Poll: When Good Isn't Good Enough

[thefourthvine]

This post is friends-locked, not to exclude anyone, but because I can see how it could bite me on the butt. Once bitten, twice shy, and that goes double if it's my buttocks that are in jeopardy. (Which isn't to say no one can bite me on the butt, because, you know, some people are welcome to, but...you know what? Let's not go there. There's knowledge man was not meant to know, and there's knowledge no reasonable person wants to know.) If all goes well, I'll unlock it in a few days, because I would really like to hear from everyone on this. (Note: now no longer friends-locked!)

Now, on to the pre-poll. (Please move in an orderly fashion. No flash cameras or video allowed. Not suitable for children under three.)

How do you recommend something that's flawed? My policy has always been that if I have to put in a caveat of any kind, I won't be recommending it. (There's a practical reason for this. Actually, two. First, if I start mentioning weaknesses and strengths, it's the first step on the slippery slope to balanced perspectives, and impartiality, and thought-provoking essays, and...look, I didn't start this LJ to reprise my college English classes. I live two blocks from a college. If I wanted to write papers, I could go do it for post-graduate credit; here, I want to be idiosyncratic and personal and wildly biased. Second reason - fandom is wonderful. But it's also a bit bitey, if you see what I mean. A lot of authors view their stories as babies (boy, did I learn that one the hard way, when I was young and relatively pure), and they respond instinctively and violently to any criticism, no matter how constructive or carefully-phrased or accurate or surrounded by truthfully positive remarks. I don't need more flames, thanks.)

The no-recommending-if-it's-got-a-flaw-worth-mentioning policy has worked for more than a year. But over that year, my list of stories that I consider unrecommendable but still want to keep and re-read has grown and grown. It contains two major categories of problem stories:

• Older stories. These mostly come from older fandoms and they're written to outdated conventions. You know the kind I mean. Purple prose, and romance-novel language, and soul-searing kisses in the Rain of Nebulous Angst, and, look. I can handle all that stuff. In the presence of sufficient brilliance, I can even ignore it. But in the oldest fandoms, it was the default writing style; everything seems to have been written with Barbara Cartland firmly in mind. (Yes, there are exceptions. Many exceptions. I'm generalizing here, so stay with me.)
  
  There are other problems with the older stuff, too - for example, things that we now consider the worst kind of cliche (yes, there are good cliches; I love many of them), presented with painful sincerity. Yes, I know they weren't cliches then. It doesn't help as much as you'd hope. Or - no, never mind with the list-making, because this isn't a rant. Let me just say instead that fandom has changed a lot since Kirk and Spock were staring into each other's blazing eyes, hardly daring to hope that this one poignant gesture of agonizing, consuming, soul-burning passion could be forgiven, and I'm happy with most of those changes. But there are some good stories from those days. Some great ones, too.
  
  
• Cracked diamonds. These are unrecommendable because of a serious problem. Many of them are are visibly, noticeably, and highly regrettably unbeta'd. Others have a fucked up plot, or tin-ear dialog, or a character doing an absolutely out-of-character thing, or a writing experiment that didn't quite work. The list goes on and on. And yet, some of these stories also have elements that are sheer genius. It's not surprising. After all, these are the authors who aren't afraid to try experiments, right? Some work. Some really don't. And sometimes the working and the non-working are in the same story, unfortunately.
  
  I recently read a story that had a scene that was perfect. That scene was - OK, I think I can give some specifics without revealing too much. It was a Smallville story, and it was the Clark-finally-tells-Lex scene. (Not about the gay gay love. Lex already knows about that, or he's not as smart as he thinks he is. About the Alien Among Us thing.) And it was the best I've ever seen it done, just amazing, so perfectly written and in character and right that I wanted to weep. And then I realized that the story could never be recommended unless a good beta got ahold of it and did some very thorough work, and then I really wanted to weep. I have a lot of these stories, especially in fandoms beginning with 'S' (And has anyone ever noticed just how many fandoms do begin with 'S'? If I was making a new TV show, I'd call it Staruniverse. Maybe Super Sexy Staruniverse.) - SG1, SGA, SV, SW, and The Sentinel, which might or might not be an S-fandom.

