Subject: Should there be an article on Rational Fics?
Author:
Posted on: 2020-05-18 21:39:02 UTC
Or rationality in general?
Subject: Should there be an article on Rational Fics?
Author:
Posted on: 2020-05-18 21:39:02 UTC
Or rationality in general?
"You" could be anyone, but since you, N. Harmonik, brought it up, it would be helpful for you to explain what you're thinking and why so as to enable a proper conversation about it. {= )
~Neshomeh
There are already articles on illness and smut and those can be types of fics. It would be nice to read how Rational Fics can be done both well and poorly.
That is, assuming there is a genre of fics like this and it's not just (taking a guess) "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" and copycats of it. Further questions I have are: What makes a Rational Fic? How popular are they? What, if anything, distinguishes a Rational Fic from any fanfic whose author employed rational thought while writing it? What, if anything, distinguishes a Rational Fic from a good Fix Fic?
And, since a quick Google search turned up a TV Tropes article about this, which seems to answer my questions well enough, do you, members of the PPC, have anything to add on the subject? 'Cause if there isn't a strong PPC perspective on this to represent, I don't think we need to rehash the information that already exists.
~Neshomeh
I've seen badfic that tries to characterize a Sue as "intelligent and rational," usually showing no evidence of any such thing, and that downplays emotion and moral thinking as irrational and deplorable. The fic I'm thinking of had a not!harry Sue that rejected ideals of courage in order go to along with and even support Voldemort's regime, deeming it to be the safest and most rational choice for personal advancement. And then it wallowed in Edgy Sue gore and squick for a little while anyway. She also had many supposedly intelligent plans to gain power and wealth, most of which took place entirely offscreen and consisted of hiring other people to do the thinking for her. It usually falls under "Dark" or supposedly "Grey" Sues. I haven't seen enough of those types to necessarily justify a categorization. However, there are potentially interesting points to be made about the importance of depicting emotions well, the importance of writing a character so that they actually seem smart, and suchlike, as well as the usual dark!sue criticisms of "separate character morality from the message of the fic so as not to promote doing this awful stuff". It could also be that I haven't seen that many of them, as my badfic trawling is near-exclusively Wattpad and is mostly dark!fem!harry, dark!percy or fem!percy. So those are my thoughts. Make of their tangledness what you will!