Feedback that misses the point

[YDB95]

Have we had a thread for this before? Because I just got a doozy:

Made up statistics 1 of 3 women raped is absurd and NOT even close to the truth. Makes women seem like simpering fools and they are NOT! the characters came across as too stupid to be freshmen in high school much less college...

Here is the story in question. The one-in-three statistic is indeed absurd and it does make the character who says it look stupid, but that's the whole point. The character who says that is an abrasive jerk who alienates everyone else, and ends up getting in a lot of well-deserved trouble as a result. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it understand what water is.

I can't be the only one...let's hear your stories.

 

[lovecraft68]

Readers take all their personal beliefs feelings and experiences into a story. Perhaps this person is a abusive slug who wants to deny that many women are assaulted? Or maybe they just live in denial because fact is most victims of rape never report it and if they did your 1/3 would be horribly closer to accurate than you want to think.

But back to my point of readers many times basing what they feel over what they read. For example IF-BIG IF- the 'trouble' the character got into for that statement was to be raped? I would blast you to high heaven with the most hate filled diatribe you could fathom but under my name, I never 'anon' a bad remark.

But no worries, I'm not reading it. I avoid anything that remotely addresses the topic if I can.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My favorites are those from readers who think what I write is TRUE. They think what is happening in the story is what happened to me in real life. Of course that's absurd. Especially my Loving Wives stories.

I always get the...

"I hope you both die of AIDS!" rants.

 

[Theroughstockeventauthor]

Mine was kind of fun

I got an email the other day about my gm story, "The Other Boy In Goodwell" https://www.literotica.com/s/the-other-boy-in-goodwell. Anon took the time to write and correct my Spanish, which I appreciate, but.

The characters are in a Spanish 1 class, learning the difference between the verbs "ser" and "estar". One uses the adjective "severo" to describe his father for the exercise. Obviously, I know what that word means. Even if I didn't have access to translation tools, etc, it is pretty much a cognate. The other character asks for a definition, and is told it means "he's an asshole", because a) the first guy thinks his dad is an asshole, and b) "severo" is not a word I would choose to describe a nice guy. In the next couple lines of dialogue, it it also established that the character (and I) know that "asshole" is not a literal translation of "severo".

Anon still felt s/he needed to let me know that "gilipollos" is actually how you say asshole in Spanish, and also provide a translation of the word I used.

Google translate identified the language as Basque. Gilipollos is not a word I am familiar with, and I can only assume the poster is from Spain, or learned European Spanish. I am in the US, where Latin American Spanish is much more common.

So the whole thing is kind of awesome, I guess. Just kind of missed the point, but I ain't even mad.

 

[oggbashan]

The comments by anonymous on my short story Nylon Overall are longer than the story:

https://www.literotica.com/stories/storyfeedbackboard.php?id=385876&pagehint=6

They could have been submitted as a story series. Odd.

 

[49greg]

My favorites are those from readers who think what I write is TRUE. They think what is happening in the story is what happened to me in real life. Of course that's absurd. Especially my Loving Wives stories.

I always get the...

"I hope you both die of AIDS!" rants.

I get that too - readers think the story is true. Never had anyone want me to die of aids, just want me to die. Loving wives gets the crazies that's for sure.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Almost all of my readership "gets it" - they understand where I'm going, or at least have learned to wait it out and see what develops. But then, I write stories that make people think, so my readership is relatively small, and the ones who survive the first page are going to be a little more perceptive and willing to suspend judgement than the average here.

I got one comment that was so seriously off base that I decided it was just a troll attempt, and I deleted it. I got another who tried to psychoanalyse me based on one of my characters, which made me chuckle. I think that's the biggest mistake readers here are prone to - as the OP noted, some people think characters speak for the writer. That's a pretty frightening delusion on a fantasy/erotica site.

I've figured out the solution, even if I don't always follow it. Use multiple chapters and make the first chapter longish. People uninterested in the concept will bail before voting or commenting. That leaves subsequent chapters largely free of people who don't get it or don't like it.

 

[rjordan]

The comments by anonymous on my short story Nylon Overall are longer than the story:

https://www.literotica.com/stories/storyfeedbackboard.php?id=385876&pagehint=6

They could have been submitted as a story series. Odd.

Same happened on my last story, Strictly Business. A 2900 word comment on a 2200 word story, though I don't believe a single sentence was relevant to the story.

rj

 

[anastasiareeves]

Being told I am the wrong gender and sexual orientation to write the stories I have posted is tons of fun. I've also been told my fictional stories are too, fictional. Comments are always an adventure.

