Reading Fics You Now Hate

[Jason_Miao]

I think in a technical sense it could be fanon, but I don't know if there are quantitative limits we have to reach.  I do know that Aon always used it, and I believe I have seen it in a few other fics.

There's probably some sort of research somewhere that found the quantitative percentage of a social group that adopts and idea before it's considered a meme or other such category, but heck if I know where to find it. 

But now that I think of it, that would be a pretty interesting piece of information to know if you were some sort of online advertiser.  I wonder if I could find the limit.  Might be interesting to look for next time I have a day free.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6556187/42/In-Flight

In Flight updated. Just a heads up, y'all.

Interesting development.  Whether it's interesting enough to draw anyone back who claimed they'd quit reading after chapter 40?  Who knows.

[Anastasia]

Interesting development.  Whether it's interesting enough to draw anyone back who claimed they'd quit reading after chapter 40?  Who knows.

I bet a fair few will come back, if for no other reason than to bitch about the fic.

[Jason_Miao]

Interesting development.  Whether it's interesting enough to draw anyone back who claimed they'd quit reading after chapter 40?  Who knows.

I bet a fair few will come back, if for no other reason than to bitch about the fic.

For some reason, the ones who keep reading a story that's longer than War and Peace and constantly complain about it brings this to mind:

"I don't like this fic!  I never liked this fic for three years!  It's so stupid!  Why can't you listen to me more when I criticize it?  I never want to read this fic again...anyway, I was writing C&C this morning, and I happened to write extra.  You might as well read it.  B-BUT YOU DON'T NEED TO READ IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!"

Also, http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/19/Mother-of-Learning updated.

[Dracos]

Well, that's not all that fair a characterization.  If you walk on a road and it's nice for the first ten miles, do you get to throw a hissy fit when the eleventh is covered in spikes?  Does the fact that the hissy fit comes at chapter 40 instead of chapter 1 somehow make it less merited?  Instead it's actually more the nature that if you liked something for that long, there's a vague hope of it going back to being good, which doesn't occur for shitty fics out the gate.  So if something offends late in a fic, it's more likely it'll keep getting read just in case.

[Anastasia]

This reminds me a bit of the sunk cost fallacy. In other words, don't throw good money after bad money.

I find the entire furor around the fic funny at this point. Let the damn fic end already.

[Brian]

I stopped reading the Song of Ice and Everyone Dies, but I still am willing to discuss it when it comes up.  Even though I haven't read In Flight (I don't speak Nasu, and have been given an intense Nasu-aversion due to being thrown into a pit of starving Nasu for creative arts training while younger, to learn an ultimate technique (didn't work -- long story)), I did hear that there was a ... not quite twist, as much as intensely bodged handling of things in recent chapters.

After that many words, the emotional investment would be greater, not lesser.  And it's emotional investment, not financial.  Breaking the tie after that is more difficult ... though I wouldn't say that the Tsundere approach is perfect ... more the angry post-breakup partner grousing and being bitter, while also holding some hope that they can be reunited.

Even if it pretty clearly isn't going to happen.

C'est la vie.

[Jason_Miao]

Well, that's not all that fair a characterization.  If you walk on a road and it's nice for the first ten miles, do you get to throw a hissy fit when the eleventh is covered in spikes?  Does the fact that the hissy fit comes at chapter 40 instead of chapter 1 somehow make it less merited? 

What you're describing is quite reasonable.  Fics can suddenly take a wrong turn, and it's reasonable to point that out.  It's the reviews on other sites that are claiming that there were spikes were in the 11th mile but kept running for 30+ more miles of spikes.  And that some of those spikes were reused in the all the other recreational jogging paths which the reviewer also ran through.

Put another way, I don't think anyone in the most recent HiMA thread is complaining about Ranma going full-time female in the last two chapters, because everyone on this board has figured out Ozzallos multiple fics ago, and we've either decided that we were either going to put up with it anyway and discuss the other aspects, or decided not to read his fics at all.  I don't think anyone here mentions it other than to say "Yet another Ozzallos plot." because we all know what that means and there isn't much more to say on that note.

Or for a non-fanfic parallel to what I see with some of Gabe's reviews...if you follow authored fantasy, you're surely familiar with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and how each novel in that series can double as a blunt weapon.  Some people bought all 10 (11?  12?  I don't even know) and said "Sure, this book has 200 page trips where nothing happens, but I still like these books because of something or other."  Some readers of that series said, around book 3 or 4, "I gave this a shot, but he just wrote how many pages where nothing happened?!  I'm going to spend my time reading Tolkien, or David Drake, or whomever else I think doesn't suck." 

