ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2013-05-08 01:45 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2013-05-08 01:45 am
Entry tags:
Hurt/Comfort and Literary Merit
As part of the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
three_weeks_for_dw project (running April 25-May 15), I'm posting some content just to Dreamwidth. This is a good opportunity to seek new readers for your blog and new blogs to read, and to recommend stuff you enjoy on other people's blogs to help them make new connections too. Here is a set of posts about hurt/comfort literature. Start with "Hurt/Comfort as a Genre" and "Hurt/Comfort Plot Structure."
Hurt/Comfort and Literary Merit
Some people look down on hurt/comfort as inferior to other types of writing. This is no more true of hurt/comfort than it is of any other literature that people like to disrespect. Any genre, plot dynamic, mood, or other literary motif may be done well or poorly. There is nothing inherently laudable or disgraceful about them. It depends on the individual merits, or lack thereof, concerning a specific example. A genre may attract more or fewer serious writers compared to people who just want to fool around for fun, and therefore, may trend lighter or heavier, smoother or sloppier, depending on taste. But it's always possible to have good and bad examples.
Hurt/comfort is sometimes criticized for fetishizing other people's pain. Take a look at literature in general, and most of it does that to some degree, except for gentle fiction and early childhood fiction. Horror and its relatives, and mystery, lie heavily at the "hurt" end of the spectrum and may contain little or no comfort. They're all about watching people squirm. Romance is another genre widely mocked for being shallow, unrealistic, sometimes voyeuristic.
All that stuff is okay -- it's just storytelling. Storytelling is what humans do. We imagine things for fun. Other times we imagine things to warn each other away from potential danger, whether physical or psychological. Sometimes we also imagine things to think about what we might do in a similar situation. Hurt/comfort posits that, if somebody is sick or injured, you do your best to help. That's a solid foundation for human decency. An interest in that is not something to mock.
There are, of course, different reasons to read and write literature of any kind, not just hurt/comfort. Some people do it just for fun, especially fanfic. Some seek catharsis -- a way to get troublesome emotions from the inside to the outside, where they will be less of a bother. Some seek to communicate, a factor which drives the exchange of author/audience interaction, particularly in fanfic and crowdfunding venues. Some desire a pinnacle of craft, the artistry of language and literature; this is more common in original work, but also appears in fanfic. Some wish to make money, the purview of original work from which we get whole new canons to enjoy. There are mountains beyond mountains; there are many more motives people may have. These are just a few of the popular examples.
All of these reasons for reading and writing are okay. It's great to have options, to have different goals. Ideally, you know what your own goals are, and those may vary depending on your mood at the time. Know what you like. Know how to find or make it. Don't disrespect what other people are doing. Don't listen if other people try to put down what you enjoy either. Storytelling is for everyone. Tell ALL the stories.
How do you feel about the quality of hurt/comfort stories you have read or written? Do you find discussions of literary genres to be fun and welcoming, or full of wank?
three_weeks_for_dw project (running April 25-May 15), I'm posting some content just to Dreamwidth. This is a good opportunity to seek new readers for your blog and new blogs to read, and to recommend stuff you enjoy on other people's blogs to help them make new connections too. Here is a set of posts about hurt/comfort literature. Start with "Hurt/Comfort as a Genre" and "Hurt/Comfort Plot Structure."Hurt/Comfort and Literary Merit
Some people look down on hurt/comfort as inferior to other types of writing. This is no more true of hurt/comfort than it is of any other literature that people like to disrespect. Any genre, plot dynamic, mood, or other literary motif may be done well or poorly. There is nothing inherently laudable or disgraceful about them. It depends on the individual merits, or lack thereof, concerning a specific example. A genre may attract more or fewer serious writers compared to people who just want to fool around for fun, and therefore, may trend lighter or heavier, smoother or sloppier, depending on taste. But it's always possible to have good and bad examples.
Hurt/comfort is sometimes criticized for fetishizing other people's pain. Take a look at literature in general, and most of it does that to some degree, except for gentle fiction and early childhood fiction. Horror and its relatives, and mystery, lie heavily at the "hurt" end of the spectrum and may contain little or no comfort. They're all about watching people squirm. Romance is another genre widely mocked for being shallow, unrealistic, sometimes voyeuristic.
