The real reason the BWI topic blew up · 11:34am Feb 15th, 2015
Because Fimfiction hosts some terrible writers.
Seriously, look at some of the "reasoning" you see in that topic.
"It's a deconstruction! That totally makes it okay for the plot to be artsy and pretentious and for the characters to not at all act like believable human beings!"
(I should note that that's not what deconstruction means--It means taking a genre and seeing how it would play out realistically, which the example in question didn't do).
"You mean I have to do more than one draft? P'shaw! My first draft is perfect!" No honey, it isn't. Any author who only publishes first drafts is a hack, period.
"I don't have to read the classics because lesser authors rip them off anyway!" Oh, so when you need to fix a wiring problem in your house, you don't need to study electronics because you already see the end result? Bullshit.
I went and checked out some of the fanfics written by the people who had the biggest reactions to me, and... yep, they were terrible. Remember that girl I thought was a foreigner because of her less-than-perfect grasp of English? Guess what, her stories are just like that, in addition to being filled with one-dimensional characters and plots full of holes that would make Lovecraft or Tolkien weep. So no wonder she got defensive. I'm gonna have to check out Titanium Dragon's work too... considering his whole stance is "popular is good" I imagine he just plagiarized other people's fanfics, since after all if you imitate a popular author that makes you just as good, right?
Well, that's that I guess.
Well, what do we have hear? Some old-timer wannabe blogging about how some people pointed out faults in his rant, and is calling their stories terrible. As if that makes our points any less accurate.
Those stories you cling to as evidence of my ignorance, those were old. I was a young naïve fool who barely knew a thing about the art of writing literature! But again, you're credibility is based off of one old naïve story and two stories that I only wrote because I was fu*king around.
I'm only now starting to write a good story with effort and knowledge. Hell I have mentor who, I believe, has a much better understanding of literature than you!
But if we're judging people's knowledge of good literature based off of their own actual writing, then it would seem that I'm way ahead of you.
2811109 First, it's "here," not "hear." We'll get back to this in a minute.
Secondly nobody pointed out "faults," they just skimmed and then put words in my mouth, and you in particular just threw hissy fits over simple misunderstandings. In particular, you seemed to mistake "its too soon to call Harry Potter a bonafide classic" for "OMG HARRY POTTER IS TERRIBAD!" And apparently you have some huge fangirlism for Rowling's work because that almost immediately turned you hostile. What's the point of treating you respectfully when you're the one that brought the flamethrower? (In fact, looking over the topic now, it was actually pretty okay before you jumped in... Well, you and that guy who claimed S.T. Joshi wasn't a scholar because he broke arbitrary rules that he didn't really break. Ironically, that guy is now asking for examples of third person omniscience. If he read more books, he would've likely ran across Frank Herbert's Dune saga by now and thus wouldn't have needed to ask).
Now, getting back to grammar shit.
I find your claim that "those were old, I didn't know what I was doing" kind of suspect. For what it matters, the line that broke my suspension of disbelief was in that story "Rise of the Dark Age," right in the prologue, second paragraph:
Because? BECAUSE?! Even when I was five I knew the word for that was "But," not "because."
And you claim this kind of mistake (which by the way was far from the only one) is because you were inexperienced, and yet you were making the same type (and quantity) of errors throughout the BWI topic, and now one in a post made... yesterday. Yeah, no honey, that's not youthful ignorance. If it was, you would have recognized it and fixed it by now, but clearly you haven't.
Also, I'm immune from the "well your stories suck too" thing because, see: I know my fanfics are utter shit, so that's why I seek to improve. You however are already convinced you're perfect and have nothing to learn, which is why you're still in the same place you were when those old stories were written.
2814348
Did I stutter?
I never said that those stories were perfect. At best they're okay, according to viewers. But grammar. Who cares about perfect grammar on this site? For me, if I had to chose between having perfect grammar or having the skills to properly construct a well thought out plot and able to write out smooth scenes, I'd pick the latter.
Nope. You stated that literature past 1980 is trash. You never once mentioned Harry Potter until I brought it up. For the record, I didn't start anything. I just pointed it out and gave you my reason why I disagreed with you. It's when you responded the way you did is when things got heated.
You're not proving any of your points by insulting my grammar, which has no impact on the debate at all.
