Reviewing staples.

[farla]

It occurred to me that a lot of people say "original" when what they mean is "unusual."

Comments

[wintersheir]

DUDEYES. Sometimes I see some of the reviews on serebii and am like, "original? Not...really. Just... different."

[farla.livejournal.com]

^^ I have to admit I only realized it because I do the same thing myself.

Serebii is a soulsucking pit of horror and graphics. I found it's easy to translate FFN reviews, though.
Fanbrat to English:
Good writing = I could read it
Original = I just read the same story ten times by ten people and this is different
Original writing = I couldn't read it but the other reviews said it was good.
Cute story = I can't say anything positive but you demanded a review
Sad story = I can't say anything positive but you demanded a review
Awesome = review my story, damn you.
You're a great author = other people mentioned you somewhere
This sucks = I couldn't find anything wrong but I don't like you
It was bad = I'm trying to commit suicide and wish for help in the matter
KAWAII!!!! = I am not capable of reading but enjoy pressing buttons

[negrek.livejournal.com]

XD That's excellent. I have so much trouble trying to figure out the code, sometimes.

[kddreams.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's sort of logical. I mean if it's unusual, then chances are it's never really occured before, so it's pretty original. For example, the book "Blindness" is rather unusual, because the idea of the illness it very original. However, the concept of the book isn't too original.

Anyway, happy pi day! 3.14!!

[farla.livejournal.com]

::pokes:: Um, Lainy, your logic hurts and stings.

If out of a hundred stories ten of them involve a kid getting a pokemon from his aunt, then it's unusual, but in a fandom with a thousand stories, that's still a hundred stories where the kid gets it from his aunt. It's true unusual things might be original, but people tend to use it to mean "huh, I've only seen this a dozen times."

Original should mean unique, not unusual.

Ah! I hadn't noticed that. Happy nearly-the-ides-of-March to you.

[negrek.livejournal.com]

Quite true. But I think that a lot of the people who squee over how "original" something is haven't really read many fanfictions; it really may be their first time seeing such a concept, and therefore assume that it's unique to that author.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Hm, maybe, but I don't see it much in that context. Back when you first start reading, everything seems original, even the tenth time you see it. Admittedly that's probably part of it, but the fact it appears in phrases like "How original, I've only see that a couple of times before..." and such suggests they know it isn't unique.