Subject: Well, it wouldn't be half as fun if we weren't oppressors!
Author: Araeph
Posted on: 2009-03-26 10:39:00 UTC

Evil, Grammar Nazi oppressors, who silence all dissent with our badfic parodies!

I think I'll quote Silvormoon here:

There is an assumption that because this is informal writing, not only should it not be required to be good, but that we should like it and praise it anyway. It's as if, the moment we enter the realms of fanfiction, we've stumbled into a world where bad writing is considered a virtue and should be defended, while good writing is stuffy and snobbish and difficult, and therefore should be considered suspect at the best of times and ridiculous at worst.

There is this vaguely formed but persistent idea that "This story is good because I wrote it and posted it, and I should get recognition and praise for it." Somehow, the virtue of the story has been redefined while the rest of the rational world wasn't looking. The story is not good because it was technically superior, or because it has engaging characters or a clever plot or because it engages our emotions. No. All the story requires to be good is that this person bothered to sit in front of a computer for a few minutes and bang on a keyboard for a while, and we ought to praise them simply for letting the story - such as it is - exist. My theory is that this is symptomatic of this new idea that children's self-esteems should be bolstered regularly by telling them everything they do is wonderful just because they gave it a try. It allows people to come away with an idea that they should be praised for everything they do - indeed, that the rest of us have a moral obligation to do so. Just watch. Go find yourself a substandard fic, and review it telling them everything they did wrong and request that they make an effort to fix it. Four times out of five, you will get back a nasty response - by email, author's note, or carrier pigeon - telling you that YOU are a mean, cruel person for not liking their fic, and if you didn't like it then it's ALL YOUR FAULT for being so callous and stupid.

This, of course, is rather like telling the person in your glue-stick house that the roof came crashing down on their head because they weren't smart enough to bother to prop it up.


*whispers* Better keep it down, guys. We don't want to rile the academics!



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