Degrees of dissonance

[graculus]

In the six or seven years I've been in fandom, I've read widely in a number of fandoms. I'm wondering if my tolerance levels are the same as they were, or whether it changes as new fandoms gain my interest, or is dependent on the fandom itself.

I've been reading a lot of Harry Potter fic recently. Some of it is excellent and some of it can only be described as god-awful. In essence, no better and no worse than any other fandom, as far as I can see. But where it differs in one respect is the couple of fics I've given up on early on because they just don't work - there's some fundamental flaw to the story premise that is only evident to me because I have a knowledge of the law and mores of the culture the stories are based in (not the wizarding world, of course, but mid-90's England).

So, I was wondering about this - I know there are people reading this entry that read in an equally wide variety of fandoms, or focus intently on one to the exclusion of all others, people with a wide variety of life experiences and areas of expertise. Can you get past a glaring error in something you have knowledge of and move on to read the rest of the story? Are you someone who, once they've started reading something, have to finish it? Or is it dependent on the quality of the tale, that if it's good enough then you can ignore something you know to be incorrect?

Inquiring minds and all that...

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Glaring errors can stop me reading, especially if they're central to the plot. Errors that throw me in an otherwise good story may inspire me to ask the author what they were thinking, when I give feedback.

But I don't feel obliged to finish reading anything. Except when it's short and I'm reading it as a favour for someone, like the beta-from-hell one of my friends was lumbered with. I read it all the way through just to prove that she was being a lot less harsh on the author than I would have been.

Gina

[seanchaidh.livejournal.com]

I used to be that way, particularly about novels, but as I've grown wiser older, I find I'm more picky. If there's something vital about the story I don't like, or that doesn't sit well, I close it.

A few examples?

Last night I was reading a CSI story, where the story did not state it was basically an AU. The author had Gil Grissom as a vampire, and that just rang so false with me, I closed it.

I read one SG-1 story where someone Daniel had met was somehow stranded offworld. While it was real written, my "suspension of disbelief" couldn't accept it and I closed the story.

Grammar isn't something I pay attention to too much unless it totally ruins the story's effect. Same with spelling. I'm more picky with bad writing, where the characters aren't reading true and there are huge issues with facts, etc.

[emony.livejournal.com]

If a story is good enough, I'd overlook some flaws, like maybe one or two glaring lapses in logic (ie. characters flying from Bulgaria to Scotland on broomsticks in half an hour) or even slightly dodgy characterisation, but it would bug me the entire rest of the way through the story. Like there's one HP story I've been reading which happened to include emails, and consequently email addresses, for the characters, who were, in this fic, an MP and a peer. The email addresses were obviously just made up, but it bugged me all the way through the fic that they weren't in the actual format that MPs and peers email addresses are in. It's incredibly petty and totally irrelevant to the story as a whole, but it was there at the back of my mind for the entire rest of the fic. For all I know, it was a deliberate choice by the author not to use the real format for parliamentary emails, but it sort of felt more like a casse of slacking a bit on the research, and if she slacked there how do I know she didn't slack elsewhere. It puts doubt into your mind, and then the fic just loses something, because if the author doesn't care enough to do her research, why should I care when I'm reading it? If that makes sense.

Bad characterisation and impossible scenarios will throw me out of a fic immediately too. I'm very fussy these days, actually. I barely read anything. It's sad.

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

For me it depends on how dependant the story is on that erronious premise.

If it's a passing mention of something that's wrong, I can let it go. If the whole story is built on a faulty premise, then I can't read the story.

For example, in the Stargate episode "1969", they show the Sears Tower as they supposedly pass through Chicago. The Sears Tower wasn't built in 1969. But it's a minor thing and doesn't detract from the absolute cracktasticness of that episode. If the whole episode had been based on something about the Sears Tower in 1969, I might have had a bigger issue with it.

As for "having" to finish something once I've started it... I used to be that way in all fandoms. I kept hoping that *maybe* it would get better. Then I got into heavily fic'ed fandoms like Stargate and I realized 'life's too short to read bad fic.'

Now I'm trying to find stuff in an almost non-existant fandom, so just to have *something* to read, I'm slogging through some truly horrific stuff.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I finally read the Da Vinci Code because of all the raving, and I apparently had the time to waste. While I was running through it hoping to get to the good bit (with all that praise, there should have been a good bit, right?) I hit the part where cardboard bloke character is in a London park looking at a London landmark. Sad thing is, you can't see said landmark from said park because there are all these buildings in the way. I dunno, maybe said cardboard bloke character had x-ray vision. If the only bits of the book I could speak to were complete nonsense, that really didn't say much about the rest of it. But hey, it's Dan Brown's alternate universe - he can write whatever the heck he likes.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

For me it depends on the quality of the story, how engrossed I am, and what kind of glaring error it is - different people will have different levels of 'glaring'. I've read a fair few stories with errors in them that have made me blink and think 'oh, yeh'? but generally if it's a one off thing and I'm already gripped, I tend to let it go. I've also come across things that I might perceive as an error, but that I'm well aware may not be an error in the country in which the story is set. So unless I really want to stop my reading to research this, I tend to let that go and make a mental note to check it, should it really bother me.