All that stuff is okay -- it's just storytelling. Storytelling is what humans do. We imagine things for fun. Other times we imagine things to warn each other away from potential danger, whether physical or psychological. Sometimes we also imagine things to think about what we might do in a similar situation. Hurt/comfort posits that, if somebody is sick or injured, you do your best to help. That's a solid foundation for human decency. An interest in that is not something to mock.
There are, of course, different reasons to read and write literature of any kind, not just hurt/comfort. Some people do it just for fun, especially fanfic. Some seek catharsis -- a way to get troublesome emotions from the inside to the outside, where they will be less of a bother. Some seek to communicate, a factor which drives the exchange of author/audience interaction, particularly in fanfic and crowdfunding venues. Some desire a pinnacle of craft, the artistry of language and literature; this is more common in original work, but also appears in fanfic. Some wish to make money, the purview of original work from which we get whole new canons to enjoy. There are mountains beyond mountains; there are many more motives people may have. These are just a few of the popular examples.
All of these reasons for reading and writing are okay. It's great to have options, to have different goals. Ideally, you know what your own goals are, and those may vary depending on your mood at the time. Know what you like. Know how to find or make it. Don't disrespect what other people are doing. Don't listen if other people try to put down what you enjoy either. Storytelling is for everyone. Tell ALL the stories.
How do you feel about the quality of hurt/comfort stories you have read or written? Do you find discussions of literary genres to be fun and welcoming, or full of wank?
Re: Thank you!
1. Fix a problem.
2. Develop a minor character who was lovable but died early.
3. Allow a ship to work.
4. Explore another intricate plot in the same style as canon, without needing to introduce a new villain.
5. Explore the ways that seemingly small things can change who you are, or the ways that seemingly big things can fail to change people, or even both at once.
6. Do everything fully-canon-compliant fic can do!
And this is why I took over
I find it hilarious and sadly ironic that published books are so derivative that you end up in fan-dominated spaces to avoid the derivative stuff. (I also think it's flat-out amazing that you have crossed over your own canon with another canon. Existing models don't usually allow for that kind of thing and I love you break them.)
That said, I personally like to read slightly crappy popular books, to get a feel for what happens in them. Of course, I read them for free from the library, which helps a lot.
I think that if The Hardcopy-Creating Machine really understood the power of fanfic, fanfic would be seriously threatened, as opposed to laughably attempted!threatened.
Re: Thank you!
It means taking one aspect of a character, setting, etc. and magnifying it or altering it. Frex, Erik Lensherr is both a Jew and a mutant; Magneto focuses on the mutant side. Aspect that and you could get a Zionist Magneto instead (magnification). Drop the Jewish aspect and put him in a concentration camp for homosexuality (alteration) and you get a different characterization yet again.
As I mentioned before, a more common term is transformative work. I like aspected because it refers to aspects of character or setting such as are discussed in literary analysis. Those are exactly the kinds of things that people like to play with: not just in fanfic but in revisioning works in the public domain, as happens with King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes, etc.
>>I find it hilarious and sadly ironic that published books are so derivative that you end up in fan-dominated spaces to avoid the derivative stuff.<<
*shrug* I'm a hobby-scientist, a linguist, a literary analyst, a kitchen-sink scholar. I go where the data is. I have no qualms about mining fanfic to see what excites readers, then loading that into my original canons. It works. As I am not currently in school nor being paid to read slush, I don't have to read anything that bores me.
>> (I also think it's flat-out amazing that you have crossed over your own canon with another canon. Existing models don't usually allow for that kind of thing and I love you break them.) <<
*laugh* Existing models and I have a ... fragile world relationship.
I actually got Hulk muttering "Stupid reality tunnel. HULK SMASH." I really need to catch him doing that onstage.
>> That said, I personally like to read slightly crappy popular books, to get a feel for what happens in them. <<
I like Sharon Shinn's science fantasy Samaria novels. The science part is traaaaash. But the romance is usually fun and the worldbuilding is cool too. I just have to leave my suspension-of-disbelief bound and gagged in a trunk in the basement first.
>>I think that if The Hardcopy-Creating Machine really understood the power of fanfic, fanfic would be seriously threatened, as opposed to laughably attempted!threatened.<<
They are already engaged in a self-destructive game of whack-a-mole. I really don't see that ending well for them. If you are selling a nonessential product and you make your consumers hate you, they will leave in droves and take their money with them. Several other industries have learned this to their great sorrow.
Re: Thank you!
Thanks! I'll add that series to my list!
Re: Thank you!