How To Be Unfriended in Two Simple Steps
Mar. 17th, 2003 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaydeefalls
Well, shit happens, let's see how many people I lose now.
Step One: offend fandom.
Okay, so there's smut, right? Slash almost always involves smut. Great. And I still don't enjoy reading it.
I have no moral objection to the stuff. It doesn't actively squick me out, either. But once the newness of it all wore off back in, oh, June, it just started irritating me. Yes, we're slashers, we essentially write gay porn, so who the fuck do I think I am to take this pretentious, uprighteous attitude towards it? Nobody. I'm glad you all get off on vivid descriptions of pretty boys having sex. Go forth and be merry.
But yeah, I almost always skim over the smutty parts of fics. They -- dare I say it? -- bore me. I mean, how many ways can you talk about X's dick being sucked by Y, or the incredible feeling of J entering K? After a while, it all just looks the same to me. Yay, they're fucking, great, can we get to the interesting stuff now?
Okay, some people throw in gimmicks to make their smut more interesting. I tried very hard to find dom/sub hot, to see Billy-as-aggressive-dom or Dom-bound-to-the-bed as something new and exciting. But even while acknowledging the high quality of the writing -- and there are some fucking amazing smut writers out there -- I couldn't maintain any interest. Lack of conflict = lack of interest. For me, anyway. I was just frustrated, in a why-is-this-writer-wasting-her-talent-on-sex-scenes kind of way. And this happens every time some brilliant writer posts a new smutbomb-to-end-all-smutbombs. Every fucking time. I'm no fandom queen by any stretch of the imagination, but I've been reading this stuff for over a year now, and every smutbomb looks the same.
Give me plot. Give me imagery. Give me a fantastic story and well-drawn characters and interesting dynamics. How do these people interact? And not just in bed, either. Some well-written smut as part of a larger, plot- or character-driven fic will always work. Or, hey, remember the days when the sex actually impacted the STORY -- when it affected the way the characters dealt with each other, how they felt about themselves? Yeah, I kinda miss that.
Every now and then a piece of smut comes along that actually impresses me. It works. It serves a purpose and is well-written to boot. And it's part of something bigger, improves the fic as a whole. Or actually manages to stand alone. There are maybe four PWPs that I've liked enough to rec. Maybe. Probably fewer. Those are the ones I actually rec here.
The rest? Yeah, fine. Enjoy them, certainly -- most people do. Maybe I'm just a freak. But tell me what's so great about 'em. Honestly. I dare you.
Step Two: offend everyone else.
Except not. I'm not particularly conservative. There's only one issue in which my views could even remotely considered conservative, actually, but that's a topic for another time. And yet I support the war on Iraq.
How could I have been so brainwashed, you ask? How could I be so stupid? So heartless? Idiotic, even?
Because I think we've finally found a country whose leader is more idiotic, aggressive, and insane than our own. This is quite a feat. I can't stand Bush. It kills me to agree with him. But I do. Everyone's been denouncing his speech tonight. His war-mongering (in a particularly Grima-type way). But, um, dare I say it? Maybe he knows more about the situation than we do. Maybe he's just a smidge more well-informed. Maybe the thousands of intelligence officers in the service of the US and our allies have been giving him a touch more information than your average man on the street hears.
And you know what? I did pretty damn well in US History last year. I took notes on how the Allies -- not even officially allies, yet -- sat around and did bupkis while Hitler built up his army, back in the 1930s. They turned a blind eye every step of the way in an attempt to maintain peace. They were trying to avoid hostilities. Peace among nations -- the noblest cause there is, and I heartily support it. But every now and then, it doesn't work.
Yes, people will die on both sides. This is never a good thing. War in general is not a good thing. But sometimes it has to happen. This war? Inevitable. And call me selfish, but I'd prefer that our idiotic leader choose the time for it than wait a few months or years for that other maniac in the Middle East to initiate the attack on us. And, hate to break it to ya, but all evidence suggests that he will.
Up 'til recently, I was against the war. I saw in it echoes of Vietnam, of the "victorious" yet ultimately failed Gulf War. I still make those comparisons in my mind. But this war will happen whether I support it or not, and maybe I should stop being so blindly idealistic in my hopes for peace and acknowledge that the real world doesn't play fair. Maybe we need to be the unfair ones. Because I'd hate for us to wait around optimistically and do nothing, just to find out a few years down the line that we were wrong.
Whee. Opinions. Good times, good times. Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong, I won't hold it against you. It takes all kinds of people to make up the world, right?
Step One: offend fandom.
Okay, so there's smut, right? Slash almost always involves smut. Great. And I still don't enjoy reading it.
I have no moral objection to the stuff. It doesn't actively squick me out, either. But once the newness of it all wore off back in, oh, June, it just started irritating me. Yes, we're slashers, we essentially write gay porn, so who the fuck do I think I am to take this pretentious, uprighteous attitude towards it? Nobody. I'm glad you all get off on vivid descriptions of pretty boys having sex. Go forth and be merry.
