Guest Post: Reccing as Critical Practice

[helloladies]

Reccing, short for recommending, is a key example of critical practice. All kinds of communities engage in reccing, but this piece focuses on SFF and transformative fandoms, as those are the communities I'm personally familiar with. A rec can be as simple as, "I liked this, check it out," but are frequently more complicated: teasing out elements that the reccer especially liked or thinks will especially appeal to their audience. Reccing also helps situate works within their literary traditions.

I find that often when people are hearing or talking about media criticism, they’re referring to critical reviews of media such as you find in book blogs or the culture section of the newspaper. Critical reviews are a valid form of criticism, but they are often treated as the only way of engaging critically with media, ignoring many other equally important critical practices. Many of these practices are done informally, for free, by marginalized people, and are not considered prestigious. Reccing is a vital form of criticism that helps us understand works and shapes the critical conversation.

I began my career as a reccer in short SFF. I had always enjoyed sharing my favorite books with my friends, but short SFF is where I formalized my reccing process, and came to understand reccing as critical practice. I had recently nominated works for the Hugo Awards for the first time, and that made me aware of how much short SFF was out there and how little I was reading. I resolved to read more short SFF and started a series of monthly blog posts sharing my favorites. Short fiction has a discoverability problem, which has gotten slightly better since then, and it was extremely hard at the time to know what was being published that might be of interest. I wanted to make it easier for my friends to find stories they liked, and I was surprised by how many people who I didn’t know well enjoyed my short fiction posts. I began to see how useful it can be to have someone point out stories they liked and why they liked them.

These days my life is busier and I don’t read nearly as much short fiction, so I have discontinued my monthly rec series. I still write about short fiction for Lady Business in themed rec lists, as well as posting the occasional rec on my personal blog. Monthly and quarterly short SFF rec columns have become a more regular feature on SFF zines, and that’s great to see!

Meanwhile, I have gotten more involved in transformative fandom which has a vibrant rec culture that short SFF still only aspires to. Fanfic readers frequently tweet about or even write long posts highlighting their favorite stories. I have found many, many good stories via recs. I also have dipped my toes into reccing fanfic myself, mostly on Twitter where I frequently see requests for specific kinds of fic (e.g. college AU, very soft, or sex pollen). I also started a twitter thread of lady-centric Untamed fic, hoping to highlight how fans shine a spotlight on the female characters of the show, who are great and deserved better from canon. I'm really enjoying the rec culture of transformative fandom and I am excited to see how short SFF continues to develop a more robust rec culture. I think we could learn a lot from transformative fandom.

While a rec can be very simple, reccing is also a practice that takes skill. When we rec things we often explain why we liked them and what other people might like about the work. Explaining why media is good is difficult! Many people find it easier to say what they didn’t like about a work than what they did like. A good rec might highlight a particular theme or trope in the work, or note what the reccer liked about the writing style. Recs often talk about how a work made one feel.

Good reccing also takes into account the context in which something is recommended, like the specific tastes of the audience. If I know my friend hates visual description then I won’t rec them a story that features a lot of loving descriptions of decorated cakes. Reccing might also take place in the context of a themed list, in which case you should make sure to explain how each work fits the theme. Reccing is a form of critical engagement that requires a certain level of analysis, not just of the work, but of the space the work occupies within the broader genre.

Reccing is also a key element of discoverability, which makes a huge difference to which works are included or elevated in the critical conversation. I often hear people talking about a book having buzz, or selling by word of mouth, which is basically a fancy way of saying that a lot of people have been reccing it. The fact that people still rec short fiction less often than novels is one of the main reasons it's harder to find short fiction. Fanfic's vibrant rec culture (along with, of course, the extensive tagging system of Archive of Our Own) means that popular fic is easy for many people to discover.

SFF book fandom has a complex history around reccing culture. While many fans work hard to amplify marginalized voices, there’s also a lot of pressure to read certain books, especially so-called "classics". In this sense, reccing is not a purely positive thing, and can sometimes even be a form of gatekeeping. But even when I don’t like how reccing plays out, it’s important to recognize the role it plays in shaping the conversation.

While reccing seems simple, it's an important part of any fandom discourse. Reccing takes skill and critical awareness of both the work and the audience. Reccing can help amplify marginalized voices and is an important tool for helping people discover new works. So if you rec things, take a moment to be proud of yourself! You are doing important criticism! And if you are someone who frequently finds works you love via recs, take a moment to be grateful for the people who do that work. Reccing is valuable.

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★ forestofglory is a fan, crafter, an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy short fiction, and a mom. You can find her on Dreamwidth and on Twitter at forestofglory.

Comments

[readingtheend.com]

HUGE YES TO ALL OF THIS. I agree with you about everything and hope we can more fully recognize the critical work of recs going forward. <3

[lunabee34]

What a great post. Thanks for sharing.

I also appreciate the way that recs can illuminate the ways in which stories are in conversation with each other.

[forestofglory]

Yes, that's a great point!

[stultiloquentia]

This is a neat point, and would make a neat theme for a rec post itself. Now I want to do one: "Five stories that talk to each other."

[forestofglory]

Please do!

[lunabee34]

You should do that! I love that idea. :)

[renay]

*grabby hands*

[aoftheis]

What a great piece. This is all so very true! I especially love your point that good reccing takes context into account, and considers "the space a work occupies within the broader genre."

This is a large part of why I've come to value reccing culture more than old-school "literary criticism": reccing's implicit acknowledgment that work is by someone, for someone, and that both of those someones have a particular point of view and individual preferences (as opposed to criticism's ongoing pretense of "objective" artistic merit).

Also, doing things for the love of it! — which you also point to. Sometimes it's as simple as, "I loved this, and I think you will love it," and the sheer power that gesture of positivity has.

[forestofglory]

Thank you! Friends who read and commented on the draft of this really highlighted the way reccing helps situate work -- but I think one could write a whole post just about that.

[lokifan]

Fantastic post, esp in terms of recs helping connect works to their context (which is one of the most valuable things trad media criticism does imo).

[forestofglory]

Thank you!