I really can't participate in the Great Debate Over Warnings, mostly because it just depresses me every time I read that a considerable number of people don't want to be deeply affected by what they read. Maybe it would bother me less if I had the impression that these people were getting a deep emotional engagement from some other art form, but I rarely do. I certainly respect the wish of people with PTSD to avoid triggers--no one should be expected to suffer an outbreak of illness as a result of reading fanfic!--but to go through life expecting a diet of only bland comfort from the art you experience...it just seems a wish to impoverish your life in a sad way. Certainly people have the right to do it, but why would you want to?
I wish more fanfic made me cry, and not in the "bleeding from the eyes because I've dug them out with a rusty spork after reading a story where a guy managed to fit his own and his father's cocks up his own ass at the same time" sort of way, either.
Posted by Sarah T. at June 3, 2003 05:15 PM | TrackBackWhere have you seen the Great Warning Debate? It cropped up last week on XMMFF, much to my annoyance (I'm a mod there) and people really irritate me with their demands. "I want to know if there are any lefthanded people in the story! I won't read stories about lefthanded people!"
Arrrgh.
Posted by: victoria p. at June 3, 2003 08:40 PMMerryish had an amusing post about it. The debate in the comments was perfectly reasonable and civil, it just depressed me for the reason mentioned above.
Posted by: Sarah T. at June 3, 2003 09:28 PMPeople get put off by the oddest things. . .I've been getting feedback every so often for one story that I wrote three years ago, and ninety percent of it is a variation of "Nice story, but the thought of Faith/Giles makes my skin crawl."
Mind you, this is a PG-13 story with no sex in it whatsoever, and the story only hints at *future* Faith/Giles romance (the sequel, where the romance does eventually happen--though also without actual sex--has provoked similar reactions, only more intense). I've contemplated putting a very specific warning on both stories: "Faith remembers that she thought that Giles was kind of hot--wackiness ensues." :-)