Reflection

It’s the end of the year. Christmas music is already assaulting my ears (I love it, but not the day after Thanksgiving), and there are only two days left in my college classes. When I look back, I see that I’m a different person than I was three months ago.

I used to be a stay-at-home person, someone who read 3 or 4 books a week, someone who gardened and made her own herbal shampoo, someone who cooked and loved baking bread, someone who drank tea and discussed Anthony Trollope and Georgette Heyer, someone who kept most of her interactions with people to the internet and who had too many blogs and forums to count. That person’s favorite subject was English Lit, with a close second place tie between Language and History. That person collected quotes and had a secret geeky passion for the 1800s, especially British Navy tales, with a side love of fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Within three short months, that person ran away and left me in her place.

The first half of my waking day is spent at school. I take the bus every morning with my huge backpack, study, go to an education class to talk about teaching and politics, and then pop over to a psychology class to discuss—well, everything. I then hop on another bus to go work for a few hours at a book warehouse, where my job is simply to process books by entering ISBNs and conditions into a computer program and then shelve them in the warehouse. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go back to school after this for a writing class of reading essays and discussing them, and on Friday I volunteer at an elementary school where I correct papers and tutor kids. I eventually come home every night for a bit of catching up on a couple blogs and forums, maybe a little fun thing like watching an old episode of Stargate or writing some more of my story, and then more studying before bed.

I’m not the same person anymore. I am a person who discusses politics and science instead of books and language, a person who talks to strangers on the bus and has many new friends at school, a person who gets a regular paycheck and who has to manage this and a schedule very carefully, a person whose only experience with books on a weekly basis is putting them on shelves and reading from textbooks. I’m more likely to talk about Wernicke’s area than the genitive case, to say hi to someone as I walk by than be engrossed in a book, to catch a bite to eat on the run than spend the day baking challah. Worst of all, I’ve joined the ranks of science fiction geeks.

And yet, which I’ve yet to understand, I’m just as happy. Sure, sometimes I miss books and cooking, but even more often are times when I wish I could stay at school forever. I hate that classes are ending and I’ll have to have new teachers and classmates next quarter. I have a hard time filling my weekends with anything but studying, and look forward to working full time over winter break. I get more exercise, less sleep, more social interaction, less free time, more writing, less reading—and my happiness level has not changed. Yes, I know that we’re supposed to be joyful always, but I didn’t expect it to be so easy.

I don’t know if the old me is gone forever or not. I would like to have a visit from her, maybe in the summer, or maybe just a virtual visit through doing some of those things I used to love. But if my life continues in the vein that it’s in right now, I wouldn’t mind either. It’s a little frightening to see what happened in three months, but after all, I’ll probably be able to find a psychological reason for it. Now would that be cognitive dissonance or adapting schemas I wonder...

My Wacky Brain

This is one of the papers I've written for psychology...if you can't tell, I had too much fun with it.

My Wacky Brain

I’ve heard that most students take psychology and develop some paranoia as they find all the disorders that describe them. Not for me, that experience—I was thankful, after feeling all my life that something was wrong with my mind, to discover exactly what was wrong. You see, I am now quite convinced that my neurons were distracted.

Sometime after my conception, as those multiplying cells organized into heart cells, skin cells, blood cells, etc., my neurons missed the orientation session and refused to read their instruction manuals. I suppose they were male. All those cells that are supposed to go to the cerebellum and the motor cortex to coordinate movement and reflexes? Well in my brain, they all decided that explicit memory sounded more interesting. It takes me weeks to learn simple physical activities, near-constant focus to keep from stumbling, and I have reflexes that would leave something to be desired even in tortoises.

On the other hand, I need only see, hear, read, or smell something once to remember at least 50% of it exactly later, and after the second time, my recall is more like 80%. But all those rogue neurons, they don’t just encode; no, they make countless connections to each other, more than any person really needs, I’ve found. I need the barest minimum of retrieval cues to activate thousands of neural networks. No sensory information is neutral...my neurons connect it to something, no matter how remote the connection seems when viewed logically. The most boring statement will remind me of something, and often more than one thing. My mom calls this “Google brain”, but unlike Google, where information is pulled up from keywords but left without any meaning attached, my brain finds fantastic connections to everything new and anything in my past.

