Been thoroughly following this series! and I'm only as authoritative as your average fic reader - I just write everything out loud, lol. I have a feeling you will get on to talk about 无限流 (!!) soon so I won't prod into it now, but I think the rise of that genre in particular just explains the appeal of internet lit in general. What threads all 网文 together to me is this feeling of *lack* in everyone's reality, and the sense of fulfilment you get from the idealistic worlds in your phone, be it perfect men, a world where you're the protagonist, you have "金手指" that allows you to win every single time. I guess taditional lit is also about this lack-addressing, only less satisfying and solipsistic, in total service of the reader.
I love the idea that the function of 网文 is to fill the lacks in our lives – that’s so different from conceptualizing it as a series of battles, and yet both metaphors capture the pleasing sense of constantly striving for some sort of final resolution that never quite arrives. It’s also interesting that 网文 tend to be so so so long and hold my attention for so much longer than a traditional novel could (no matter how good a literary novel is, I’m not reading it for thousands of pages). I’m genuinely not sure if that’s because 网络文学 is just that good at filling in our lacks, or because, the more the 网文 promises total fulfillment, the more acutely aware of the lack we become...
Been thoroughly following this series! and I'm only as authoritative as your average fic reader - I just write everything out loud, lol. I have a feeling you will get on to talk about 无限流 (!!) soon so I won't prod into it now, but I think the rise of that genre in particular just explains the appeal of internet lit in general. What threads all 网文 together to me is this feeling of *lack* in everyone's reality, and the sense of fulfilment you get from the idealistic worlds in your phone, be it perfect men, a world where you're the protagonist, you have "金手指" that allows you to win every single time. I guess taditional lit is also about this lack-addressing, only less satisfying and solipsistic, in total service of the reader.
I love the idea that the function of 网文 is to fill the lacks in our lives – that’s so different from conceptualizing it as a series of battles, and yet both metaphors capture the pleasing sense of constantly striving for some sort of final resolution that never quite arrives. It’s also interesting that 网文 tend to be so so so long and hold my attention for so much longer than a traditional novel could (no matter how good a literary novel is, I’m not reading it for thousands of pages). I’m genuinely not sure if that’s because 网络文学 is just that good at filling in our lacks, or because, the more the 网文 promises total fulfillment, the more acutely aware of the lack we become...
(And yes, 无限流 soon!!)