I want to recommend these stories. Badly, in certain cases. But I have no means to do so, because my own rules prohibit recommending any story if I need to add a warning. (I do occasionally warn. But only about potentially disturbing content, or very rarely about first-level beta stuff - lots of usage mistakes, basically. Not about more serious or pervasive problems.)

So. On to the poll.



[Poll #490902]

Comments

[norah.livejournal.com]

In smaller fandoms, I tend to be looking for a reason to include the story, rather than reasons to exclude it.

Exactly. I used to offer to beta for stories that desperately needed it, but as I am the World's Least Reliable Beta I don't do that anymore. But if the concept and characterization are good and the fandom is small, I can overlook a lot. Sadly, not major grammar problems, but comma usage and homonym issues, perhaps.

See, it is people like you that make the flames and the bitching worthwhile. It'd be worth putting up with ten thousand times more of that, just because via fandom I found my LLMR.

Awww. *squidges* I am seriously filled with the love and affection today. For you, my LLMR. I get to see you sooooon yay! Can I pick BB's brain about librarianhood? Maybe meet the dogs?

This is definitely true. I think it's the not-afraid-to-experiment effect. An author who succeeds spectacularly and originally will often also take spectacular falls. But, unlike with the more average fannish circus act, with such authors I tend to forget the falls and be riveted by the successes.

Totally. Especially people who aren't afraid to go a little OTT - that can really work for me, but I'd never do it myself. But when you're writing porn, it really taps into something. Or romance - it's just a very fine line, because it can go so bad so quickly.

Actually, I'm having fun with my job right now; the most I've had since before the Big Sickness Hiatus. But all this baby-and-library talk has got me thinking: where am I actually going with all this? (Not a question I am prone to asking myself.)

I never cease from asking myself that damn question, so all this talk has me thrown in a totally OTHER way - like, what the fuck? What happened to my Grand Master Plan? I feel a little bit like I suddenly decided to run away and join the circus, it's all so 180° and out of the blue. I kept announcing to people yesterday that I was running away to join the circus and then when they got all O.o, saying, "Not really, but it feels like it, because I want to go to library school," at which point they would just nod blankly and edge away from me slowly. I will be the Bearded Lady. Yis.

And I totally want to breed at the same time as you, because then we can be one with our neuroses.

Except we are, like, GOOD for each other that way. We share and yet we soothe. If only we lived near one another we could form one of those symbiotic childcare arrangements. Goddamnit.

I want what my parents had when I was born - they had this close circle of friends who all had kids around the same age - they called us the "Can of Worms" because they would just pile us all on the carpet and watch us crawl all over. That sounds so good to me. Perhaps I am odd. I want lots of furniture friends with BABIES. Yis.

Ah, the joys of hormones. And we're considering getting pregnant? We'll be Rampaging Hormone Monsters, burninating everything in sight. Our spouses and dogs will cower in fear.

No fucking kidding. And this made me laugh so hard I almost spit coffee on my keyboard, because it will be TOTALLY EXACTLY like this. I mean, I'm bad now, I can't even imagine the depths I will sink to with the weird hormone influx and the strange physical changes. I was pregnant once for like three months and all I wanted to do was SLEEP and PUKE. GRAR!

So, take note: we will need showy maternity wear for the cover photo.

Oooh. I'm kind of looking forward to maternity wear, sadly enough. It seems the only stuff that's designed for maximum comfort while still focusing on girly these days. Some of the stretchy mesh dresses are quite classy and understated.

Um, not that I've looked, or anything. OMG BIOLOGICAL CLOCK SHUTTUP. *stuffs it under pillow to muffle ringing*