I think that may well be part of it. "Calculated and normy" is a good way of putting it, and yeah, there's definitely an increased (I'd say dramatically increased) push towards monetization and other kinds of "how can I profit off this, though?"
I do understand it at one level. Like, I'm not super popular or anything, but if I could wave a magic wand and convert the following for my fanfics into a following for my original fic interests and work, it'd be a temptation to sever the fan/pro division and go for it. But there is this weird way it's tangled up in both profit and respectability as not just things that given individuals want but which everyone can and should pursue that's really questionable (and joyless in some ways).
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2021-05-20 12:31 am (UTC)I do understand it at one level. Like, I'm not super popular or anything, but if I could wave a magic wand and convert the following for my fanfics into a following for my original fic interests and work, it'd be a temptation to sever the fan/pro division and go for it. But there is this weird way it's tangled up in both profit and respectability as not just things that given individuals want but which everyone can and should pursue that's really questionable (and joyless in some ways).