On Sat, Dec 19, 1998 at 12:26:27AM +0000, Gary Kleppe wrote:
Sean, Sean, Sean... if you're going to take snipes at me, at least
have the decency to do it to my face, hm?
Gary, Gary, Gary... you always read things into my words that I never
put there, and fail to see the things that I did put there.
Actually, I sense a bit of rationalization here. Authors aren't
getting C&C, so they naturally look for a reason why. Suddenly,
along comes this _isolated_ incident, and all of the sudden, people
aren't getting C&C because the C&Cers aren't posting C&C, because
they're afraid of getting mailbombed by some puerile author.
Well, I suppose it's easier on the author's ego than admitting that
his writing is so uninspired that nobody's interested in it.
Gee, a blanket insult. How nice.
It certainly _looked_ to me like the author of one of the original
messages was looking for something to blame a lack of C&C on. After
an exchange of messages with him/her, I got the impression that that
wasn't really the case. However, I'm almost certain that I'm not
totally out to lunch here.
I think it's obvious that the reason people aren't getting C&C is that
the majority of authors don't bother to DO C&C -- or only do it within
their little cliques. A story doesn't have to "inspire" someone to
comment on it -- if it doesn't inspire you, figure out why that is and
you have something to comment on.
Look, with 300-400 pieces of mail coming into my mailbox every day,
and Real Life besides, I rather have to pick and choose what I comment
on and what I don't. The ones I pick are going to be, of course, the
ones that I'm interested in. The others simply get a quick trip to
/dev/null. Why should I go through my burgeoning mailbox making some
comment on every fic that arrives there? Do _you_ comment on every
fic that _you_ get? If not, why not? How do you choose which ones to
comment on and which ones not to?
- C&C should be _constructive_. If it isn't, what's the point? Lurker's
MST did have some constructive criticism, but it also had some destructive
criticism. I therefore have less sympathy for him than I would have if
it had been totally constructive. However, mailbombing isn't an appropriate
response to even the most noxious destructive C&C.
C&C *should* be constructive -- but its not always possible for it to
be so. Personally, I'll take honest destructive C&C over silence any
day.
Anything that will potentially result in an improvement in the fic is
'constructive', even if it is harsh.
I think you've basically just said that Gubby-esque critiques are
sometimes necessary.
- C&C is meant to improve the story. If you use it to push your own
agenda, you're misusing it. I've seen this cause plenty of acrimony
in the past.
One man's improvement is another man's agenda. ALL C&C is pushing an
agenda of some sort -- even if it's just the desire to see fanfics
Of course. If you honestly believe that portraying Gosunkugi as
a turtle would improve any fic that it appears in, go ahead and
say so. This, however, was aimed at those who _know_ that their
C&C is aimed at railroading the author into conforming to their
interpretation of things rather than improving the story.
free of grammatical and spelling errors. Now, if I suggest something
that I think will improve a fic, and you happen to disagree, you have
a perfect right to say so. But if me being allowed to have my say
causes you "acrimony," that's your problem.
Unless, of course, the person having their say happens to be 'Nobody',
aka Philip Mak, right? :)
- Last, but not least, if you are a writer yourself, set a good example.
If you criticise something in somebody else's writing, don't turn around
and do the same thing in yours. Some of you will undoubtedly remember
a rather bitter catfight back in August about this very issue. :)
Nope, that was never the real issue.
Never the real issue??????????
[shrug]
Well, if you haven't got the point that Nick and I were trying to
make by now, I think it's safe to say that you never will.
Hint -- Neither he nor I would likely have said anything if it
weren't for the likes of your C&C of Sydney Kyle's fic.