About engagement and arts online

"Jim told me that

He hit me and it felt like a kiss."

"Ultraviolence" - Lana Del Rey

I'm not an artist, I think calling myself so would be egotistical and excessively self-flattering, but when it comes to artistic disciplines like writing I do consider myself some kind of an initiate: I think I've spoken my mind about why Wattpad isn't exactly the best place to progress as a writer in certain areas, genres or topics, but it's still an adequate place to share and publish written compositions and, if one is lucky, get noticed, receive feedback and get help to improve.

However, this benefit coming from the sharing of one's work with a public audience wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for what that audience does, and that's where problems start. There isn't any inherent obligation for art consumers to contact authors in any way, but I think it's more than demandable that we, as viewers, readers, listeners or whatever, make an effort in order to detect whether or not an author is looking for opinions from us. This is especially important when we're before novice authors in websites that are meant to allow a more or less direct interaction between writers and readers (as is the case between composers and listeners, illustrators and viewers, etcetera) like the so-mentioned webpage or DeviantArt.

This is something I personally do whenever I'm able to: a direct comment section is a good place to point out the good things one likes about what they've seen. If that leads to a private conversation between author and viewer, the last can politely ask if the creator desires further feedback and, if the response is affirmative, then and only then kindly point out what one doesn't like or thinks could be improved, always respecting the author's decision to either change the spoken aspects or not. The point is keeping interaction friendly and constructive. If someone follows these directions while ignoring the principles in bold, they are probably not worth much of our attention.

Either way, this can be done terribly wrong even when trying to be exclusively flattering, and this is when my own experience as a person who writes in Wattpad comes in handy. A story of mine, the title of which I prefer not to reveal in this post, deals about a teenage girl who falls in love with a classmate. At some point of the story, the main character has to charm an older student in order to acomplish her goal, leading this older character to fall in love with her. During a concrete chapter, the protagonist was crying scared because that older student, in a tantrum, had hit her against a wall and caused her to bleed. Over that scene of abuse and defeat, someone kindly commented "This story is so beatiful, I hope they end up together."

At the very moment I read that comment, I ragefully thought of the possibility of the author of it commiting the trascending crime of the romanticizing of gender abuse, though I later got to the conclusion the reader hadn't really read the chapter they were commenting on and just referred to the initial situation, expecting that all the storyline would revolve around the same state.

So, whatever the way, the point of interaction is being nice... but sensible.