fail_fandomanon

For those who don't know, io9 has begun a "Fanfiction Friday" where some dude finds a fic and mocks it in depth. Classy.

http://io9.com/5962913/fan-fiction-friday-iron-man-and-captain-america-in-hungry?tag=fan-fiction-friday

On one hand, yeah there's a shit-ton of terrible fanfic out there. On the other hand, do we really need a weekly review of terrible fanfic? Way too mean-spirited for me, but to each their own I guess.

Yeah it irritates me too. Assholes.

I was aware of Fanfiction Friday when it was on Topless Robot, although I didnt't frequently read it. It seemed to make a point of going after "Agony in Pink"-calibre stuff for beloved childhood canons. On one hand, no, I don't think that's a fair representation of fanfic; otoh, I cannot say too much in defense of an EarthBound corpse-fucking fic.

Yeah, that fic itself is pretty damn terrible, but I really dislike it when people outside the fic community mock badfic. Mostly because, unlike other fannish efforts, like fanart or fan videos or even cosplay, they never, ever point out the good stuff.

Honestly, I always get a bit of a "look what those silly women are doing!" from them.

In fairness, the targets seem pretty evenly divided between typical male and female bad!fic. The author seems to focus heavily on his squicks, which are childhood characters engaged in extreme fetishes.

I really dislike it when people outside the fic community mock badfic.

+1000

I don't mind it so much when people who are in the community mock badfic (though even that can get pretty nasty). But people from outside the community, mocking work someone wrote for fun and posted on the internet for free? Fuck off.

It could be worse, I guess. The writer acknowledges that there's decent fic and that erotica is harmless (though what "illegal fetishes" are I'm not quite sure--it's illegal to practice necrophilia but not to have the fetish, right?)

And the discussion is decent, especially the thread about why fic seems to get bludgeoned so much harder than other forms of fan media.

Yeah it sucks when such posts shame writers who eventually take their fic off the internet. I'm thinking of the Sherlock Holmes enema fic that someone was searching for only to be linked to the Topless Robot post that mocked the story.

+1

I'm always a little :/ when people who state up front that they don't even like fic go out of their way to mock badfic, but I do enjoy badfic snarks. This one doesn't especially bother me.

And I would agree with the other anon in the thread that it doesn't seem particularly targeted at women fic writers specifically. Plenty of dudes write fic, remember, they're just mostly not on LJ.

SA

And now that I've actually read the whole thing instead of skimming, I have to say it was pretty entertaining. I cracked up several times.

"HAMS DO NOT HAVE FILLING, STEVE!" Tony screamed. "YOU'RE RUINING IT FOR ME!!!"

Ahahahaha

It seems unfair in several ways, but the one that bugs me the most is that it's a kink fic. People who are probably most into it aren't necessarily into Iron Man/Captain America, Avengers fandom, or even fanfic. They dig the kink, and the fic scratches the itch. (I write several more unusual kinks in different fandoms, and on AO3 I can tell when someone's reading just through those fics, because I'll get a string of kudos for fics with nothing in common but 'sounding'.) If the author was comparing fic with XTube videos or even pro porn fic with the same kinks, I'd feel it was fairer. But the way it's framed, it reads like, "eh, fanfic, at heart this is what it is, mock away."

+1

Not that there isn't really ridiculous or badly written kink fic, but I think it's harder to judge something that may have been written basically to fulfill a kink the writer has. Kinks by their very nature can be a bit ridiculous, I think. And while it's definitely possible to write kinky stories that are also very well-crafted, that's not something everyone who writes kink fic cares about. I think there are times when doing what it would take to make your story "good" can reduce the hotness of the fic.

On the subject of mocking "bad" fanworks in general, one of my drawings was posted on several "bad art" blogs on tumblr, and got a bunch of notes and reblogs with some mean-spirited comments. To be honest, well...I was actually quite pleased. I mean, everything I do is usually completely ignored by fandom, and the fact that one of my contributions to the internet actually got noticed and managed to amuse people makes me feel a strange sense of satisfaction. I know, most people would think "Wouldn't you rather get positive attention?", but to me, the fact that people actually went out of their way to post and talk about it it is good enough for me. Hell, I'll even admit I found a lot of the comments pretty amusing.

