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There's not enough bitching

Started by Dracos, October 23, 2004, 03:02:08 PM

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Kaldrak

"Do what you want to do. Do what you like doing. Write the stories you want to see written and give other people the same courtesy. That is all that is important."

Anastasia

No chips. NO CHIPS!

Yeah, that's not a big deal at all.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Dracos

Well, Goodbye.

Anastasia

No energy tonight for some reason. Hate when that happens, may go to bed early.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

Dreamed of strange and alien things.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Anastasia

<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Merc

Rainy as hell and I want to do absolutely nothing today.

It's nice I didn't have to go work at least, so yay Labor Day, just wish I actually felt motivation to do anything.
<Cidward> God willing, we'll all meet in Buttquest 2: The Quest for More Butts.

Anastasia

Lazy day, huh? That rain probably has something to do with it. Isn't a hurricane coming to your neck of the woods?
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Merc

Dunno? There's Gordon, but I think that's supposed to go north'ish before it gets to Texas. But who really  knows until it gets closer. Haven't heard of other storms coming this way yet.
<Cidward> God willing, we'll all meet in Buttquest 2: The Quest for More Butts.

Anastasia

That's the one I was thinking of, yeah.
<Afina> Imagine a tiny pixie boot stamping on a devil's face.
<Afina> Forever.

<Yuthirin> Afina, giant parasitic rainbow space whale.
<IronDragoon> I mean, why not?

Arakawa

A dark day for my perceptions as I have learned that the self-insert genre is apparently quite popular in Russia. Upon investigation, I fear this does not bode well for the psychological state of ancestral country.

Even encountered a theory that the genre obsession originated with some lower ranked FSB agents who were upset by how history turned out, so they wrote wish fulfillment fic about stuff like getting thrown back in time into the body of old Czar so they can invent tanks and conquer the world.

Read one Russian self-insert fic of tamer kind written by (I hope to god) not FSB agent, and it made me mildly mad. It has fanbase and fanfics of itself and a Patreon-style shame begging money to write new updates. For something slightly below Skysaber quality. May rant later.
That the dead tree with its scattered fruit, a thousand times may live....

---

Man was made for Joy & Woe / And when this we rightly know / Thro the World we safely go / Joy & Woe are woven fine / A Clothing for the soul divine / Under every grief & pine / Runs a joy with silken twine
(from Wm. Blake)

Dracos

Isn't the SI genre popular here as well?

For evidence: 99.9% of all one piece fanfics?
Well, Goodbye.

Arakawa

Quote from: Dracos on September 05, 2018, 09:54:12 PM
For evidence: 99.9% of all one piece fanfics?

You made me look deeper into the rabbit hole >_>;;; it makes the fic I read seem reasonable.

Here is a rabbit hole: http://popadanec.info/ / google translate

It seems the difference is that one piece fanfics are generally not sold commercially, nor do they come with professionally produced yet somehow extremely cringey cover art. Here is "Three Arms and Six Eyes" by "Alexander Rudazov":
Spoiler: ShowHide

Warning: not kidding about the cringe.

Also, under "Disturbed Labels" (WTF, Google Translate!) please observe some of the numbers:

  • Tag - Gnomes: 130
  • Tag - Dragons: 113 (source of above cringy cover art)
  • Tag - Stalin: 92

(To be fair, probably at least some of the 'Stalin' fics might explore the "let's do Stalin but with less genocide" route.)

In case you read 'Gnomes' and imagine that people are fantasizing about becoming lawn gnomes, here is part of the very first book description that comes up under "Gnomes":
Quote
Yatzhen #3. Demons in the Vatican!

I am still alive. Probably no one cares but I'm really still alive. My name is Oleg Britva [means 'Razor' in Russian]. I am a yatzhen. I have three eyes and six arms [AGAIN?!!!!], I'm able to fly and spit acid, my claws can cut through steel and concrete, and my skin can withstand machine-gun fire. Yes. I am a yatzhen. I am very kind and capable of many things. I'm especially good at feeling like crap.

My translation muscles atrophied at this point.

WTF

To be fair, it turns out that translating 'Popadanec' as 'Self-Insert' is kind of inaccurate. I'd assumed that's what it meant because all the examples I'd been told about were about Author Avatar being reincarnated into Random Historical Figure X and running amok in self-insert style. Turns out it's more like the general "bland audience-identification character is thrown into unfamiliar situation through contrived means for wish-fulfilment purposes" trope.

Still, "Gnomes".

WTFFFFFFFF
That the dead tree with its scattered fruit, a thousand times may live....

---

Man was made for Joy & Woe / And when this we rightly know / Thro the World we safely go / Joy & Woe are woven fine / A Clothing for the soul divine / Under every grief & pine / Runs a joy with silken twine
(from Wm. Blake)

Arakawa

More sober analysis:

Russia has historically been bad with over-producing printed literature. In the Soviet Union thanks to Gosplan, every random book ("introductory textbook in cybernetic control systems", "Tasty Romanian cooking", etc.) got the kind of print run that more frugal western publishers only do for bestselling novels. On the upside, university textbook prices stay low.

But this habit seems to have persisted since the fall of the Soviet Union, except the print shops have switched to various mutations of Tom Clancy type novels. It's still financially weird because at least half the people reading these books are pirating them in FictionBook format off sites like the one linked above.

But whereas the Western fic writer is stuck uploading to ff.net or ao3, in Russia you have people getting their fantasies about turning into a three-eyed six-armed killer emo lawn gnome published in hardcover. (And seriously, why does that seem to be a genre??)

The remaining unknown is whether this is open to literally anyone that can string a coherent story together, or if you need to have a cool uncle in the publishing mafia.
That the dead tree with its scattered fruit, a thousand times may live....

---

Man was made for Joy & Woe / And when this we rightly know / Thro the World we safely go / Joy & Woe are woven fine / A Clothing for the soul divine / Under every grief & pine / Runs a joy with silken twine
(from Wm. Blake)

Kaldrak

Your analysis amuses me.

The world is full of terrible writing, a bunch of it even gets published. A step above the terrible is the truly epic pile of bland, uninteresting writing, and above that, a much smaller slice of decent writing, then above that, an even smaller amount that is actually 'good,' and if you are truly lucky, you occasionally stumble across something that qualifies as 'great.'

The terrible writing has always inspired me however. It reinvigorates my sense of self worth as a writer.
"Do what you want to do. Do what you like doing. Write the stories you want to see written and give other people the same courtesy. That is all that is important."