i posted about this on twitter because a specific post sent me into a rage (i know. weird) but i will reiterate my point here and make an attempt to not sound like i have a Tumblr Accent while i do it.
although i am a believer of the idea that, yes, you have to get out of ao3 and the YA section at barnes and noble and read a real book, i dont think this gives anyone a free pass to call women stunted because they enjoy writing slash fanfiction. i mention women because the og poster did, and it is not news that any hobby that women engage with will get criticized as being unserious, or even brain damaging. is writing fanfiction the same as writing a novel? no. does it take the same amount of effort? no. i think we gotta stop pretending like it does… people will feel protective of their fanfiction, but we gotta be realistic and recognize there is a huge difference between literary fiction and fanfiction and that we cannot judge both products with the same lens.
fanfiction is a hobby, engaging in it either as a reader or as a writer is fun. fanfiction is pleasure fiction (yes, even the grittiest angst that makes you want to rip your skin off your face, it’s main propuse is pleasure). maybe, idk, maybe 30 something year old woman who in her free time enjoys writing erotica of her Guys engaging in Unprotected Anal Sex does not have any ambition to write The Next American Novel, and thats fine! thats good for the market too. Why do we have to pretend like every work of fiction needs to be ambitious and good in order to have some value? most books are bad! we need bad books so the good ones can shine even more, don’t we?
and it’s not solely about pretentiousness, pretentiousness isn’t a moral failing. it’s about demeriting anything that doesn’t fit into your own perception of valuable and profitable. the og poster did get criticized for having a capitalistic perspective, and sure, use one million arguments to fight back but at the end of the day whether it was your intention or not, it does come off that way.
you are a fucking nerd, whether you are writing about cartoon shows or nabokov. punching down will not make you any less of a nerd. your nerdiness is not more valuable, outside of your sphere, the regular guy does not care about your opinions on nabokov, and will think that you are also wasting your time by not doing something more productive with your talents.
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