If you walked into a bookstore to buy Plato's Republic, would you look in the fiction section, or the nonfiction section?
That's pretty much what it boils down to for me. It's nonfiction that uses elements of fiction to make its point. There's nothing stopping anyone from tagging it ficto-criticism or fiction or "fictional elements" or whatever else would be useful.
But if someone's saying to themselves "I really want to read a good Steve/Tony story" and they click on the most recent result under Fiction, Avengers, Steve/Tony and instead of a story they get ficto-criticism about whatever issue someone has with Steve/Tony fic, they're probably going to be a little pissed off.
OTOH, if someone is thinking, "I really want to read some good analysis of Steve/Tony", they're probably going to filter for nonfic, and will happily click on the first result, and probably pleased as punch to find ficto-criticism of that person's issue with Steve/Tony.
People who don't filter out to just one or the other will see it regardless, but for people who specifically don't want to see meta, it would probably be maddening to have people start categorizing their critical essays under Fiction just because they have fictional elements, or are presented in a narrative style.
Look, it's rare enough that it probably doesn't matter in a meaningful way. But I do think you're missing the point that I'm talking about a genuine hybrid genre -- if it wasn't I wouldn't have bothered bringing the example up in this context.
I'd look for Republic in the Classics section, then wander around to whichever of fiction/non-fiction was closest and check it first. The few examples I've read in fandom were the equivalent of Steve/Tony, and were also meta just as legitimately.
Sorry for butting in, but using fiction to critically analyze a thing, does not make something not be fiction. Fiction, specially fanfiction can very well be metatextual in nature and be seeking also to comment on certain things. But no, it does not make it non-fiction under any definition in the world. And specially when talking about "meta" which is a fandom term and construction, meta literally means that the writing in question not be written in form of a narrative fiction. If it's written in the form of narrative fiction, no matter how many deep and important thoughts it explores, it's still fanfic, not meta.
I would be very interested in hearing your examples of both fiction and non-fiction. Because while I understand you, I really don't agree with you at all.
Comment on OTW Board Approves Meta Hosting on the AO3
Arduinna Sat 16 Feb 2013 06:28PM UTC
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cupidsbow Sat 16 Feb 2013 07:57PM UTC
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TinnyThoughts (Guest) Mon 18 Feb 2013 01:27PM UTC
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