(no subject)

[flemmings]

Why do people indicate pairing and rating for a drabble? Is some fangirl going to go ballistic about 'you made me waste 30 seconds of my time reading a pairing I *loathe*!!???' Or have the wackymono not realized that stating half the information gleanable from a drabble beforehand immensely reduces the punch of the story? 'This is a joke about a dog who walks into a bar, and the punchline is a pun. So a dog walks into a bar...'

Comments

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

Ahaha. You made me paranoid! I went and checked my drabbles. ^^;

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Sorry. That wasn't addressed to the many drabblers I know personally, just an irritated aside about something I read in a community.

It reminded me of a Cavafy poem I vaguely recall, based on a line in a Byzantine history. I think the original line was the title and Cavafy then restated the thought in modern Greek, which is doubtless very effective if you know Greek. (Eg title is a line from Piers Ploughman, which is /impenetrable/ middle English, poem restates it in modern: no problem.) But Cavafy's hapless translator had to turn both parts into English and used the same words to do it in, which left you reading the same sentence twice and going Yeah, so what?

[kickinpants.livejournal.com]

I don't know...without a "warning", a poor unsuspecting 38-er might be forced to read a hundred words by a Aevil 39-er (or vice versa), and you know what happens then...

THE WHOLE WORLD BLOWS UP.

But, yeah,, summarizing a drabble is pretty out there. But I bet people might complain if they did "have" to read a pairing they didn't like. The same could be said for spoiler warnings on drabbles. "Spoiler- character death" really takes the punch out too.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

OH NO NOT THE WORLD!!! (rushes to put pairing warnings on all her fics)

Uhh- yeah. I suppose the joy of fandom for some people is it gives them something to take umbrage at. But spoiler warnings on drabbles... kind of takes the cake.

[incandescens]

You could change it to "destroys world"/"does not destroy world". An important fact, and easy to label by!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

True, but understood only by the cognoscenti. Unsuspecting fangirl clicks link that destroys world and then writes in distress that OMG u shd of said GAIDEN SPOILER!!! cause KONZEN DIES!!!!

[incandescens]

"So sorry, will label it "Destroys sun" next time in the hopes that this is more accurate."

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

You gamers and your secret handshakes...

[baka-gaijin.livejournal.com]

"Is some fangirl going to go ballistic about 'you made me waste 30 seconds of my time reading a pairing I *loathe*!!???"

~ falls to floor in fit of laughter ~

And sadly, there probably are fangirls out there that would do exactly that.
I've added you to my FL. I've only been able to read a few of your Saiyuki pieces, but they are very good. I'ld like to keep up with anything new you have in the works. XD