Standby Theories for the Inexplicable Poor Taste of Fans
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| Title: | Standby Theories for the Inexplicable Poor Taste of Fans |
| Creator: | Alexfandra |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
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Over the years, many fans have boggled over the bad fanfic that some have liked, while simultaneously boggling over the fanfic they too inexplicably like.
In 1996, alexfandra attempted to come up with a satirical unifying theory for this phenomena and wrote the Standby Theories for the Inexplicable Poor Taste of Fans essay. It was posted to a private mailing list and is quoted here with permission.
A) The "Danielle Steele Is A Great Writer" Factor: they rarely read anything except fanfic, and thus have relatively few examples of "good" writing by which to judge the crap against; i.e., lack of literary discernment fostered by over-exposure to Jane of Australia and under-exposure to Jane Austen of ChawtonB) The Appeal to the Average 8-Year-Old Factor: they watch *way* too much TV, and they *like* it
C) The Brain Food Factor: they haven't been eating enough fish
D) The Opera Factor: they don't care if it's well-written as long as it's sublimely lurid
E) The Supply-and-Demand Factor: the 90% of fan writers who should not give up their day jobs churn out a lot more fanfic than the 10% of fan writers who should be paid a little more attention to by NYC publishing houses; thus, with so few Godiva dark chocolate truffles available, fan readers will not only consume the Hershey's milk chocolate bars in great quantities, but will learn to actually like the taste. They have no *choice*. They're hungry, and they always will be, and they want to make sure that the Hershey producers are kept happy so that they will never starve.
F) The IDIC Factor: or, My Fandom's OK, Your Fandom's OK; My Favorite Guy Is OK; Your Favorite Guy Is OK; My Fannish Lifestyle Is OK, Your Fannish Lifestyle Is OK; and of course, My Tastes in Fanfic Are OK, Your Tastes In Fanfic Are OK and its corollary, Your Crappy Writer Is My Jane Austen and Can't We All Just Get Along? All I can say is, Gene Roddenberry has a lot to answer for.
G) The Elitist Bitch Factor: some fans are just plain *stoo*-pid.
Fan Reaction
What followed onlist was a spirited, if absurd, debate on the relative merits of each theory.
For "The Supply and Demand Factor" one fan commented: "This has the most promise -- it combines the essentials of life (chocolate) with the theories of a voodoo economist. Whomever follows this path will do well in life. As long as they have a secret cache of dark chocolate."
With respect to the "IDIC factor" a fan remarked: "Yes, yes, yes. And then there's that ever so popular: If You Don't Agree With Me That My Fandom Is OK and Your Fandom is OK, Then I Will Have to Shoot You Now. To be fair, I don't think we can blame Gene Roddenberry entirely for this one though - it cropped up much earlier in the history of fan writing when one fan editor accused another fan editor of stealing her potato press to print a creativity-destroying review, and thereby causing the First Great Potato Famine."
And finally someone offered their own theory: "My Best Friend Liked It And So Shall I: This group of fans huddle together, chanting that "X [name of bad writer] is good. X is good." On occasion, one tries to break free, shouting ("Long Live Mfae" or "Help Me Sebastian"), only to be tackled from behind and dragged back into the bosom of their fannish clique."