lydamorehouse | (Reply)

From:

Well, no, the public doesn't own it at all. They can see any rorschach blots they like in my fiction but that won't make them real.

OTOH, fiction generates feelings. Fiction depicts things that affect people. In some ways it does so BETTER than reality because reality doesn't compartmentalize stories, concepts, etc., in a way that maximizes their delivery and impact most of the time. So dismissing a reaction to a story as "just fiction" ignores the fact that emotional reactions come from mental perceptions.

Moreover, that "just fiction" can also represent a LOT of investment of time and energy by the person reading it as well as writing it. In my case, I get peeved by authors who fail at some basic consistency in the universes because, apparently, it doesn't matter to them, while it DOES to me in order to maintain my WSOD. So I WILL become peeved.

Of course, in those cases it's important enough to actually affect me, I just rewrite the fiction that annoys me.