Demon Butcher Of Vasey

Cinnamon | Old enough to know better | Still rambling from the James McAvoy School of Words. Mostly obsessed with X-Men and Hannibal and with an enduring love for Sherlock Holmes, Diana Wynne Jones books, horror, the Victorian era, most things Whedon and The League of Gentlemen (especially Gatiss). Just found #Mystrade. Always late to the party.

[mrmorris-deactivated20210620]

Ça fait peur et je veux que ça fasse peur au spectateur attiré par les yeux, suscitant en lui l'inquiétante étrangeté...

[byk23]

[copperbadge]

Question as an oldster and fandom lurker, since you are an author and fandom dad. Sometimes when I am reading a story I'm knocked out of it by a "newer than they think" mistake. As in, flashbacks where Steve and Bucky use backpacks for school, or sit "criss cross applesauce" and using that term. I normally just give compliments to authors, but I wonder sometimes if I shouldn't tell them. Would you want to know?

Honestly, most writers in fandom don’t want constructive criticism in comments. I know it seems strange at first, but it’s a general norm in fandom that unless someone says “Concrit welcome!” you probably should confine yourself to saying what you liked about the story. So you’re doing exactly right, and it’s good of you to think about this and ask before changing. 

Follows a lecture for people who are not as thoughtful, so please don’t think the rest of this is me yelling at you :D The general drift of the idea is 

1. That they wrote the fic as a gift to fandom at large, and one doesn’t criticize gifts; 2. That if it didn’t actually make you stop reading and backbutton, could it have been that awful? 3. It’d be a bit like going up to a stranger on the street and criticizing their haircut. They don’t know you and didn’t ask for fashion tips.  

The most common argument for concrit is “I’m just trying to help!” but well, nobody asked for that help. A lot of people write fanfic as a way to enjoy themselves, and turning it into something to Improve Yourself Upon kind of ruins the fun bit. And even if none of these convince a person to avoid giving concrit, the fact that it’s a social norm in fandom means that it’s just considered rude. “I didn’t like your fanfic enough to respect social norms” is not the message most people want to send. 

I also think there’s a larger discussion to be had about the grave sin of “knocking someone out of a story” (again, not yelling at you, it’s a very common thing that comes up in the concrit discussion). It’s come to be seen as this truly awful thing, to perturb a reader with an anachronism or a typo or an awkward turn of phrase, and I question why. There are moments in almost any story I encounter – fanfic, movies, television, novels, comic books – where I see a strange phrase or something untoward happens and I have a moment of “whoa, that was a weird choice the author made.” 

But then I generally go right back to enjoying the story. 

I think it is extremely rare that people get pushed so far out by something minor that they can’t keep reading, that one small moment of “what?” ruins the story completely. There are legit reasons to stop reading a fic, and if people are upset or angry or hurt they should stop; I’m not talking about triggers or untagged adult content or what have you. My point is, if it didn’t stop you from reading the story, then you must have enjoyed the fic more than you were bothered by the single moment, right? So why focus on that? 

But above and beyond the idea of focusing on what you liked instead of the one moment you didn’t, this is a problem that is very specific to fanfic. I think we’ve really put up an altar to this idea of the purity of experience, that nothing can come between us and our enjoyment of a story ever, and we apply it very unfairly to fanfic, particularly since it is produced by amateurs for free. It’s not something I ever see in criticism of non-fanfic media, by fandom or by professionals. 

Anyway. I’d really like people to examine why fanfic is held to such a stringently high standard that a moment of discomfort in the middle of one’s pleasure reading is the only thing that starts to matter to some people and sometimes the only thing they comment on. And maybe if we collectively rethink how view that moment – not as something vital but as a byproduct of vast quantities of free entertainment, like a commercial or mosquito bites at the beach – then perhaps it would even stop bothering people as much. 

[ellidfics]

Uh…I did exactly that when I read an otherwise amusing fic with a glaring error.  

The author thanked me and corrected the fic.

