hey my fandom siblings

[schmevil]

STOP APPROPRIATING REAL WORLD UNFORTUNATE EVENTS FOR YOUR ~TIMELY FANFIC.

Seriously, now. Just stop doing this most unclassy thing.

I've already seen 20 Dead Seals fic, and London Riot fic. None of it was better than generic SAD THING HAPPENS, A MAN IS CRYING fic. Take a look at your life choices, folks, and treat your fellow humans with dignity and respect.

(All I can say is thank goodness I haven't found the cast of Hawaii Five-0, fighting the good fight in Libya yet, because, my god).

Comments

[valtyr]

HDU my fic where Captain America speaks inspiringly to the people of London and they all disperse peacefully is an instant fandom classic. Then he goes and has a chat with the Queen about democracy and she abdicates.

What fandom was the riots fic in?

[elspethdixon]

I would like to believe that no one in our fandom would write this fic, but the Hetalia fandom Norwegian-shootings-fanfic debacle means I should probably revise that belief to "someone is likely already thinking about posting a similar prompt to the one of the kink memes."

[schmevil]

Ugh. I was on fandom vacay when that happened. I'm so sick of this stuff.

[elspethdixon]

What gets me about that one isn't even the idea of any potential appropriation. It's how amazingly tacky and clueless and in poor taste it is to use a tragic event as fictional entertainment while it's still going on (or within hours of days of its happening) and while CNN/the BBC/etc. are still reporting on it. Hint: if the authorities are still updating the body count, it's Too Soon to write about something.

I probably ought to use a stronger word that "tacky," but "tacky" is the first condemnation that jumps to mind.

[schmevil]

Homestuck. I'm sure there are others, but it's what I happened upon through Tumblr.

[noracharles]

Is there a difference between fic reactions to the news and journal post reactions to the news?

[schmevil]

Not sure what you mean? I'm not talking about reactions to events as such, but the appropriation of tragedy to increase hits/ratings/kudos, as events are unfolding, or in the immediate aftermath. This is what I find tasteless and more than a little cruel. (My LJ/DW accounts are very fic fandom centric, so that's what I complained about here). So journal reactions meant to raise one's profile, or all about the journalist being say, inconvenienced by someone else's tragedy, are terrible too.

[noracharles]

Yes, that is more or less what I meant.

I've seen and heard a lot of comments about recent tragedies that are rather self-centered, and whose only value is entertainment or self-promotion, if building and maintaining social ties through sharing and comparing one's immediate, emotional reaction to something which has no impact on one's own life is entertainment/self-promotion.

I've also seen several people complain specifically about people who do this through the medium of fiction. That is why I wondered whether there was some difference.

But reading your answer, I wonder if perhaps you are thinking about the kinds of people who use recent tragedies as keywords in their Etsy product descriptions to increase their search ranking. I don't know the fics you are referring to, but is it the fanfic equivalent of that you've encountered?