Fandom karma

[lettered]

-This totally made my day! Someone mentioned a fic I wrote on fandom secrets: here, post 164. I figure I can post that here, since I don't know who did the secret. But thanks to scabbyfish for directing me to it.

-Now, that makes me want to write more porn. Luckily, I just wrote 16 pages of porn in MS Word. Why so long, you ask? Because it's Victorian porn. Victorians take forever to get their clothes off.

-To add to all this encouragement, I keep getting really nice comments to random fic. Different fic, and the comments are from different people. So . . . thanks, random fandom brownies!

-But speaking of feedback and encouragement . . . the secret spot is delicious. Does anyone else check there for feedback to their fic? You bookmark it, then see who else bookmarked it, and look at what they say. You read some really nice things that people say about your stuff, even if they didn't comment on your fic. You also get to read some negative comments you'd otherwise never see. Most people are using delicious for themselves, you know? So they don't bother with being nice. Which is kinda nice. I don't solicit con crit any more because no one ever gave it to me with the exception of an awesome few, but I still like to see it from time to time.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

...I can't believe I'm writing this; I had to research thermodynamics.

Hee hee. I heart you.

I think your character's Eastern fetish is writable. Get a good beta. Write an author's note. Maybe see if someone on dark_agenda is willing to give it a look. I think it's possible to write the foibles of other times without buying into those foibles. One way to hang a lantern on it might be to have one character remark somewhat quizzically, on seeing the other's collection, "I wonder if Persian ladies of a certain station surround themselves with collections of English billiard balls and pin cushions...." The thing not to do is create a fantasy version of the past in which race/class/whatever problems simply don't exist, which is what astolat did, and found herself criticized for, in her crazy, self-indulgent American Idol RPF AU. But it doesn't sound to me like that's the kind of story you're telling. Your character's fetishism is a genuine character trait, not a Mary-Sueish one, i.e.: "My character is awesome and you can tell because she likes EXOTIC THINGS, not because I have actually written about her being awesome." I'm excited to read it. How could you not think I'd be excited about discussions of politics and literature? I am all over that shit.

Yes! I heard about the Age of Sail kink meme...haven't looked at it yet so I don't get distracted...

Good! I wasn't sure if people on LJ had caught wind of it. Oh, these cross-platform quandaries.

Huh! I dunno what icerocket is. You were one of the awesome people I was thinking of who's actually given me con crit. I do love con crit, and I love to see people say mean things about me on delicious.

icerocket.com is how I search for stuff (like my own name) on LJ, since LJ's search function is crap. I'm glad you liked getting my concrit. I only give it to people I'm interested in as writers, who are already doing certain things well and sound like they have cool ideas to talk about. Every so often the Feedback Debate rolls around and people quaver, "I'm so afraid to give it!" but I've never been flamed! I think most people really do appreciate it, provided you follow a few basics like, "Treat your fellow geek like a fellow geek, not a surprisingly literate beagle." But I may be self-selecting for kindred spirits.

I started to tell you I love seeing reviews of my fiction in the wild -- i.e. not meant for me -- even more than I love comments, but that's not true, because I love talking to people. But you know what I mean -- it is so interesting to see how people describe my stuff to others. It's one of the reasons I like keeping a recs page with little blurbs, not just the names and links. a) As a reader, I want to know why the reccer recced it, but b) I know the author might stop by and get a little thrill.

[lettered]

Well, one good thing is that the character with the fetish is not the heroine. She is in fact the hero's sister, and is shrill and shrew and vain, so you could write off her fetishism as a characteristic of "someone bad". However, I'm trying to show that she is not someone bad. She's a paper doll created by Gaskell to show us the heroine is brilliant, and I want to show instead that she could be a real person, who is a product of her society and the way in which she was brought up, and actually she's sort of interesting. And her fetishism is one thing I gave her to make her interesting--to show that she's so small in some ways because she has such wild fantasies in others.

In the adaptation she has this one weird random line about the Alhambra, and now in my head she is completely obsessed by 15th c. Muslim architecture--but I don't think she would actually care what Islam even is, so it's not as though she goes on about 15th c. Muslim architecture, she just happens to get obsessed with Mozambique.

There are a whole lot of class issues in N&S, and so class issues do come up in what I'm writing, though not as much as in N&S. I do think the reason I'm like this about N&S is I feel comfortable getting into something that addresses issues like that, but maybe that's just me wanting to feel good about myself. But race of course does not get addressed. I would *like* to address it in the parts about this secondary character, but I don't know how without it becoming a huge issue that's not really central to my story.

How could you not think I'd be excited about discussions of politics and literature?

Well, there's probably a lot that is shippery fluff, or something. I'm being rather half-assed about the politics, which doesn't quite sit right with me. There are some REALLY interesting issues here, but I don't have the answers to them. What I wanted to do is bring them up, and show that they are issues, and that there might not be an answer, which I feel that I did, to some extent. But then the hero and the heroine (the ones who differ politically) are all, "Well, we don't quite agree on these issues, but I see that you might have a point and I am interested in continuing this discussion..." and then...where else do I go with it? They're not going to agree. His viewpoint makes me uncomfortable, but hers is untenable. She bought him Wealth of Nations to show that she would not condemn him for being a self-interested capitalist, though, and he bought her Keats to show he's not all pounds and pennies. She teased him for being maudlin.

This is how I feel about the friction between capitalist self-interest and a more humanitarian socialism in real life--I just don't have an objective viewpoint to encompass every issue. I guess one doesn't need one, but it's why I'm unhappy discussing politics; everyone else is decisive and I feel I so often can't be. But anyway, because I don't go elsewhere with it after that, but the fic still goes on and on, the political discussion feels sort of stuck in there, as though I did it because I had an agenda, which I did. I mean, Gaskell very much had agendas. I want to show it is an ongoing issue in the relationship, but I don't know how--the central theme is really Victorian silence, and the problem is these characters are silent about sex, desire, and their dysfunctional families, but not about how they feel on political issues.

Anywho, I like the idea of my heroine making some comment on Miss Secondary Character's fetishism; that might work.

Every so often the Feedback Debate rolls around and people quaver, "I'm so afraid to give it!" but I've never been flamed!

I've never given it to someone who hasn't asked. I know that when I was first posting things, especially the experimental things with which I was uncomfortable, I put right there on the story that I wanted crit.

But you know what I mean

I do! I know lots of people who say they don't really want to know the truth about what everyone thinks about them. I think that they are remarkably honest with themselves for admitting that, but I really think I want to know. I have such a good opinion of myself, I feel like I could take it, and I'm just DYING of curiosity.

I'll be interested to see what you do think of the Victorian monstrosity if you do read it...