I really can't say "word" loudly enough, in agreeing with you.
Thanks. :) For a while there, I was starting to think I was the only one having this kind of reading experience.
Way too many cater to shippers' fanon instead of actual canon characterization, and assume we're all down with speeding from the introduction to the mighty mighty sex scene.
I think that's a very valid point. When I first started reading fic, I gravitated toward the smuttier stuff because it seemed there was more emotional intensity when sex was on the line. As smut's become more commonplace (and that's another discussion entirely, how freely people discuss their sexual excitement via feedback), I agree that it's become the focus of many pieces rather than an integral part of a larger whole.
For example, resonant8 writes fantastic porn; Warning (http://trickster.org/res/warning.html) is a great example of that. But that piece is precisely the kind you mentioned: no set up, no believability, just good porn. Which is nice, but if you're going to write out of context porn, why not just make it original character porn? One of the pitfalls of fanfic is clearly the easily made assumption that characterization has already been established and that the writer doesn't need to do much more with it.
And that's the crux for me: a lot of the work that I don't think is high quality is lacking, for me, the characterization component. Sure, it's fun to read about John and Rodney and everyone else doing funkycool and wackycrazy things, but if they aren't think I can imagine the characters doing, then the cool and crazy factors are moot.
I could ramble about this forever, so I'll stop myself here and just say thanks for the comment. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's had this reading experienc. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, a lot of the folks to agree with me have mentioned so in a location other than this post. Fannish peer pressure, I suppose.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-03-25 04:13 am (UTC)Thanks. :) For a while there, I was starting to think I was the only one having this kind of reading experience.
Way too many cater to shippers' fanon instead of actual canon characterization, and assume we're all down with speeding from the introduction to the mighty mighty sex scene.
I think that's a very valid point. When I first started reading fic, I gravitated toward the smuttier stuff because it seemed there was more emotional intensity when sex was on the line. As smut's become more commonplace (and that's another discussion entirely, how freely people discuss their sexual excitement via feedback), I agree that it's become the focus of many pieces rather than an integral part of a larger whole.
For example,
And that's the crux for me: a lot of the work that I don't think is high quality is lacking, for me, the characterization component. Sure, it's fun to read about John and Rodney and everyone else doing funkycool and wackycrazy things, but if they aren't think I can imagine the characters doing, then the cool and crazy factors are moot.
I could ramble about this forever, so I'll stop myself here and just say thanks for the comment. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who's had this reading experienc. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, a lot of the folks to agree with me have mentioned so in a location other than this post. Fannish peer pressure, I suppose.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)