your friendly neighborhood cryptid otter

Ianthe awful nasty girl Tridentarius

i do not at all mean this in a perjorative manner, but i do think it’s important to be able to consume a piece of media and go, “i’m not the audience for this” and be able to just walk away 

there doesn’t have to be something wrong or “problematic” about something for a person to not like it. personal taste is personal taste. but something not doing it for you doesn’t mean it automatically has to be wrong or bad. it’s just not for you. 

There’s been several times when I’ve watched a thing and been like, they clearly did what they intended to do, and did it well, and I don’t want any part of it. This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art.

“This is a high quality and deeply unpleasant piece of art” is a wonderful line, I love it, I feel it in my soul

too good a take to be left in the tags

my life is enhanced by not watching everything just to please the other people who enjoy those things. There are things I need to not have in my head.

people are so obsessed with the idea of fake friends. look lots of people aren’t going to like you and also aren’t going to hate you so much they feel the need to pick an actual fight with you so they’re just going to be like. friendly. when you’re around each other because that’s what adults do. and probably not invite you to their birthday party. this is not a grand betrayal you do this to other people too

I'm always going to be an stalwart defender of both high art and complete trash. I also personally think that the best way to really open yourself up to the highs of the former is to be open to the guiltless pleasures of the latter.

-Marina Tsvetaeva

I don't want people to Consume My Content I want people to enjoy reading something I wrote for fun if they are so inclined. I don't want to Consume Content in fandom I want to enjoy stories and make friends

if you are reblogging this post talking about how This Is Why People MUST Comment On Fic you have missed the point of the post. that is NOT my point. people can do whatever they want with art, stories, and fun hobbies and nobody is owed comments or Number Go Up. I am objecting to the use of the word "content" which I think helps to commodify fanworks/fan culture and Demanding certain types of interaction with your work also, imho, does this to some degree

But it is content that takes time and energy that's being provided, and for free at that? I feel like there's this weird trend of saying it's not virtuous for people who create in fandom to want to be appreciated for it. I don't get it.

Why can consumers do "whatever they want with art," while creators can't? Consumers can demand content and this is seen as totally normal, but then are angry with creators for asking for feedback.

It's actually SO WEIRD.

Just to show an example:

Let's say you like to cook. You feed someone because you enjoy the process of cooking and want to share it. When you do, maybe that person thanks you and says your cooking is good, or maybe they just stuff their faces. If you really love what you do, maybe you keep feeding them even if it doesn't feel like anyone is enjoying the meal because hey, I like sharing, right?

But, maybe you decide you'd rather not give any more food to people who don't tell you it's yummy. Maybe you're a shitty cook and that's why everyone is silent, but either way, some people will quit if nobody seems to like it. I guess you COULD think it's morally wrong to make anything for any reason other than the sole enjoyment of the process, but then I'm not sure why artists would feel the need to share their work at all, then?

Weird capitalist comparisons aside (that always seems to be used as a shaming tactic), people stop providing things when it doesn't benefit them to give. This is true in ALL areas of life, even relationships (at least what I consider as healtheir ones. Yes, give cause you love the person, but you don't have to be a doormat).

To go back to the cooking comparison, maybe they just quit because they don't like cooking anymore. Maybe they don't like cooking for YOU. Maybe they only want to cook for people who praise the bejeezes out of them. OR maybe, they will cook for years even if they're bad at it, no one cares, or no one appreciates it. All of these are just as valid of choices as someone to do "whatever they want with art." Especially if it's THEIR art.

See where I'm going with this?

All I'm saying is that you don't have to be some altruistic saint to make fandom content. If you want comments, okay cool. You may or may not get them. Then, you can decide whether or not it's still worth sharing your work when you figure that out.

Plenty of creators leave for not getting feedback, and y'know what? Cool! They have every right to, just like someone who reads, looks at or "consumes" anything creators make have a right to say nothing about it.

ok. well. first of all read the post again without deciding what I said after the first sentence.

1) my point is to free ourselves from using words like "content" and talk about "providing" it "for free." it is not a "service." even if you write because you'd like for people to read it, as many of us do, including me!, that doesn't make it a SERVICE you are PROVIDING for which you feel OWED something. I don't feel OWED something when I cook, either! that is not a checkmate! it is nice when people say they like it. I am also happy with the evidence that someone cleaned their plate. I am also happy to cook for myself. I am not "providing services" when I write, nor when I cook for my friends. I really really encourage you to free yourself from thinking about these things this way. I know people are going to say it's just semantics or whatever but these words have strong connotations and DO alter the way you are viewing what you do and how you respond to others. "providing a service" is very different from "sharing." there are very different connotations.

