betweengenesisfrogs:

I’m really pleased that my last post (the Homestuck manifesto) resonated with so many folks’ experience of Homestuck and the fandom, whether it helped you understand why opinions were so torn, rethink your disappointment with Homestuck, or find others who feel positively. It feels good to connect and have that perspective validated.

An interesting minority of responses pointed out negative aspects in Homestuck, whether perceived or otherwise, by implication suggesting that I had missed them. I think this is misreading the post a bit, focusing on surface details. As I said in the post, I’m not interested in pretending that Homestuck doesn’t have flaws (although I suspect we all might have different ideas of what those are.) What I’m frustrated with is the pervasive mentality I railed against in that post that Homestuck is meaninglessly bad and there’s nothing worth celebrating about it. In fact, there’s a hell of a lot worth talking about.

This doesn’t mean we can’t talk about the flaws – but first we have to get beyond a really surface-level reading of what the comic is and what it’s trying to achieve. I firmly believe a work can both be flawed and have aspects worth celebrating. Furthermore, effective criticism requires an understanding of what a work is *trying* to achieve, whether you think it succeeds or fails.

Right now, I don’t see nearly enough discussion of that when it comes to Homestuck, and it’s a shame.  That’s what I’ve tried to remedy here.