Why is there so much pain in fanfic?

[severewrath]

I have a question that, for some inexplicable reason, I haven't been able to answer.

Why is this so much sheer suffering in Harry Potter fanfiction?

I go through the archives, and there are just so many of them.

Rape is popular.
Child abuse (of various kinds, including rape) is frequent.
Torture is rather more frequent than you'd expect.

Do people hate

Comments

[wallyflower]

I think it's the whole "the more angst the better" movement getting the better of fanfic writers.

Hi, you commented on a livejournal entry of mine, and that led me here :D I share your view (or repulsion) of the "Hermione gets raped" subgenre of SSHG fanfiction.

[guernica_shaw]

Wordy McWordity Worderson to all of the above.

I also despise the whole notion of "dramatic conflict is good, so LOTS of dramatic conflict to the point of authorial/directorial sadism must be REALLY good!"

For example. It's not bad enough that everybody in Requiem for a Dream is a self-destructive drug addict -- let's throw in some electroshock therapy, sadistic racist prison guards, double-ended dildos and an on-screen amputation! Then it'll be great ah-hhhhhht. And in The Grapes of Wrath, I always kind of wondered why the flood at the end was really necessary. Rose of Sharon's malnutrition-related stillbirth was plenty devastating enough for me without ambient natural disasters

[severewrath]

Personally, I blame it on authors wanting to be "epic