And then, there was that significant number of fans (un-fans?  Counter-Fans?  tsun-taku?) who just salivated at the thought of a new WoT book so they could bash it.   They were the first in line at Borders to buy each new novel, like eager cats wiggling before a dangled string, so they could pounce on it and be catty and tell everyone how bad it was.  How terrible, just like ever last page of his last novel, and ever page of each of his other novels, each of which they read twice just to make sure of how badly it was written.

People complaining after the 40th chapter of IF?  Sure, post-breakup.  But people bitching about the ending of Hill of Swords after 40+ chapters of In Flight (which implies they read through all of Hill of Swords too)?


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edit to remove parenthetical that made no sense in context and correct egregious typos. 

[Brian]

[...]They were the first in line at Borders to buy each new novel, like eager cats wiggling before a dangled string, so they could pounce on it and be catty and tell everyone how bad it was.  How terrible, just like ever last page of his last novel, and ever page of each of his other novels, each of which they read twice just to make sure of how badly it was written.

^{[citation needed]}

I've followed the Randland novels since I was eight (though I'm waiting for the last three books to come out in paperback before picking them up), and have never heard of such people.

People complaining about Fic A (or Fic A + Fic B) once other people are upset about an event late in fic Fic B makes sense to me, though; they've always been bitter and hear the upset as validation; they're looking for a big "I told you so!"  It doesn't happen to Ozzellos (as much) because he's on "Then Suddenly: Ranma Turns Into a Girl, Take Twenty," while Gabe's new as a repeat offender by, well, an order of magnitude.

[Yuthirin]

[...]They were the first in line at Borders to buy each new novel, like eager cats wiggling before a dangled string, so they could pounce on it and be catty and tell everyone how bad it was.  How terrible, just like ever last page of his last novel, and ever page of each of his other novels, each of which they read twice just to make sure of how badly it was written.

^{[citation needed]}

I've followed the Randland novels since I was eight (though I'm waiting for the last three books to come out in paperback before picking them up), and have never heard of such people.

They exist. They're bad people. I've met some. Generally dissatisfied with their lives, they project onto things both large and distant in order to gain the attention they crave. The Borders by my house (funny how that works) was full of them. Hell, it was staffed by them.

[Dracos]

Okay then, that's a bit much on cluttering the what are you reading thread, so splitting off.

Not that I have room to throw stones as someone who does complain on things and keep reading them, but just as there was more bitching about bitching on fics than there were actual comments on in flight 42 (0 in fact), it seemed a little overdone itself.

And too slow :P

[Brian]

What a crazy idea.  I stopped reading Song of Ice and Everyone Dies when I decided I didn't like it.  Jordan's later books did seriously (and painfully) crawl, enough so that I lost interest.

But following something out of hate?

Wait ... are they actually following it, or are they following other people's reactions to it?  Because that latter would make more sense.

[thepanda]

The thing about Jordan is that his first novel in the series was really good. It hinted at all kinds of potential awesomeness just waiting to happen.

Then little niggles started showing up over time. As they built up people started complaining about them. As everyone has a different threshold some people jumped off early and some people jumped off later.

I finally called it quits at book nine, I think? The one with, like, thirty pages of actual story progression tacked on to end of a thousand pages of character status updates. "Remember this character? He's not doing shit! How about that one lady? Here she is, doing nothing either! Hey dawg, I heard you like new characters. So I put some new characters in your character updates so you can pull your hair out trying to remember where in the last ten thousand pages these people came from!"

As for hate-reading? I am guilty of that for one series. Tanya Huff's Gale family books. I can't even talk to anyone about them because no one I know reads that stuff. ;_;

[Dracos]

What a crazy idea.  I stopped reading Song of Ice and Everyone Dies when I decided I didn't like it.  Jordan's later books did seriously (and painfully) crawl, enough so that I lost interest.

But following something out of hate?

Wait ... are they actually following it, or are they following other people's reactions to it?  Because that latter would make more sense.

Well let's be fair.

Both of us laugh at Kishimoto constantly, and will still look naruto from time to time.  Reading things that are absurd to make fun of happens.

Also being aware of things to Mock other people is also something people do.

I would say that it's likely those borders folks didn't still read it though.  You don't have to keep consuming it to mock and hate it.  You can just insult it every time it comes up too.  Following others reactions tells most of what you need to know .

[Jason_Miao]

Drac:
If you're clearing up the other thread, I used half a post to for reply after work that I had sitting in preview since lunch, and hadn't realized that you'd already split the threads.  I can delete it if you'd like.

Bri:
Well, the only way to know for sure would be to hang out with people like that extensively, and I rather prefer to not do that.  So I won't tell you "yes, without any reasonable doubt."  Still, some people can spit out some pretty detailed analysis of stories that they supposedly aren't reading.

Panda:
I hear you there.   There are some writers that can pull out a really compelling first part, but the rest of the story doesn't live up to the promise.  Those stories are the ones that drive me crazy, since I keep thinking about "what could have been".