Semantics

[leavethesky]

I've seen a lot of (apparently) very different definitions of badfic and crackfic going on in this comm, other LJs and metafandom, so how do you define them? Are they synonymous?

Comments

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

I agree with whomever it was on metafandom who noted that bad fic is just plain bad, but crack fic is weird: it's the stuff that makes you go, "WTF! No really, WTF?" But crackfic can be really good, while badfic is always awful.

[joran.livejournal.com]

I think while badfic and crackfic offer the same incomprensibility--who would write that--crackfic implies pleasure, and badfic implies pain.

[ralst.livejournal.com]

Badfic is simply bad; plot, characterisation, spelling, grammar etc. It's all just badly written. I've never had the foggiest idea what crackfic means, but then that's true of half the lj/internet speak out there. I just hope that if something is worth reading someone, somewhere will actually use words like 'good read' or 'enjoyable story' otherwise I'm in the dark.

[trancer21.livejournal.com]

In my mind, they're synonymous. They're both bad but one makes me want to gouge my eyeballs with a white hot poker (badfic), while the other makes me want to keep reading even though I know better (crackfic).

What worries me is the thing going on now where authors intentionally label their fic as 'crackfic'. And, I don't know, I think that should be something determined by the reader as opposed to author designated. 'Cuz, when I come across a fic that's intentionally called crackfic, it translates, imo, as 'author laziness'. Like "I know this sucks but it's totally crack...so read it..and send me lots of feedback telling me how great it is!!".

I tend to think of crackfic the same as I do camp. What makes good camp campy is the earnestness of the creator. They're totally serious about making it good and it's so, so not. Very few can pull off being intentionally campy. It comes across as trying too hard to be ironic and falls flat because of it.

And, wow, I just realized my answer was *way* longer than anyone else. So, yeah, badfic bad, crackfic good, even though it's not.

[theholyinnocent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we all seem to agree that badfic is just bad--you read 3 sentences, you find 25 typos and grammatical mistakes, and you become Alex Cabot: "We're done here." But crackfic is the equivalent of a 50-car pile up on a major freeway: It's so spectacularly bad you just can't turn away. Like there's something about the plot or, in particular, the characterizations that are so compellingly wrong you just keep going out of sheer morbid fascination.