The Last Good Name ([identity profile] thelastgoodname.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] lunabee34 2006-04-05 01:09 am (UTC)

Rec things without having feedbacked them?

I almost never feedback anything. I know everyone always says that feedback is the grease that keeps fandom running smoothly, but I think of authors as authors -- not to say that authorial intent is useless, but that I behave as if there is no point in engaging an author unless what I'm really doing is engaging the text, and I only do that when I have something substantive to say (and even then, I usually don't direct it to the author, but to the {literary} community at large). So feeding an author with a, "wow, you write really well and this is a great story" is less interesting to me (or for me) than saying to my friends, "hey: I read something great, and I think you should read it, too."* (#note) In this way, I don't really distinguish between profic and fanfic; if I don't write to JK Rowling about her books, why would I write to a fan author about their story?

I realize that this is disingenuous, as I'm a member of an authorial community in fandom that is vastly different from my reader-author relationship to professional authors, but even then, while I'm sure it's polite for the community of professional authors to send each other little notes saying, "I adored your latest book," I doubt they do it all the time. Not that that's a good excuse or anything, but this is what I do and why I do it.

And of course, when I'm reading stuff that friends have written, there is a fine line to walk, but I still treat it as if it's capable of standing on it's own, and I'm not needed as a cheerleader (except when I am: yes, Lorraine, you will finish your PhD dissertation and it will be excellent).

* What I'd prefer to do sometimes is say, "hey: I read something interesting/different/disconcerting/that I'm having trouble with, and I wanted to know what you think about it." Of course, I don't actually do this, because of the community nature of fandom: I wouldn't want to upset anyone. But I'd like to do it, because that's how I respond to other things that I read, and I don't think fan-produced material should be treated substantially differently than other material.

I deconstruct children's finger-painted drawings in exactly the same way I deconstruct paintings in museums, too; maybe I'm just weird.
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