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Thoughts: Fanfiction writers
This is going to sound so shallow but sometimes I learn something about a fic author and afterwards I can’t read their fic the same way.
Also sorry but I didn't edit this much.
When I read fanfiction, I'm kind of in a vacuum. Whatever I feel from the fic is between me and the work.
I will glance at the author's name, but it will only register in my brain if it is a name I've seen around a lot. When I comment on fics, the author may respond, but conversations are limited to talking about the contents of the fic. The author's personal experiences rarely make it into the conversation. This little vacuum feels like a safe space for imagination and fantasy.
Writers' relationships
Sometimes I learn something about a fic writer that more or less breaks the illusion of imagination/fantasy. Once I read a fic that was prefaced with a note from the author saying that that fic was based on a past relationship. Afterwards, I found that I couldn't enjoy the fic. I felt like I wasn’t reading a fic about two characters anymore. I felt that I was reading about the author’s own relationship instead.
The event that prompted this post was also related to relationships. A fic writer (who used to be quite prolific but hadn't written in over a year) mentioned that they'd found a very loving and trusting relationship, the kind that they used to write about, and that comment took me off guard. This was a fic writer who'd written a lot of works I'd enjoyed, and by the sound of it, they were in the best place in their life. They'd trusted their boyfriend so much that they let them read some of their fanfiction, which is frankly top tier trust, and I am happy for them.
It also made me feel worse about myself. It's a classic case of social media envy. But for a moment, I felt like a fool, bonding with fiction when the author, the creator of this fiction, was bonding with actual humans in the way that I thought was only possible in fiction. I just felt silly.
I don't think this moment will last, and that given some time, I'll go back to being able to read my favourite fics from them as I did before. It's just that fanfiction is an escape for me, so finding out that my fantasy is someone's reality is a bit jarring.
I'm not saying this to hate on the author. It's wonderful that they've found such a loving partner. Rather, it's something within myself that is twisted and ugly, that I would become jaded over seeing other finding out that my fantasy is not strictly fantasy.
Writers' backgrounds
With the recent insurgence of English-language fandoms of Asian media (Kpop, Cdramas, etc.), I've also become a bit more sensitive to writers who write for these fandoms. In the past, I would ignore cultural inaccuracies, figuring that it was something inevitable in an English-language fandom. With the rise of the Untamed/CQL fandom, there's been a lot of discussion about respecting the culture that a work comes from. I think this probably came about because MDZS was set in a historical period, whereas entertainment like Jpop and Kpop are set in contemporary times. The canon of MDZS is culturally much further away from modern Western society, than modern Asian society is from modern Western society. This is important because MDZS will have a lot more fanwork set in a historical period (just by virtue of its canon being in a pseudo-historical era), whereas any historical fanworks for Jpop or Kpop are AUs.
Now that there's been more attention drawn to the responsibility of fic authors to respect the cultural context of the media they are consuming, I do find myself being affected when I find out the author of a fic is of a different cultural background from the media they are consuming. I am not part of any Cdrama fandoms currently, but I do read a lot of Exo fanfic (Exo, which includes both Korean and Chinese members).
I don't get bothered if a fic is written with no glaring cultural inaccuracies and I find out the author is not Asian. I can ignore small inaccuracies, such as technical terms relating to a specific craft or trade, or even improper use of certain words if they are used very rarely.
When I read a cultural inaccuracy and find out that the author is not Asian, then I might go "huh, I guess I should have expected that." The inaccuracies that I do get bothered by tend to be the more common everyday ones, like wives taking on their husbands' surnames (which they do not in Asian culture). One that's bothered me lately was improper use of interjection in a sentence that changed the whole tone of a sentence. (In the fic, someone said "Aiyowei" during sex and it would've nearly taken me out if not for the fact that the rest of the fic was amazing.)
I am not saying that Asian authors write Asian fics better. There is a difference between someone who has a good grasp on language (the language that the fic is written in) and someone who has a good grasp on the cultural context that is relevant to the fic.
I'm just at a period in my reading life when cultural inaccuracies have a bigger affect on me, now that I know that my feelings are shared by others and are valid. It is just something else that I take note of when I stumble upon fic writers' social media accounts and find out more about them as people.
