So then what?

[thedeadparrot]

This is a rant about worldbuilding in fandom.

I think, as fandom, we do this thing where we try to justify our id-pleasing premises by trying to explain it. Oh no, um, evil scientists just invented dudes who can have children, okay? There was totally financial thing, like, twenty years ago, and I guess we had to resort to a slave economy. Totally.

Sometimes, it can be done well, but a lot of the time it feels like watching a terrible Christopher Nolan movie, where you can pretty much see the convoluted machinery that's moving us to the predetermined ending, clearly reverse engineered and not particularly organic.

What I love seeing in fandom, what I love almost more than anything else, is the part where we, as authors, move past that point and say, "so then what?"

We have slaves, sexy slaves, and people buy and sell them against their will. So then what? How does the slave trade look, now that we exist within a heavily technological, commercialized culture? How do your slaves signal status or lack thereof? How does the burgeoning emancipation movement work? Which politicians do they target? How? Do they go the radical human-rights-terrorism route?

Oh no! The evil dystopian government is forcing people to get married. So then what? What is their career situation look like? What is expected of married couples of various ages and life-stages? What is up with raising children? How are they expected to interact with other married couples? What happens to the stragglers or the people who try to buck the system? What does this look like to other countries? Do they all have similar systems?

It frustrates the crap out of me when I see authors twisting themselves up into knots trying to justify their id to me. I don't care! I don't care why aliens that secrete aphrodisiacs might be on Earth or why otherwise perfectly normal human men go into heat! I am willing to start with you guys there.

But for fucks sake, please make the rest of it interesting. Ask the other questions. Dig a little deeper. You'll be surprised at what you find.

Our worldbuilding shouldn't end at the point where we get our id-pleasing premise. It should start there.

</end rant>

Comments

[hannah]

Thank you for this little rant.

I've written a couple of fics where I did nothing to explain the supernatural/fantasy/AU elements, because I knew the moment I said something more than "some strange things happens to some people, sometimes" then I'd have people putting more energy into wondering about all the workings of the world rather than the story itself. I trusted the audience to roll with it, and my trust was rewarded.

[thedeadparrot]

Yeah, I think people don't want to read Yet Another Explanation for the things they're here to read. You got them on board with your premise, now run with it!

[hannah]

I think it's important the author knows what's behind everything, all the mechanisms, the entirety of the logistics. And I don't think they need to provide that in the story - they just need it to help their world feel solid.

[verity]

here, here! <3

[thedeadparrot]

:D Thanks!

[havocthecat]

The problem for me is that, when I dig a little deeper, things start turning epic in length. Like, I have original fic. With vampires. In space. So I started thinking about how they got there, and how the governments would react to them (and, shit, I forgot to talk about light spectrum and how it affects them on different planets, must do that when they get to the next one), plus what they do with the bodies (protagonists, not heroes), and just. Somehow it's been four years and more words than I can count later. Which! I think it's awesome when people do that and I want them to with fanfic, but I don't know that everyone wants to invest that much time outside of porning it up. Which makes me sad!

ETA: I say "problem," but it's actually a whole lot of fun. I just don't know that everyone enjoys that sort of thing either.

[thedeadparrot]

I don't know. I don't think that all of these answers need to end up in the fic! I think it's okay to sprinkle the answers like flavoring. Sure, it's cool if it does turn into this huge worldbuilding thing, but I don't really want or expect it to.

And I don't necessarily think that everyone needs to invest lots of time and energy outside of the porn. The porn is fine! Just, you know, plz stop wasting my time justifying and explaining your porn to me if you're not going to do anything interesting with it.

[merisunshine36]

I think people don't do worldbuilding as much because it's a matter of fandom economy. Fandom is growing, the average speed of interaction is increasing, and people want more fic, faster. It's like the change from individually tailored clothes to pre-sized sweatshop made clothes. The RoI is MUCH higher to spend a few days writing trope/template fic than it is to take the time to make a billion edits and carefully develop a world that fandom will move on from in two weeks. For the average non-bnf writer, I think worldbuilding has to be deeply satisfying to the writer on a personal level for them to invest in it, bc odds are no one will pay attention to it anyway. Economies of scale are different for bnfs of course, because they'll receive the attn of every new person in the fandom, and repeat reads from current ones.

ETA: sorry my response was xtra depressing

[thedeadparrot]

Bah, we already sort of chatted about it, but I think this rant was more like, WHY ARE YOU WASTING MY TIME WITH SHITTY, POINTLESS WORLDBUILDING WHEN IT'S UNNECESSARY AND YOU COULD BE WASTING MY TIME WITH SHITTY, MILDLY INTERESTING WORLDBUILDING INSTEAD?

I am past the point of caring if people don't want to invest the time in worldbuilding. Sure, I wish people would do it, but I don't mind when they decide they don't want to. But when they feel the need to put in weird, half-assed worldbuilding, it frustrates me, because there's so many more interesting questions to be asking besides 'omg how do I make my porn sound less weird?'