[copperbadge]

Then you were fortunate and they were gracious. There are authors who accept concrit who don’t explicitly say so; there are also some who are too polite or too avoidant of confrontation to call people on it or ignore it. But that doesn’t change the fact that, by and large, most don’t want it. 

[ellidfics]

I pointed out that a fic set in the 1940′s could not possibly have Steve Rogers talking a baseball player who didn’t break into the majors until the 1960′s.  The author thanked me and changed it.  Not quite what you seem to be referring to.

[copperbadge]

How is it not what I’m referring to? It’s still concrit that wasn’t asked for but happened to be accepted graciously. I don’t see why what you corrected makes a difference. Whether it was a factual, a grammatical, or a typographical correction, it’s one anecdotal experience. It doesn’t disprove the idea that most people, whether they accept your concrit graciously or not, don’t want it. 

Just becase one person thanked you and changed something when you pointed it out doesn’t mean everyone wants that or will react that way, or even that they wanted it – it only proves that they were gracious in response to your unasked-for concrit. 

Look, I’m glad you had such a positive experience, I genuinely am. But that doesn’t mean it’s a universally applicable one. Look at the comments on this post if you don’t believe me; there are plenty of writers and readers saying it’s inappropriate to do. 

[scifigrl47]

Okay, seriously.  I don’t think that people really understand what “CONSTRUCTIVE” criticism is.

“you misspelled a word” is not criticism.  It’s editing.  You are acting as an editor.  The fact that you pointed out that someone screwed up and misspelled the word ‘furniture’ as ‘furnature,’ does not assist the author in the future.  It doesn’t make them a better writer.  It might MARGINALLY make them a better spelling, but mostly what it does is shame them.

Here is a comment I received, in its entirety.  I have removed the fic name and the commentator’s name, because this isn’t about shaming this person.  Do not find this comment, do not shame this person, do not attack this person, I will delete any such comments on my fic immediately, okay?  Okay.

Here is a comment:

(I waited until the fic was done to read past chapter two, hence the lateness.) I think you meant “proprietary image stabilization”, because “propitiatory” would mean the camera can appease angry gods. Which granted, would come in handy around Asgardians. :)

There is nothing constructive about this comment.  There is nothing kind about this comment.  There is barely anything useful about this comment.

This person chose to write me a comment purely to tell me that I chose the wrong word when my spellchecker gave me some options.  Their whole reason for this comment was to show how clever they were.  They knew a word I didn’t know!  See, fic writer?  Now I have told you.  You have been told.  

On a 50K word fic, this was all they commented.  And it comes off as unbearably smug.

I wrote a novel.  I wrote a novel, in my spare time, for fun, and then put it out there.  For anyone and everyone to read, or not read.  But it was an act of fun and fandom and something I enjoyed doing, and yes, I really hoped other people would like reading it.

And the only thing this person felt that needed to be said was “you used the wrong word.”

Do people not understand how this drains the desire to keep doing this?  How hard it is to keep plugging away at a story that’s hard, or a plot that’s not coming together, when THE ONLY THING a commentator thinks is worthy of comment really boils down to…

“You made a mistake.”

At least be kind.  At least preface it with something you DID like.  At least say, “wow I loved this piece of dialog and I made squeeing noises when this happened.  Thanks for writing it!  Also, I don’t know if you care or not, but I noticed this error, in case you want to correct it.”

But no.  A spelling correction is neither constructive, nor criticism.  It’s editing.  And many people don’t want an editor.

Because taking writing advice from a random person on the internet is like taking religious advice from that guy on the corner standing on a soapbox and yelling at passers-by.  Sure, he could be a well-educated, well-intentioned individual who’s genuinely concerned for your growth and happiness.  But it’s far more likely that it’s just a crazy asshole who wants attention and to feel superior from the people he’s harassing.

[rsfcommonplace]

It has taken me a while to learn to keep quiet. It doesn’t matter that I only want to offer corrections on things I love. It doesn’t matter that I take editing comments easily and without feeling hurt. What matters is saying thank you for the gifts I sometimes didn’t even know I wanted.

