Fandom Kvetch 3

[dreamer_easy]

Ladies and gentlefong, fresh from this morning's fandomsecrets, Exhibit A:



Now we're all heartbroken over Donna's unbearable fate. I'm in optimistic denial ("It must be a cliffhanger!"). Plenty of ficcers are busy rewriting it - quite right too. So it's not at all hard to sympathise with the OP's unhappiness.

So where does this cross the line into overentitlement? By reversing the polarity of the neutron flow. srsly. Stories flow from the writers to the characters and then to the audience - not the other way around. How dare RTD give Donna a sad ending? Because he's the writer, one of the showrunners, and the characters' creator. Entitlement does not flow from Donna to Russell; it flows from Russell to Donna. But Donna's just the piggy in the middle; the real issue is that entitlement doesn't flow from fandom to Russell, it flows from Russell to fandom. No matter how much expertise, ownership, love, or authority we claim, we don't call the shots. We just don't.

The above secret is far from the worst example of fannish overentitlement I've seen, and the OP isn't a fuckwit, just some upset kid blowing off steam. But it does nicely encapsulate the phenomenon. If the attitude it expresses was rare, it'd be easy to just smile and shrug. But it isn't.

Comments

[doctor-toc.livejournal.com]

I've heard quite a lot of moaning about this, and to every one I've had the same answer; "To you, I introduce the word "tragedy". Some times, things just don't end well."

That sense of fan-ownership reached ridiculous heights around "Turn Left" on on of the mailing lists I frequent, with fans claiming that something as traumatic as killing off the Doctor (even if it is undone later) should never even be contemplated by the writers as it is "a fan's worst nightmare". Yes, that's an actual quote. If the new crop of fans are so fragile that they can't face the thought of the Doctor's possible death, I'm worried they'll be swinging from the light fittings in their hundreds when DT gets tired of the role and the Doctor really does regenerate.

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

...and suddenly the state of fandom would improve as it's deprived of hundreds of entitlement brats....

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I can totally understand going OH NOES at Donna's fate - it's so awful I'm kind of in denial about it myself. It's only when it crosses the line into YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG that blunt objects need to be thrown at skulls. It's a brilliant, horrible, wrenching piece of writing, acting, and direction, even if it leaves us going ARGH LET IT NOT BE SO.