The Train Wreck Effect

[wiseheart]

Has it ever happened to you that you started reading a story because the premise seemed interesting, were deeply disappointed into Chapter 2 and still couldn't stop reading?

I've been following this particular story on SoA for years by now. It's hugely popular, reasonably well-researched, I can't actually stand its approach on certain aspects of Tolkien's universe and its view on characters I like, and yet I'm still reading it.

Sometimes I wonder if I am punishing myself for something or if I have a secret longing for suffering.

Of course, I'm known to have worked myself through "Eragon" and "Eldest", so it's probably not surprising. I drew the line by reading "Brisingr", though.

In that spirit, I wish to share with you the link to the Eragon sporking page. It's a thing of beauty, especially as it isn't fanfic the author is making fun of there. It's a series of books, sold for good (and utterly wasted) money.

Comments

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think everyone succumbs to the train wreck lure occasionally. What's interesting is trying to figure out what the difference is between the works you keep reading even though you really don't like then, and the works you stop reading because you really don't like them. What hook does the first type have that the second type lacks?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Part of it is definitely my in-born stubbornness. If a story is technically well written, even if I don't like it, I might go through the phases of dislike because I want to see how it ends. Had the same thing with books, too. I almost always finished them, just because I didn't want to admit defeat. *g*

As I'm getting older, I wonder, though, why I'm still wasting my remaining time...

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could ever stand to keep reading a really poorly-written story but there are stories I've kept reading without particularly liking them just because I was mildly curious to see how it turned out or some small detail of the story interested me.

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so sorry! Yes, I've had that disappointment myself. I guess it's a good sign that I can't remember now who it was, but sometime in the past couple years, I read a book by an author whose other work I had liked. Unlike the other work, this was in a genre I normally don't read (so probably horror or icky psycho-criminal or something like that), but I reasoned that, the author being so good, I would probably appreciate the way he handled it. It was awful: gross, deeply disturbing, exactly the kind of images I don't want in my head. I wished I could erase from my memory... and I guess it worked, since I can't recall even the writer's name!)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely call that a success!

My story isn't that bad, actually - just long-winding, partially boring like Hell, and I find it off-putting how some of my favourite Elves are portrayed. I guess my ideas about rehoused Elven souls and how Valar and other Powers would behave are vastly different, which must be the core of the problem.

God, I wish I could write Tolkienfic again!