And you'll notice I still haven't said anything *about* Iron Widow

Knowing that Xiran Jay Zhaon is, like... right there, on Tumblr, for me to perhaps approach with questions I had about Iron Widow is really making it hard for me to put together what I want to say about a book that I overwhelmingly enjoyed, and it's giving me some sort of a Feeling about the relationship between the audience and creators in the age of social media.

I think fandom interacting with the Powers that Be is... mostly harmless, ultimately? Like, I like Twitter Word Of God as little as anyone, and I find the appeals to social media authority possibly the worst and most irritating thing about modern fandom -- most sensible fandoms looking to do their own thing will avoid interacting with the author for their own benefit, understanding that looking for validation for their ideas only serves to make themselves feel more insecure about those ideas. But as a writer, I've always enjoyed talking with other writers about how we get to where we get with our work, as a form of creative exchange, and especially with authors who keep a very informal, casual social media presence... IDK. I feel like I trip myself up mentally, thinking that maybe the problem I'm having is in my reading comprehension somehow.

Basically with additional sources being available, it becomes harder for me to own my read on a work. It feels vaguely ungrateful to not put in a little bit of extra effort, a second reread maybe, or just straight-up asking if I'm still missing something. And especially with a book like Iron Widow where my confusion is entirely benevolent and didn't really take away from my enjoyment of the work, I feel that pull to just go find the answers that would make the story maximally enjoyable for myself.

(I guess I'll just have to nnn about it until the sequel is out at some point lmao)