The calendar has nothing to do with it

[scarfman]

I'm old. I'm not just not-young-any-more, I'm old.

People on my flist write and talk about "crack" fanfiction, and I just don't understand what that is, despite having gotten from one of them a definition once. I see self-defined "crack!fic" and I don't perceive any particular quality to seperate it from stuff I've been reading for thirty-five years.

Comments

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's a sign of age... it's just that some people have made up a new word for something that's been around a while already.

[tinuvielberen.livejournal.com]

A new word to describe an old concept? That's slang for you.

Crack!fic usually refers to bizarre crossover fic, unusual pairings, or plot ideas that are just plain out there. It can mean a fic so awful that the author must have been on something. Or it can refer to a really strange but highly interesting/addictive story.

It's a highly subjective term, just like good!fic and bad!fic.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh. I used to call those "Efforts to shock people into reading badly-written stories just for how crazy the idea is."

[pedanther]

This could say more about what you've been reading than anything else, you know.

It occurs to me, for instance, that by an objective judgement pretty much every This Time Round 'fic would probably qualify as crack!fic automatically.

[scarfman]

Okay. That's been the most helpful comment so far.