Bad fic. No cookie.

[brigdh]

I'm taking a creative fiction writing class this quarter. Each session, we get two stories from people in the class to take home, critique, and discuss the next session. Most of them haven't been too bad; no great ones either, but no worse than the average stories I willingly sit through to get a mention of Hisoka or Tsuzuki or Sanzo.

But the one I was reading today was so awful that I have to share the horror. It wasn't the writing style itself that was so bad (though it wasn't a work of art), but the theme. The point of this story seems to be 'Organ Donation Is Evil, kay?'

Which... right. Whatever. I try to be objective, though it's hard when my opinion of the author has plummeted to Subhuman Idiocy. But, hey, people have a right to their opinions; I'm looking at her writing, not morality, etc, etc. But then? It turns out that the featured organ donation in this story is a pair of kneecaps.

Not a heart. Not eyes. Not lungs or liver or bones or anything organ that has symbolic possibilities or would actually be, you know, donated. It's kneecaps.

Unfortunately, neither is the story bad enough to be good in that horrified fascination sort of way. It's just kind of there, bad and weird and wrong. And now you know about it, too.

Comments

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm fascinated and horrified, and if this story were available to the public I'd go and read it right now. Kneecaps? Are they evil kneecaps? Or does swapping body parts mess with that thing where the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible? Although even if it's the latter, you'd think that a competent Deity could sort something like that out if it became necessary.

Also, now I want to know whether transfusions are evil too.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm terribly tempted to write out parts to share, as wrong as I know it is. But there really is a crazy sort of appeal to terribly written things.

Nah, just kneescaps. Though organ donation is described as "voodoo shit", there are also, unfortuantely, no zombie kneecaps. Now that would be a cool story. The theory here seems to be that, if you donate your organs, you will be forced to stick around as a ghost with the people who recieve them. However, as there's absolutely no mention of a Heaven this guy (and okay, it drives me crazy when people don't give their main characters names) is missing out on, the only thing I could think was, "Well, if I'm going to be a ghost *anyway*, I'd much rather be floating around with people instead of stuck with my rotting, if whole, body six feet under."

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I wish you would. Lock it, and no one will ever know.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I join in the chorus of people wanting to see this trainwreck under lock.

[lucifrix.livejournal.com]

I second that emotion. Share!!!

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

...

...

...kneecaps?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I know!