John Scalzi asks, "Fans: What Do We Owe Them?"

[rsadelle]

Apparently Laurell K. Hamilton went all Ann Rice on some fans. John Scalzi (from whom I also heard about the original incident) has a post worth reading about someone else's reaction to it.

And this is what it boils down to, really: Who is going to be the adult in the artist-audience relationship? Ideally, of course, you're both adults -- you as the artist give your best effort, and then the audience treats your work critically but fairly and doesn't hold it against you that you're not perfect. But in the case where it turns out that only one of you is going to get to be an adult, as the artist you should damn well try to make sure that the adult in the relationship is you.

Comments

[allegram.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you linked to his post, he always has interesting things to say. I went back and read her original post afterward, not as bad as I expected from reading people's responses to it. But then I know what the bitchy fans think I'm sure (and how annoying that would be to an author), since I have said them all inside my own head when I decided not to keep reading her books anymore... Though actually her list of hints/promises for the upcoming book really made me want to start reading them again (course, I could quit anytime! I could just read one, I don't have to read them all!).

[rsadelle]

I actually never read her post; I just found what he had to say about it interesting.

(Sure, you could quit anytime.)

[dedalvs.livejournal.com]

This (http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2006/12/dear-negative-reader.html) is the first thing I've read by L-Ho, and, I must say, I'm glad it'll be the last. Two things jump out at me...

"It must be some failing in the writing..."

...and...

"If we all liked the same kind of writer we'd all read the same books, and we don't."

I agree with the former; not with the latter (the "and" part).

But seriously, do the books read like this? There are certain places where the punctuation is so poorly chosen that I had trouble understanding (or, perhaps, paying attention to) the content. I wonder if she'd take it amiss if I invited her to take my freshman composition class this spring...

[rsadelle]

I've never read her books, so I have no idea if they sound like that. She might take such an invitation amiss, but I'm sure it would amuse others.

[fuseji.livejournal.com]

I AM HOLDING YOUR LATE (late late late) XMAS PRESENT HOSTAGE UNTIL THE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU.

I hope you don't have this particular thing already -- it's so hard choosing gifts for people when our spheres of interest intersect at such specific places.

Also my feelings on Laurell K. Hamilton are a lot like my sentiments concerning J.K. Rowling, Joss Whedon, Anne Rice and a lot of other fangirl favorites -- I don't know whether to be happy that they're getting more people to read fantasy or upset at how they write it.

fuseji is only an adult under times of extreme duress.

[rsadelle]

Next Saturday is the third Saturday, so that will be the day!

Do you think they really pull people into reading fantasy? JKR, maybe, but I think most of the people I know who were into those things were into fantasy anyway. (Have you actually read anything by any of them or is this just general disdain for popular things?)

[fuseji.livejournal.com]

Do you think they really pull people into reading fantasy?

I was trying to at least say something positive, but you're right; I suppose I gave too much credit. Yes, I do research on the things I hate rather than blindly insulting them -- an activity which makes me hate them all the more.

I tried Laurel K. Hamilton's comic recently, you know I've experienced Whedon and Rowling, and I actually read quite a bit of Anne Rice in high school...but who didn't experiment with harmful substances back then?

Actually, my gift to you concerns one of the four people I previously mentioned: it's the only thing that person has done I can enjoy without being choked by self-loathing.

It's just that when geek girls and boys latch on to a particular thing they cease to be a well-rounded human being and NEVER. SHUT. UP. about their fandom. It's why I sold all my Firefly / Serenity DVDs...at no point to I want to be mistaken for one of those people [as always, present company excluded].

*pant pant, gasp* Whew! You'll have to forgive fuseji; he gets winded up on his soapbox.

[rsadelle]

I've actually never read any Laurell K. Hamilton. Oddly enough, I'd probably like her more now than back when allegram was originally reading her stuff and I wasn't interested. I never used to read that sort of thing (modern-day paranormal romance/mystery with werewolves and vampires and such), but I've read an awful lot of it in the past year.

The closest I got to experimenting with Anne Rice is my one attempt to read Interview with the Vampire in college - and I don't think I made it more than 80 pages, if that. I probably would have liked her more if I'd started with the Beauty series or something else like it. I do like a good sex scene.

So is it fannishness, enthusiasm, or fans' intrusions into your life that you object to?

[fuseji.livejournal.com]

Oh heavens no -- I never made it through Interview either. The Vampire Lestat and Memnoch The Devil I remember as being pretty fun, though I'll never reread them to verify that statement.

So is it fannishness, enthusiasm, or fans' intrusions into your life that you object to?

I object to the fact that there are too many people going too far too fast in the hopes of joining the next big nerd thing; like Star Wars or LotR. Hell, I once met a thirty-year old woman who still lives with her parents and makes Harry Potter action figures from Ken dolls. Whether I like the fandom or not, too far is too far. It just seems it happens more in the fandoms I mentioned than others, is all.

The other thing is that most of these people have no sort of self-image quality assurance about it. Make a joke that isn't about two guys kissing and they go all deadly serious on you. Geez! Turn off the Evanescence and lighten up!

Or I could be a grumpy old stick-in-the-mud complaining about the new school of geeks ruining everything. I forget which.

fuseji should have ended this a long time ago.

[rsadelle]

Huh. Apparently I have read some Laurell K. Hamilton. Or at least, I owned some of her stuff. She had stories in a couple of Sword and Sorceress collections I will soon no longer own. It apparently did not make an impression.

Hell, I once met a thirty-year old woman who still lives with her parents and makes Harry Potter action figures from Ken dolls.

Yeah, and? Some people put all their time and money into needlepoint, or gardening, or filmmaking. What do you care?

I think you're misunderstanding fannish motives. Sure there are some people who jump on a bandwagon just to jump on the bandwagon, but in my experience, people actually enjoy the canon of their fandoms, as well as the community aspects of the fandom.

[fuseji.livejournal.com]

Needlepoint is needlepoint. Gardening is gardening. Filmmaking is filmmaking. None of these activities involve repurposing dolls into other types of dolls.

And even if that weren't the case, that's not something that needs sharing. I wouldn't have had to care if the topic had never been broached -- it's not like I asked for the information, after all.

The bottom line to this as far as I'm concerned is in reference to the first sentence that started the whole thing: who's going to be the adult in the audience-artist relationship. The answer is BOTH.

Let it never be said that people can't enjoy their fandoms around me. It's just that I prefer not to know about the insane depths to which their obsession goes.

Happier topics: have you started Fray yet?

fuseji doesn't have a stand-off.