Oh, this gave me chills. Art can be such a powerful way to make a point in ways to people that otherwise might not be reached.
Yeah, so this was posted by “Change the Ref” which means this was created by the parents of Joaquin Oliver, who died during the Parkland shooting. Since then, they have done many powerful, heart wrenching pieces like this. They tricked NRA members into giving a graduation speech in front of empty chairs, each chair representing a child lost to gun violence. They used AI to make a video of their own dead son talking about how he died of gun violence. Joaquin once wrote an essay for school regarding gun violence and they hand delivered that essay to an NRA endorsed politician. They made 3D printed statues of Joaquin as well.
I have a lot of respect for what they do, but their raw grief and anger is clear in every single piece. I can’t imagine what they’re going through, but I hope they are able to find peace someday…
neil seems like the kind of guy you don’t talk to in class the whole year but one day he finds you next to the car u just locked urself out of & he wordlessly jimmies the lock open and then u never speak again and one day u turn on the tv and see he’s an olympic medalist now
The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply.
significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.
that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).
the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.
Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail. The fact that you find joy in the process of reading (or listening!) to stories–that is what matters.
