Once upon a time there was a poor, starving millennial who lived in a great town on the edge of a fearsome forest. This
millennialhad once been rich in fucks, and given them freely and generously to both friends and strangers, but then a bunch of garbage happened and life is bullshit and the US election and have you even *seen* the job market these days, and now she had not a fuck to give left in the world. And this
millennialdecided one day to venture into the dark forest to seek her fortune, because might as well, why the fuck not, better than sitting at home scrolling endlessly through tumblr and failing to do laundry.
She had been walking a goodly while and she was kind of tired, but also her sleep cycle was all fucked to shit so who even fucking knows, when she came across a Wise Fairy at a crossroads in the woods.
“Hey you,” said the Wise Fairy, “come give a fuck about this thing over here.”
“Sorry,” said the
millennial, “I have literally no fucks to give.”“No, but have you seen this thing? You are societally obligated to give a fuck about it.”
“Look, I don’t know what to tell you, man,” the
millennialsaid, “but the well of fucks has run dry. I got nothing.”
“Ahhh!” said the Wise Fairy, revealing herself in her true and radiant form, “Then you shall go on a great quest to the Mountains of Emotional Labour to find and placate the dryad of the Well of Fucks, so that the Well may flow freely with fucks once again.”
“Okay, first of all, that was a metaphor,” the
millennialsaid, “I don’t know how you missed that. Second of all, I would honestly just settle for a job with benefits that didn’t require bullshit amounts of impossible-to-get experience, and maybe a beer.”
Then the Wise Fairy waxed wroth. “For your apathy and lack of gumption, I hereby turn you into this loathsome toad!” she cried, and with a wave of her magic wand, the transformation was complete.
“Are you not ashamed?” the Wise Fairy demanded
“My dude,” said the millennial, “I feel like you fundamentally misunderstand the concept of not having any fucks to give,” and with that, she hopped down the road into the dark forest.
Tag: yep
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If you don’t like a work by a fanfic author, that’s okay.
If you find the subject matter in a fanfic is not to your taste, that’s okay.
If I personally read something and find I don’t like it for any reason, I simply close the tab and move on with my life.
And, full disclosure: I do this often! There’s a lot of stuff out there that is Just Not For Me. There are some fics out there that are wildly popular that I just personally don’t get their mass appeal, and there are some fics out there that I feel are absolute hidden gems and I will recommend them often.
That being said, the one thing I never, ever, ever do is publicly disparage another author’s writing or narrative choices or their work as a whole. Even if I think their writing style is not to my liking, or I feel they they make spelling and grammar errors that are distracting, even if I think the sex is badly written, or the plot is boring, or if I think they have written the characters in a way I disagree with. If they don’t ask for concrit, I don’t give it. I don’t give any criticism unsolicited.
It really, really is disappointing and upsetting when I see folks, especially people who are writers themselves, publicly trashing other authors’ works on tumblr and/or leaving shitty comments on their AO3 chapters. I have had this happen to me before and it really does not feel good. Even if it’s just a “I didn’t care for this fic”, the fact that someone took the time out of their day to tell me so was unnecessary and upsetting. What is the purpose, I wonder, of telling someone something like that?
Fanfic authors write things for you for no money, for your entertainment. They write for fun and enjoyment and to share their enthusiasm about a fandom with others. Writing is hard work, y’all! It is truly a labour of love and I will never shit on any author that puts pieces out there and tries their best even if I don’t care for it. Not everyone is going to produce works that are specifically to everyone’s aesthetic tastes, avoiding everyone’s specific squicks or triggers. Nor should they.
Yeah, fandom is not your safe space, sure, but – we don’t have to treat one another poorly, either. Be kind to one another, friends.
Once again I disagree.
Yes, fandom is a gift economy and you wouldn’t tell your metaphorical grandma you don’t like the hand-knitted sweater she just gave you for the holidays but you know what? Authors are not my grandma. They’ve written a story and shared it on the internet because they want it to be read. If they don’t want critique they can put that in the notes. Plenty of those out there in the world on ff.net and ao3 and I respect that by not leaving comments on those stories but you don’t get to tell me how I use my own space, ie this tumblr or my dreamwidth or my lj or my fb or my twitter or anyplace else I have my own space and voice.
And there is a HUGE difference between me saying ‘this is not for me’ which by the way is nice and saying ‘this story sucked and here is why’. I used to sell books and people felt so guilty for bringing a book back that I had sold to them because they got part way through it and they just didn’t connect with the story.
Guess what? There is no social contract around what you like or don’t like. There is no social contract (or there shouldn’t be) in saying you don’t find something to your taste. All of fandom is not my friend. I wouldn’t even know how to define fandom.
Yes, it is hard work – that you CHOSE to undertake. I say this as an author, a photographer, as an artisan. You don’t owe me anything for the work I do.
Saying ‘I don’t like it’ is not ‘shitting on someone’s work’. It’s saying you don’t like it. It is not a personal judgement of the author. It is a judgement of the work. Stop conflating the two, please.
And I’m not even getting into the fact that critique is actually okay too. Because, it is.
Since I did my post explaining that I will almost always respond to asks privately, I have been flooded with messages from friendly people. So I thought this might be worth doing:
Reblog if you respond to messages privately rather than publishing them, and people are welcome to message you without fear of everyone reading their message.
Tumblr Exodus 