Stop Dissecting My Baby!
I was cleaning the dishes, as one does. And I idly wondered about fannish feedback culture. As one does.

We like responses to our fanworks. That's a no-brainer. But every time there's another debate or wank about the merits of a piece or the people involved or, fine, another instance of me giving in to the urge of posting unsolicited concrit, I'm baffled anew at people's responses.

Mona, you sigh say, haven't you learned by now that most fans don't want criticism? That a large faction of fandom hates anything but happysqueeyourock! comments?

But, but, but, I respond, WHY?

The question isn't whether we like criticism -- we generally don't. I sure don't. You probably don't. Your five-year-old neighbour with the crayon set won't cherish having all the flaws in his doodles pointed out to him. And yet, to me, that doesn't account for these emotional and occasionally anguished responses.

We could segue into the whole Art Discussion at this point -- How One Can Only Become Better through Techniques & Application, how Other People's Insights Allow You To Improve, and so on and so forth. But that's not what I'm interested in here -- I'm interested people's attitudes and motivations, in the underlying reasons. This goes for actions and reactions alike. As I said, faced with criticism, all of us are taken aback at least a little. But the fannish culture in question actively keeps people from saying what they feel quite strongly yet don't post about unless behind a friendslock or in a BNF's livejournal. I don't mean personal likes and dislikes, mind you; I don't care for people sharing them in public. This is purely about criticism of fannish work.

As usual, I'm wary of the off-hand referral to any radical difference between fandom and real life, the latter in this case harbouring literary & art critics, book & magazine reviews, and last but not least financial & market pressures. I don't deny Our Way Is Different upon occasion and especially in certain areas -- queerness, kink etc. -- but anyone who denies that fandom is a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm of the world Out There is -- well. Not very versed in one of the two.

So, attitudes? I, being one of those obnoxious Europeans raised to analyse/compare social/historical systems, instantly forego all proper empirical research and merely look at my friendslist and my fandom experiences. (I am barely resisting a smiley here. But I will be victorious.) Where it seems to me that a lot of the Europeans here may get just as grumpy or huffy when a flaw in their work is pointed out to them...but they don't negate the essential validity of criticism per se.

They may negate its value, or they may doubt its accuracy, but I right now, cannot come up with a single instance of, How Dare You Even Criticise What I Made?

(This does not, I'm fairly certain, apply to most people reading this, US-American or otherwise. I'm generalising. Like whoa.)

And I wondered about US American emphasis placed on success, achievement, and accomplishment. I don't necessarily mean perfection; insert random wry comment about being German. I'm talking about not having done something but having something as a result of that. It obviously doesn't have to be simple or tangible; America in fact tends to place a higher premium on abstract values like honour and patriotism.

But always, it's not what you do, it's what you have. This your property, this your inherent or acquired quality or badge defines you. You are -- well, maybe not nothing without it, but you are considerably less. This is actually exacerbated by on-line communication as opposed real-life interaction: There simply isn't anything you can see beyond what fans put on a web-page. Our personalities and the things we do matter, sure, but mostly insofar as they influence our creative and -- most literally -- journalistic output.

In this context, fans' reaction to a criticism of their work is far more understandable, at least to me: I'm not idly saying something about this there little thing you made; I'm by default making a statement about you, your parentage, and your dog, too. Okay, getting carried away there, but you get the gist: It's about accomplishments and works being far more central to one's very identity, and look, I'm back to your formal, stilted style.

This can only mean I'm -- finally -- coming to an end. Of course, I cannot refrain from adding that I wish more fans would if perhaps not immediately adapt this absolutely ground-breaking insight then at least try to understand why it is so hard for some of us -- say, me -- not to find fannish attitudes regarding purely work-based criticism strange, and who would dearly welcome a fannish criticism culture that's open, honest, and of course stripped of ad-hominem elements.

Yes, I'm a dreamer.

And yes, you're welcome to start methodically taking apart my fanfic and my icons. You always were.*



* I can say that because really, who would even care? Oh, the joys -- and securities -- of not being fandom-famous. And now I really cannot resist it: & ;-)