"But you can't have love and rhetoric without the blood, blood is compulsory."

Or, in the words of the Immortal Leary

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and FUCK YOU!"

I can't believe you people. I can't believe the shit you read and the shit you spout. I can't believe that this is the stuff you choose to represent what you believe, or that you have this little respect for what you write. Because make no mistake, that's the message you're sending out to those of us who actually take more than two seconds to read your fic and make sure you have the appropriate amount of sex in it.

I can't believe some of you people who write non-con, bondage, kink, slash, het, yaoi, yuri, femslash, mpreg (god I hate mpreg), bdsm, yukis and semes and abusive relationship. Passive rape. Gay rape. Coercion. Emotional and physical abuse. Emotional manipulation. SHIT.

If this is how you people really live your lives, I'm scared. I'm downright terrified for the future of the human race, because God knows most of you can't be over 18, possibly over 16. If you people write, believe, think you understand the crap that spews out of your fingers, your computers, your keyboards, then oh my dear sweet Goddess you people need serious mental and sexual help. You need therapy for your next three lifetimes.

I'm not kidding. Now, I enjoy a good erotica fic as much as the next sexual critter, and yes I occasionally enjoy a good erotica between two consenting adults involving bdsm. I have some friends on the bdsm scene. I've even dabbled myself. I've done my homework. For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like. (I can't remember what movie that's from, but I remember Maggie Smith said it) I don't even mind graphic rape WHEN IT SERVES THE STORY.

Let me repeat that.

WHEN. IT. SERVES. THE. STORY.

My god. You people. You have nothing in your stories but sex. And not just the normal kind of sex, oh no, you have to have the nasty-ass manipulative rapist kind of sex. The unhappy miserable dysfunctional appalling tear-jerking hand-staple-forehead angsty scar-you-for-the-rest-of-your-short-suicidal-life sex. And that's the kind of fanfic that gets the reviews. That's the kind of fanfic that seems to be popular. It's like romance novels, only worse. Much, much, ten times worse. It's like if romance novels were slings and arrows, these kinds of fics would be H-Bombs.

You people scare me. You people disgust me. Hell, I've written this crap before. I've written rape, I've written BDSM, I've written gay sex, I've written pure smut. But you know what? I actually take the time and have the self-respect to put some actual thought into the whole process. And I know lots of writers who do. And you know what? No one listens to them either.

So, would someone explain this to me? Explain it to me! Explain it to me! I want it explained to me now JESUS! What the hell is this formula? That you start out with a number of readers, and your readership and reviews go down the less you have sex and the less you have angst. Never mind that maybe you were trying to hook readers in with plot. Throw out character development. Forget intelligent conversation or philosophical exploration of issues. These days if you have a fic and your characters develop more than just an interest in someone's genitalia, it's considered well-written. Goddamn. How far our standards have fallen.

I'm not asking for Shakespeare here. I'm not even asking for Lady Chatterly's Lover or Justine. My god, people, the Marquis de fucking Sade had more plot and more skill than some of you. And that's saying something, I've read Justine, it's nearly as bad. But PLEASE. At least the Marquis went: Philosophy. Sex. Philosophy. Sex. Philosophy. Sex. You people write and read Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Lunch.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Afternoon tea.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex.

And the one or two fics that don't have the sex, or don't write about the two or three characters that everyone gives a shit about (Aragorn and Legolas, or Henry Jekyll, or Harry Draco Hermione and Snape, or ...) IT DOESN'T GET READ! No one cares that maybe one of the elven archers who died in the siege of Helmsdeep might have had a family... or a personality. No one wants to hear about the trials and tribulations of Colin Creevy. No one likes or wants to listen to Dorian Gray's side of the story.

I'm so sick of this. I'm so very very sick and tired of people asking when my characters are going to get to the sex, or who's going to pair off with who. GROW UP! GIVE IT UP! Or at the very least talk about something other than that, and bitch about it to each other in private. I mean, damn. This one chick had the audacity to say that I was inspired by her fic. NO, LADY. Your fic is nothing like mine. YOU have your OC and your main fanfic'd character fucking like rabbits inside of fifteen chapters. *I* have about a hundred chapters planned, thirty five written, and they'll be lucky to have two kisses in the whole damn story. But you know what? They'll have had some damn good and meaningful conversations, and if they were a real life couple they'd be the one married for sixty years and your couple would be the one getting a divorce inside of six.

I know. I've watched these marriages failing. I'm watching them fail right now.

