effort into it...Why indeed.
Ok, that's my ramble. Hope it made sense.