Snufflefic
Snufflefic is NOT the same as Snifflefic.
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Teddy Bears |
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Snufflefic ("snuffle," "snuffle story," snufflie") were a type of Sentinel fiction posted to Senad, a mailing list.
The term came from a fan who wrote episode reviews on Senad using the internet persona of a teddy bear who talked like a three year old child. The "teddy bear" then began to write stories, and refer to another snufflebear who belonged to Jim Ellison. Other fans began to write stories in which the teddy bears made cameos. [1]
A snufflebear ("Snuffles D. Bear") also made admin posts at SXF.
Fan Reaction to Snufflefic and Snufflebear
This was popular with some fans.... but very unpopular with others!
Con
- Jim Ellison, a grown man, would never own a teddy bear
- the bear voice was cutesy and annoying
- snufflefic did not encourage its author to improve their writing
- having a juvenile bear "talking" on an adult list was creepy and felt too close to having an underage person there
- it was too difficult to weed out snufflebear fic and comments
- they lacked warnings
- fear that this practice will spread to other fandoms
Pro
- there weren't THAT many of them, and one can do a word search to weed them out
- they were good clean harmless fun ("unlike Jim Ellison"), and made at least one fan feel all girly
- proof that your fandom/fan desires are weirder than mine
Fan Comments
Goddammit, I want a goddamn archive warning for those fucking snufflebears. [2]
I dislike running across Snuffles stories that don't mention Snuffles in the 0/x post because, really, I think I've found the one story element I want a warning for. (Well, I also want warnings for bad writing, fanon, and bad characterization, but there you have it.)[3]
The stories with a snuffle componant usually get posted on senad first and it's usually clear that that's what they are and I can delete them. Then when they show up on sxf, I can delete them, too. I could attempt to remember to post to P-L the titles of the snuffle-contaminated stories as they come up, if you wish.[4]
What about a word-search for "snuffles" and "snufflebear" in the text before starting to read the story? If the word comes up you can decide whether you will read the fic or not.Okay, I realize that takes time but I guess it takes less time to do the search than to read half of the story and then stumbling over "snuffles" unprepared. So you can avoid wasting your time with snuffle-fic and you can also avoid the gag-effect you will get as soon as you find the snufflebear mentioned. Yes, I know, the last part with the gag-reflex sounds a little bit harsh but I guess that's exactly the reaction you and some other people (including me) have about snuffles in a senfic.
I skip the snuffle-postings on senad because I don't like it but a lot of other listsibs on senad *do* like it. So I guess it's okay to have the snufflebear over on senad. After all it's everybodys right to express his/herself as whatever he or she wants, even if it is a teddybear, as long as it is accepted by the other members of this list.
A pushing forty detective with a teddybear which talks like a three-year-old isn't my cup of tea but all the readers who like it have my blessings for enjoying this stories (*ggg* I know, the last thing they need is *my* blessing). Live and let live *shrug* :-)[5]
Yeah, I know what ya mean. And well... I don't want them to *stop* writing, they can write whatever they want. All we want is a *warning*. Bad thing is, the snuffle writers aren't on this list, and asking such a thing on SenAd... well... you'd need some pretty good asbestos underwear if you do that... ... getting ready to write a Snuffles-massacre story as soon as she stumbles over another one...[6]
I admit -- I did write a Snuffle story. Granted, Jim made the mistake of wishing it was alive, and the teddy bear turns into a 10-foot grizzly that hasn't eaten for 18 years...[7]
You know, isn't it a bit ridiculous to be spending all this time and effort on a little bear? Reminds me of people wanting warnings on Blair cutting his hair. There's only so much warning you can put on stories before they start getting ridiculous. There aren't *that* many people who write snuffle stories -- if you want to avoid them, learn who they are, and do a search for "snuffle" before you read one of their stories, as someone suggested.[8]
I must be living right. I have yet to stumble across that damned bear in a story. The minute I do, I'll probably scream loud enough for you all to hear it. [9]
Talk about snuffle stories and snuffle writing and the existence of snuffle bears in general in any terms [on this list] you like. Since Snufflebear is apparently an imaginary construct created by a fan and used by said fan and other fans in fiction, we consider it fair game. Ad hominem attacks against fictional characters have always been fair game here.[10]
I am curious as to why it matters? If it gets folks excited and it is more talked about than, say, a LJV or Kass fic, then is that a not good thing? People are free to favorably gush about any author they want on Senad, so I suppose they cheer whomever they like best.Seems fair. I am seeing a lot of comments, mostly full of incorrect information, but other than one comment about the language level and one about a 40 year old man with a teddy not being someone's cup of tea, no one has really commented on what the problem is.