[hidetheknives]

I sometimes find it hard not to comment on errors too. To me it means “I love your fic so much I read it carefully enough to notice X” because I’d never even bother to say anything on fic I wasn’t interested in. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve written long detailed comments like that and then deleted them before posting!! So although I agree it’s generally polite not to, I also think writers should try and be less defensive about comments like these because there’s often positive intentions behind them. I know it’s hard when you feel like someone’s shaming you, but quite often I really don’t think that’s the intention. Some people find compliments difficult and that’s the best way they have of telling you they like your work. I work in a museum and people will often tell us if there’s a mistake on a display panel - they’re invariably lovely or a bit awkward/embarrassed about it. It used to annoy me because I couldn’t do anything about it, now I just feel pleased that they actually read the panel and care enough to tell us about it!

[valeria2067]

People on this site: How is it that 90% of my dash is filled with that gay angel and demon couple?

Anthony J. Crowley, who won three awards in Hell when he created Tumblr dot com:

[niralamba]

~X-Men: First Class~

[badjokesbyjeff]

Professor X: what’s your super power?

Me: hindsight

Professor X: that’s not going to help us

Me: yes I see that now

[lonicera-caprifolium]

I've seen a few like this already, and I do like the idea, but I prefer to think about Sister Mary Loquacious taking just a little bit longer to interrupt...

[undertheinktree]

My new hobby is badly photoshopping Jon Hamm’s face on Annunciation paintings

Leonardo

Tiziano

Pozzoserrato

Beato Angelico

And my personal favorites:

Savinio

and Tissot

“Ecce ancilla Domini, I’m the archangel fucking Gabriel.”

[yuhengwanye]

God only knows what the context of this is

But the Crowley and Aziraphale energy is off the charts

[inthroughthesunroof]

“Look, I’m just saying, it wasn’t my fault if he decided to commit suicide by threatening you.”

“Do you really think our respective offices are going to care?”

“Well, no. I’m just saying it’s not my fault. Anyway, he was a saint to his parish and a demon to his housekeeper. Makes him a double agent. So we’re both doing the right thing.”

“And both doing the wrong one.”

“Well. I suppose you could make that argument.”

“How deep do you think we need to put him?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never hidden a body before. I still don’t see why we can’t miracle him away.”

“Audits, my dear. I’m not sure how your side is about it, but my side audits miracles. Unless you’re really sure about that “both doing the right thing” argument.”

“Whatever. Hold your end higher, would you? He’s heavier than he looks.”

[sizvideos]

[sizvideos]

Video

[thewhaleridingvulcan-deactivate]

This was wonderfully hilarious

[runcibility]

Working video link: https://youtu.be/5WTkJHHF4B4

[cipheramnesia]

this is like the ideal job

[angryschnauzer]

This is just an average preschool.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

SHE’S DOING HER BEST

[gwenfrankenstien]

im sueing them for stealing my life story

[falllingthroughspace]

Crowley over the years - part 2

[yesterdaysprint]

Life magazine, February 1916

[orphiel-deactivated20200602]

today’s “fuck the social construction of gender” moment coming at you from 1916.

[anakinh]

literally i do not know how to caption this someone say something about his hips

[herzdieb]

@lifwae requested  ⁠— David Tennant and Michael Sheen being literal Aziraphale and Crowley in the interview

[barachiki]

Mystrade Good Omens AU?

I see Lestrade and Mycroft arguing about who would be who.

[hiddleloki]

[kakfa]

July 27, 1914: Kafka struggles to eat a peach

Ate rice à la Trautmannsdorf and a peach. A man drinking wine watched my attempts to cut the unripe little peach with my knife. I couldn’t. Stricken with shame under the old man’s eyes, I let the peach go completely and ten times leafed through Die Fliegenden Blätter. I waited to see if he wouldn’t at last turn away. Finally I collected all my strength and in defiance of him bit into the completely juiceless and expensive peach. 

[baece]

its been 105 years since kafka ate this terrible peach

[pickledangel]