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Blog By Stanman63 I hate having to post this, but all of this nitpicking might cause her to leave. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THAT? |
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Stanman May Your Light Forever Shine |
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Folks commented ...
... because they cared about the character and the situation, stan. I'm sure no one ever meant to hurt Jacquimac. That's not how we roll in BCTS.
But if, as her editor, you knew that some would be affected that way by the story, you could have warned her that people would be concerned for Jack and counseled her to make a few small changes so people would accept what was happening and not be so worried for him. For example, she could have circumvented the concerns of those readers who worried Jack was being hypnotized or drugged by showing more thought and a conscious decision on his part before he just agreed to go along with the plan so easily.
Because the central premise of the tale was left wide open, it invited people to wonder why anyone would treat Jack that way, and that led to speculation. I'm pretty sure she intended people to wonder about the reason for his "election" from the start. That was the core mystery of the whole thing, after all. But when you put a sweetie like Jack in a situation where it feels like nobody is listening to him and position it as a reward, readers are going to feel bad for him.
Because we cared.
I'm sorry, Jacqui, but in the end, you did what you were supposed to do as a writer. You made people care enough to stand up for a character you created. Is that really so bad?
I think you should be PROUD, not upset, because you made us all care.
*hugs*
Randa
No Nitpicking
RAMI
I do not think most if any of the comments were nit picking. I am not even sure how you would define that.
There are many comments, wondering where the story was going. Why was the child selected? Why was he kept in the dark? Why was he so accepting? Why are they obviously femenizing him, without his true knowledge and consent?
Those are direct questions about the story.
In fact, the author wrote the story so well, that she stirred up a hornets nest. Readers were concerned with the life of this entirely fictional character.
That the author did not feel the need to reveal what she intended earlier on, is and remains her perspective.
However, unless an author shuts off comments, then they need to expect serious questions about what they are doing to their characters.
I do not think that any of my comments were nit picking.
Moral Superiority is a strange way to describe the comments. Would you say people who criticized a story where the characters were undergoing forced sex change by the Nazis, which included torture and death, to be raising questions of Moral Superiority. I truly hope not.
RAMI
RAMI
Commendable you're rallying to her side Stan but I don't believe
any of us readers meant her harm. If anything our sometimes animated comments are a tribute to the memorable characters and to the mystery she has placed them in.
As a reader, and I imagine many are like me, we, um *I* get into the story. I imagine myself as the *speaker*.
The boy is such a likeable kid. He doesn't fuss much at all despite the bizzare *honor* he has been *voted*. As our, the reader's, main source of info is what the child experiences we can only guess as he is guessing.
It is clear to me our author's intention was to create a mystery as Randalynn pointed out. In this our author has succeeded in spades. I am assuming that where it might be perceived by you as her editor or by her as the author as criticism are comments that express frustration at not knowing. Or in that we may have leapt to conclusions, we are seeing the child being patronized or even maybe abused and that is upsetting you, Stan, as it is not the case.
I think it all comes down to how well the character of the boy is drawn and how much we sympathize with him. From what I have seen and I have read nearly all the comments, any anger in our comments is directed at those keeping the child in the dark about why what is happening to him and what actually is happening to him. IE we are angry/upset at the perceived villains of the story and not at the author.
When all you have is a limited sample of the whole facts speculation can run rampant. Look at how bad the press is sometimes in covering a *breaking story*. It is entirely possible we are tilting at windmills here. But to be fair to us readers, who do not have the *inside information* the author and you have you must admit we have so far little to go on, thus the speculation. The mystery remains just that, a mystery and we are so very eager to learn the *truth*.
If I have offended the author am sorry as it was never my intention. I am only eager to find out the WHYS behind the tale, IE WHY the town did what they did? I am looking forward to when the mystery is revealed and I imagine I will be right on some things and very wrong on others. But that is the purpose of a good mystery story, to make the readers think.
Don't think of our comments and speculation as an attack on the writer, see it for what it is , a tribute to the strength of the characters she has created and the power of the situation they are in that it elicits such concern for a fictional person. Any of the seemingly sharper comments I suspect are reflections of frustration on some readers parts.
Hey not everyone is as laid back as I am but I can put myself in their shoes and understand their frustration. I DO want to know the *answer* to the mystery surrounding this fine young child just as much as they do. But I will wait.
Pretty please can we have the answer soon?
--GRIN -
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
I was afraid of this
That's why I made the comment I did on Ch. 9. As I said in my comment, I didn't care for the story, I made that known some chapters back. Then I shut up and put her on my ignore list. No distinction there, I've "ignored" the writers of better than two-thirds of the stories currently on the front page. I read what I want to read, and I don't pay any attention to the rest. Some pretty popular writers with lots of well-received stories to their credit.
As I said in my comment, I basically thought people were taking every opportunity to slam the story, the same tired wheeze after every chapter. And that was going OTT in my humble opinion. So I made an appeal to people to just lighten up. I do believe in fair play for everybody, you should know that as I have spoken up for you on several occasions. (There is one person who is an exception to this, but that's neither here nor there. Never said I was perfect.)
Erin put it right in the masthead of the frontpage: "A friendly place to read, write and discuss Transgender Fiction." Sometimes we forget that. There's a common saying in the ranks of police officers - "Police Brutality" is the way a civilian would react to the same provocation. I know we aren't trained to be firmly in control of our actions/reactions as that. It takes a pretty thick hide to write and post on a TG site, here on BC sometimes it also requires being flameproof! And that isn't the way it should be. Sure, make a polite dissenting comment, but then drop it! Continually hammering the same point accomplishes nothing except to bruise feelings and piss people off.
So Stan, try and calm Jacquimac down. And everybody else give it a rest, please?
* * *
"Girls are like pianos, when they're not upright they're grand!" Benny Hill
Karen J.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin