“Gross weirdo nerds are comparing the divine comedy to fanfiction! as if fanfiction could ever have real literary merit!” is my least favorite Flavor of Post right now
because instead of, ya know, thoughtfully discussing “fanfiction” and “Real Literature” as social categories of writing, this Flavor of Post relies on mocking anyone who disagrees as a gross weirdo nerd who does not read Real Books. There is no reasoning for the supposedly Obvious Fact that fanfiction is Not Real Literature, only jokes about supernatural mpreg.
The implication is that only someone who is a Gross Weirdo Nerd who doesn’t Read Real Books would need reasoning for something so obvious.
And the reason this pisses me off is that I am someone. who does almost exclusively read Real Books. (Not even YA! Real, Literary™ Adult Books!) and
yeah. agreed. published books all are good on a minimum level, possess literary merit, use tropes in new, original and non-repetitive ways, and definitely don’t describe the author’s gross fetishes in horrible detail. tell me more
Like we could be discussing this in good faith and breaking down why the divine comedy is not fanfiction.
We could be…actually talking about “fanfiction” and how its existence is fundamentally connected to characters and concepts being property owned by individuals or companies
which means works that use mythological or folkloric characters are, in fact, not technically fanfiction because for the vast, vast majority of human existence, no one has “owned” characters, or in other words, there wasn’t “fanfiction” because there wasn’t “original fiction” in the sense that Satan or Loki were the exclusive intellectual property of someone
And then we could have a good faith discussion about how this “fanfiction vs. Real Books” debate is actual bullshit that assumes stories not only naturally are and should be a form of property, but that being property confers on them inherent superiority and merit, and that publishing companies are necessary to promote Good fiction and protect us from Bad fiction.
But instead, we’re dunking on supernatural mpreg.
My bro. My guy. My dude. My buddy. My pal. My good sir. I fucking wish fanfiction invented mpreg
the “lets compare fanfic to lit vs dont compare fanfiction to lit bc its not” discourse on this website is the dumbest shit i’ve ever seen. who cares. who cares. truly i have never before logged on and seen people so mad in a stupid way about a more inconsequential topic. it seems like a lot of people focus on uselessly litigating what it’s acceptable to “value” the subjects in question which misses what i feel like is a lot of interesting meat that would actually contribute something to or ask something meaningful about how we conceptualize our understanding of stories
i would say that my issue with how people talk about this is that i’ve seen some some great points/perspectives but they are often undermined and limited by the need defend an assertion of value, whatever that may be, rather than really like… exploring stories as serving different experiences and needs through a lens where things don’t need to go back to considering value, which opens up a lot of possibilities i think, esp concerning what it says about the people involved. i’m less asking for people to actually go about life that way and more to consider it as a lens to think about things through
a big part of this is definitely a reaction to this thing where people in fandom feel the need give legitimacy to fanfic as a medium, because it has often been looked down on, by comparing it to works that are seen as having legitimacy (in ways that may or may not be applicable, which is a whole subject of discussion that is pretty interesting) which i do find pretty corny… but i’m, again, struggling to articulate my problem with the conclusion a lot of people have come to that amounts to “fanfic isn’t exactly high art and that’s fine” which is at least ostensibly pretty reasonable!
i guess i’m coming at this as a person who is interested in looking at genres/types of media that are seen as trashy/pulpy/indulgent not because i think the average individual work is very profound or life-changing or says very much – and it’s not meant to – but because i feel like they firstly tell us about people and secondly they’re interesting to evaluate on their own terms. like, the average isekai anime or whatever is not “good” by the terms of storytelling as a whole, but when we evaluate at it under the idea that it might be serving a different purpose/need than the kind of story we might normally think of as good and look at it from that perspective, suddenly we see a lot of mechanisms at play – perhaps it serves that different purpose well, even if it’s not one i care about or think is worth serving. thinking about stuff this way won’t necessarily make me like something i didn’t enjoy or think was good but there is something to like, think about and even respect there.
basically i like, really enjoy looking at things that are not seen as or meant to be profound with the kind of consideration reserved for things that are because their inconsequentiality doesn’t exist in vacuum in the way that like, if we look closely at the air we breathe it in fact tells us a lot about the environment – or even what does it say that people breathe air? is there a difference between good air and bad air or is it all just air? etc.
so this is maybe tangential to the greater discussion but that’s not one i can imagine having a very like, fruitful outcome anyway. i guess i find the conclusion on fanfic to be limiting partially because it stops at “it’s ok for fanfic to be low art and liking low art is fine” and does not really make an effort to think further with that, because ultimately the conversation has always been about defending a hierarchy of value and any interesting (imo) points made are more of a byproduct… it’s disappointing?
i only come onto this website anymore to post a drawing like once every three months or to make some kind of incomprehensible take. spiritually this is an apology but i’m actually completely unapologetic
the “lets compare fanfic to lit vs dont compare fanfiction to lit bc its not” discourse on this website is the dumbest shit i’ve ever seen. who cares. who cares. truly i have never before logged on and seen people so mad in a stupid way about a more inconsequential topic. it seems like a lot of people focus on uselessly litigating what it’s acceptable to “value” the subjects in question which misses what i feel like is a lot of interesting meat that would actually contribute something to or ask something meaningful about how we conceptualize our understanding of stories
i would say that my issue with how people talk about this is that i’ve seen some some great points/perspectives but they are often undermined and limited by the need defend an assertion of value, whatever that may be, rather than really like… exploring stories as serving different experiences and needs through a lens where things don’t need to go back to considering value, which opens up a lot of possibilities i think, esp concerning what it says about the people involved. i’m less asking for people to actually go about life that way and more to consider it as a lens to think about things through
the “lets compare fanfic to lit vs dont compare fanfiction to lit bc its not” discourse on this website is the dumbest shit i’ve ever seen. who cares. who cares. truly i have never before logged on and seen people so mad in a stupid way about a more inconsequential topic. it seems like a lot of people focus on uselessly litigating what it’s acceptable to “value” the subjects in question which misses what i feel like is a lot of interesting meat that would actually contribute something to or ask something meaningful about how we conceptualize our understanding of stories
draws a horse to tide me through this week
seeeeeexxxxx 😈
Anonymous
i heard that’s something they had in the before times. before 2018. i heard that this land was overgrown with bountiful asses and titties, ripe for the picking, grown juicy and supple in this warm blue. now it is a barren waste, save for the meager scraps stolen away and jealously hidden from the nsfw purge’s omnipresent watch. but prophecy foretells that a chosen hero will one day sa
u are a nasty ugly robust wench of foul stench and i sincerely hope you are the last of your bloodline so the world is no longer plagued with the odors of your sins
“nice ocs what are they like” i hope this is enlightening
I recently played Nier: Automata, and I went looking for your posts to see if they would make me feel better about it afterwards. I think a lot about how you described A2 as a feral raccoon
did it work???? bc all my n:a shitposts are me going like
onto a blank canvas and frankly i have no way of predicting what emotion that ends up instilling in people. i mean i’ll take any strong reaction i live for that kind of thing
Anonymous
