What if you gave a fanfic and nobody came?

[fpb]

I would like to be told that someone had at least read the fragment I published yesterday. I realize that the title did not sound too exciting, but I would not have published it if I didn't think it was fun.

Comments

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

Dude -- don't be like those whiny kids on ff.net.

I saw the fic and made a note of it to read and comment on later, but I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I'll be whiny if I like. That's what being a writer is about - "Help - hey, here's my story - I'll feel a lot better if you read it!" And even if I end up looking foolish, where else can a man be foolish if not in his own blog?

I liked it

[dean steinlage (from livejournal.com)]

forgot my password to log in and had a nasty bug all week.
My wife wants to write, more in the line of Dr Who fanfic, so I understand the need for ego-stroking ;)

Were you partially drawing on the Pope who was against the use of gas lights and trains in the Papal Estates?

Re: I liked it

[fpb.livejournal.com]

No, because that's a lie. The true story is as follows: in 1853, Pope Pius IX called a sort of council of all his country's lay and clerical experts, financiers, bankers, ministers and so on, to ask them one serious question: gentlemen, is there any way for us to build a railway network? The assembly debated for days and its final conclusion was: Holy Father, that's just not possible, we don't have the capital needed for such an undertaking. NOnetheless, work was started on a small-scale network around the city of Rome, which is to this day, recognizably, the infrastructure of Rome's railway lines. When you hear stories like that, remember that party struggle in Italy at the time was even bitterer than it is now, and that nobody was too fussed about libelling an opponent. On the other side, Catholics had no scruples about inventing and spreading a wholly false story that Garibaldi had been a slave trader.

Re: I liked it

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you had asked me whether there was a real-life counterpart to the opposition I drew up between settled interests and new industries such as railways, there is one. According to widespread and universally believed rumour in Rome, the factthat no railway or underground line reaches Ciampino international airport is due to constant pressure on politicians by the local taxi drivers.

Re: I liked it

[deansteinlage.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the correction.
What particularily upsets me is that I had gotten this "fact" from a cd series of lectures by a Notre Dame professor on the Papacy.

Re: I liked it

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I hope this reaches you. I have now discovered that a previous Pope, Gregory XVI, did in fact refuse the idea of a railway system on the grounds that it would have been a disruptive influence on a rural society. But that was entirely theoretical talk; railways only began to seriously spread through Italy after Gregory XVI's death.