2) I am not bringing up capitalism to shame anyone I am bringing up capitalism because it's literally capitalism. talking about things in these terms of Services Provided For An Arbitrary Value is in fact. capitalism. "content" is a word with strong connotations of soulless consumable commodities.

3) I am sorry people give up when people don't give them attention. I am saying that it would be healthier not to do this. I acknowledged that this is difficult. I literally said that I am a writer and that I want attention. I did not assign any moral value to this. why are you talking about morals and virtue. who said that. what I said was you cannot control other people and if we want fandom to be healthier and happier we should focus on community and sharing and not on services and exchange. it is beyond frustrating that people can't note concern about these trends and thought processes without people acting like they said they're a virtuous monk or some shit. I did not say that even once.

4) reblogging posts like "people coming here from twitter better reblog and not like because likes don't do anything" literally is demanding something from other people? that's not a matter of people having different ideas about what they want from art. that is instructing people in a way that implies they're doing something wrong. I am not the one demanding people do anything? I am asking people to try to rethink this and consider how it changes their feelings about their art.

5) not sure where I said "consumers can do whatever they want." readers and viewers also have no right to "demand" anything of anyone in the same way it would be rude to, to use your metaphor, stick your head in a neighbor's window and demand a slice of pie. it would also, however, be rude to offer someone a slice of pie, then passive aggressively bang around the kitchen huffing until they said something about it, or never give them a piece of pie again because, although they happily accepted it and cleaned their plate, you wanted more for something you offered to do of your own volition because you enjoyed it. it would be fine to say "did you like it?" or "do you think it could use some more x?," but that is not the kind of thing I'm talking about.

6) no one said fic and art isn't hard work. literally no one is ever saying that. the point is "doing work" is not the same thing as "labor" for which compensation is required, and if you are so upset about people not providing compensation because you view your writing as a "service" that you worked hard on, then you are going to be unhappy, because you cannot control the actions of others, and you are free to not do it. and maybe you'll stop and find you're happier not doing it all! I do not think this is wrong because nobody here but you is talking about morals or virtue or whatever.

my point is I DO NOT CREATE CONTENT AND PROVIDE A SERVICE TO CUSTOMERS I write stories. I enjoy hearing what other people like about those stories. I also cannot demand it from people. talking about fandom in terms taken from the capitalist advertiser influencer internet DOES change the way we think about things and IS a negative thing.

i dont know exactly how to articulate this in a way other people havent but everything is too fast now. 24/7 news cycle, online focuses that last for hours instead of months or years, songs written just so ten seconds can go viral. movies and books churned out to meet some nebulous income quota. idk. im motion sick

Bill Watterson, 1995

You're not alone or the first to feel like everything is going too fast

userdramas event 01: favorite

Actually my headcanon for how Harrow felt about Gideon pre-Canaan House was basically “Heartbreaking: Worst Person You Know Is Also Extremely Hot”

The reason she responds so quickly to Gideon saying “why was I born so attractive?” is because she has been asking herself that question about Gideon since the moment she hit puberty

i never left this website but in like a hotel california kind of way

andrew garfield for gq, 2022

I’ve been on T for about 5 years and have had zero vaginal atrophy. I forget that other transmasc folks experience it until I see posts like this, and I definitely wouldn’t include it in any smut I wrote because I have no idea what it’s like. But it wouldn’t be the first time I had my smut fic called unrealistic in regards to things I’ve experienced IRL

well maybe the power of love would fix things did you guys think of that? if not we could try biting

A series of events:

1. I put in an Annual Leave request form almost 3 weeks ago and my boss has not approved it yet

2. I went into my office today and replaced every single writing utensil with crayons in preparation for April Fools Day on Monday

3. Whilst searching for pens to remove, I found my unsigned Annual Leave form in my boss’s drawer

4. I placed my unsigned Annual Leave form in a photo frame and put in on his desk

5. The frame I used was from a photo of his kids that I deemed less important than my Leave form

6. My boss sometimes goes into the office on Saturdays to work

7.

I appreciate the context of 1-6 or else 7 might have had some very concerning implications.

one of the craziest things about mental illness is when you know you're mentally ill and that this causes you to Experience Symptoms but then when you're Experiencing those Symptoms you're like "what could possibly be causing this... the mental illness? no... that can't be it... there must just be something wrong with me..." and then it turns out it was in fact the mental illness

“apologist.” “critical.” y’all are doing too much. when my favorite characters do evil reprehensible shit I simply don’t fucking care cause it’s not real

"Can I say dyke as a bi girl" is like the leftist version of having to ask your pastor if birth control is a sin

I wish some of y'all start engaging with the community on terms more nuanced than "what are the rules I need to know and enforce" it's exhausting seeing teenagers argue over who gets to call themselves "gay" when that shit doesn't matter in the big picture