A Question of Standards

[Michelle Byssom]

Interesting thread. Anyone who constructs a tale should be read in their own rights. Who was it said about a critic that a critic was like a sports commentator: he's seen it done lots of times, but never done it once himself? (Irish Brendan Beehan I think on reflection.)

I supervise grad students who mark 100s of essays from undergrad students. I tell them not to focus on the formalities but to judge the intention. Several evenings spent re-marking piles of essays that I judged were poorly assessed (the overtime was done by the grad tutors, not me!) have left their mark on the collective unconsiousness of the little darlings.

Thus: judge the intentions, not the formalities... unless the presentation is so chaotic that one can't tell what the f**K the intentions are!!!!

It really riles me when I read a critic who takes me to task for my punctuation or grammer who has not even considered that my occasional (hah) 'lapses' may be part of my intention.

I mean, hello! What is this about spelling grammar syntax yada that's cast in stone of some kind? I'd rather read a rough-hewn narrative that speaks from the heart than any amount of smooth talkin nonsense. But then, I always did have a propensity for being the recipient of a bare-ass spanking when my cleaverer older sisters looked like butter was not a meltable substance ANYWHERE on their persons ; - )

I.E. I love it when people express themselves. Do it.

Shel.

[Chuckdom19]

Interesting thread. Anyone who constructs a tale should be read in their own rights. Who was it said about a critic that a critic was like a sports commentator: he's seen it done lots of times, but never done it once himself? (Irish Brendan Beehan I think on reflection.)

***Or, in another famous quotation, "Those who cannot do, teach".

(snip)

Thus: judge the intentions, not the formalities... unless the presentation is so chaotic that one can't tell what the f**K the intentions are!!!!

It really riles me when I read a critic who takes me to task for my punctuation or grammer who has not even considered that my occasional (hah) 'lapses' may be part of my intention.

I mean, hello! What is this about spelling grammar syntax yada that's cast in stone of some kind? I'd rather read a rough-hewn narrative that speaks from the heart than any amount of smooth talkin nonsense. But then, I always did have a propensity for being the recipient of a bare-ass spanking when my cleaverer older sisters looked like butter was not a meltable substance ANYWHERE on their persons ; - )

I.E. I love it when people express themselves. Do it.

Shel.

***Well, I suppose rules are made to be broken in literature; see James Joyce. With erotic short stories, though, the importance is in the - communication - of the ideas, feelings, etc. If the story is not easily readable (and that would include those times when people only had one hand available grin grin wink wink say no more), the ideas may not be clear. While to many it means nothing if spelling, grammar, word usage, etc. are not correct, to a large number of fans the mood is broken if they have to struggle to understand the author's meaning.

***In the interests of satisfying ALL readers, I believe it necessary to communicate as clearly as possible.

[Mothbrad]

A few comments, as someone who writes, but who reads fifty stories for every one that I write.

- I agree that a completely Subjective review can be annoying, but so can one that attempts to be completely Objective. I read reviews because I want to know what passions were brought up by the story for each reader, and also because I want to know whether people have similar tastes to me. If they're purely talking about grammar, ability to communicate and spelling, there might as well not be any reviews at all on the site - just do an automatic spelling / grammar check and give a mark based on that.

I think there's some confusion here about subjective/objective, as opposed to constructive/destructive. First rule of reviewing should always be that the writers deserve respect simply for taking the effort to write something and post it here.

- Unlike a film or a radio play, the only way in which communication happens in a written story is through the written word (DUH ) . If the writing is so bad that it makes the reader focus more on mentally correcting the spelling, and stopping to rearrange bad grammar in their heads, the 'image' that the story is trying to summon up never materialises. Sure James Joyce broke the rules of language, but he learned them all first, and knew what he was breaking, and why he was doing it. He also knew how to break them while still communicating effectively, and even then, as anyone who's tried to make it through Finnegan's Wake knows, sometimes it works better as a game than a pure aesthetic experience.

- I don't review stories that include fetishes that don't interest me, or turn me off. If I did, I would not be being fair to the writer or to other readers (IMO), as my review would be missing the point of the story. Reviewing erotica is wildly different to marking student essays - I know many people (including professors, etc), who would give some of the stories that are recognised here as classics - ie, ones that have well deserved marks of 9 or 10/10 - a 0/10, based on the fact that they include sexual perversions that they find repulsive.

Having said that, I will criticize stories that I think could have done it for me, but fell short somehow (this is actually rare on this particular site,with the awful exception of stories that are abandoned just as they are heating up).

ps - re-reading the thread just before submitting this, I notice that others have come up with my ideas before, so don't be annoyed at me ... think of it as flattering imitation