Now, this description might seem more accurate of oversensitive neurons, but I maintain by my diagnosis of “distracted”. Because, also unlike Google, my neurons don’t pay close attention to which neuron fired just before them (I’m finding them a bit too human, really), and so I suffer from extreme source amnesia. Someone will say something, and I suddenly have a quote or piece of lyrics pop into my head and sometimes out of my mouth...but then I have to pause and wonder where it came from? I’ll laugh when someone else says the same quote I was thinking of, and then have to ask them: “Now, what is that from again?” In many ways, it would be nice to have a true “Google brain”, so I wouldn’t have to constantly use the computer version to check sources.

But worst of all, my neurons are incredibly distracted when it comes to what is important to remember. Books, movies, and songs need only one or two times through the hippocampus to be indelibly printed in my long-term memory, while I have to repeat the one thing I need from the pantry at least 30 times on the trip down the stairs to ensure that I won’t forget it. I’ll have to start using that loci technique more often and hope my neurons don’t figure out that I’m tricking them.

Another nice thing that this class has cleared up is my disturbingly frequent experiences of déjà vu, which I’m starting to think are those quintessentially distracted neurons not paying attention to which file those memories go in. I wake up remembering everyday, possible sort of dreams, and then find them actually occurring shortly after. No, I don’t work part-time as a fortune-teller...who wants to know that some day in the future I’ll end up seeing one of my friends at the library?

But now, I know what they are doing, those pesky neurons, and how to fix it. With my pegwords and the self-reference effect, I’m confident that I can train them to remember what I want to remember. And hopefully those myelin sheaths will multiply on all of the connections for coordination and reflexes...I’m really tired of tripping down stairs. But no worry, with knowledge comes power, and now that I understand what’s going on up there, I can fight it.

Well, it did make a nice picture, really, a nice visual image: little neuron people up inside my head, constantly distracted. I could see the file cabinets of “dreams”, “events”, “everything else”—mislabeled, as I could see. Equally clear I saw those lazy neurons sitting around and just looking for connections to make. “Look Bob, that tone of voice is just like the tone that Anthony Hopkins used in scene twelve of The Mask of Zorro!” And I could see the lonely faces of those neurons in the cerebellum, stretching out their hands to make the networks necessary for movement while gazing longingly up at the overcrowded memory sections. I know in the end it’s just an image, but it was fun for a while.

Guess we haven't posted much lately...

This fall has really turned out differently than I expected. MerryK was planning to start college, so I thought my greatest challenge would be adjusting to her being gone for a few hours each day and helping her with the shock of being bombarded by the world on a daily basis. Turned out that the college transition has been a lot easier than we thought it would be. She chose great professors (thanks to a couple great websites) and she loves her classes and is doing very well.

The big surprise was an email from a friend, telling us of a company that was looking to hire homeschooled students. We embarked on the road of resumes, reference letters, and interviews. MerryK and Aragorn ended up getting jobs at this company, which sells books on Amazon.com. It is a perfect fit for them both...MerryK is listing books (she can type incredibly fast!) and Aragorn is working in the shipping department. The staff commented after a couple days that they must be "uber" homeschoolers because they worked so hard and so fast! I am very proud of them!

I never expected Aragorn to be gone for hours, too, plus MerryK now works AND goes to school, so we hardly see her except on weekends. :( It has been quite a big adjustment. Also, Adaon has taken over MerryK's old babysitting job, so he is busy 2 days a week watching a toddler. As a result our school schedule has been totally wrecked and I am juggling to fit everything into the hours we have available.

The other unexpected consequence is the trickle down effect that the older children have on the younger children. The whole tone of the family has changed, with people coming and going, teens riding buses, money in the hands of teens, iPods in ears, driver's permits and generally a less than together feeling. It seems to be hardest on me. The children are all happy. I guess I will adjust. I know I need to be praying more.

I knew my children would grow up and begin this transition...but I thought it would be one child at a time, spaced out more and a bit more gradual. Silly me! So, that is why we haven't been blogging much.

Two Wonderful Books I Just Read

I just finished _Your Child's Growing Mind_ by Jane Healy and it was wonderful! I think I read a recommendation for it at the Common Room. I sure wish I had read this years ago! I learned so much about my children, and much that would have been helpful when they were younger. It is very practical and gives how-tos which I really appreciate. What a great book! BTW, I also learned a lot from Jane Healy's _Endangered Minds_ and think that all parents should read it as well.

