Quick things
Jul. 11th, 2010 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blamebrampton* HAPPY BIRTHDAY ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
al_hazel ! I hope you are having a lovely one!
* Some bastard ran into our car and drove off, which is why we cannot open the drivers' door and why I have no new shelves from Ikea. BOO! I think we will finally sell it since it was used once last month and this would have been its first drive this month.
* I finally picked up the first of the Temeraire books, whichpseudicide thrust into my hands ages ago -- I foolishly popped onto a (laden) shelf at the time. I am loving it!
* After thinking about it for days after a friend brought the topic up, I have worked out why I like warnings and hate 'trigger alerts'. It's partly because warnings usually focus on big things that aren't part of the average person's everyday existence, including death and sexual violence and so on. So I like them because they warn for things that one can reasonably plan to avoid in an average day, in fanfic as much as in the street. Trigger alerts on the other hand are facing a range of issues so broad as to be basically useless (for example, I often need a little cup of tea when I see someone ploughed down by a car on telly, but not everyone has been run over as often as I have, so I can't sensibly make a fuss that it's a trigger, even if it is). But that isn't actually what makes me cranky about the word (one that should go back to psychology, where it belongs). It's the presumptuousness of it all: 'Oh yes, your writing is SO affecting that the reader is BOUND to need several cups of tea at least if they are confronted by it!'
Which is not totally fair on my part as some people use the term in good faith (though others don't). But 'warning' to me says that the author wants the reader to make an informed choice, while 'trigger' seems overkill, like warnings for nuts on a bag of peanuts. If your fic contains something that you know is liable to upset a significant part of the readership, why not just warn? Tell the reader how they're going to react and they may end up like me, watching half the car accidents on telly and shouting 'What a load of bullshit!' out of sheer perversity.
And yes, I did just watch several hours of the Tour de France out of similar willful bloody-mindedness. Thankfully, Robbie McEwan sustained no further injuries – I think that's a first.
al_hazel ! I hope you are having a lovely one!* Some bastard ran into our car and drove off, which is why we cannot open the drivers' door and why I have no new shelves from Ikea. BOO! I think we will finally sell it since it was used once last month and this would have been its first drive this month.
* I finally picked up the first of the Temeraire books, which
pseudicide thrust into my hands ages ago -- I foolishly popped onto a (laden) shelf at the time. I am loving it! * After thinking about it for days after a friend brought the topic up, I have worked out why I like warnings and hate 'trigger alerts'. It's partly because warnings usually focus on big things that aren't part of the average person's everyday existence, including death and sexual violence and so on. So I like them because they warn for things that one can reasonably plan to avoid in an average day, in fanfic as much as in the street. Trigger alerts on the other hand are facing a range of issues so broad as to be basically useless (for example, I often need a little cup of tea when I see someone ploughed down by a car on telly, but not everyone has been run over as often as I have, so I can't sensibly make a fuss that it's a trigger, even if it is). But that isn't actually what makes me cranky about the word (one that should go back to psychology, where it belongs). It's the presumptuousness of it all: 'Oh yes, your writing is SO affecting that the reader is BOUND to need several cups of tea at least if they are confronted by it!'
Which is not totally fair on my part as some people use the term in good faith (though others don't). But 'warning' to me says that the author wants the reader to make an informed choice, while 'trigger' seems overkill, like warnings for nuts on a bag of peanuts. If your fic contains something that you know is liable to upset a significant part of the readership, why not just warn? Tell the reader how they're going to react and they may end up like me, watching half the car accidents on telly and shouting 'What a load of bullshit!' out of sheer perversity.
And yes, I did just watch several hours of the Tour de France out of similar willful bloody-mindedness. Thankfully, Robbie McEwan sustained no further injuries – I think that's a first.
