Collected Thoughts

I think this is a related issue, in a way. I often unconciously assume that everyone believes on first meeting that I'm charming and funny and kind to small animals and children, that I'm intelligent, but that I focus more on making people feel good than on working out my arguments and so sometimes I don't say quite what I mean, but the meaning's there and you can find it without too much work if you're already kindly disposed toward me and filtering what I say through that screen of kindness, et. al.

I'm often startled and sometimes a little hurt when someone picks up something I say and takes issue with it. My first response is, "but, I meant!" Only, how can they know what I meant if it's not explicitly stated and they don't have that background of: me = charming and loveable? What if their personality isn't the type to let things slide because of charmingness and loveability? It's not their fault I was incoherent or my arguments were weak or, frankly, wrong. That's my fault.

It's amplified when you're on the Internet. I did the thing I read described in bureacracy once. I lurked a long time. I read many, many posts. I fell in love with many buffistae because of their intelligence, or charm, or the way they lingered over certain words. I liked their giving or their ability to see beauty, or their reaction to horrible events. So, when I posted, I acted as if it truly were a cocktail party, we'd already said our "hello, nice dress" how are yous, and then I'd been standing by nodding intelligently all that while and that they were *aware* that I was standing there nodding intelligently. Only, they weren't.

Anytime some stranger walks up, puts a hand on your arm and acts familiarly, even if they seem clickable, feel good, have some charisma, it's going to make you uncomfortable if they invade your personal space. So, that's really what I did when I started -- I invaded -- and why, I think, my original posts in the firefly thread were so offensive to so many. I acted as if I were already a known and well-liked quantity.

So, bringing this back around to bad fanfiction -- maybe the same rules apply. Maybe these writers are expecting the reader to see them as they see themselves, well-meaning, fun-loving, intelligent but focused on the story they want to read, so they should be given a pass. They don't realize they don't get a pass because, when they write bad fiction it's (to stretch this analogy to the creaking point) an infringement of the reader's personal space. Maybe some of them will get that, but I think many will respond just as I did. "But? What? I only meant!" and then, to protect their feelings, they take it farther and it becomes the reader's fault.

I think I'm going to post a some form of this in my LJ, as well, because I don't think people are reading back this far and I find this conversation intriguing. Maybe someone else will comment on it too.