So yeah, speaking as someone who's been on the receiving end of fandom snark, I personally don't mind it at all. But then again, that's just me, and I know other people haven't taken it so well.

It annoys me when the fic that's being prodded at by people who aren't regular writers or readers of fic is bad kinkfic.

Yes, yes, I know it's easier to review stuff you think is badly done -- whether it's movies or writing. But it'd be really fucking nice for people outside of fandom to apply some actual positive reviewspace to well written fic, kinky and not.

For example the Cap/Iron Man scat fic, which was not all awash in epithets and unlike this one, well written, or the J2 vore fic from a few blindfolds ago which was also well done.

Yuck. I hate it when someone in a position of relative 'power' goes after someone who has none. Because men flaming fourteen year old girls and their idea of kink is so fucking clever, am I right? But oh, right, shut the fuck up, women. Your idfic is gross. Our lesbian porn is cool, but your fanfiction is just icky.

If the article is correct, stony22 is male...?

I'm tired of women's sexual desires being considered far weirder and less legitimate than men's too, and I don't like fic-mocking in general, but it's easy to forget in LJ fandom that a lot of fic writers-- including the ones made fun of on sites like this-- are male and it's about the stupidity of the fic, not the writers being young and female.

Looks fun.

Ah, I miss the days MSTs were popular.

Now that I'm about half way through my verdict is this guy is pretty funny. He actually puts a lot more thought into the riff than "this sucks" or saying it's weird. I am entertained and will be back for more.

I think they're still around, but it would be nice to see more. As long as there's some actual thought put into it and it's not just bashing for bashing's sake. (Anyone got any recs on those lines?)

I have no problem with sporkings when it takes place in a fannish space. This seems unnecessarily mean-spirited :/ The fic is... OOC, and not that great, but come on. There's worse out there.

Topless Robot's FFF is better, ime: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/11/robs_5_worst_and_5_least_worst_fan_fiction_fridays.php

It's the same guy writing both--he recently moved to io9 from Topless Robot. I think they have an interim editor at TR until they pick a new full-time blog runner but I could have missed an announcement.

Ah, I actually read one of their sporkings the other day:
http://io9.com/5964738/fan-fiction-friday-harry-potter-and-lucius-malfoy-really-have-to-go-in-rain-of-gold

YMMV but I thought it was hilarious. And I say this as someone who's not entirely averse to the kink in question so I'm not just hating on the kink. As for the one you linked to I thought that was funny too.

do we really need a weekly review of terrible fanfic? Way too mean-spirited for me

If it was just a mean spirited review that would be one thing but I don't think it classifies as a review exactly? The fic isn't the most important part in this, the funny reaction quotes are what makes it humorous. I didn't laugh when they brought up Steve's necrophiliac tendencies in the fic quotes but I did crack up at
this line: "I'm old enough to be his grandfather and I enjoy fucking corpses, Steve thought. What's not to love?"

Of course it's a fine line between humour and nastiness, between witty remarks and unfunny forced one liners. I thought the two sporkings I read didn't cross that line but of course it's not impossible for Fanfiction Friday to turn nasty(and boring) at some point.

Yeah, as much as it was clear the dude wasn't into the kink he didn't seem to be hating on people who had the kink. By the end he'd zeroed in on the sudden overuse of the word "wee" more than anything. I found both of these pretty amusing.

And then I wondered if he'd ever been introduced to Slave Bear of Care-a-Lot, and lo and behold, he had! http://www.toplessrobot.com/2010/12/fan_fiction_friday_the_care_bears_in_slave_bear_of.php

Given that that one was clearly written to break as many childhoods as possible, it was a very entertaining read.

IO9 has decided to stop publishing Fan Fiction Friday due to reader complaints:

http://io9.com/5965211/why-we-decided-to-stop-publishing-fan-fiction-friday.