Metablog is bad for me...

Ordinarily I would lock a rant like this, but as I'm responding to someone else's public post, it seemed shabby to do so.

I note that we are still with the fannish manifestos on my friends list. And I was all set to mock them, or at least to laugh gently and shrug them off. Because I'm all for people doing whatever the hell they want, at least in fandom.

And then this morning, I went to look at metablog and saw this. And although this is a well-thought out statement of a particular reader's point of view one or two points irritated me.

Now like I say, I'm all for people doing what they like in fandom, although I'm more in favor of it when whatever it is is well-written and well-characterized. And people who loathe Mary Sues are welcome to their opinions. But I can't help asking, who died and made you arbiter of everything?

Let's try a counter-example. I still read a lot of Krycek fic. But I read a lot less than I used to, because a lot of that fic is unimaginably awful. There are things that just should not happen in any Krycek fic. There are whole categories of fic that I wish had never been written. But some of these categories are very popular with other readers. It is clear to me that some elements which set of "Danger! Danger!" alarms in my brain are positively welcomed by other readers. Does this bother me? Sure. I mean, I seriously wonder what show these people were watching. I grind my teeth and bewail the state of ficdom in letters to my friends.

But. It is not my job to lay down the law on characterization. I cannot go up to these authors and say, "Do not do these five things." Much as my ego would enjoy the role of Dictator of the Krycekfic Universe, fandom is not an autocracy. It is not even an oligarchy. It is a huge, messy free-for-all.

We are not all reading and writing for the same reasons. Some of us are going to grow up and be famous pro authors. Some of us are just hanging out and having fun. These two groups are not mutually exclusive. The fact that I write fic solely for my own pleasure does not mean that I write crap. The fact that I write OCs does not mean that I write crap. The fact that I believe that all stories and all characters do and should have an element of author-insertion to them does not mean that I write crap. The fact that I'm still writing about Krycek may be a sign of serious mental imbalance, but that's my problem, not yours.

Do I wish that there were more fic written to suit my tastes? Damn right I do. Do I wish there were less fic written that I considered execrably bad? Sure thing. But in the great scheme of things I wish were different, these are pretty small points.

And by the way, that's Lieutenant Mary Sue Tough-Cookies to you, Ensign!