Also sorry but I didn't edit this much.
When I read fanfiction, I'm kind of in a vacuum. Whatever I feel from the fic is between me and the work.
I will glance at the author's name, but it will only register in my brain if it is a name I've seen around a lot. When I comment on fics, the author may respond, but conversations are limited to talking about the contents of the fic. The author's personal experiences rarely make it into the conversation. This little vacuum feels like a safe space for imagination and fantasy.
Writers' relationships
Sometimes I learn something about a fic writer that more or less breaks the illusion of imagination/fantasy. Once I read a fic that was prefaced with a note from the author saying that that fic was based on a past relationship. Afterwards, I found that I couldn't enjoy the fic. I felt like I wasn’t reading a fic about two characters anymore. I felt that I was reading about the author’s own relationship instead.
The event that prompted this post was also related to relationships. A fic writer (who used to be quite prolific but hadn't written in over a year) mentioned that they'd found a very loving and trusting relationship, the kind that they used to write about, and that comment took me off guard. This was a fic writer who'd written a lot of works I'd enjoyed, and by the sound of it, they were in the best place in their life. They'd trusted their boyfriend so much that they let them read some of their fanfiction, which is frankly top tier trust, and I am happy for them.
It also made me feel worse about myself. It's a classic case of social media envy. But for a moment, I felt like a fool, bonding with fiction when the author, the creator of this fiction, was bonding with actual humans in the way that I thought was only possible in fiction. I just felt silly.
I don't think this moment will last, and that given some time, I'll go back to being able to read my favourite fics from them as I did before. It's just that fanfiction is an escape for me, so finding out that my fantasy is someone's reality is a bit jarring.
I'm not saying this to hate on the author. It's wonderful that they've found such a loving partner. Rather, it's something within myself that is twisted and ugly, that I would become jaded over seeing other finding out that my fantasy is not strictly fantasy.
Writers' backgrounds
With the recent insurgence of English-language fandoms of Asian media (Kpop, Cdramas, etc.), I've also become a bit more sensitive to writers who write for these fandoms. In the past, I would ignore cultural inaccuracies, figuring that it was something inevitable in an English-language fandom. With the rise of the Untamed/CQL fandom, there's been a lot of discussion about respecting the culture that a work comes from. I think this probably came about because MDZS was set in a historical period, whereas entertainment like Jpop and Kpop are set in contemporary times. The canon of MDZS is culturally much further away from modern Western society, than modern Asian society is from modern Western society. This is important because MDZS will have a lot more fanwork set in a historical period (just by virtue of its canon being in a pseudo-historical era), whereas any historical fanworks for Jpop or Kpop are AUs.
Now that there's been more attention drawn to the responsibility of fic authors to respect the cultural context of the media they are consuming, I do find myself being affected when I find out the author of a fic is of a different cultural background from the media they are consuming. I am not part of any Cdrama fandoms currently, but I do read a lot of Exo fanfic (Exo, which includes both Korean and Chinese members).
I don't get bothered if a fic is written with no glaring cultural inaccuracies and I find out the author is not Asian. I can ignore small inaccuracies, such as technical terms relating to a specific craft or trade, or even improper use of certain words if they are used very rarely.
When I read a cultural inaccuracy and find out that the author is not Asian, then I might go "huh, I guess I should have expected that." The inaccuracies that I do get bothered by tend to be the more common everyday ones, like wives taking on their husbands' surnames (which they do not in Asian culture). One that's bothered me lately was improper use of interjection in a sentence that changed the whole tone of a sentence. (In the fic, someone said "Aiyowei" during sex and it would've nearly taken me out if not for the fact that the rest of the fic was amazing.)
I am not saying that Asian authors write Asian fics better. There is a difference between someone who has a good grasp on language (the language that the fic is written in) and someone who has a good grasp on the cultural context that is relevant to the fic.
I'm just at a period in my reading life when cultural inaccuracies have a bigger affect on me, now that I know that my feelings are shared by others and are valid. It is just something else that I take note of when I stumble upon fic writers' social media accounts and find out more about them as people.