smitethepatriarchy:

fool-errant:

tinyhipsterboy:

t4millennial:

When I put them in the queue I thought everyone was going to get annoyed because they’ve seen them a million times, I feel terrible that so many of you guys haven’t!

There is this controversy in book industries about e-books; specifically Amazon who has made it easy for someone to self publish whereas before it would cost someone thousands of dollars and so if you did you were a loser because you obviously couldn’t get an agent or even get an indie publisher to back you. All of a sudden a million books are being self published by losers who are ruining literature because anyone can just print anything and nothing matters anymore. It’s the same thing they said when they invented the printing press and then again when trade paperbacks became a thing. 

A whole bunch of people, mostly fanfic writers just repurpose in their work, start publishing these short erotic novels that they haven’t even edited and it was all getting weirder and weirder. 

BDSM became mainstream because of EL James publishing her Twilight fanfiction ‘50 shades of gray’ and then suddenly there were a bunch of books that made people uncomfortable about time traveling to fuck dinosaurs. One erotic novel written by Christie Sims and Alara Branwen kind of became the poster child for the demise intellectualism.

A few years later someone calling themselves Chuck Tingle started to publish tiny erotica novels about people having sex with unicorns and Bigfoot that were intentionally weird with long and had highly specific titles. The covers went viral, most people thinking they were memes but then discovered they were real books that were actual short stories written by somebody who knew how to write and was obviously mocking the controversy.

Everyone was complaining and trying to find out who he was and journalists were trying to contact “him” but he refused to be interviewed. The popular rumor started going around that it was actually a father and son that wrote the books together and someone who everyone is probably sure was actually Chuck Tingle was anonymously interviewed and was like, “lol yeah and we usually write them start to finish in one night” which made people madder and was true because he really blew up when a meme about this dress went viral in a day and by the end of the day

Chuck

Tingle had a new erotic novel about fucking the dress.

Adding to the controversy is the fact that if you publish through Amazon people can read your books for free through their “digital library” but when people check out books it’s technically counted as a sale. Out of nowhere some dude named Chuck Tingle was at the top of the bestsellers list with these offensive books and sort of accidentally got nominated for a really prestigious award and everyone lost their shit.

The powers that be were changing the rules so he couldn’t win, which is what also happened to Neil Gaiman when his comic book Sandman got nominated and everyone was outraged that a comic book could be considered literature. Neil Gaiman actually won the award and then they put in a rule that no more comic books could be nominated, but they got lucky with Chuck Tingle and he didn’t win. Except then he was nominated for a second time.

Obviously Chuck Tingle didn’t win again, 

but then he kind of doubled down and published books about getting fucked by his nomination and then fucked by the concept of getting fucked over by the industry. Then his book started getting really mostly sociopolitical and shoved his award nomination down everyone’s throats..

They were still just short weird erotica, but instead of being tongue-in-cheek funny they became condescendingly critical.

He has a website with an about me page but he’s become a folklore hero and everyone is 99% sure it’s fake.

As he stands now, the industries are still really upset but the indie scenes are considering them high art.

I am among the latter.

Don’t forget, the whole reason people nominated Chuck Tingle for the Hugo awards in the first place is because a lot of white male authors were really mad that women and racial minorities were winning awards. They nominated him, but of course, he wasn’t going to ruin the mystery by revealing himself, so instead he had someone go to the Hugos in his place… Zoe Quinn, who Gamergate centered around, and who was therefore the poster child of everything this group *hated*.

Chuck Tingle is a goddamn master.

Thank you for addingthat. I was about to be “but it wasn’t an accident he was nominated for a Hugo” 

I am so happy to know the full story of Chuck Tingle.

littlebro-williams:

narkito:

ariestaurus21:

lavvyan:

holdouttrout:

saxgoddess25:

ao3commentoftheday:

If you can read then you can write.

I’ve got to disagree with you there, anon. I was an English language instructor both overseas and in Canada for 14 years and lemme tell you? That’s not the case. 

When we read a language, we’re recognizing words and interpreting meaning. When we’re writing, we have to actively choose words and put them together in some sort of grammatical form. They two skills are related, but they aren’t the same. I can read Korean just fine, and I know how to write all of the letters and combine them together, but when I try to form a sentence? Everything is in the wrong order and I’m choosing words that are impolite or incorrect for the context or both. 

I’ve learned a lot of languages in a lot of different ways, from growing up in a bilingual community to studying languages in school to immersing myself in another culture overseas and I 100% understand the nerves of someone not only trying to write in a language they’re not completely comfortable in but trying to do so in a way that doesn’t come across as rude. 

Your level of English language mastery is clearly very very high and the people reading your fics might have a very different level than you do. Native speaking readers don’t comment because of anxiety or worry or any number of other reasons. Non-native speakers just have one more anxiety to add to the rest.

If I were presented with this problem from a reader, you know what my response would be? Leave it in your native language! Maybe it’s just me, but I’d get a kick out of that, and with things like Google Translate, I could probably get a fair approximation of what you’re intending to say.

One of my favorite comments was in Spanish (which I happen to know, but even if it were in a different language, let me tell you, I’d be just as flattered and excited that someone took the time and effort to read in their non-native language and then comment) So. Cool.

I actually did get a comment in Spanish the other day. I can infer from French, but I don’t speak a word of Spanish. So, yeah, Google Translate to the rescue, and it was a wonderful comment and I loved it. 

I second the idea of native language comments. I will find it cool to have comments in Polish, German, Russian, whatever,

I had never thought of that. I’m all for the “leave the comment in whatever language you’re comfortable with, if you so desire” idea.

I’ve gotten comments in Spanish in fics written in English, though I just assumed they knew I know Spanish, now it’s just occurring to me that maybe that’s the language they were comfortable with. AND I LOVE IT ❤

Another thing, from a Spanish spaker/english writer author, even a comment like “good write, happy fic, like” would be great, because they took the time to leave a note.

So, leave them in Spanish, English, terrible English, Japanese, I’d love them anyway! 😀