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...when you go to ff.net, and you read a story about a character you've had a crush on since you were 11 and you read a fic probably by some very young girl who loves him as much as you do, and she wants to make him really cool because he's her romantic ideal...
...only her romantic ideal is totally cringeworthy? So she turns him into a big loser? Probably without realizing it?
Anybody else have experiences like that? I'm not talking about characterizations you hate - for instance, Crying!Draco, Evil!Ron, Fluffy!Snape, Mommy!Remus, Basketcase!Mulder or Infant!Pippin. I mean more superficially cringeworthy. Like once you hear how he dresses and grooms himself as an adult you know you'd be making a sacrifice being seen with him in public? Or his life and behavior is supposed to be romantic but really makes him the adult equivalent of the high school loser (and not the hero in disguise loser either)?
It's just kind of horrifying.
...only her romantic ideal is totally cringeworthy? So she turns him into a big loser? Probably without realizing it?
Anybody else have experiences like that? I'm not talking about characterizations you hate - for instance, Crying!Draco, Evil!Ron, Fluffy!Snape, Mommy!Remus, Basketcase!Mulder or Infant!Pippin. I mean more superficially cringeworthy. Like once you hear how he dresses and grooms himself as an adult you know you'd be making a sacrifice being seen with him in public? Or his life and behavior is supposed to be romantic but really makes him the adult equivalent of the high school loser (and not the hero in disguise loser either)?
It's just kind of horrifying.
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Le sigh. So yeah, actually I haven't had this experience 'cause I don't read fic like that about characters I adore, except maybe Spock... and a 'wrong' Spock... oh man. That would really hurt. Then again, I've never really read a fully 'right' Spock in fanfiction that wasn't pro, but maybe that's just a bias.
This is why I sort of dislike the idea of actually reading anyone's wish-fulfillment fantasy stories... 'cause while they feel good to write, they're usually just -painful- to read unless by some miracle you have the exact same (emotional, I don't mean porn) fantasy, but that's just embarrassing. So many people of all experience levels write what feels good without any filters, and while I'm all for that... dude, count me out of the audience :/
It feels a little like listening to somebody retell their dreams, I think. They think it's so fascinating and exciting, and maybe to them it is, but to the outside observer, it's almost unfailingly boring. Basically, the more entirely personal (yet not in a revealing sense) a piece of writing, the less I feel it benefits from being seen by anyone but the writer... so yeah, people say 'but this is a valid form of expression' and I agree, I just don't agree it's all that suited for mass consumption. And I say this as someone whose more wish-fulfillment-type personal original fics weren't even -understood- by any of her creative writing classes. Meh, I say. Meh and good riddance.
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The worst for me are the ones that are, like, offensive. Where the author is, like, taking away the things you love about the character and making them just focus on her. Like I read one recently where it was like, "Gone was the naive boy who would have sacrificed his sister to save the world. He would NOT let Mary Sue die!" Totally not realizing that the earlier decision wasn't childish (in fact it was made by the ancient, old man part of his brain), and the decision to sacrifice everything for your girlfriend was kind of adolescent.
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Obviously, concepts of what's cool and what's clever behaviour vastly vary.
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I mean... not that I ever liked either of them, or anything. Still, scarred me for life, that much I tell you.
It's sad when even blatant cringeworthy actions by those you hate sadden and frighten you.
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So true! (And armpit drinking definitely counts as cringe-worthy for me anyway.) I don't know whether you just don't want to see anyone do that or if it starts reflecting more on the author than the characters...because some authors can have characters do something that should be blame but they can put it across in a way that you can at least read about it.
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But yeah, it's really funny how in these kinds of stories there tends to always be lots of attention paid on these sorts of details. I remember once writing a book and the editor wanted more physical description. I tried to put in this one moment where the boy brushed his hair back or something and a guy read it and just said, "No. Guys do not brush their hair back like that." I mean, they *do* brush their hair back--with some guys that's a thing (I love in The Dark is Rising when Jane recognizes Will from some distance behind once from a "trick of his walk" and once from whatever head movement he uses to get his hair out of his eyes). It's just that it's not in a girlie way-or if it is they don't want to hear about it.
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And it is always somehow worse when you realise that she really does love him and wants to make everything *perfect*. Up to and including artistic fingers and solitary piano playing in the night. Oh god.
What bothers me the most about this sort of thing is that the cringeworthy bits always seem to leave hero X emasculated. (I'll happily love an androgynous or even sissy man, just, you know, not a girlified one. Ugh.)
But it's not limited to ff.net, or even to fanfiction. I've come across this in published fiction, too, authors who suddenly ... destroy their own characters with these little *things*, and you can tell that they adore their creation and have put their own longings a bit too close to the surface.
- Clara
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http://www.livejournal.com/users/tinderblast/135622.html?thread=2491590#t2491590
http://www.livejournal.com/users/tinderblast/135622.html?thread=2492614#t2492614
(She got her own back looking through the H/D section)
Now I'm curious as to the character you <3.
I fear Leather!Pants on any character. Funnily enough there was a bit of it about in my last fandom, BTVS, since characters wore them in canon at times *stabs out minds eye*
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But see, I'm a girl. This makes all the difference. A guy in leather pants is...well, I think Ross on Friends is the best example. The only men I've known who wore leather pants seriously were gay.
*shyly scuffs toe over crush* Tee-hee. Poor Will Stanton. I won't leave him alone. But at least I let him keep his jeans and sweaters and not-so-long-for-the-70s hair.:-D
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God, I really should read those books... *is ashamed of paltriness of fantasy collection - surely hp can't be my sole representative? People will think I *gasp* like it.*
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Re: leather pants and straight boys
- Clara