To Review or Not to Review? That Is the Question....

[dawn_felagund]

Recently, I have been batting around the idea of submitting one of my short stories for archive review at HASA. So why is this a big deal? Just do it, right, Dawn?

The problem is that I have always made such a big loud noise about how I don't agree with processes that claim to judge what is "quality" fiction, something that is made even worse online, where even "blind" submissions are often easily recognized as belonging to a certain author and therefore prone (in my opinion) to greater bias than a review by true strangers.


For example, many of you have stories that I would know as yours the moment I read them or read the titles, even, in certain circumstances. I admit that I would find it hard to separate my feelings for you as a friend or an individual from my judgement of a story. And the opposite is unfortunately also true: I am sure that there are people in the Tolkien fanfic community who would decline one of my stories just because it was written by me. (None of these people, as far as I know, belong to HASA. If they do, they are not active over there.) And it's not hard to know what stories belong to me. Go to my "short story" tag and there's a list right there.

Besides that, I simply don't agree that even a huge pool of reviewers have a right to decide what is or is not quality. Now I've had it brought up to me before: But Dawn, you are an editor for a literary magazine. And you have been a fiction editor before and had the difficulty of actually choosing the "best" stories from a pool of submissions. Yes, but I see this as different. A literary magazine, to me, is nothing but a collection of pieces that the editor(s) find particularly good. It is the editor's opinions, certainly not a declaration of quality at large. Were you to read the same pool of stories as me, you would probably "rate" some differently than I do. And a literary magazine, also, includes a certain kind of fiction. A story from the genre of science fiction might be excellent to readers of science fiction, but I don't think that it would ever appear in The Praire Schooner. Not because it's bad but because they don't publish that kind of fiction.

But archives that require a "review" to get in on the premise of only wanting to accept fiction of "quality" are, in my opinion, assuming that a team of reviewers can make such a judgement. Even the most atrocious blue-haired, purple-irised, unicorn-riding "Mary Sue" would be good fiction to someone. On the other hand, a dense, psychologically-based story dealing with the Elven view of mortality might breeze into most archives...but there would be readers who would hate it. There are doubtlessly readers who hate my stories, who think that I'm long-winded, blathering, and--at times--pompous (they're certainly right on the first two counts...I'm not so sure that I can count as pompous, though), and I know there are people who love my stories. Who's right? Who's to same I write quality fiction...or not?

And so I've always assumed that I would avoid archives that "review" stories for inclusion. But recently, I want to give it a try, for a couple of reasons.

1. I just want to see if it would be accepted. I'm curious. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back.


2. I can't help but feel that I am pompous or prideful to assume that I am making some kind of impact by witholding my work from certain archives. Like the staff of these archives are wringing their hands even as I type this and considering revising their admission guidelines solely because Dawn Felagund doesn't agree with them, and they are somehow incomplete if they don't get stories by Dawn Felagund posted there. Hmph.


3. I want an audience for my work. And HASA is one of the most-read Tolkien archives, so to have my work there would be a good thing. (And eventually other "review" archives as well.)


4. Am I really compromising my principles to submit my work? I do not do reviews, not because I'm lazy or I do not wish to help other authors get into archives but because a) I do not trust myself to be fair in reviewing the work of a friend or someone well known to me and b) I do not believe that I have any right to determine what is quality fiction. But to submit one's work...is that really in violation of my belief that the system is wrong? I also do not agree with using standardized tests for admission into universities, but I have taken both the SAT and GRE, scored well on both, and am proud of my work. It doesn't mean that I am agreeing that standardized tests are appropriate admissions standards. It is simply something that I had to do to achieve a greater goal: getting into the university I wanted to attend. A necessary evil, to borrow the cliche.

So that's where I stand. I'm interested in people's opinions on this.


But if you'd rather give me your opinion anonymously (and just because they're fun and I'm paying for the ability to use them), here's a poll:

[Poll #669291]

Now that it's 3 o'clock and I've done my blathering for the day, I will stop procrastinating and do some writing.

Comments

[mirien.livejournal.com]

I think you should, Dawn. The HASA review system has its flaws but at the end of the day, it does help to maintain a very high standard. I have stuff there I submitted aeons ago before I decided I realised it was less important to me to have my work published there. But now you've brought it up, I may go back, just to see if they would take some of the slash stuff.

