Quick things

[blamebrampton]

* HAPPY BIRTHDAY 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.

Comments

[gracefulfool.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the Temeraire books are so much fun! And I can't decide who I have a bigger crush on, Lawrence or Temeraire... ;)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

When Temeraire was wishing he could be a human for a while, or Laurence a dragon ... it was so ridiculously romantic! And Levitas made me cry appallingly. I am hopelessly besotted with the whole idea and only hope things continue as well as they have begun (most of the way through Vol 1 as I type).

[chantefable.livejournal.com]

*perplexed* *raises hand* Is it an adventure novel that focuses on a homoerotic interspecies friendship?

[nuclearsugars.livejournal.com]

I'm giggling my head off over here at the idea of someone needing several cups of tea in order to stomach someone's fic.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

*Pours Earl Grey, offers lemon. Looks at your icon to see you brought some!*

Though it's no worse than work where I have occasionally needed hot chocolate to face some writers ...

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

*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!'

That! *lol* Exactly. :) Totally made my day. *off to find some tea*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I went to see a therapist after one car v Brammers incident, just because I was worried that the next time someone honked at me for no reason I was going to throw my U-lock through their window and then throttle them until their teeth fell out.

She was great, and told me that rage was probably better directed into physiotherapy, and gave me a few good breathing exercises that I could use in case I found myself ever a heartbeat away from vicious strangulating of motorists.

I went back the next week because I had booked two appointments and thought I should use them up. She was sick and had in a locum. Who proceeded to produce so much psychobabble that I had to use my freshly learned breathing exercises to save his scrawny throat.

It may be that I am not the best person in the world to talk about 'triggers', I will admit that.

[vaysh11.livejournal.com]

Breathing exercises are something we all should learn at a young age.

Did you read Cats' post from today, btw? I cannot believe the two of your, thousands of miles apart, had their cars run in by strangers at the same day. *hugs*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I DID! I KNOW! Though I was happy hers came to confess. Ours didn't even leave a note, bastard. Oh well, we have enough money for it not to be a disaster, and it may be the final push to get rid of the bloody thing, which we should have done a few years ago when the local car-sharing scheme took off.

And I did actually learn lots of good breathing exercises when I was young, I just wrote a lot of them off as hippie muck, which made me look quite the idiot when the nice therapist was all: 'No, they're actually exactly the same and really good for you.' We agreed that I would be more accepting of hippie muck in future if I could continue to reject tie-dye without question.

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

We could officially name it "run over a car" day ...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh no, some people would take that as a challenge for next year! *Sympathises with our cars*

At least neither of us were in them at the time!

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

I see ... starting a tradition would indeed be too harmful to the cars - so, no namesake day.

At least neither of us were in them at the time!

That puts things into perspective. I was once bashed from my bike by an opening car door - the only traffic accident I ever had. No, I wouldn't want to repeat things like this being inside a car that gets run over.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

While one negative is indeed the presumptiousness about the writing's power, I always thought it was condescending, more than anything: warning is on something "everyone" agrees on (we agree), while trigger is something the author thinks only a speshul few can't handle. Of course that applies to the way some warnings are worded so ... differs like the writers themselves.

[lokifan]

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!'

LOL quite. And while I'm happily pretty much trauma-free, fandom is very good at self-policing on warnings and we seem to do okay - trigger warnings strike me as overkill. I mean, if your trigger is something serious/common it should be in the warnings anyway.

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

*has got hit by a car only once*

Well, for one, I got so used to seeing the word 'warning', I'd skip right over it if it were renamed into anything else. Also, character death or rape or violence don't trigger anything in me. Doesn't mean I like any of those and wouldn't want to avoid them if I could.

[pushdragon.livejournal.com]

I have an alibi.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

HA! You would be sitting ON the car, demanding a tour of the city's finest shoe shops!

I watched Merlin earlier and am reading Merlin fic now. Both these things are entirely your fault. Bless you.

[pushdragon.livejournal.com]

I will NEVER ask you to take me to shoe shops. Last time that happened, I came away with a very expensive addiction!

Sleepy, dishevelled Arthur going out to meet his doom whilst still quarrelling with Merlin was pretty much the hottest thing my TV has ever seen. It's still got smoke coming out the edges of the screen.

Also, I blame Mer. (For the Merlin, not the car - I believe she has an alibi too.)

Hope the damage is either not too bad, or bad enough to amount to a handy write-off for insurance purposes.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

You know, we can never actually be in the same room as Bradley James as Bad Things would happen.

And you're the one who caused me to buy a pair of bondage boots.

*Looks up and realises what that looks like to people who do not know us well.*
*Leaves it.*

Alas, the car is dinged enough in an awkward spot to be costly but not fatal. I would not mind losing the beast and just joining the local go-get scheme, all I want are bookshelves!

[scarletscarlet.livejournal.com]

So D linked to this post from hers on warnings etc, and - yeah, you make an interesting point re triggers vs warnings, and there does seem to be a redundancy in making a separate *type* of warning.

I mean, they CAN be quite small things, and quite specific things, and any of a huge variety of things. It's almost as though one could say, of triggers-that-wouldn't-usually-be-a-warning: warning - contains words. I have some very specific things that stress me out a fair bit, and I can't imagine anyone even considering warning for them.