The other book I picked up off the clearance rack at Half Price Books last week. (Best dollar I ever spent!) It looked like a nice story and it wasn't till I got home and read the inside dust jacket that I realized it was based on a true story. Perhaps others already know about this book...I see it was on Reading Rainbow on PBS. Anyway, it was new to me. Today I read it aloud to my little ones and I wept throughout the entire book. It was so touching. Oh, sure, I might also be a bit hormonal, but the book really is amazing. It is just a picture book but it is one of my favorites! Get it from the library, if you don't own it already. It is called _Boxes for Katje_ by Candace Fleming. And grab some tissues before you read it.

I'm not dead, just studying

School has been keeping me from blogging, but thought that I'd pop in just to say how much I want the T-shirt that says this:

"There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."

I love it, love it, love it.

You all need to hear this!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY

You MUST go hear this! This woman took everything a mom says in a day and condensed it into 3 minutes and sings it to the William Tell Overture! This is SO funny!!!!

Another 'Only in Our House' Moment

While finishing up the dishes in the kitchen, I was surprised by a sudden noise behind me.

Aragorn: (hissing Gollum-like) I found it, I did...the way through the Marshes. (normal voice) Actually, I just found a weird beeping in my room. *holds up carbon monoxide detector* Identified it. *long pause* I have no idea why I just said that.

And with that thought (which was mutual, I assure you), he then left.

An 'Only in Our House' Moment

Purring Piggy saying matter of factly to The Queen: "Well, just be boneless out of Daddy's way."

Overheard by the Clan kitchen

(loud splash of water in kitchen)
Purring Piggy: What happened?
Martin the Warrior: (flustered) I was trying to empty the giant cauldron thingy!

Emma Darcy: (who just turned four) Dear God, thank you for this food, and please help Aragorn to share his mangoes, in Jesus' name, amen.

(the end of a longer conversation that started out perfectly seriously)
Purring Piggy: ...that means Martin the Warrior can see people who aren't there.
The Queen: Yeah. He's magic.
Purring Piggy: What? When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me? I could make lots of money with a boy with those powers.
The Queen: (duh) That's why we didn't tell you.

Harry Potter ends

While on the camping trip, I finally got down to reading the last Harry Potter book. I was not a fan of these books in particular, but neither had I been downright against them, and decided to give the series a fair shot by reading them all through in order before starting the last book. Since I was late to this book, I came across many reviews of it first, and often was surprised by them. The general view among Christian reviewers seemed to be that Book 7 made it clear that this series was good literature, and that there was little doubt that JK Rowling had written wholesome and Christian books.

I won’t say anything on the plot of the book itself, because I’m sure most of the people who will read it have already read it, but these comments almost disturbed me. To be sure, there are many wholesome points in the last Harry Potter book, but those were there in the other books as well, and wholesome points alone do not good literature make. One common point was that because JK Rowling had placed a Christ figure and scriptural references pretty explicitly, those who still considered her books un-Christian would have to make silly points to still oppose them. But I do not believe that you can say that simply because a book has a Christ figure, or even that an author professes to be a Christian, automatically makes the books have a Christian worldview.

In fact, even if the last book had a Christian worldview, which I do not hold, I fail to see how that would make up for the previous six books, which so many agreed did not have a good worldview. As much as JK Rowling may think of herself as a Christian, her books do not hold up in honor what is good and right and true. Yes, Harry may sometimes be selfless and put himself in danger to save the lives of people, but that does not outweigh the fact that he curses and is cruel to those who he dislikes.

We are invited to applaud Harry when he curses the nasty characters, because they “deserved” it, and yet we are also invited to be upset when those same characters give Harry back the same treatment. Now, as the main characters are children, it would be unreasonable to expect mature behavior from them at all times, and yet the teachers and authority figures (many of whom we are called to admire and look up to) hardly chastise Harry for this. And then there is, of course, Harry’s frequent rule-breaking, which scarcely goes punished or even treated as something undesirable. When Hermione, once a character who sought always to follow the rules, joins Harry and Ron in their disobedience, the tone is one of relief, as if she was wrong to do otherwise.

When it comes down to it, Harry is only noble when it comes to earthshaking events, when the world is at stake and he is facing the ultimate evil. And here, it is true, he performs bravely and selflessly, and gives a good example. But in most other circumstances, he is self-centered and a hearty adopter of the philosophy that says “the ends justify the means”. Indeed, even in the last book, when Harry is at his most mature and most admirable state, that philosophy still lurks in the corner.

JK Rowling tries to portray good and evil as distinct, as black and white, but her good characters do most of the same things that her evil characters do, even use Dark Magic, and only the intentions are different (and occasionally not even those). Despite the presence of many good messages, the Harry Potter series ending does not make all criticism of the series “slander” or “outrageous”, as has been said by some.