Gyah. There was this one atrocity on AdultFanFiction.net where some fanfic characters who will remain nameless to protect the poor characters were written into going off on a raping spree, which seemed to turn the supposed protagonist on, as did later being dominated herself. What the hell kind of a sick message is this sending? That we should be turned on by rape? That it's okay? Back in the day I read these books by Nancy Friday. She had a good message... rape fantasies are all well and good, but no one WANTS to be raped. Except sick and twisted fanfic characters who should rightly stay in the back of people's brains. Other people READ this shit.

You people are so crazed. And this is a recent phenomenon. This whole concentration on sex thing. I remember back in the original days of X-Files... and I mean way back, like first and second and third season (yes, I'm practically a dinosaur. Shut up.) everything was about the UST. For those of you who concentrate on sex and have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, that's Unresolved Sexual Tension. And I don't mean tying someone up naked to a bed and leaving them there. I'm talking about the good ol' fifties, lingering glances, tiny smiles, swaying hips kind of sexual tension. The kind that can be carried throughout a whole movie or story and climaxed in a kiss. No one has that kind of writing skill anymore. And even if they did, no one wants to read it.

Now, I think I've just about ranted myself out now. And I know I'm going to get flamed for this. But you know what? I no longer give a shit. If this kind of thing doesn't improve ... I'm just going to get out of the fanfic business entirely.

I'll publish my short stories, eventually my novels, and turn into the kind of writer that gets horrible bad-porn fic written about her characters.

And if I see ANY of that, I will hunt you down and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. Not the decent fics, or even the semi-decent fics. You'll get approval. No, I'll hunt down you rape-mongers. You know who I mean.

'cause, again in the words of the Immortal Leary.

"I'm an asshole, and I'm proud of it."

"Oh the thinks you could think up if only you'd try"

Ohh boy. The shitstorm I got for this rant. I wonder how many people are checking this LJ now for the refutes and replies. Ah well.

To reply to the point that this isn't going to do anything, and it's better left to a private journal. I have but this to say to you. "Be a nice Minbari! Conform! Be quiet! Admit you are inadquate!"

Bang.

If I sit back and be quiet, then it won't do anything. If I don't try and at least provoke some thought, then, you're right. Nothing's going to change. So, no, this isn't better left to a private journal. Granted, maybe I should have cleaned up the language and toned down the vitriol a bit. I'll give you and a couple other people that point. But, no. I will not sit down, I will not shut up. And I will not believe that I'm not going to change anything.

Someone accused me of being pro-censorship. Hell. If this person knew me as who I am rather than a name on a posting board, they would soooo not be saying that. I'm against censorship, book-burning, book-banning, etc. What I am also against is people writing less than their best. I believe that the solution to all the trash out there is that people need to sit up and go 'hey. I can be better than this' and actually do it. Or, alternatively, they need to sit up and realize that 'hey. this is wrong.' and change their behavior accordingly.

See, you are what you read and write. Science has proven this. I could probably dig up the studies if someone wants, but it's been recently confirmed that the more you use your brains and the more you keep mentally active, the more fit your brain is. You are what you think, and if all this hideously bad smut and scary rape fic is symptomatic of what people think, then dear god. The next generation of workers is going straight to the porn industry.

Let's see, what else can I refute.

Some people are saying that this isn't relevant to where I posted it. I assure you, it is. I may sound like a Republican conservative, and being a Democratic liberal I'm probably going straight to hell for this, but I assure you that this is a more insidious problem than a lot of people think. Hell. I'm probably guilty of compounding it myself. I used to write a lot of fic that wasn't much better. But hey, I never posted it. And you know what? I grew out of it. And there are a lot of people out there who went through the same thing. Unfortunately a lot more people are stuck on the 'smut' setting.

Okay, I just got another well thought out reply. I like that. And she? He? The person made a good point.

I don't have any objections, myself, to a lot of the genres or plot points I ranted about as concepts. I don't mean to make blanket objections to BDSM, rape, yaoi, etc. What I do mean to object to and what I do dislike is rape without reason, BDSM without explanation or plot. I can't stand the growing trend to have all this sex without any sort of background. Romance novels have more plot than some... hell, most of these stories. I know, I've read some romance novels.

It's not the people who write a story and put a rape into it, in graphic detail, that I get all pissy about. It's the people who write rape, then comfort sex, then more rape, then more comfort sex, all without any sort of reason or plot or storyline to go with it. There's no exploration of the reaction to the rape, there's no daily life for the BDSM couple to frame their bedroom activities. There's no thought. There's just lust.

I don't want people to censor their websites. I don't want people feel bad about their personal lifestyles, and their sexual preferences. I just want people to think. Because it seems to me that there's precious little of that going around.

"D'you know what 'nemesis' is?"

Aaah.

I feel so much better, after that rant and the subsequent responses and being (admittely, this was cheap of me) patronizing and snappish back at a bunch of people.

