The vagaries of feedback.

I'm taking a class entitled "Feminism and Political Theory." Today, our discussion was on Patricia Hill Collins' ideas about Black feminist epistemology. Our assignment for Thursday is to think of an example to which her four part model of Black feminist epistemology applies. I thought of my example during class: feedback. The two parts to which the idea of feedback truly pertain are dialogue and the ethic of accountability. Dialogue is important, because, as Collins says, "For ideas to be tested and validated, everyone in the group must participate. To refuse to join in, especially if one really disagrees with what has been said, is seen as 'cheating.'" In our discussion in class, part of what we talked about in terms of accountability in an academic community is that if you write something, and someone then writes something either building upon your idea or disagreeing with it, it is your responsability to then respond seriously to that person.

Now, I'm not one of those people who thinks you must write feedback to be a good person. Although I put my e-mail address on all my stories, I no longer use a specific feedback header. I do, however, love feedback, both receiving and giving it.

There are three pieces of feedback that I've received that immediately come to mind when thinking back on the feedback I've received. One was from a woman who'd read one of my Langly/Byers stories and written to say that although she wasn't really a fan of LGM slash, she would read any that I should write. That was obviously a boost to my ego, especially as it was one of my earlier stories. The second was from Joanne, in which she asked, "Is this from something in reality or just for the fic?" For that fic, that was the perfect question, because it gave me the perfect starting point from which I could talk about what bothered me in the feel of that particular fic and way of dealing with that pairing. The third was Nette's analysis of "Long Way Down." I'd had the feeling as I worked on it that it might just be sentimental crap, but Nette managed to tease out all the things I'd managed to hide in it, specifically the patterned nature of the action. I believe in answering all feedback, but I always take special care in answering these types of feedback, the kinds that take time and thought. It's hardly fair if someone takes a great deal of time out of her life to write to me, and I don't write back.

I like to write feedback not because of the same line of reasoning--someone spent time to write it and we all should, to be worthy of continued living, write back to her--but rather because I get to do things I love--analyze literature (but only as a hobby), discuss writing and, possibly, help people be better writers. I put a lot of time and energy into feedback because it's something that's important to me. I expect people to put at least some portion of that same time and energy into writing back to me--I expect them to adhere to the ethic of personal accountability and to realize the importance of dialogue. I recently sent feedback to a friend of mine, in part asking her why she'd done something with a character. She told me in chat that it was because that was what the character wanted, which is a perfectly valid answer, but I feel cheated because that's the only answer she gave. I guess what I wanted, what I expected was more than that. I wanted her to look at what I said about a possible reason and tell me whether that made sense to her or not.

There's another piece in all of this. A Fred Durst/Eminem story was recently posted to RS-X. Normally, I would be delighted, because I love Fred/Em as a couple. In this case, however, I couldn't even get through this story. The author violates a basic principle of fic writing: stick to one verb tense. At first, it annoyed me, but then I thought maybe she's doing it for a reason; maybe each one of them gets a different verb tense, but that's not the case. It's simply a jumble of past and present with no rhyme or reason to it. My normal response to this would simply be to ignore the story and go on with my life, however, a few people have since posted feedback telling the author what a wonderful story it is. That horrifies me, and now I feel like I ought to read the entire story and write my own feedback outlining both the good and the bad. One of the authors I've worked with has told me that she does know something about writing as evidenced by the fact that people write excessively positive feedback about her writing. I've read much of that feedback, and, most of the time, I disagree with it. That's why I'm so willing to put in all of the time and energy needed to help her improve her writing. If people onlist are going to read feedback extolling the virtues of a fic, it ought to be a well-written, well-thought out, well-crafted story, not just anything that wanders into your inbox. Not taking the time to point where and why I strongly disagree with the uniformly positive feedback would most certainly be cheating.