Welcome to the Dark Side: An Elitist Exposed
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Welcome to the Dark Side: An Elitist Exposed |
| Creator: | Armelle Madeline |
| Date(s): | June 25, 2004 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | Fanfiction |
| External Links: | Welcome to the Dark Side: An Elitist Exposed, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Welcome to the Dark Side: An Elitist Exposed is an essay by Armelle Madeline.
It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.
Excerpts
I first dipped my toes into fanfiction when I was nearly thirteen. I'm now seventeen, so that's four years worth of reading, writing, flaming, ranting, and general 'creativity'. When I first arrived on fanfiction dot net, I posted a horrendous little piece of soft core, starring terrifically out of character 'Buffyverse' characters. I actually got reviews, and proceeded, delightedly, to carry on 'enchanting' the internet with my delicately phrased stories about Spike and Buffy. Hmm. Yes.I then ventured into the Lord of the Rings fandom, and proceeded to meet the intricacies of web lingo. 'Mary Sue'? What was this, a new character? What a boring name! Anyway, I did my research like a good little girl, and managed to discover a meaning behind the name. Actually, my interpretation went along the lines of, 'Mary Sue is an original character that has been 'thrown into Middle Earth', falls in love with Legolas, goes along with the Fellowship, and has Legolas's babies after marrying him'. I'd read the first of the trilogy. Be afraid, be very afraid!
So I conceived an anti-Sue, named after me with a little tweaking to make it slightly prettier, and set her up. To make life living hell for the Fellowship. I thought it *highly* entertaining, and there were quite a few others who left me reviews numbering in the hundreds, chortling along with me. And then there were the flamers. Constructive critique never really landed on this story - I was thirteen, and naive, and had written the 'OMG, I'm not a Sue!!!' Sue. I had someone list in excruciating detail the mismatched canon I had botched, and hurt and upset by the 'personal' attack, I posted a long rant in my user profile, on purists, and their attitude.
Which was picked up by the unofficial Fanfiction dot net Board, and mocked. MSTd, to be precise, though I didn't know the term. Some mean soul posted a link to it in my reviews, I checked it out, arrived, and wrote something along the lines of,
'Okay, I don't agree with you, I think it's unfair to mock me for this when I posted it, upset at the attitude from my reviewer, I have deleted the rant, please remove this'. Only couched in less agreeable tones.
So why have I bored you to tears with a history of my dabbles in the world of writing? Because I am human. I have a face, a history and a real life outside of fanfiction. I am not just an 'elitist', my position has evolved over time from being the veriest little fangirl to hopefully, something more.I am seventeen, so somewhat close in age to fourteen year olds. I know many, some of whom I can only dream of writing like, Thalia Weaver being one of them. I don't personally believe in softening the blow; if you post on a public forum, expect to get backlash. When I was a newbie, the first thing I learned I learned from criticism. Praise is nice, but better when it comes with grudging respect. Kids on a fanfiction site or a livejournal are reduced to sign ins, and excuse themselves via their age if they think someone is going to come down on them.
Anonymity serves as useful in this world in the deep blue nowhere for honest opinions. These people are not real life friends about to borrow your CDs, they're writers with valid opinions. However, that anonymity means that the blow is cushioned, writers can excuse their bad habits and subsequent critique with, 'well, they're just being mean. They don't know anything'. Well, ahem, we do. We are here, we have committed the same mistakes, and a seventeen year old girl can look a twenty five year old metaphorically in the eyes and say, 'back off. It's not personal, because hey, I don't *know* you, but I do know a little more through experience'.
That's where the term 'elitist' seems to come from. Yes, I think I'm better than others. I have better control over grammar and spelling, but I don't forget the roots I have in writing. In life, people are going to be superior to you. Equality lies between the pages of a dystopian novel; in reality, human nature means that we have a hierarchy. At the moment, I'm higher than the misspelling, OOC-ing, squee-ing fangirl that live in numbers in the Pit O'Voles. I lose my temper.
GAFF serves as a nice place to vent aggravation. Like my parents, I now know the frustration behind the refrain, 'why can't you learn from *MY* mistakes?!" People learn from their own errors, and grow up. GAFF allows the enraged reviewer to wail, 'but I don't *like* Evanescence! Capslock makes my eyes blur, can the exclamation mark abuse, ye gods, does this character know himself?" And then couch such expletives in more rational terminology.