I would be interested to know.[11]
The problem? Just that cuteness sucks and some cuteness seems to have the ability to spread like a contagious disease. My problems with snuffle bears were never on senad, I've been on web only status where I never even look at posts for ages, and when I still read and posted on senad there was no snuffle bear in sight. No, I got flooded by cute snuffly posts by the same bear on a SG-1 list, and then heard that it was active on senad, and when I took a look a the snuffly pooh web-site I started to dread the day I'd see it on Farscape lists, which is one of the least fluffy series I out there, and it's probably only against parental guidance that fluffy teddy bears watch on screen torture -- but according to the website still a snuffle fandom. I guess to speak out against, and bitch about sickly sweet cuteness makes about as much (or as little) sense as to talk about any other trend in fandom or fanfic you find undesirable, be it Caveman!Jim, Evil!Carolyn, blinking awful webpages or whatever else rubs you the wrong way. I guess some people have fun with cute online snuffle bears, which I find okay albeit icky, and others may have fun doing virtual chain saw snuffle bear massacres, so it's each to her own kind of fun...[12]
) It's a teddy bear in people's stories. It's an internet persona. A group of people has taken the Mary Sue concept and made it 100 times cutesier. I didn't even know that was physically possible. (2) The idea that Jim has a teddy bear at all, let alone one that talks like a 3 year old, is such a distortion of character that it makes me run away screaming. (What, Girly!Blair wasn't sweet enough?) [13]
I'm from Garak/Bashir fandom. Julian Bashir has the distinction of being the only frequently slashed character who *canonically* still has a teddy bear. It's worth noting that little Kukalaka is seldom even mentioned in slash, let alone given any non-satirical cameos. (I did read a Bashir story where Bashir, after being kept in solitary confinement for either five or seven days, keeps hallucinating that his teddy bear is alive, and taunting him about his loss of time. Or maybe it's really a changeling trying to drive him mad. *Very* disturbing. That's how teddy bears should be used in fanfic!)[14]
Sorry, I just have to throw in my 2 cents here. Just because something gets talked about or inspires list posts does not make it a good thing. My first problem is that personally, I don't like the bear. I find it annoying. I think it odd and disconcerting to come across a childlike 'persona' posting to an adult list on adult topics. The first time or two, it was amusing in a "gee, ain't that cute" kinda a way. After that, to me, it just got creepy. It's like having someone underage onlist. My second problem, the 'bear' gets all kinds of feedback. The 'bear' is encouraged to write stories/snippets and to post them. But no one ever suggests that the 'bear', AKA: [T], ever try to improve her writing or make it better. The stories/snippets are posted, complete with punctuation and spelling errors to the archive. Because all she gets is wonderful feedback telling her how great and cute they are, there is no reason for her to even try to improve. The 'bear' was a cute joke that IMO has outlived it's cuteness.[15]
I like Snuffle bears. I have a small pink one with sheared fur that smiles at me from the dresser and makes me smile back when I'd really rather be ripping the head off the next media reporter who utters or writes the word "anthrax." [16]I like The Sentinel, and am a somewhat notorious Jimslut in my circle of senfen friends. If I could afford a color printer with decent resolution, my bedroom walls would no doubt be papered with variations on the theme of Jim (the more skin, the better.)
Since I am excessively realistic in the assessment of my material resources, I have only one Snuffle bear and pay for an internet connection to surf a lot and look at pretty Jimpix.
The two are separate, you see. It may be somewhat unreconstructed of me, but I view my Snuffle as making the little girly side of me happy and Jimpix as making the slutty side curl up and squirm gleefully. The inner slut doesn't have time for my friendly little bundle of pink joy.
The short answer: To me, Snuffles is good clean fun. Jim is not. The two do not mix, and the idea that something with the language skills of a three year old not only witnesses but instigates activity that makes the inner slut curl up and squirm is a little unsavory (again, to me.)[17]
Just wanted to support a few listsibs here. I find the bear incredibly juvenile and delete any posts that look like they might be bear related. I think the phenomena will die out. There was a problem a while back with a couple of really bad writers who got a huge amount of feedback for every single one of their bad posts. I haven't seen a post from either of them in a while so they must have finally got the message. Hopefully the bear will too.[18]
[I am] personally fond of "Kodiak moments" in the bear department.[19]
References
- ^ "Well, there's a bear that's been doing episode reviews on senad, apparently. (I think the bear is a senad moderator now; at least, it makes admin posts to senad/SXF from time to time.) It's Jim's teddy bear. And it writes fiction. And it talks like a three-year-old. Previously, it was fairly easy to avoid, but stories have started showing up in the archive with random bear cameos, and I'm about to dive through my internet connection and strangle someone. -- comments on Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (June 2000)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ This post was made less than a month after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)
- ^ from Prospect-L, quoted anonymously (October 2001)