Did I enjoy the last book? I did, as I enjoyed books 5 and 6, as her writing and stories definitely matured. There is in the final few chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows an incredibly powerful story, and had it been part of something more wholesome it would have been an asset to literature. But as the situation stands, I must still hold that the books are not the safest fare, and should be read by a mind already founded in truth.

Things I learned while camping

This last week we went camping with some friends and had a wonderful time. I thought I'd share some lessons I learned this trip.

If you pass a medium sized grocery store about an hour from your campground, don't assume there will be a bigger one later on.

Check the web to see where the nearest KFC (or any fast food chain) is relative to your chosen campground since small local drive-in restaurants can charge as much as they like to tourists who didn't know the nearest fast food place is an hour away.

Small communities who test their alarm system once a day at noon may also sound that alarm for a minute or two to call ambulances in case of emergencies. It doesn't mean the dam broke and you are about to be swept away in a flood. That sound is an on and off siren, not one long blast.

Bring your own hand soap dispenser for the bathroom at the campground, since they don't always have soap.

If someone steals your soap dispenser, leave a polite post-it asking for it back. (It worked)

A whole box of matches does not explode if you throw it in the campfire. (Actually, I already knew that but it was fun watching the children learn this!)

Teens will have a lot more fun playing when the dad takes them upstream away from the overprotective moms who envision their death by drowning at every turn.

Don't give your only house key to your neighbor so she can take care of your pets. Or if you do, make arrangements to get it back so you don't have to sit in your driveway with no way to get into your own house.

Leave yourself a note to turn the water heater back on when you get home. BTW, 4 people can shower on a week-old water heater full of warm water.

Leave a note to turn the washing machine hoses back on, too. We assumed our washer was on the fritz again giving us the same computer code it gave several months back when we had the repair man here 3 times.

Thank God over and over again for your wonderful friends who are willing to go camping with you when your husband is out of town!

Becoming Jane

I have a love/hate relationship with adaptations of any sort, because while I can detach and ignore inacuracies most of the time, it is difficult to do in most cases, and not something I enjoy. Thankfully for this movie, the story was so far from truth that it was not at all difficult to appreciate it as itself and not a portrayal of Jane Austen's life.

First of all, I was disappointed by the objectionable content of this movie...there were several unnecessary parts, and I was surprised that it only got a PG rating. That being said, however, I did find this an enjoyable and interesting movie.

Unlike many period movies it does not have any overlong dull shots, while also not being too quickly paced or with many quick cuts. The music was good, nice and pretty when it needed to be, and it never was overwhelming. The dancing and other period elements were kept where they belonged, in the background, letting the characters and story take over. I went to see the movie with several friends who had taken English Country Dancing with me, and we recognized two of the dances they performed and had to resist the urge to stand up and dance along. The tone of the movie was well-handled, with neither drama nor humor taking over, and quite a few good scenes and lines. The acting also was good, with the only weak link being (unsurpisingly) Anne Hathaway. An interesting note: she was her best when most Austen-like, and her worst in the scenes that I could not see Austen ending up in. James McAvoy was very good at his role and you could see why Jane liked him, but he and Jane had little chemistry in my opinion...they did not fit as a couple.

Storywise, much of the movie felt like a ripoff of Pride and Prejudice, but there were many unique bits as well. From what I have read, I think they did justice to Tom Lefroy, and I could see Jane liking him even as he is a rake. You can see the bitterness that she feels when she realizes that their relationship cannot succeed, and how she looks to the steady true man in her life with appreciation after her relationship with Tom Lefroy, and so the movie seems to make a case that it was her own unhappy experience with that sort of man that made her write all her heroes the quiet good sort of men, with all the villains the entertaining rakes (except for Henry Tilney, who was written earliest).

Due to content issues, and the liberties taken with Austen's life, I'd not recommend this to be seen in theatres, however, it was not the horrible thing that Austen fans expected either. In the end, though, driving to the theatre with several good friends and lip-syncing and acting ridiculously along to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack was the best part of the experience.

Back again

If you were wondering about the absence of posts last week (or perhaps you weren't because I haven't always been consistent), we were on another week-long camping trip. Just before and just after the trip, though, some very bloggable things happened, so I'll most likely be able to make up for that absence soon.

