Ratings and Warnings

[oselle]

Does anyone else feel frustrated by the ratings and warnings required on fanfiction?

In a practical sense, I understand their necessity. There's a ton of fanfiction out there and there has to be some way to sift and sort the the things we want to read. Plus it seems like a matter of courtesy to inform people upfront what they're getting into.

But this is a "courtesy," or at least a safeguard that we don't expect from published fiction -- which frankly, is a costlier prospect since we're usually paying hard currency for it, and by the time we find out it's "not our bag" it's probably too late to return for a refund. When we buy a book, we usually have nothing to go on besides a vague description on a book jacket and possibly a critical review or a friend's recommendation. It's not even something we get from movies. While movies are rated, they don't come with advance notice of who'll be hooking up with whom (unless that's something that's a given, like with Brokeback Mountain). Why do we require such safeguards be built into fanfiction when it's free for the taking, and if you discover that you don't like it, you can just click right off it without having some $29.95 doorstop hanging around your house?

If you're writing a romantic story that revolves around a "will they or won't they" plot, doesn't it kill your story to have to plant that rating/pairing notice right up on top of your fic? E.g...you're writing Dean/Castiel, and you label it as Dean/Castiel and then rate it NC-17. Well, that pretty much tells everyone they will doesn't it? So it not only destroys the tension of your story but it'll probably have a lot of readers skipping over most of your story to get to the part where "they will!"...and do, most likely in explicit detail if the rating is accurate. And then you never know if people liked your story or just responded to the sex. On the other hand, if you label your story Dean/Castiel and then rate it PG-13 or even R, people know there's nothing explicit in there, so that even with that forward-slash, it might not be what some people consider a "real" Dean/Castiel story.

Has anyone found any clever ways to get around this?

Comments

[oselle.livejournal.com]

As you may have guessed if you read my posts after episode 5:09 ("The Real Ghostbusters"), I feel pretty strongly about the show incorporating their take on fandom into the show. Basically, my sentiments boil down to DON'T FUCKING DO IT. In the first place, SPN is hardly the first show (or book or movie) to attract a rabid and occasionally kooky fandom. The producers' and writers' seemingly giddy fascination with fandom makes them look like out-of-touch idiots. In the second place, the producers, writers and actors have no business using jokes about fandom as material to pad the season. I consider it self-gratifying bullshit that is disruptive to the show's internal reality, does nothing to enhance or advance the story and in my opinion, has the potential to insult more than to amuse. It is something they do to entertain themselves and that's not their job. I don't give a damn how crazy fans act like online or at cons -- that's for us to ponder and discuss and disparage. If the show's team wants to joke about fandom amongst themselves, fine, but it doesn't belong in the show. Period.

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with you about Kripke's abuse of the 4th wall. Maybe that's an example of professional judgment that keeps him out of the A-list parties, I don't know. I keep hoping that there's some wonderfully surreal purpose to those meta episodes -- to the very existence of The Prophet Chuck, at least. Are we going to find out there's some sort of parallel between fans and New Testament disciples, for example? I like my show enough to continue hoping so, or to cringe and move on if it turns out otherwise. It sure is interesting, though.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I thought the concept of Chuck as an out-of-print pulp-fiction prophet was wonderfully clever and had so much potential, but they just HAD to go ahead and ruin it by saddling him with a whole fandom, and then using both Chuck and his fandom as fodder for dumbass jokes and jabs instead of world-building or storytelling. It's a sort of childish lack of impulse control from which the show often suffers and it just makes my eyeballs steam. They may yet find something to do with Chuck, but I don't really care ever to see him again if the deplorable Becky and, God help us, Barnes and Demian -- or any other "fans" -- are along for the ride.

I actually think they've lost the plot with Chuck, or at least, that they don't really understand what a prophet does. A prophet doesn't make things happen, he only prophesies about them. When we first met Chuck, he was a guy who was tormented by visions that he was unwillingly compelled to transcribe -- even death wouldn't have released him from that duty. But it was never implied that Chuck's writing was actually causing those things to happen. Yet in 5:09, Chuck is not only happily announcing that he's going to start writing the Supernatural novels again, but Sam and Dean are furious with him for it -- as if Chuck himself were going to bring about the apocalypse just by envisioning it. Frankly, you'd think Sam and Dean would want Chuck to keep writing, it seems like he'd be a valuable resource to have around. That just made no sense at all.

I'm sorry, but my loathing of that episode still hasn't dissipated. The show will really have to sink to sub-sub-basement level to go any lower than that, IMO.

And I'm sorry for going off on you about the whole fandom thing...I just see red over any suggestion that fandom's occasionally loopy behavior justifies the introduction of such a stupid element into the show.