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In the discussions on the last post there was a lot of discussion on interacting socially and creating art, and it made me think about the ever-present angst in fandom about BNFs and popularity.
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skelkins did a great essay on “meritocracy” called Nel Question #10: Elitism. She writes:
Fandom is a social system just like anything else, and it seems like it shouldn’t take long for a newcomer to figure out what innate talents (or talents people take for innate) this system values most highly. These are the things I've noticed have some value:
Writing talent
You can be funny, or good at plot, or good at porn, or good at angst, but whatever you do, if you do it well there's a good chance people will notice. That will require actual skill on your part, and a basic grasp of things like structure and grammar and spelling. It's not that these things are admired in themselves, it's that they're sort of a required minimum (with allowances made for language differences). Your story's going to have *some* ability to draw the reader in and make it seem real. Different styles will appeal to different people, but there's a reason that even fics criticized as being overrated are probably going to have a basic technical skill. It was suggested in one of the earlier posts that someone being unable to put a sentence together well should not stand in the way of what they're trying to say, but of course the harsh reality is that it does. Nobody wants to listen to someone write badly any more than they want to listen to a kid play a violin badly. Maybe he's playing Mozart, but it's painful to listen to when he plays it. Technical problems remind you it's a story, and fandom has little interest if they can't enter into the story, imo.
This applies to social writers too, I think. A person writing to be part of the social community may not put the same level of importance on linking the characters to canon or having a plot without holes or having a particular voice, but they're still trying to sketch out a situation to which people are supposed to react. Look at what to me seems like a very social interaction: drabbles. People probably don't put the same amount of thought into 100 words than they will into a longer fic--maybe they just react to a challenge and spit them out as an exercise. And sure enough, the more technically skilled writer will get more attention, write more effective drabbles.
Artistic talent
Very much like writing talent, I suppose. The better the picture, the more there is to talk about, the more reason to go back to it again, the more reason for someone to return to your lj. A good piece of fanart can easily as good or better than a good fanfic.
Something to say about fandom-related subjects (and the ability to communicate it)
With the creation of DS and QQ it's even easier for people to have discussions about canon or fics or fandom or art and again, that's what it is, discussions. If you write something that people enjoy reading because it makes them think things about canon or gives them plot bunnies, that's valued. If you write something that makes people want to argue or expound on it, that's valued.
Providing a service to help fandom run
Setting up archives or messageboards, offering fic recs. It's helpful to people. They come back for more.
When you look at that list, none of it's very surprising. Fandom is about engaging others through a source material, and all of those things are things that help people engage the source material and talk to others about the same source material. Yet periodically there will always be anger against BNFs for having earned attention this way, when there are other perfectly nice people in fandom that "nobody cares about,” falling into that "fallacy of meritocracy." Not only does being a "good person" not make you a BNF, but calling someone a BNF doesn't imply one is a good person. It just means you have skills that you were born with or learned, that are valued by the community.
Yet people continue to think BNF=Great Person in some way, so either complain that BNF X *isn’t* a good person or that SNF Y is a good person so why aren’t her fics applauded? Even amongst people just writing socially, writing social fics people want to talk about, and saying things about them that other people want to respond to, is valued over bravery at posting something without spellcheck. Really, fandom could not be more clear on this. Which is probably why the attitude towards criticism will remain unchanged. There's just not much wiggle room in this meritocracy. A newbie who started her fandom career by giving out money to other fans would probably still sink into obscurity.
skelkins did a great essay on “meritocracy” called Nel Question #10: Elitism. She writes: I tend to view this as the great fallacy of "meritocracy," the idea that it has anything to do with "merit" in the sense of moral virtue at all. I assume that by saying that the Dursleys do not "deserve" their social status, you mean that they don't deserve it because they are nasty and selfish, because they lack a sense of noblesse oblige, because they will not use their privilege for the benefit of others -- in short, because they are ethically deficient.
That is all quite true. For all we know, however, Vernon Dursley may be a very good salesman. He certainly would seem to be skilled at earning money. And that is the skill that the "meritocracy" of the system in which he lives privileges, just as the "meritocracy" of Hogwarts privileges magical, athletic and academic talent.
There is no "merit" here, if you mean merit in the sense of moral virtue. In the Potterverse, as in our own, you don't ascend the social ladder by virtue of being a decent person. You ascend the social ladder by virtue of possessing whatever innate talents the particular system in which you are operating happens to value the most highly. "Meritocracy" has no more to do with moral virtue than aristocracy by blood does.
Fandom is a social system just like anything else, and it seems like it shouldn’t take long for a newcomer to figure out what innate talents (or talents people take for innate) this system values most highly. These are the things I've noticed have some value:
Writing talent
You can be funny, or good at plot, or good at porn, or good at angst, but whatever you do, if you do it well there's a good chance people will notice. That will require actual skill on your part, and a basic grasp of things like structure and grammar and spelling. It's not that these things are admired in themselves, it's that they're sort of a required minimum (with allowances made for language differences). Your story's going to have *some* ability to draw the reader in and make it seem real. Different styles will appeal to different people, but there's a reason that even fics criticized as being overrated are probably going to have a basic technical skill. It was suggested in one of the earlier posts that someone being unable to put a sentence together well should not stand in the way of what they're trying to say, but of course the harsh reality is that it does. Nobody wants to listen to someone write badly any more than they want to listen to a kid play a violin badly. Maybe he's playing Mozart, but it's painful to listen to when he plays it. Technical problems remind you it's a story, and fandom has little interest if they can't enter into the story, imo.
This applies to social writers too, I think. A person writing to be part of the social community may not put the same level of importance on linking the characters to canon or having a plot without holes or having a particular voice, but they're still trying to sketch out a situation to which people are supposed to react. Look at what to me seems like a very social interaction: drabbles. People probably don't put the same amount of thought into 100 words than they will into a longer fic--maybe they just react to a challenge and spit them out as an exercise. And sure enough, the more technically skilled writer will get more attention, write more effective drabbles.
Artistic talent
Very much like writing talent, I suppose. The better the picture, the more there is to talk about, the more reason to go back to it again, the more reason for someone to return to your lj. A good piece of fanart can easily as good or better than a good fanfic.
Something to say about fandom-related subjects (and the ability to communicate it)
With the creation of DS and QQ it's even easier for people to have discussions about canon or fics or fandom or art and again, that's what it is, discussions. If you write something that people enjoy reading because it makes them think things about canon or gives them plot bunnies, that's valued. If you write something that makes people want to argue or expound on it, that's valued.
Providing a service to help fandom run
Setting up archives or messageboards, offering fic recs. It's helpful to people. They come back for more.
When you look at that list, none of it's very surprising. Fandom is about engaging others through a source material, and all of those things are things that help people engage the source material and talk to others about the same source material. Yet periodically there will always be anger against BNFs for having earned attention this way, when there are other perfectly nice people in fandom that "nobody cares about,” falling into that "fallacy of meritocracy." Not only does being a "good person" not make you a BNF, but calling someone a BNF doesn't imply one is a good person. It just means you have skills that you were born with or learned, that are valued by the community.
Yet people continue to think BNF=Great Person in some way, so either complain that BNF X *isn’t* a good person or that SNF Y is a good person so why aren’t her fics applauded? Even amongst people just writing socially, writing social fics people want to talk about, and saying things about them that other people want to respond to, is valued over bravery at posting something without spellcheck. Really, fandom could not be more clear on this. Which is probably why the attitude towards criticism will remain unchanged. There's just not much wiggle room in this meritocracy. A newbie who started her fandom career by giving out money to other fans would probably still sink into obscurity.
