Backhanded Complements

[farla]

And yeah you are good, but why waste your time on Pokemon?
This is about the dozenth time one particular reviewer has told me this. Not only is it somewhat insulting for him to say what I spend time on is a waste, but it really makes me wonder how much he actually likes my stories, given how much time he's spending trying to convince me to stop.

Wow very dark. You should try prozac.
Not only does this imply I'm mentally ill, saying that the only reason someone could write that is that they're so severely depressed as to be unbalanced does not reflect well on the story quality either. And telling me how to 'fix' my 'problem' of writing these stories again makes me wonder how she could actually like them.

With complements like these, who needs flames?

Comments

[kddreams.livejournal.com]

You thinking sarcasm? Because that prozac one, I'm definitly thinking sarcasm.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

I thought the prozac one was more of a lame attempt at a joke.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Probably. I don't think it was meant exactly seriously, but the implication behind it still irritates me.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

I guess it's one of those 'think before you type' things. What's weird is that she meant it as a compliment.
Weirder, I find, is the whole 'you shouldn't waste your time on Pokemon'. Then why did she read it?

[farla.livejournal.com]

::sigh:: The 'stop writing!'...It makes a trifle more sense if you watched it progress via reviews over the past year.
I really enjoy your writing.

Your writing is great! You're as good as a published author!

You're as good as a published author. Hey, you should publish stuff.

You know, you can't publish fanfic. Why aren't you writing stuff you can publish? You shouldn't be spending time on fanfic you could use to write other stuff.

Why are you still wasting time writing this?

...so I know he means it as a complement, and it's generally tacked on at the end of a longer review, but it's still an annoying attitude.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

Quote: You're as good as a published author. Hey, you should publish stuff.
DDDDDDDDDDDDD:
Please tell me that was a joke.

[farla.livejournal.com]

It seems to be the fanit equivalent of 'exceedingly good' in standard English. As in 'I'd buy what you wrote/I see no difference between you and (person of established quality)' and possibly 'You deserve to earn money for writing these stories'. I've seen it in a variety of contexts, and that appears to be the normal meaning (See: Harry Potter, rewriting the fifth book of).

This particular reviewer takes it a bit far.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

I can see.
But it's the little 'Hey you're as good as a published writer' followed by 'hey, you should publish stuff' that makes me want to kill.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Yeah. In fairness, my parents take the same attitude sometimes - but then, they're my parents, not my readers.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

XD

[farla.livejournal.com]

I think they were trying to complement how dark of a story they thought it was. This person reviews a lot, and she's never sarcastic. It's always one/two lines about how she likes the story.