Curiosity

It was early one morning, and I had just reminded Purring Piggy that I had a fasting blood draw that morning, when The Queen came over and started asking questions. "They're taking your blood? Why? Does it hurt?...." After a while, I thought I had satisfied her curiosity, and though to her the situation appeared grave and even disgusting, she left. A couple minutes later, though, she came back with her huge eyes wide, and asked solemnly: "Will they take all your blood?" And at that, Purring Piggy and I could not help but burst into laughter.

Some things simply must be known...

...and this is one of them.

Firefly

The TV show Firefly is unique: whatever you can say about it, and why it was canceled halfway through its first season, you certainly cannot deny that fact. Unlike other science fiction shows, Firefly has no aliens, no worm holes, no black holes, no time travel, and no light speed travel. In fact, despite the oddness of the match, Firefly is a marriage of two genres: science fiction and western. From the twangy guitar theme song to the vast plains of certain planets, to the horses and guns that still exist 500 years in the future, the western influence is not something easily missed. And yet, it is well integrated, with the plot line being that when humans “outgrew” Earth, they formed other planets, but did not provide the settlers with much more than the bare necessities to start life with, giving the “Core” planets a more futuristic and modern look, while leaving the “Outer Rim” planets with a more historical Western feel.

Another area where Firefly is different from other shows is its focus. Though the plot seems fairly simple and action-centered, a crew of mercenaries dealing with various jobs that always seem to go wrong in some way, action is not the point of each episode. Instead, the focus of Firefly is love. The love of spouses towards each other, the love of a captain for his crew, the love of a crew for their ship, the love of siblings for each other, and even the love of one man for his collection of guns. Character and relationships are key, and though each of the various elements may or may not be unique by itself, when put together they make Firefly very special indeed.

The first of these elements is one of the main characters, a man of God, a “Shepherd”. Religious characters are not new to media, of course, but rarely are they so palatable to a Christian as is Shepherd Book. Here is a man who is a strong believer in the Lord and his Word, who is always the voice of peace-making and love, and yet who is neither weak nor with religious doubts. He can fight when lives must be saved, but does not wish for the death of any, even those who seek to kill him. Not only this, but his character is treated with respect by the others, even though none of them seem to be anything but atheists (and one is bitterly against religion), and he is beloved by all. Perhaps he does not bring a true influence of religion to the whole show, but for a piece of modern media, made by non-believers, the positive portrayal of Shepherd Book is a deep breath of fresh air.

Another element rarely seen, a healthy happy marriage that stays together through the whole show. As is shown many times throughout the show, Wash and Zoe are bound to each other by more than affection, though that isn’t lacking, but a commitment to each other that is able to stand all disagreements and spats. There is no talk of divorce between them; this marriage is firm and solid, something that would be nice to see more often.

And lastly of the elements that I will mention, one of the main focuses of Firefly is on the loving relationship between a brother and sister. Loving siblings have been portrayed in books and movies before, though certainly less than siblings who irritate each other, several examples being Sense and Sensibility, Little Women, and, more recently, The Series of Unfortunate Events. However, these stories almost always focus on the effects of outside events on the relationships, not on the relationships themselves alone. In Firefly, however, we are given a rare treat.

Simon and River Tam have always been close to each other, as is shown in flashbacks, but the test of their relationship comes when River begins sending her brother coded letters from the special government school where she is at, letters that say “they are hurting me". On his way to the medical elite, Simon drops everything and spends years and his entire fortune to rescue his sister, to find only after he has done so that scientists have been playing with her unique brain for reasons unknown to him. Apparently their reasons were important, though, because now both brother and sister are on the “most wanted” list, and Simon must take River, who is left with extensive mental damage from their experiments, with him on the run. And so we meet them in Firefly: River, a genius who is mentally ill, and her brother Simon who, it seems, will do anything to keep her safe from those who tortured her. Throughout the series Simon shows an incredible selflessness in his relationship with his sister, who is left so unstable that she needs constant attention and care, and though things are hardly perfect for them, their relationship (to someone who has a deep bond with her siblings) feels more "normal" than the easier but more dysfunctional relationships usually shown among siblings. This is love as the gospels show it, the truest form that moves a person to give up all selfish desires, all personal goals, simply to serve and even lay down a life for another. We see this love sometimes between friends or lovers, but Firefly shows us that media has forgotten that siblings can show it as well. And for those who don’t fall into the sibling rivalry that is portrayed as normal, Simon and River Tam will warm your heart and maybe move you to tears.

