I don't understand (an AB post)
Aug. 18th, 2005 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhalachaiThis is a post about the Anita Blake fandom. Just so you know ahead of time.
I made the mistake (yes, I'm considering it a mistake now) to sign on for the new Laurell K. Hamilton forums as I wanted to track the fanfic thread (There is an empty forum on the boards entitled "fanfic" and I was ever-so-curious as to what that was all about). I then started reading some of the other posts, and quickly remebered why I'm not on any AB communities on LJ or the like.
Why does one spend so much time trashing a book that one hates? Villifying a) the characters, b) the author and c) the people who read the books? I myself have grown away from series in the past, when the author goes in a direction I find annoying or 'wrong' in my mind... I move on.
So, gentle reader, I ask you these simple questions:
1 - Do you understand the vitriol among the "fans" against people who still like the books?
2 - Do you get why anyone would spend the energy slagging a book they profess to hate?
3 - Is there any place on the net where a discussion on the books are presnet in a pleasant and construtive format? I know I may have asked this before, but I seem to have forgotten.
Thanks.
I made the mistake (yes, I'm considering it a mistake now) to sign on for the new Laurell K. Hamilton forums as I wanted to track the fanfic thread (There is an empty forum on the boards entitled "fanfic" and I was ever-so-curious as to what that was all about). I then started reading some of the other posts, and quickly remebered why I'm not on any AB communities on LJ or the like.
Why does one spend so much time trashing a book that one hates? Villifying a) the characters, b) the author and c) the people who read the books? I myself have grown away from series in the past, when the author goes in a direction I find annoying or 'wrong' in my mind... I move on.
So, gentle reader, I ask you these simple questions:
1 - Do you understand the vitriol among the "fans" against people who still like the books?
2 - Do you get why anyone would spend the energy slagging a book they profess to hate?
3 - Is there any place on the net where a discussion on the books are presnet in a pleasant and construtive format? I know I may have asked this before, but I seem to have forgotten.
Thanks.
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I'm long-winded tonight.
Date: 2005-08-21 03:53 am (UTC)I think this is the key point to the entire series (or maybe I'm getting maudlin in my old age). In the series, Anita began thinking that monsters are monsters and there is no saving them, only killing them. Through her time with the monsters, becoming their friends, their protector, she realizes that what they *are* isn't what makes them a monster, it's what they choose to do.
And when Anita chooses to do that, by letting the zombies kill the Senora, for example, or chopping on that guy in Blue Moon, she breaks down another barrier. Yes, she did some vile, horrible things. Why? What was the purpose in her sins? Do her reasons make her less of a monster than others?
But your comment is why I won't join the new board. I read the rules and then I read what my flist was saying and I don't have the energy to get upset.
That's the vicious circle. The people who really, really like the books will not go there, because of all the negative energy. I remember the first time I went to the old board, soon after I'd read most of the books. I was really jazzed about the books, seeing new areas for them to go, to talk about... and then to read that stuff was like a gut punch. I eventually got over it, but to see that stuff was really hard.
And since the people who really enjoy the books will shy away (and I've already seen one person say 'look, this negative reception I got for asking a simple question about Micah is so not worth it, I'm out of here') the place will continue to remain a negative space.
I am sure you know that Laurell's stance on Fanfic
I do know, but then why oh why is there a forum on that bloody board entitled "Fanfic"? No posts, nada. So very confusing!
But then, most bad fanfic writers don't understand that most ideas are not that unique. It is the execution of them that is.
I work in the newspaper business. We all know that there are no new stories, only new angles :)