Oh, yes, I know this isn't true for you, but some things permetaform was saying led me to believe this might be true, for her -- or, at least, only being interested in particular pairings. It was a jumbled post at best. *g* But your description of XF sounds very similar, if you just substitute MSR for slash. I don't think the fact that my own predilections are for slash and yours aren't invalidates my point -- that I don't get why approaching fanfiction from an orientation for a particular relationship (or through the lenses of same) is different than approaching original fiction with a predisposition towards certain types of fiction, and not others. It's not that I won't ever try anything new, or anything outside my usual tastes; but my experience is that almost universally, if I do, even if I enjoy the story, it won't predispose me then to read more widely in general.
My tastes in fanfic are much more limited than my tastes in original fiction, and I feel like I'm failing the writers, yes, but also the general standard to which I hold my literary judgment.
Hmmm. Mine are, too, in some ways. But then a lot of things I read in original fiction, I'm deliberately stretching myself, trying things to see what I think, new things, new authors, etc. My reasons for reading original fiction are in most ways very different than my reason for reading fanfiction. I go to fanfiction because I have a pre-existing relationship with particular characters/pairings that makes me want to explore specifically that. The only thing that really approaches that in original fiction is following an established author, with characters I've fallen for, or a particular type of book, because I'm looking for more of the particular type of emotional hit I want.
I guess because of this I really don't feel that it's any lack on my part that I don't care to read so widely in fanfiction, because I don't approach fanfiction in a "see what's out there" kind of way, and I never have. And even with original fiction, much of my appreciation of things outside my favorite authors and genres is often an objective, more detached appreciation, an admiration of ideas, of styles, of world-building, that doesn't necessarily kick me in the gut the way my more "limited" favorites due.
And ultimately... I don't really "get" failing the writers, I think because I don't feel any general obligation to be "fair" to the writers, to try things out on spec, to give them a chance, anymore than I do writers of original fiction, unless something I hear or read intrigues me. Maybe I used to. Maybe I used to feel I should always try something before deciding it wasn't my thing, but that was before I had a well-developed sense of what was my thing -- and it's a pretty broad thing, but it's not all-encompassing. Maybe it's just a difference in personality and character? I dunno. Still not really understanding the guilt thing. *g*
And some of this gets into textual interpretation, because I've seen people let fanon warp their judgment of the original sources, and I ... hope I can separate out something that doesn't fulfill my desires from something that's an artistic failure. I try. I don't know if I always succeed, but I think it's something worth trying to do.
I completely agree. I think some people read/write the fanfiction that represents how they wish canon was; others of us take cues that canon seems to present and want to read what fleshes that out. It can't help but color how you then look back at canon -- but I think everything you take in colors that in one way or another. And I think it's entirely possible to make the separation you state; I think of it as "they aren't writing for me." My not liking something, depending on why I don't, isn't a commentary necessarily on the intrinsic quality of the writing. But that's equally true in reading original fiction.
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response (part 1)
My tastes in fanfic are much more limited than my tastes in original fiction, and I feel like I'm failing the writers, yes, but also the general standard to which I hold my literary judgment.
Hmmm. Mine are, too, in some ways. But then a lot of things I read in original fiction, I'm deliberately stretching myself, trying things to see what I think, new things, new authors, etc. My reasons for reading original fiction are in most ways very different than my reason for reading fanfiction. I go to fanfiction because I have a pre-existing relationship with particular characters/pairings that makes me want to explore specifically that. The only thing that really approaches that in original fiction is following an established author, with characters I've fallen for, or a particular type of book, because I'm looking for more of the particular type of emotional hit I want.
I guess because of this I really don't feel that it's any lack on my part that I don't care to read so widely in fanfiction, because I don't approach fanfiction in a "see what's out there" kind of way, and I never have. And even with original fiction, much of my appreciation of things outside my favorite authors and genres is often an objective, more detached appreciation, an admiration of ideas, of styles, of world-building, that doesn't necessarily kick me in the gut the way my more "limited" favorites due.
And ultimately... I don't really "get" failing the writers, I think because I don't feel any general obligation to be "fair" to the writers, to try things out on spec, to give them a chance, anymore than I do writers of original fiction, unless something I hear or read intrigues me. Maybe I used to. Maybe I used to feel I should always try something before deciding it wasn't my thing, but that was before I had a well-developed sense of what was my thing -- and it's a pretty broad thing, but it's not all-encompassing. Maybe it's just a difference in personality and character? I dunno. Still not really understanding the guilt thing. *g*
And some of this gets into textual interpretation, because I've seen people let fanon warp their judgment of the original sources, and I ... hope I can separate out something that doesn't fulfill my desires from something that's an artistic failure. I try. I don't know if I always succeed, but I think it's something worth trying to do.
I completely agree. I think some people read/write the fanfiction that represents how they wish canon was; others of us take cues that canon seems to present and want to read what fleshes that out. It can't help but color how you then look back at canon -- but I think everything you take in colors that in one way or another. And I think it's entirely possible to make the separation you state; I think of it as "they aren't writing for me." My not liking something, depending on why I don't, isn't a commentary necessarily on the intrinsic quality of the writing. But that's equally true in reading original fiction.