Moving from the more meaningful to the merely entertaining elements, there is more to Firefly than the characters. The show abounds in witty writing—even the most dramatic episodes have more than a few quotable lines, and a listing of all our favorites would take several pages, and many of them would not be half as good out of context or I would offer some choice gems here. Another interesting aspect, though small, is the fact that Firefly seems to be the only science fiction show or movie that recognizes that there is no sound in space.

But as much as there are positive elements to this show (and its sequel movie, Serenity), it is unfortunately the product of popular culture, and is not without unnecessary parts. There is a great deal of bad language (though thankfully due to the show’s nature much of it is in untranslated Chinese) and fairly often innuendos or uncomfortable scenes of a steamy or violent nature, though nothing that is very difficult to edit. On the broader scheme, there is an element of law-breaking on a similar scale to the piracy in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. For our family, though, the editing was a price we were willing to pay, and we very much enjoyed this series, and are quite astounded that it was canceled.

Quote

I'd post about the fact that I am legally able to vote today, but I do not really know what there is to say about it, so instead I'll post this completely non-relevant thing. I've never read the source of it, but was intensely tickled:

"Sir, I would like to gingerly point out that it's hard for someone to be gently reassuring when they're holding three and a half feet of sharpened steel." -Queen of Wands webcomic

Writing fan-fiction and criticism

Though I am a writer, I spend most of my time in the fan-fiction community, writing continuations, prequels, gapfillers, etceteras, to works that I enjoy. Though in a way this is taking an easy way out, using a prepackaged world and characters, it is also more difficult as you are directly following in the footsteps of a "great" author. Yes, all original writers are following some genius in whatever genre they choose, but the connection is more vague and the pressure to equal greatness less prevalent. However, when writing a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, though Jane Austen may have given you the characters, you have to work hard to keep them within her world and vision to some extent so that your readers do not feel cheated and protest. Keeping characters "in character", following "canon", and catching a certain "tone" are of grave importance to most fan-fiction writers. Because there is that burden, then, fan-fiction communities overflow in advice and tutorials for writers. There are essays ad infinitum ad nauseam on how to keep your characters from becoming too perfect, how to avoid deus ex machina, and other such helpful advice. Any mistake that any writer could ever make will be warned against there.

However, after spending a good deal of time almost solely in that community, reading, writing, and editing fan-fiction, I started reading published original fiction again. And then I noticed something ironic: some amateur fan-fiction writers seemed to care more about writing well in their non-profit stories than published authors did in theirs. One writing aspect that is very often commented upon in fan-fiction is the art of showing, not telling, and it is a mistake that will be very quickly caught by good reviewers and editors (yes, they even exist for fan-fiction). And yet, I read two different best-selling published works where almost all character information was told to you by the narrator. In fact, in the case of one book, some of the fan-fiction based upon it was better at showing than the original work.

Though this situation at first seems counter-intuitive, it is not impossible to make sense out of it. What it comes down to, I suppose, is who is reading. Someone who reads fan-fiction reads it because they want to know more. They finished the book (or movie) and their imagination saw possibilities and options beyond the end, and they wanted to explore them, whether through their own writing or some other author's. Often, they will have their own ideas of what happened before or after, and most who read fan-fiction will eventually write it as well. How is this different from most people who read original fiction? Though I hesitate to make generalities, I think fan-fiction draws writers almost exclusively, because writers must first and foremost have very active imaginations, and that is what makes fan-fiction what it is.

However, there are plenty of people, the majority I would say, who read original fiction only to be entertained or instructed, and either like what an author said or do not but take their involvement no further. They may or may not understand why they like a story, because much of understanding how fiction works comes through seeing how it is created. The author of original fiction has more control, then, knowing that much of the audience will not know where to look for the wires, and knowing that if the writing is good enough the wires will not be obvious. But when a writer reads something, he or she knows all about wires, because he or she has laid them, and knows more readily when they are poorly or masterfully hidden. With that in mind, it makes sense that an audience composed mostly of writers (like the fan-fiction community) would be more critical, because they are more aware of the process involved. Likewise, an author writing for that audience must be more careful if he or she wishes to please that audience, because the readers are not there simply for entertainment, to soak up what an author has to say, but instead want something very specific: writing that adds favorably (in their often exact specifications) to a work they enjoyed.

Though of course this observation is full of generalities—writers can be poor at judging writing, likewise non-writers can be excellent, and not all fan-fiction communities strive for excellence—it is not without intrigue, to me at least, especially when paired with the fact that writing fan-fiction is most often looked down upon as immature and easy. I won't discuss the former point, but the latter—well, those of us who have done it are disinclined to share that opinion.