"Sometimes I wonder if I actually did, in fact. It's the one thing I sporked that I just can't seem to let go of, no matter how hard I try to forget it--with the bad fanfics I mostly just get out my rage at them and then forget about them, whereas this one...I can say with no irony whatsoever that I've had nightmares about it! But the fact that it's so bad means that every time I come across another work that COULD be worse I have to go back to it for comparison...." Good grief. D: *offers bleeprin*
I had the same experience with the Draco Trilogy, but that seared itself into my head strongly enough that I didn't have to go back and check if it was worse than [Work X]. Mercifully. :\
"Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to turn it into a tome of eldritch lore. Twisted!: the story so bad even the SPORKING is enough to make you go mad from the revelation!" XD I'm not sure - I think Celebrian is classically a strong contender for that title. And the Sword of Truth series tends to have its more ludicrous moments Memetically Mutate to the point that people try to pick up a single book to see just how bad it is, at which point... well, for a long time the second book in the series was the only one that I had ever thrown across a room, put it that way.
"Speaking of Twisted!, that actually lines up rather nicely with what the others on Das Sporking said about its associated artwork: they all seemed to think that it gives a very good first impression, but if you actually look beyond that first impression it's mediocre at best and an endless stream of unfortunate implications at worst." Yeah, it's both interesting and unnerving to see to what extent the various psychological pathologies (and I don't mean neuroatypical groupings, I mean the actively malicious personality disorders) repeat the same patterns over and over again. I've been reading up on Scientology, and it apparently works in a similar manner - good surface glitz, but it gets uglier and uglier the deeper you go in. (Well, until L. Ron Hubbard fried his brain with drugs, at which point even the surface glitz failed.)
It's just... impressive to what extent the surface stuff is spritzed up, and to what extent the interior is hollow.
"That's what really gets to me. It's one thing to engage in conspicuous consumption, but these people don't even hang onto the expensive things they buy and ply one another with beyond a single use--they just throw them away because how DARE the peasants around them even think of getting the same nice things they do!" You give them too much credit. You assume the peasants even come into the picture. :\ When the peasants are actually directly in front of them, yes, they're spiteful. But otherwise? Just walking sacks of blood, ja?
"And thus we have countless narcissistic hack writers who write something creepy with no idea just how creepy it is, because the subtext that inevitably leaks into their story is not something they ever thought through. It's their story so CLEARLY their way of seeing it is the ONLY way that counts!" Again... think you give them too much credit. "No idea" implies that they could be told. I think they understand the subtext, but they're offended that ANYONE ELSE would see it as a bad thing.
Again - The Mask of Sanity. When cornered with undeniable evidence, the psychopaths would proudly admit that they had pulled one (or more) over on their victims. Any given psychopath would also proudly state, in the same session, that he was a Man Of His Word, and be appalled, offended, and enraged that anyone would think otherwise.
The rabbit hole goes deeper than one might imagine... :\
"The really sad thing is, even some authors who aren't terrible do that every so often (JKR, here's looking at you!)." I think half the problem with HP is that it retains a lot of that children's-story morality even when it's dealing with serious situations. To have Muggles be silly and ignorant, all Slytherins be evil-ish, and morality centered on Harry was one thing in Book 1, and is entirely another by the end of the series. :\
"Wait...is that a thing from Eragon, then?" Yeah, it's a silvery circle on the palm that the Rider gets from the dragon nosing up to him for the first time. Ron got a silvery circle on his forehead from Rowena... blessing him, or something. It wasn't CALLED a gedwey ignasia, but I think I'd been commenting on how very similar the purple prose was for a while and the coincidence just floored me.
Knowing both Claire and Paolini's modus operandi, they probably ripped it off from the same much-better source, but still. :P
no subject
Good grief. D: *offers bleeprin*
I had the same experience with the Draco Trilogy, but that seared itself into my head strongly enough that I didn't have to go back and check if it was worse than [Work X]. Mercifully. :\
"Maybe I'm subconsciously trying to turn it into a tome of eldritch lore. Twisted!: the story so bad even the SPORKING is enough to make you go mad from the revelation!"
XD I'm not sure - I think Celebrian is classically a strong contender for that title. And the Sword of Truth series tends to have its more ludicrous moments Memetically Mutate to the point that people try to pick up a single book to see just how bad it is, at which point... well, for a long time the second book in the series was the only one that I had ever thrown across a room, put it that way.
"Speaking of Twisted!, that actually lines up rather nicely with what the others on Das Sporking said about its associated artwork: they all seemed to think that it gives a very good first impression, but if you actually look beyond that first impression it's mediocre at best and an endless stream of unfortunate implications at worst."
Yeah, it's both interesting and unnerving to see to what extent the various psychological pathologies (and I don't mean neuroatypical groupings, I mean the actively malicious personality disorders) repeat the same patterns over and over again. I've been reading up on Scientology, and it apparently works in a similar manner - good surface glitz, but it gets uglier and uglier the deeper you go in. (Well, until L. Ron Hubbard fried his brain with drugs, at which point even the surface glitz failed.)
It's just... impressive to what extent the surface stuff is spritzed up, and to what extent the interior is hollow.
"That's what really gets to me. It's one thing to engage in conspicuous consumption, but these people don't even hang onto the expensive things they buy and ply one another with beyond a single use--they just throw them away because how DARE the peasants around them even think of getting the same nice things they do!"
You give them too much credit. You assume the peasants even come into the picture. :\ When the peasants are actually directly in front of them, yes, they're spiteful. But otherwise? Just walking sacks of blood, ja?
"And thus we have countless narcissistic hack writers who write something creepy with no idea just how creepy it is, because the subtext that inevitably leaks into their story is not something they ever thought through. It's their story so CLEARLY their way of seeing it is the ONLY way that counts!"
Again... think you give them too much credit. "No idea" implies that they could be told. I think they understand the subtext, but they're offended that ANYONE ELSE would see it as a bad thing.
Again - The Mask of Sanity. When cornered with undeniable evidence, the psychopaths would proudly admit that they had pulled one (or more) over on their victims. Any given psychopath would also proudly state, in the same session, that he was a Man Of His Word, and be appalled, offended, and enraged that anyone would think otherwise.
The rabbit hole goes deeper than one might imagine... :\
"The really sad thing is, even some authors who aren't terrible do that every so often (JKR, here's looking at you!)."
I think half the problem with HP is that it retains a lot of that children's-story morality even when it's dealing with serious situations. To have Muggles be silly and ignorant, all Slytherins be evil-ish, and morality centered on Harry was one thing in Book 1, and is entirely another by the end of the series. :\
"Wait...is that a thing from Eragon, then?"
Yeah, it's a silvery circle on the palm that the Rider gets from the dragon nosing up to him for the first time. Ron got a silvery circle on his forehead from Rowena... blessing him, or something. It wasn't CALLED a gedwey ignasia, but I think I'd been commenting on how very similar the purple prose was for a while and the coincidence just floored me.
Knowing both Claire and Paolini's modus operandi, they probably ripped it off from the same much-better source, but still. :P