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Feb. 21st, 2024 08:24 pmKnowing that Cait Corrain was a Reylo makes their actions make a lot more sense.
Not because of the ship they were interested. Not because of the fandom they were involved in. Rather, because knowing that they were active in fandom in a large, active ship with a lot of drama and a LOT of fic being posted, it really puts some aspects of the situations into context for me.
I'm not on booktok or bookstagram, although I dip into booktube now and again, so I originally got this story via a vague post or two on tumblr and then a link to a twitter thread that was hard to read because I don't have an account. More recently, since Corrain was the subject of an article attempting to explain away their racist actions as a result of substance abuse issues [heavy side eye], there have been a few (deep dive) videos about them that showed me a few things:
1) Cait Corrain was obsessed with watching their GoodReads analytics
2) Cait Corrain compared themselves to other authors based on things like GoodReads review numbers
3) Cait Corrain frequently needed reassurances about their standing as an author
These all feel familiar to me as habits that, in fandom, can turn toxic. Obsessing over fic stats, thinking that a comment is "the least readers can do" after reading a fic, comparing your fics against another author's fics and getting angry about why they have more hits/kudos/comments... these are all things that a lot of us do now and again. The toxicity comes in when it isn't just a one-off venting of frustration and becomes the primary way you interact with fandom (via the Archive).
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Cait Corrain was a BNF behaving badly before they were an author behaving badly. If someone said Cait was heavily involved in fandom drama or a cancellation or a dogpile on a fellow author etc, I'd believe it. Those are similar tactics to what they did to those authors they one-starred on GoodReads.
I saw a tumblr post a week or two ago about how it was only the weirdest fandom people who ended up getting published, and maybe that's informing my opinion here, but some of Cait's tweets that were showcased in that deep dive video were very reminiscent of things I've seen in fandom spaces.
Or maybe bad apples are gonna bad apple no matter which bunch they're in.
Not because of the ship they were interested. Not because of the fandom they were involved in. Rather, because knowing that they were active in fandom in a large, active ship with a lot of drama and a LOT of fic being posted, it really puts some aspects of the situations into context for me.
I'm not on booktok or bookstagram, although I dip into booktube now and again, so I originally got this story via a vague post or two on tumblr and then a link to a twitter thread that was hard to read because I don't have an account. More recently, since Corrain was the subject of an article attempting to explain away their racist actions as a result of substance abuse issues [heavy side eye], there have been a few (deep dive) videos about them that showed me a few things:
1) Cait Corrain was obsessed with watching their GoodReads analytics
2) Cait Corrain compared themselves to other authors based on things like GoodReads review numbers
3) Cait Corrain frequently needed reassurances about their standing as an author
These all feel familiar to me as habits that, in fandom, can turn toxic. Obsessing over fic stats, thinking that a comment is "the least readers can do" after reading a fic, comparing your fics against another author's fics and getting angry about why they have more hits/kudos/comments... these are all things that a lot of us do now and again. The toxicity comes in when it isn't just a one-off venting of frustration and becomes the primary way you interact with fandom (via the Archive).
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Cait Corrain was a BNF behaving badly before they were an author behaving badly. If someone said Cait was heavily involved in fandom drama or a cancellation or a dogpile on a fellow author etc, I'd believe it. Those are similar tactics to what they did to those authors they one-starred on GoodReads.
I saw a tumblr post a week or two ago about how it was only the weirdest fandom people who ended up getting published, and maybe that's informing my opinion here, but some of Cait's tweets that were showcased in that deep dive video were very reminiscent of things I've seen in fandom spaces.
Or maybe bad apples are gonna bad apple no matter which bunch they're in.