What I will say though is yes, the HASA system does make for site with (largely) a very high standard, but it is also, as I know you know, not the be all and end all. Getting rejected in no way means the story isn't good or worthy of HASA, it just means the 9 reviewers who got to it first overall chose to reject it. In that sense it is very random and very much a game of chance. I mention that because I know how as writers, rejection can be tough to handle, no matter how level headed we are, these are our babies - both the Elves and the work they are in!

All that said, go for it! I may go and reinstall my reviewing privileges!

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

All that said, go for it! I may go and reinstall my reviewing privileges!

Please do so. I think that the standards of the HASA system are based actually on something like "poll" among readers. If 5 to 9 readers are willing to take the time to say "I like this story, because..." then it certainly deserves to be showcased in the public archive. If 5 to 9 readers are willing to take the time and the trouble to say "I don't like this, because...", then that does not mean the story is bad, but maybe not quite what the majority of readers would like to see *showcased* on the public side of HASA.

The catch is that this poll will be fairer if the reviewer pool is larger and more mixed. If you have a very large pool of active reviewers with many different preferences, each submitted story has a better chance to get really a judgement by "the average reader" and not by a dedicated minority that may have developed prejudices and blind spots with the passage of time.

*sigh*

[dawn_felagund]

I think that the standards of the HASA system are based actually on something like "poll" among readers. If 5 to 9 readers are willing to take the time to say "I like this story, because..." then it certainly deserves to be showcased in the public archive. If 5 to 9 readers are willing to take the time and the trouble to say "I don't like this, because...", then that does not mean the story is bad, but maybe not quite what the majority of readers would like to see *showcased* on the public side of HASA.

It's funny because I don't find my nails digging into my palms so much when you word it this way as I do with the whole notion of "maintaining a certain level of quality." This brings it back down to the level of individual opinion rather than attempting to achieve some sort of actual grade of "quality" through the votes of a few people.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

There have been *people* trying to make it about some kind of "general and absolute quality".

The canatics and fanonatics love to claim that they are able to judge if a story has this kind of quality. And HASA has (had) its share of such members. There are reasons why there are prejudices against HASA and negative opinions about HASA.

But... I think if I analyze the system as objectively as I can, sort of slipping into my political analyst mode, then I don't find the claim of general/absolute/universal quality wired into the system. It's rather an attempt to prevent a single person or a clique to completely taking over submissions procedures. The system is, of course, less than perfect... if people vote yes, just because they recognize a story, if people vote just because their friends told them to, if the reviewer pool is so small that only canatics and fanonatics review (who do indeed believe that they are upholding TEH absolute quality)... *sigh* no man made system is perfect. But for a system without open posting, HASA's approach is not that bad, because it does rely on the individual opinion of quality of nine random readers.

[dawn_felagund]

What I will say though is yes, the HASA system does make for site with (largely) a very high standard, but it is also, as I know you know, not the be all and end all.

Yes, this I do know! :) I think that one of the first (and hardest) lessons that I learned as a writer was that I should not take any single person's opinion of my writing as an absolute. I once had a story that half of my readers loved and the other half (including the professor :^/) thought was vile and cliche...that would make for an interesting review! (Unfortunately, it was not fanfic, or I might give it a go! :^P)

Perhaps that I do know that it is not the be all and end all is why I get so miffed not so much at the system they use (as I realized when I read Juno's comment to you) but the reason they give for using it. Because I see it as what it is: nine people's opinions. To me, nine people's opinions cannot judge quality...nine million people's opinions cannot judge quality!

I mention that because I know how as writers, rejection can be tough to handle, no matter how level headed we are, these are our babies - both the Elves and the work they are in!

This is true. :) But I find myself less scared of anonymous rejection (rejection by someone I know and respect is so much harder!) than like I am being untrue to my principles.

*sigh*

The Melkor and Manwe on my shoulders are having quite the bickering contest! :^P

[callirhoe.livejournal.com]

Hah -- totally off subject, but when you say Because I see it as what it is: nine people's opinions., I immediately think of the Supreme Court. Reeeally. :-P

*doesn't go there*

[dawn_felagund]

*snickers*

For all of my qualms with the HASA review process.....

*totally not going there either!*