2814408
OH REALLY? So if I reconstructed the chain I would be the guy who threw the first stone? Lessee...
Okay, so you first entered the topic here. Pretty innocent so far, as is the one right below it. And I didn't even respond to those two posts. So let's go to page two....
Okay, the next point where we speak together at all is your post here and....
Uh-huh, yeah, you're totally being the voice of reason here. "Bull-fucking-shit" and "you've got a lot of nerve" and "you're too stuck up" sound exactly like civil discourse to me!
And like I said, your hyperbolic reaction is all based on misconceptions. What's the statement I made that encouraged that rash of anger?
.... And I'm failing to see how this is inflammatory or insulting at all. In fact, it doesn't even match what you claimed--I said popularity doesn't necessarily equal goodness and people tend to get too caught up in the moment. That you misconstrued this is pretty clear from your response, which again included lines like " You got a lot of nerve saying that Harry potter is nothing more than "just currently popular" " and "it means your too stuck up to admit that this is the new art form of literature."
So, there you go. I reconstructed the chain to see who flamed who first and funny who turned out to be the first one to throw swear words and how-dare-yous around. In fact if we go even farther, I was trying to keep calm for a couple of posts until it became clear you were out for blood! So yeah, next time you play the who-started-it game, might wanna make sure the other guy actually did start it.
Actually, it does. I mentioned the grammar in a story of yours. You responded by saying you were new to writing and making mistakes back then and that's why they happened. Except they're clearly still happening now. So either you're not aware that it's still happening, or you simply don't care. If the latter, then my statement of "you think you have no improving to do" is completely on target, no matter how much you deny it.
2814619
Calm attitude doesn't alway equal right. I threw curses because of how insanely wrong you were. The only reason you were, and continue to be so calm is because you act a smug ass.
On the contrary, you did reply back to me first. You just proved to me that you try to twist things to prove your point even when you have in fact contradicted yourself.
Wow. Even in your own blog you contradict yourself. Not once did you mention my grammar except in this comment that I made rather than in the story. Comments are pointless to use as evidence since I don't check for grammar and spelling every time I make a comment.
One last thing.
2814844
I did... but I didn't say anything inflammatory or offensive, certainly nothing to warrant the "bull-fucking-shit"s and "you're too full of yourself"s and all the other scorns you heaped upon me in your very next response. The case still stands: You were the first to display any uncivil behavior. And even now that the chain has been reconstructed (even the part you introduced only proves my point) you're still acting like you're the victim, when its clear to anyone with two eyes that you're not.
Clearly, you have issues.
You see? You're continuing to prove my point.
2814348
"because" is still perfectly acceptable here, as an explanation for the previous part of the sentence. Going by my interpretation of it, it could be rephrased as "Even the wendigoes' cold wasn't as cruel* as [Discord**], because at least it would end the ponies' suffering quickly***"
The "at least" part exists to explain the first statement, not to offer a counterpoint.
*(cruelty being what I assume is the competition here)
**(I assume again)
***(as opposed to the other, longer-winded option)
The grammar, as presented, is valid. Maybe having a semicolon after "draconequus" would make it clearer, or perhaps replacing "because" with "for" to better convey the intent. Sentences can have many different interpretations; demeaning one's structure based on only one of these interpretations is rarely appropriate.
This useless nitpicking has been brought to you by Derpy (tm), being best pone since forever!
2814892
Victim? Who said anything about being a victim? If anyone thinks they're a victim of anything it's you.
Sure, I swore, but that's because you didn't realize what you said makes no sense. Specifically you claimed that popular things don't make them good, which is true in itself, but by the way you worded it it sounded like you were saying that popular meant modern. Therefore saying that the modern is popular and therefore it's not good.
Right, because my anger of your arrogance is clearly the defining factor of an argument. Keep saying that I'm proving your point; it will help you sleep better at night.
2815656
Right here:
Okay, so what's the problem?...
.... What?
.... and I'm the one who makes no sense?
From what I'm able to make out, you understood the general premise of "being popular doesn't mean its good" but then somehow took "popular" to mean "modern" and thus got "all modern things are popular" and just... just seriously. What. The. Fraggle.
It's not the anger. It's that you fail to form coherent, rational thoughts. It seems like you listen to me talk then just go through looking for something else I did to piss you off. When you resort to things like "you're being smug," it becomes clear you're TRYING to be angry.