 

[robertreams]

My favorites are those from readers who think what I write is TRUE. They think what is happening in the story is what happened to me in real life. Of course that's absurd. Especially my Loving Wives stories.

I always get the...

"I hope you both die of AIDS!" rants.

I know what you mean. Many of my reader assume that I am gay because I write an effective male on male story. Until they read one of my hetero stories. Then they comment that I have confused them. They do not understand that they are all fantasies.
I just looked it up. Picasso said:"Artists lie to tell a greater truth." One of my teachers said that stories should never be true but always true to life.

 

[YDB95]

But back to my point of readers many times basing what they feel over what they read. For example IF-BIG IF- the 'trouble' the character got into for that statement was to be raped? I would blast you to high heaven with the most hate filled diatribe you could fathom but under my name, I never 'anon' a bad remark.

But no worries, I'm not reading it. I avoid anything that remotely addresses the topic if I can.

Since you made a point of not reading it, you probably shouldn't judge it, huh?

In any event, if you've ever read any of my stories, you'd know perfectly well that I would never in a million years portray rape in a trivial light or an erotic one. What does happen in that story is that a minor character brings up the 1 in 3 statistic to justify a publicity stunt in which she's planning to post a list of all the "potential rapists" on a college campus. The list actually consists of all the college's current male students. The whole point is to portray that character as an immature, extremist gadfly, and more than a little bit sexist to boot. Every single other named character in the scene lines up against her because they recognize what an absurd stunt she's trying to pull and how wrongheaded her logic is. That is why I said the reviewer missed the mark so utterly: because the point he (she? The name sounded like a he) was making was also the point I was making in the first place.

 

[sr71plt]

Since you made a point of not reading it, you probably shouldn't judge it, huh?

You would think so, wouldn't you?

Most of the time when I get a comment that misses the point of the story in some derisive way, I just delete the comment and move on. Doesn't happen often.

 

[loquere]

My favorites are those from readers who think what I write is TRUE. They think what is happening in the story is what happened to me in real life. Of course that's absurd. Especially my Loving Wives stories.

I always get the...

"I hope you both die of AIDS!" rants.

Yeah that old line. That shit is why I turned off all feedback except for feedback on this Forum.

 

[GoldenCojones]

I got this on my "Chinese Christmas" story.

12/13/15 By: Anonymous
What has this to do with anything Chinese? You clearly know nothing about China or its culture.

There wasn't anything about China in the story. I guess maybe Chinese Christmas is an American thing but I would have thought that reading the story would have made it clear what the term meant.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

On the topic of bad feedback, I just got an email from a "dannia@live.com" berating me because D/s and BDSM is "all fake". I tried to write a polite reply, but the email address isn't real and I wasted a half-hour of typing trying to respond.

So yeah. Some people just don't have clues. The best you can do is shrug.

Lesson learned. If an email is hostile and I want to respond at all, it will be with a one line "Thanks for your email, I'll respond as time permits" to test the address out.

 

[wet_special]

Off-topic, long winded?

I usually get one liners like "That was hot, wanna hear more about so-and-so, maybe with <insert character or fetish>!" Or sometimes a paragraph about what direction they thought the story was headed. (Love those by the way, keep 'em coming Anonymous)

I know I'd rather less mystique and more critique when I get comments, so if I write a comment, it's usually not short. I wasn't sure if I was saying too much but apparently my apprehensions were not applicable. I think it comes down to sincere vs. trolls.

Oh and I've tried to reply to someone that wasn't reachable, how dreadful. Makes you want to keep it in forums or just keep it to yourself.

 

[JKendallDane]

The one that stands out for me was left on Just Down the Hall which is a story set mainly in a freshman college dorm. The two protagonists develop a thing for each without ever actually meeting. When they finally do, the surprise twist of them being cousins that hadn't seen each other since being in sixth grade comes to light.

I got bitched at by a reader for "not warning them" that incest was involved. (Your squick factor is cool with gay male, but you have a major problem with "just barely" incest? ? ) I did tag it as such but we are talking cousins for crying out loud. And gay ones at that! Shit. The whole plotline was based on the twist not coming to light until more than halfway through the story.

But I guess I should have put a disclaimer in an author note at the beginning that gave away the surprise twist right up front.

.

 

[NaokoSmith]

For some reason nobody assumes that my stories are true and that I am a gay Welsh werewolf. However I did for the first time put a disclaimer on my gay Welsh werewolf story to say that all the characters were fictional, since I'm quite sure that a high-ranking civil servant with pierced nipples will pop up otherwise to claim I based it on him.

My best comment was the one-star Amazon review that called my first werewolf story "depraved filth". The downloads have never stopped since that day!