Found a fic archive... in Russian
Tuesday, 10 January 2017 17:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zimenaI'm starting to realize how LJ itself killed much of the fun over there back when they started with their many and mostly annoying design changes. There are quite a few such changes, but this is not an anti-LJ rant, so let me just mention the one that is important for this post: They moved the interest list on profiles into a sub-section that's hidden unless you actually click on it. By doing this, they effectively killed the usefulness of that list, and I know that I had not updated mine for ages before coming here. On DW, though, the list is useful and fun like it should be, and I've been spending quite some time clicking on interests and looking at random journals that I would not have found otherwise.
Well, this is how I ended up on a random journal last night. The owner had a post about one of her fics getting translated into Russian, and she also linked to the Russian version. Even though I don't understand Russian, and even though it was a fic in a fandom I know nothing about, I still went to check out the translated version, just for the fun of seeing what it looked like. What I had NOT expected to find, was a huge fic archive in Russian, with fanfiction on everything you can possibly imagine. I mean it - games, movies, books, anime... and real person fiction about all sorts of celebrities.... it was all there. Of course I should not be surprised that such a thing exists in such an important language, but I was still a little amazed by the size and variety of it. What's more, I'm curious, so I checked for fics involving a couple of Russian singers I've listened to a lot over the years.... and well, I found both. One of them even in HUNDREDS of fics. Just now, I also checked for biathlon slash... which is there in quite a huge number as well. And let me remind you that this does not seem to exist at all in English. At least I haven't seen any such fics in English. (Well, maybe not a surprise, given that Russia is a biathlon-country, while there's no English-speaking country that can be truly classified as such. Still, it's a sport with lots of fans in many countries, so it's still surprising that Russians seem to write biathlon slash, while the rest of us... don't?)
Now, do I wish that I could speak Russian, just so I could investigate further? Yes, to some extent. On the other hand, not so much. It's hard to explain - somehow it feels good to know that things exist, but at the same time... maybe I would be disappointed if I knew that these fics are not as good as I had hoped, or if people wrote things I don't like/agree with/approve of? Don't know if that makes sense, because I'm not even sure it does to me.
Chances are that I'll go back and look at what's there, though. At least headers/pairings, as it should be possible to figure out something from there. Yes, I realize that by saying that, I'm already contradicting myself a little bit. I also realize that if I had found something like this in English, I would dive in and be ecstatic about such a huge amount of possibly interesting stuff.
Double standards, much? Yes, I see it myself, so you don't have to tell me.
Well, this is how I ended up on a random journal last night. The owner had a post about one of her fics getting translated into Russian, and she also linked to the Russian version. Even though I don't understand Russian, and even though it was a fic in a fandom I know nothing about, I still went to check out the translated version, just for the fun of seeing what it looked like. What I had NOT expected to find, was a huge fic archive in Russian, with fanfiction on everything you can possibly imagine. I mean it - games, movies, books, anime... and real person fiction about all sorts of celebrities.... it was all there. Of course I should not be surprised that such a thing exists in such an important language, but I was still a little amazed by the size and variety of it. What's more, I'm curious, so I checked for fics involving a couple of Russian singers I've listened to a lot over the years.... and well, I found both. One of them even in HUNDREDS of fics. Just now, I also checked for biathlon slash... which is there in quite a huge number as well. And let me remind you that this does not seem to exist at all in English. At least I haven't seen any such fics in English. (Well, maybe not a surprise, given that Russia is a biathlon-country, while there's no English-speaking country that can be truly classified as such. Still, it's a sport with lots of fans in many countries, so it's still surprising that Russians seem to write biathlon slash, while the rest of us... don't?)
Now, do I wish that I could speak Russian, just so I could investigate further? Yes, to some extent. On the other hand, not so much. It's hard to explain - somehow it feels good to know that things exist, but at the same time... maybe I would be disappointed if I knew that these fics are not as good as I had hoped, or if people wrote things I don't like/agree with/approve of? Don't know if that makes sense, because I'm not even sure it does to me.
Chances are that I'll go back and look at what's there, though. At least headers/pairings, as it should be possible to figure out something from there. Yes, I realize that by saying that, I'm already contradicting myself a little bit. I also realize that if I had found something like this in English, I would dive in and be ecstatic about such a huge amount of possibly interesting stuff.
Double standards, much? Yes, I see it myself, so you don't have to tell me.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, 12 January 2017 13:47 (UTC)Maybe I should try to write a fic in Russian, at least as an experiment... I wouldn't know how to write explicit scenes, too, but I rarely write them anyway.