Amazingly I feel so much better. I've gotten all that out, and hopefully I've made some people think. And probably I've just gotten a bunch of people to go "Hey. Thank god I'm not the only one." And I know a couple people hate me because I told them their fics suck. One of whom ... damn. I looked at her journal after she posted those comments, and with all the drugs and booze she's on... or he? that person needs some serious therapy. Like, a good several weeks in an institution drying out.

But... I feel better. I'm not sure anything's actually going to change. In fact, it probably wont. I guess that's ... I don't know what that is talking. But I know nothing's really going to change overnight, or even a little, because of all that vitriol.

What I really want to do is put that up on my column. But that would be an abuse of the writing privilidge. Damn me and my morals. I'll ahve to rewrite it and put it up as an actual column on how to write romance novels or something.

La.

Ok. Watching the Roast of Denis Leary again, solely because I don't have the No Cure for Cancer video and I felt a lot like Denis Leary when I was doing that rant. I adore Denis. Denis rocks my world. That part where he was kissing Mario Cantone was the cutest thing I've seen all week. Mario's right. Denis is so gay, and he belongs with Mario.

And later today there will be grocery shopping, and video shopping. And hopefully the white kitten will live :( My Gretchen's okay but the white kitten, whose name is now Alan, has an infection. They hope the amoxycillin will help. We're just not sure. I swear, when you pick up stray kittens, take my advice folks, there should be one of those old fashioned traditions that you don't name a kitten until you're sure it's going to live. I'm serious. Back in the day they waited several days to... I think, almost a year, before they named children just to be sure they were going to live. They ought to institute the same rule for kittens. I'm so glad I didn't get attached to it and stayed in the other room with my Gretchen.

Oh well.

Denis Leary rules.

Mmm what else. Finally got fanfic.net to accept my latest chapter in the epic fic. Not sure what else I'm going to do with it. I need to write more fanfic, but it's so very hard to find anything to write about ... especially now. I've gotten so disheartened. Maybe I'll write that fic about that tv movie Momentum where Adrian's alive and goes and finds his daughter again. That would be nice.

Bleh.

Okay, off to do something else now....

"Back off, I'll take you on..."

And the flames just keep rolling in. I'd say it's amusing but I'd be lying.

It's actually rather pathetic. Especially since one person seems to be reading further just to see ...

Oh, I give up on you people. My day or so of righteous fury is over. The world can go to hell in a handbasket. Fury is too hard to maintain, and I no longer care.

Except that I did have this wonderful idea... leak to the few newsfeeds I can (local newspapers, CNN...) about what the US's and maybe some other countries' thirteen to eighteen year olds are doing. What they're writing about, what they're reading. And watch as hundreds of thousands of parents all over the world go "AAAUGH!" and yank their kids' internet privilidges.

Except I couldn't do that, because lots of innocents would get caught in the crossfire. Bleh.

The world really is going to hell in a handbasket.



To make matters worse, the white kitten we caught just a couple of days ago is sick. I'm not sure what it is, just in case it's an infection the vet prescribed amoxycillen, .5 ccs.. mls.. whatever. Twice a day. There's also the suspicion that it's some sort of hideous virus that acts like ebola and is contagious across all sorts of species barriers. Scary, wot? Poor kitten :(

Other that that... I dunno. Life's going good. My enthusiasm for writing any kind of fanfic has waned so far I'm not sure it's there anymore. And that's bad, because I have a couple dozen readers to whom I owe 65 chapters of Matrixfic. I have a few devoted readers to whom I owe some ... well, it used to be fanfic. Now there's only one fanfic character and lots of original characters. Oh well. And a number of readers to whom I owe the rest of that weirdass LXG fic. In which there is only one original character! Yay! The rest is fanfic and RPfic.

Well, long dead people. But hey.

I dunno. I guess tonight will be a night of comfort movies... if you can call Nightmare on Elm Street comfort movies. We've rented it and a couple others, and we've got tubes and tubes of cookie dough, pints of Sin (for those of you not in the know, that's Edy's Dreamery Chocolate Truffle Explosion), crackers, fruit rollups, Cadbury's chocolate, and we're going to pig out and have a girlie night of it. It's been a while since I've had one of those.

Bleh. Not much else to talk about really. My life is taking a turn for the boring. Thank god. Watching MacGyver. I can't believe I was ever terrified of this show. I can't even remember why it scared th hell out of me. Ah well.

Maybe I should just work on original fiction. Work on putting it up somewhere... Put up all those stories I wrote. Yeah. I guess I'll do that. And work on cruelest_month 's web page..

And for those of you who are still inclined to read this far into the rest of my journal...

"D'you know what 'Nemesis' means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an 'orrible cunt... me!"

Ah, Guy Ritchie, how I do love thee.