I can't honestly think of any error I've come across that has actually stopped me, or would actually stop me reading a story once I'd started. I tend to be extremely tolerant, more than a lot of people. However, if the error was something really fundamental that was easy to check out (after all something that I might consider glaring, because it's within my sphere of knowledge, might not be that easy to check out, okay I know, so why use it then, but....) then I might be leery about reading something else by said author.

I pretty much tend to finish something once I've started it. There's only one squick I have that will make me put down the story/novel and not pick it up again.

[blktauna.livejournal.com]

e exclusion of all others, people with a wide variety of life experiences and areas of expertise. Can you get past a glaring error in something you have knowledge of and move on to read the rest of the story? Are you someone who, once they've started reading something, have to finish it?

No...

Honestly... I expect a certain amount of basic research. Something that glaring says to me that if not enough care was taken with a big detail, then the rest is suspect. Sometime's I'll continue if the story is otherwise interesting, but my experience has shown that it's generally not worth continuing.

And Lord no, I feel absolutely no compunction to finish stories. I'm not a martyr... that's katyabaturinsky's job :P

[shinymarigold.livejournal.com]

Can you get past a glaring error in something you have knowledge of and move on to read the rest of the story?

Depends on whether or not it's a passing thing or a major plot point. I slogged through two or three books in a pro series because they were fast reads and I could overlook the bad GSP (which I think in a pro novel just should not be there), but when a major revelation in one book depended on what I felt to be a faulty understanding of paleoanthropology, I just stopped reading. I don't feel obligated to finish anything if I don't like it--I don't have that kind of time.

I like it when a writer does the research. Even if he/she never uses the actual facts, having the knowledge will inform the rest of the work. Then again, I'm very lazy, and I don't necessarily practice what I preach. 8-)

[obelix]

You probably already know this about me, but yeah I will overlook glaring errors if the story is good and keep on reading. But it does depend on the fandom in certain fandoms I expect more then in others.

An example of this is a story in Numb3rs where the author had Charlie as a student and it wasn't an AU. The story is good except for that particular fact which is wrong (Charlie is a full tenured Professor). So I let it pass but in other fandoms I am more demanding and grammar and spelling unless really really bad usually doesn't make me stop like it does others.

If I truly don't like a story then I won't keep reading it, I'll stop. ;-)

[cycnus39]

Oh you know I'm a picky old cow. Anything can throw me out a story -- be it spelling, grammar, character fuck-ups or glaring errors. Even if I'm enjoying a story an error will send me off on a rant. Would I keep reading post rant? It depends. If the characterisation was really good and the error was unconnected with that solid characterisation, maybe. Then again, it depends on the error. If it was glaring as in obvious to me and kept resurfacing in the plot (for example the main characters moving around a completely fucked up fictive Edinburgh) it would probably wind me up so much I'd have to quit. Or maybe skip to the dialogue...or the sex. As with everything else, I take what I want and leave the rest. I don't feel compelled to read every word of every story and actually rarely do so. ;-)

[xochiquetzl]

I must be easy. I stopped up short at Quinn's AU fic where Jack is given a dishonorable discharge and told Daniel will be fired if Jack ever sees him again, ground my teeth, and soldiered on because I was curious about the story.

It was a good story, but the premise was terribly flawed by a factual error. DADT does not apply to Daniel. Period. The end. And for Hammond to threaten to fire Daniel under DADT--well, civilians are protected from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, so Jack could have gotten Hammond in a lot of trouble. A LOT of trouble.

[katyabaturinsky.livejournal.com]

As Certain People have already pointed out, I do tend to complete stories that are absolute crap simply because I want to see how they'll turn out. Plus, I want to make sure that I can then criticize them -- even if only in my own mind -- while feeling that I have all the facts on hand and am completely justified in my opinions. Having said that, however, there are entire reams of stories that I won't touch with a 10-foot pole once I see the name of the author. I usually have a group of authors that I simply avoid in each fandom. Now it's always possible that I might skip a story in which one of these authors makes a great leap forward and produces an absolute treasure, but I'm not willing to take the risk. And I find that the longer I'm in fandom and the more I've read, the less tolerance I have for bad fic.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

It always depends, but for the most part, yes (I couldn't read any fic that dealt with legal issues otherwise). But not if it's a piece of canon that I really like or is foundational (there is, for example, a LOTR story I cannot read because the author makes the Undying Lands into a physical realm, just realm with a really hokey name. THERE ARE NO BARS IN THE UNDYING LANDS. It's the LOTRverse version of heaven, or an alternative plane of existence. It does not have bars, hotels, or chainstores. *sigh*).

[khek.livejournal.com]

Can you get past a glaring error in something you have knowledge of and move on to read the rest of the story?

I can move past a glaring error ONLY if the rest of the story is so compelling that I want to know how the author gets to the end. Otherwise, I just go read the end to satisfy my "so, what happens" craving and forget about it. And to be honest, I can only think of a couple stories where a glaring error hasn't made me give up, read the end, and move on.

If I start something, I do have to read the end, just to have a conclusion. That doesn't mean that I can't stop at page 18, check out page 50, and read page 88 and 89 to the "the end" posting that signifies that my torment is over.

If something is very well written, or if the plot makes so much sense except for one little niggling detail that doesn't work...I can keep reading and somehow justify it into my world view of THAT particular written world.