But yeah, I almost always skim over the smutty parts of fics. They -- dare I say it? -- bore me. I mean, how many ways can you talk about X's dick being sucked by Y, or the incredible feeling of J entering K? After a while, it all just looks the same to me. Yay, they're fucking, great, can we get to the interesting stuff now?
Okay, some people throw in gimmicks to make their smut more interesting. I tried very hard to find dom/sub hot, to see Billy-as-aggressive-dom or Dom-bound-to-the-bed as something new and exciting. But even while acknowledging the high quality of the writing -- and there are some fucking amazing smut writers out there -- I couldn't maintain any interest. Lack of conflict = lack of interest. For me, anyway. I was just frustrated, in a why-is-this-writer-wasting-her-talent-on-sex-scenes kind of way. And this happens every time some brilliant writer posts a new smutbomb-to-end-all-smutbombs. Every fucking time. I'm no fandom queen by any stretch of the imagination, but I've been reading this stuff for over a year now, and every smutbomb looks the same.
Give me plot. Give me imagery. Give me a fantastic story and well-drawn characters and interesting dynamics. How do these people interact? And not just in bed, either. Some well-written smut as part of a larger, plot- or character-driven fic will always work. Or, hey, remember the days when the sex actually impacted the STORY -- when it affected the way the characters dealt with each other, how they felt about themselves? Yeah, I kinda miss that.
Every now and then a piece of smut comes along that actually impresses me. It works. It serves a purpose and is well-written to boot. And it's part of something bigger, improves the fic as a whole. Or actually manages to stand alone. There are maybe four PWPs that I've liked enough to rec. Maybe. Probably fewer. Those are the ones I actually rec here.
The rest? Yeah, fine. Enjoy them, certainly -- most people do. Maybe I'm just a freak. But tell me what's so great about 'em. Honestly. I dare you.
Step Two: offend everyone else.
Except not. I'm not particularly conservative. There's only one issue in which my views could even remotely considered conservative, actually, but that's a topic for another time. And yet I support the war on Iraq.
How could I have been so brainwashed, you ask? How could I be so stupid? So heartless? Idiotic, even?
Because I think we've finally found a country whose leader is more idiotic, aggressive, and insane than our own. This is quite a feat. I can't stand Bush. It kills me to agree with him. But I do. Everyone's been denouncing his speech tonight. His war-mongering (in a particularly Grima-type way). But, um, dare I say it? Maybe he knows more about the situation than we do. Maybe he's just a smidge more well-informed. Maybe the thousands of intelligence officers in the service of the US and our allies have been giving him a touch more information than your average man on the street hears.
And you know what? I did pretty damn well in US History last year. I took notes on how the Allies -- not even officially allies, yet -- sat around and did bupkis while Hitler built up his army, back in the 1930s. They turned a blind eye every step of the way in an attempt to maintain peace. They were trying to avoid hostilities. Peace among nations -- the noblest cause there is, and I heartily support it. But every now and then, it doesn't work.
Yes, people will die on both sides. This is never a good thing. War in general is not a good thing. But sometimes it has to happen. This war? Inevitable. And call me selfish, but I'd prefer that our idiotic leader choose the time for it than wait a few months or years for that other maniac in the Middle East to initiate the attack on us. And, hate to break it to ya, but all evidence suggests that he will.
Up 'til recently, I was against the war. I saw in it echoes of Vietnam, of the "victorious" yet ultimately failed Gulf War. I still make those comparisons in my mind. But this war will happen whether I support it or not, and maybe I should stop being so blindly idealistic in my hopes for peace and acknowledge that the real world doesn't play fair. Maybe we need to be the unfair ones. Because I'd hate for us to wait around optimistically and do nothing, just to find out a few years down the line that we were wrong.
Whee. Opinions. Good times, good times. Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong, I won't hold it against you. It takes all kinds of people to make up the world, right?
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Re: The war
Date: 2003-07-02 08:28 am (UTC)But you then assume that everything the Bush administration does is in the best interest of our nation rather than in the best interest of the Bush administration.
No, I don't make any assumptions. I'm well aware that the highest priority of the Bush administration is to remain in place for another four years. The reason I support[ed] the war was not the same reason Bush wanted to fight the war; but while our motives (and, probably, goals) were different, we both came to the conclusion that war was necessary.
I took American History the same time as you and if I recall correctly did better on the AP.
You recall incorrectly, although I don't see why it should matter. I got a 5, too.
You talk about evidence but did you ever really look at it?
At the time I wrote this, yes, I did. I simply reached different conclusions from it than you did. I hear that two great historians may look at the same documents and divine completely different theses from them -- meanwhile, neither you nor I are "great historians" by any stretch of the imagination, and the fact that we may have ::gasp!:: different opinions should hardly be surprising. I don't think you are wrong. I just see things differently. And I'm ever so glad your hindsight is so clear; I wrote this in early MARCH, when I didn't have such foreknowledge.
Hopefully now, we will still be able to fight the real threat that is Al Qaeda now that the Iraq war is more or less over.
Somehow, I don't think we've managed to use up ALL our soldiers and ALL our resources in the war with Iraq. If and when the administration decides to send our forces elsewhere, I'm sure they'll manage.
Re: The war
Date: 2003-07-02 07:42 pm (UTC)