It's hard to take some reader reviews seriously...

[lagilman]

Normally I am as easily crushed by a negative reader review as any delicate authorial hothouse flower. But when someone's complaint seems to be "OMG this book is full of made-up magical terms!" this particular flower tend to let her eyes skim over the rest of the text.

Because, um, yeah? And y'know what? Not only are the magical terms made up (or, in some cases, stolen from Edison, Tesla and Franklin?) but SO IS THE MAGIC! And also the characters. And a lot of the place names. And oh yeah, the plot...

Come on, folk. If you don't like the worldbuilding, hey, fine. If the story bored you to tears, or you didn't think something was believable, okay. If you thought one of my characters was a prat and didn't want to waste any more time with them, fair call. But dissing me because I made up magical terms that you didn't like? GMAFB* and go read the newspaper.

Sheesh.




*Give Me a Fkcuing Break.

Comments

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

GMAFB? Grab my ass fuck ball? Too many acronyms on the internet. My current favorite? YOMANK: you owe me a new keyboard.

[lagilman]

give me a fkcuing break. That one predates the Internet, actually...

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

Back in them thar olden days we only had to mentally manage a handful of acronyms though, and my brain was younger. These days there seem to be thousands of the nasty little things crawling around and obscuring meaning. Makes me not want to use any of them. Except FUBAR. I'll always have a soft spot for FUBAR.

My copy of Staying Dead arrived today & will be started as soon as I finish Rachel Caine's Firestorm (probably tomorrow). In case you were wondering whether LJ has brought you any new readers.

[lagilman]

The military as always given us the best acronyms. That almost makes up for sh*t on a shingle.

And yay! -- and I hope you find the made-up terms acceptable....

[hilleviw.livejournal.com]

Oh please. When you make up a thing, you have to make up a name for it. Duh. It's a manifestation of what we call "imagination." It's what we pay you for.

[neko-san.livejournal.com]

That so goes under "people unclear on the concept". *giggle*

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

Wow, some people really have trouble with the concept of fiction, don't they?

[blazedglory.livejournal.com]

Fiction! Thanks! I knew there was a word for it.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

You mean... You mean, it's all lies?

*faints*

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

This is a gentle reminder to go see "Galaxy Quest" again. Gilligan's Island? Those poor people!

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest sending said reviewer a note reminding her what fiction was, but it would probably not help matters.

I cannot imagine a book reviewer dissing a fantasy/sf novel for using terms both made up and from science. He/she obviously needs a new day job, assuming that critiquing *is* his/her day job.

[girasole.livejournal.com]

I teach children's and young adult literature to teachers and librarians. In one of my classes, we discuss the following:

"Stories are all lies" from Jane Yolen's The Queen's Own Fool

"Not all of it happened, but all of it is true." this of historical fiction and fiction in general.

It is always a fruitful discussion, because there are always one or two who haven't actually thought about stories before.

[lagilman]

"They are none of them real, but they are all true." - Tad Williams

That's always been up there with my favorite writing-related quotes, along with Graham Joyce's "That's how I see life, a bundle of horror and humor."

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

What?! No magic? Soon you'll be telling me there's no Santa Claus! *snicker*

Some people are seriously out of touch with reality.

[lagilman]

It's like the readers who get miffed when someone deviates from the 'accpeted' rules of vampirism, etc. They want something that looks like fantasy and smells like fantasy and flies like fantasy -- but doesn't require the effort of fantasy.

They can go read (fill in name of pre-digested LCD fantasy series of choice here) for that.

[jperceval.livejournal.com]

Yeah. If anything, you're *more* creative b/c you don't rely on some arbitrary set of rules (that someone else made up a long time ago, LOL).

It's hard to take some reader reviews seriously...

[egilligan.livejournal.com]

Uh ... Did the "reviewer" know she was reading genre fiction? Does she know the meaning of "genre?" Tell me this ditz was just one of those general reader reviews that can be found all over the internet making this excrable lack of understanding even somewhat excusable!

Lace aka ElizaBeth Gilligan

PS ... LJ is great, but I feel compelled to repeat some of the descriptive terms just assigned to the misguided (at best) reviewer when dealing with the spellchecker. I mean, I only wanted to verify the spelling of a single word, but this is totally screwed up!

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

You know what I hate? When fiction turns out not to be true!

[elialshadowpine]

*shakes head*

At that point, you file said review under "Stupid people who just Didn't Get It." :P

And in the bookstores...

[douglas-clegg.livejournal.com]

Laura Anne -

The other day I went to the B&N up in Warwick, Rhode Island. I noticed they had several copies of Curse the Dark and Bring It On -- as well as the mass market of Staying Dead -- all nicely faced-out in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section.

Just thought you'd want to know!

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Gee... You mean Wren Valere and Sergei and the Retrievers and Talent all don't exist?

[(Anonymous)]

Say it ain't so!

Fiction = Made Up

[argillaceous-d.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a workshop I attended at the NJRW Conference one year with Maggie Shayne. She writes Romantic Fantasy and is a Wiccan High Priestess. The workshop was on Wicca for those who were interested in incorporating into their writing.

She was laughing as she told us a story about how one of the High Wiccan Councils or somethingorother similar group in the UK was denouncing the Harry Potter movies for innacuracy. Apparently, *everyone* knows that when you fly on your broomstick you should be sitting left to right and Harry and the gang are doing it right to left (or vice versa...don't remember the correct/incorrect clearly)

She collapsed into spasms of laughter. Apparently, Witches don't *really* fly on their broomsticks after all. Go figger...

Re: Fiction = Made Up

[lagilman]

doesn't it make a difference if your broomstick is made of rowan or beech?