Why do readers read stuff they hate?

[AaronAardvark]

My question is why do readers plough through stories when they hate the style? In Lit. and life, if I don't like the style of a story or book I abandon it rapidly. With Literotica it is not as if there were any lack of choice.

Recently I wrote an Aunt Sally, entitled My great aunt, Sally (Mature). I had been reading Henry James and became a little over enthused. It received comments that deservedly berated the excess of punctuation but it was an Aunt Sally, even the title included a tell-tale comma. Moreover, its overall score, 4.45 from 188 people, was not so far short of hot, so lots of readers must have found it to be quite acceptable. Why do readers persist in reading stories that irritate them?

P.S. I love adjectives and adverbs, 'the great, grey-green greasy Limpopo River,' says it all for me, I can visualise that river even though I have never seen it.

[lovecraft68]

Okay, I'll admit to ignorance.

What exactly is an "Aunt Sally"?

As for your post seeing your just shy of hot it doesn't seem as if it were hated.

[jomar]

I wonder too. I've had anonymous tell me they hated the story and what a waste of time it was to read it. Odd.

[Cruel2BKind]

Well, let me give you an example.

I really like werewolf stories, but there aren't that many gm werewolf stories. I'd read the few that there were over and over and over again.

Then an author called oilandwater wrote two chapters to one.

The story was very flawed. It had frustrating characters, very poor grammar, no sex in the first chapters, and no new chapters any time soon.

But I still read it through because the main characters were somewhat compelling, and because I very much like gm werewolf stories.

Your reader probably liked your characters, or your premise, or something about your story, but disliked another element enough to give a negative comment.

[elfin_odalisque]

Originally Posted by lovecraft68

Okay, I'll admit to ignorance.

What exactly is an "Aunt Sally"?

As for your post seeing your just shy of hot it doesn't seem as if it were hated.

An 'Aunt Sally' is , in a fair usually, something put up to be knocked down to win a prize. .Something you put up,to be knocked down.

Just a point, Aaron, adjectives and adverbs are the death-knell for successful erotic writing. Think a thousand times befofe writing a Kiplinesque phrase. We're not that good and advectives and adverbs jibe.

[lovecraft68]

Usually the real haters, the trolls don;t even read the story. They find the category they hate, lets say incest then run up and down the story boards slamming the stories.

For instance this one, on my mother/son summer contest entry

Let's just clarify this for the internet hardman "RG" with his comment.
09/01/12 By: Anonymous
This story is a nonce-laden, low-life steaming pile of shit. Only fucking dirty nonces like yourself and cuckeye0007 and the other perverted low-life scum would like a story involving mommy - son sex. But because it's a fantasy website I leave the scum categories to the nonces that enjoy them.

So RG, you sick pervert slag, shut your crud infected fucking mouth you sad cunt.

Okay so if only "dirty nonces" read and like incest stories why the hell is this guy in the section to begin with?

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by lovecraft68

Okay, I'll admit to ignorance.

What exactly is an "Aunt Sally"?

As for your post seeing your just shy of hot it doesn't seem as if it were hated.

Originally Posted by elfin_odalisque

An 'Aunt Sally' is , in a fair usually, something put up to be knocked down to win a prize. .Something you put up,to be knocked down.

Not quite as simple as that. It is an effigy, traditionally the head of an old woman with a pipe (yes, women smoked pipes in them far-off days). The idea is to knock out the pipe. An alternative is that the head is mounted on a spike. The players must NOT hit the spike. The game is dated from the 17th Century, during the time of the Civil War. It's still found in some pubs in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire.



From Wiki: The term "Aunt Sally" is used in Great Britain to indicate a false adversary or straw man set up purely for attracting negative attention and wasting an opponent's energy.

[TxRad]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

Not quite as simple as that. It is an effigy, traditionally the head of an old woman with a pipe (yes, women smoked pipes in them far-off days). The idea is to knock out the pipe. An alternative is that the head is mounted on a spike. The players must NOT hit the spike. The game is dated from the 17th Century, during the time of the Civil War. It's still found in some pubs in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire.



From Wiki: The term "Aunt Sally" is used in Great Britain to indicate a false adversary or straw man set up purely for attracting negative attention and wasting an opponent's energy.

That last sounds like my last couple of Loving Wives tales.

[lovecraft68]

Originally Posted by Handley_Page

Not quite as simple as that. It is an effigy, traditionally the head of an old woman with a pipe (yes, women smoked pipes in them far-off days). The idea is to knock out the pipe. An alternative is that the head is mounted on a spike. The players must NOT hit the spike. The game is dated from the 17th Century, during the time of the Civil War. It's still found in some pubs in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire.



From Wiki: The term "Aunt Sally" is used in Great Britain to indicate a false adversary or straw man set up purely for attracting negative attention and wasting an opponent's energy.

Oh! Like everyone targeting the NRA for the recent shootings when they should be blaming the weak willed gutless society that creates and raises animals Like Lanza?

I got it!

[PennLady]

Originally Posted by lovecraft68

Oh! Like everyone targeting the NRA for the recent shootings when they should be blaming the weak willed gutless society that creates and raises animals Like Lanza?

I got it!

Or like people blaming everyone else -- "society" -- for things that they don't fully understand or don't want to admit.

[AaronAardvark]

Originally Posted by Cruel2BKind

Well, let me give you an example.

I really like werewolf stories, but there aren't that many gm werewolf stories. I'd read the few that there were over and over and over again.

Then an author called oilandwater wrote two chapters to one.

The story was very flawed. It had frustrating characters, very poor grammar, no sex in the first chapters, and no new chapters any time soon.

But I still read it through because the main characters were somewhat compelling, and because I very much like gm werewolf stories.

Your reader probably liked your characters, or your premise, or something about your story, but disliked another element enough to give a negative comment.

Fair point, indeed a very good point.

Incidentally, as several people have reported, an Aunt Sally is something that is put up to give the appearance of being easy to knock down.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by AaronAardvark

Incidentally, as several people have reported, an Aunt Sally is something that is put up to give the appearance of being easy to knock down.

Evidently, part of your problem (not that your rating and number of votes really constitute a problem--you can't please all of the people all of the time) is that you're going over a lot of reader's heads with the "Aunt Sally" reference. I've never heard of it before either. This sort of latches into a couple of discussions here on putting fashion brand names in stories. If you don't keep them cliched, most of your audience misses the reference.