I have a confession to make.
Mar. 28th, 2007 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01Last night, I did a little experiment. I made a post that contained some data about the differences between the British and American versions of the HP books, and intentionally said nothing about what I thought fanfic writers should take from that. I hit post, and then watched to see what would happen. I guess you can say I wasn't surprised by the response, though I will admit to being a little disappointed.
Commenters seemed to fall into a few different groups. One group looked at the information, said, "Interesting", and then engaged in discussion in (sometimes long) threads about why the books were different and debated the validity of making such changes. Those threads were interesting to follow, and though they got heated at times, for the most part people were making reasoned arguments and backing them up with evidence. Implications for writing fanfic came up in the process, of course.
But there was another group of people whose comments frankly left me baffled. Their reaction to my post was to make very negative comments about how much they hate it when American fanfic writers write fic in American English, even if just a few words are off. Note that my post was not about writing fan fiction. It's reasonable that commenters would take that information and think, "What does that imply about Americans using gotten in their fanfic?" But it seems bizarre to me that people would drop in for no other apparent reason than to make elitist, condescending comments about how ignorant American fanfic writers are about British English -- a language they generally have little access to, through no fault of their own.
My point is that this issue still seems to be a big divide in the fandom, and it's one that always leaves me feeling a bit torn as a fan fiction writer. One the one hand, I understand that the characters I'm writing about are British, and I would genuinely like to make them seem as British as possible. I use Brit-pickers whenever I can, and I have learned a LOT in the last few years. If you don't believe me, go read this Dan/Tom RPS ficlet I wrote in 2003 and listen to how American those boys sound compared to fic I've written more recently. It kind of throws me out now. :-P
But on the other hand, I am not British. No matter what I do, no one will ever read one of my fics and think it was written by a British person. There will always be nuances of BE that I don't get, and you know what? That's okay. If my number one goal as a fic writer was to make my prose seem as British as possible, I'd be missing the big picture entirely. Good writing is about so much more, and I am probably better off working on the many other things I suck at.
But I feel like I need to say this (and FTR, this has been coming for a while and isn't just about that post or directed at anyone in particular who commented on that post): the very small percentage of people out there who are uber-militant about British English in fics are really not doing themselves any favors by coming into posts like mine and metaphorically spitting on my living room floor. Their attitudes sometimes border on being anti-American for the sake of being anti-American, and that's uncalled for.
I know my country has issues, okay? I get that much of the world thinks my country is all evil and obnoxious with its Iraq-attacking, big-budget, big-assed, consumer-oriented, loud, dominating culture. Really, I get it, because I have been to about 40 countries, and have spent a lot of time outside the US. It's kind of hard to miss how the US looks from the outside. But please not to be taking out on me all the shit you feel about the country I live in. Cause you know, I do what I can, but most of my countrymen are kind of clueless about the world outside these borders. I'm one of the good ones -- really. So coming into my LJ and being all condescending and anti-American is really not helping your cause. It's going to get my hackles up. I know my country has its issues, but I live here and that's my living room rug you're spitting on. If you want to change people's minds, that's probably not the best way to do it. Just something to think about.
Edit: Apologies to the non-American, non-British English speakers out there -- I don't mean to exclude you. This is just about the fact that it seems like American fanfic writers get singled out (perhaps, though not solely, as I know) more than other English-speakers do, what with our "translated books" and all.
Edit 2: Apparently this was linked from Metafandom, heh. Just wanted to point out that this is nothing more than my opinion on a subject that I freely admit I am probably way too sensitive about. ;-)
Commenters seemed to fall into a few different groups. One group looked at the information, said, "Interesting", and then engaged in discussion in (sometimes long) threads about why the books were different and debated the validity of making such changes. Those threads were interesting to follow, and though they got heated at times, for the most part people were making reasoned arguments and backing them up with evidence. Implications for writing fanfic came up in the process, of course.
But there was another group of people whose comments frankly left me baffled. Their reaction to my post was to make very negative comments about how much they hate it when American fanfic writers write fic in American English, even if just a few words are off. Note that my post was not about writing fan fiction. It's reasonable that commenters would take that information and think, "What does that imply about Americans using gotten in their fanfic?" But it seems bizarre to me that people would drop in for no other apparent reason than to make elitist, condescending comments about how ignorant American fanfic writers are about British English -- a language they generally have little access to, through no fault of their own.
My point is that this issue still seems to be a big divide in the fandom, and it's one that always leaves me feeling a bit torn as a fan fiction writer. One the one hand, I understand that the characters I'm writing about are British, and I would genuinely like to make them seem as British as possible. I use Brit-pickers whenever I can, and I have learned a LOT in the last few years. If you don't believe me, go read this Dan/Tom RPS ficlet I wrote in 2003 and listen to how American those boys sound compared to fic I've written more recently. It kind of throws me out now. :-P
But on the other hand, I am not British. No matter what I do, no one will ever read one of my fics and think it was written by a British person. There will always be nuances of BE that I don't get, and you know what? That's okay. If my number one goal as a fic writer was to make my prose seem as British as possible, I'd be missing the big picture entirely. Good writing is about so much more, and I am probably better off working on the many other things I suck at.
But I feel like I need to say this (and FTR, this has been coming for a while and isn't just about that post or directed at anyone in particular who commented on that post): the very small percentage of people out there who are uber-militant about British English in fics are really not doing themselves any favors by coming into posts like mine and metaphorically spitting on my living room floor. Their attitudes sometimes border on being anti-American for the sake of being anti-American, and that's uncalled for.
I know my country has issues, okay? I get that much of the world thinks my country is all evil and obnoxious with its Iraq-attacking, big-budget, big-assed, consumer-oriented, loud, dominating culture. Really, I get it, because I have been to about 40 countries, and have spent a lot of time outside the US. It's kind of hard to miss how the US looks from the outside. But please not to be taking out on me all the shit you feel about the country I live in. Cause you know, I do what I can, but most of my countrymen are kind of clueless about the world outside these borders. I'm one of the good ones -- really. So coming into my LJ and being all condescending and anti-American is really not helping your cause. It's going to get my hackles up. I know my country has its issues, but I live here and that's my living room rug you're spitting on. If you want to change people's minds, that's probably not the best way to do it. Just something to think about.
Edit: Apologies to the non-American, non-British English speakers out there -- I don't mean to exclude you. This is just about the fact that it seems like American fanfic writers get singled out (perhaps, though not solely, as I know) more than other English-speakers do, what with our "translated books" and all.
Edit 2: Apparently this was linked from Metafandom, heh. Just wanted to point out that this is nothing more than my opinion on a subject that I freely admit I am probably way too sensitive about. ;-)
