Don't forget it's fiction

Just a quick reminder to people commenting on the stories that the items you are commenting on are fiction. That doesn't mean to say the comment can't be made in a manner that suspends disbelief and responds to the actual events of the story but I've seen several comments recently where it's fairly obvious that the person has lost sight that they're commenting on fictional works.

In the past I've witnessed (and indirectly been on the receiving end) of some extremely unpleasant abuse from people that for one reason or another didn't like what they'd read, were unable or unwilling to distinguish real events from fictional accounts and I'd hate to see us head in that direction again. It also never fails to amaze me that these same people have no problem reading about murder, rape or any other atrocity described in a fictional work but seem to lose all judgement when it comes to someone getting spanked.

Well, you just bursted my bubble...

This is a very important point to remember! We should all suspend our real life somewhat when we enter into spanking fiction but sometimes people do sometimes seem to forget they are reading something from someone else's imagination.

I don't write what has happened, or what I would like to happen to me, I write what comes into my head as a plan or an idea that I think might make a good story.

I couldn't agree more, PA.

We must remember that what we are reading is for the purpose of pure escapism and has hopefully been written in that spirit.

As Februs says, there are sadly all too many opportunities to read and be made aware of the factual stuff going on around us every day.

Yes - although some parts of stories may be based on personal experience (but isn't that true of all fiction?) it doesn't mean that the author approves of the sort of physical abuse that he or she writes about.

So exactly when has anybody forgotten that the stories here are fictional?

Some people seem to assume this on occasion, and then those people feel the necessity to announce to everyone else, "This is only fiction," but offhand I can't remember a single instance in which a reader/commenter has claimed that a story is a RL account--unless of course the author him/herself has first stated that it is.

It's perfectly possible to have discussions/debates that are both intensive and extended about fictional characters and situations without any of the participants having lost track of the fact that they're dealing with fiction.

Before I lost interest in "Smallville" (when both Lex Luthor and Lana Lang were removed as regular characters), I participated in extensive discussions RE the relationships between Lex, Lana and Clark Kent on the alt.smallville newsgroup--IIRC no one there ever assumed that the occasional intensity of the debate meant that anyone involved must have believed that Lex, Lana and Clark actually existed.

That does seem to be an assumption that some people make on amateur story sites, however, that if there's any in-depth discussion/debate on a particular story, those involved somehow "must have forgotten" that it's a fictional account.

Personally, I operate on the exact opposite assumption: If a person doesn't claim that a fictional story is actually a RL account, then he/she is fully aware of its fictional nature.

Also, offhand I can't remember any reader/commenter claiming that the negative behaviors and/or situations often found in fictional stories are reflections of the author's RL beliefs and attitudes, yet I have observed some people trying to "defend" an author from criticisms of his/her characters and/or occurrences within a storyline as though they were somehow criticisms of the author him/herself.

Here's an author criticism: "J.R. Rowling is really a sucky writer, her characters aren't believable."

This isn't an author criticism: "That Lord Voldemort is really a mean motherf---ing bastard, it's immoral that his Death Eaters are killing innocent Muggles."

As anyone who's read my extensive comments on stories probably realizes, I can get quite interested in the characters and situations in those narratives--but it doesn't mean that for a nanosecond I've somehow forgotten that they're fictional (unless otherwise indicated by the author).

I strong suspect that the same is true of virtually all this Library of Spanking FICTION's readers/commenters... --C.K.

The point I think is being made here, if we get too strong on being critical of the characters in any story then the author (especially a new one) may get discouraged and stop writing. I am not saying not to be critical but at some point we must ensure our comments either on the story itself or in the forum must be encouraging in some way. None of us want anyone to stop writing because they think their stories, real life or fictional, are not what others want to read.

Long time authors may shrug things off because they have stories having a strong readership, but for anyone new on this site starting off with serious critical remarks without encouragement is a different story. I learned long time ago I can be as critical as I want to any person as long as I start with the positive, then negative and then positive, our commenting needs to reflect both sides of the coin.

Authors, old or new, do not need defending, they are all great people who take a chance on writing and submitting stories on this site, and we as readers have an obligation to encourage them all.

I said exactly that in my post .. and that's specifically not what I'm referring to, as I thought would be clear from the way I phrased it.

I'm not going to quote specific examples of the comments I referred to as the majority will get deleted or restricted. In addition, we also receive aggressive emails from time to time demanding to know why we think it's OK to include such and such story. In the past we've had email from the occasional fascist threatening to report us to "the authorities" whoever they may be. There's obviously a lot we have to deal with that the average user of the site is going to be unaware of.

Well, I hope that you likewise realize that I wasn't referring to the situation you're describing--I was only discussing what I'd observed here, obviously I don't know what private communications the Library has received nor what was included in any comments that weren't allowed to be posted.

I WAS referring to the occasional reader/commenter who sometimes feels the need to jump into a discussion about a story by "reminding" everyone else that "This is only fiction, it's just a story"--I tend to find that annoying, especially if that's the only personal 'pearl of wisdom' that's being offered in the posting.

I do find it quite disappointing (but sadly believable) that there are obviously people who believe that writing a fictional account of an occurrence somehow implies advocacy of it.

IMHO if they really subscribe to that belief, then they should be going after the writers of mainstream murder mysteries... --C.K.

I've read many, many comments over the years - some here, some on other boards or on usenet - where the commenter assumed that they were reading about real life events - or at least something inspired by real life events. My usual reaction to them is to wonder who dressed that person this morning.

The worse one I every read came long before I started posting. I think it was back in the days of alt.sex.spanking (ASS). Someone had just posted one of those completely unrealistic stories (one that makes you think that the person had never even watched a spanking video) and someone posted something along the lines of "I hope you never have children because anyone who could write that doesn't deserve to be a parent!!". Okay, it has some obscenity, a lot of CAPS and far more punctuation than it should, but that's the gist of it.

I've seen countless comments like that and it never fails to amaze me that someone could read a story and think that the author is advocating that people live out the events that occur in the story.

Worse, they tend to drive authors away. I've seen two or three people drive authors off of boards by attacking them and what they write about. Replies that start off "I know that the rules allow for this sort of story, but I feel I have to take a stand against this sort of trash being posted... " - they get to some people. Me, I used to do flame wars back in the days of BBSes (when sometimes you went to war over your handle) and have a very thick skin when it comes to flames - but others let idiots like that get to them.

I'm not sure if the occasional "This is all just fiction" post will change those people, but here's hoping that it does.

Goodgulf