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kaigouI say we create a new wiki page to discuss a newly-identified syndrome, which I suggest we name after its two most prominent victims: Rice-Hamilton disorder.
Rice-Hamilton disorder (RHD) is a very rare authorial egotistical disorder (AED), but is controllable if caught in time and treated properly. It is the least common of the genre-specific authorial infections (GSAI); it appears to strike female authors exclusively. There are no known male cases.
Misdiagonsis
RHD should not be mistaken for a milder AED, called reader-aggravated frustration (RAF), which is a short-term illness usually lasting no more than a week. Studies have shown RAF is caused almost exclusively by environmental triggers, although these are often identical to those causing the active cycle in RHD. While RAF is not normally career-threatening, repeated exposure has been known to lower the author's sensitivity to future bouts. Avoidance behaviors may lead the author to abandon writing for a new career, often as a mid-level manager at a home insurance company.
Pathology
RHD appears to be caused by a combination of natural ego and long-term genre exposure; there also appears to be a strong link between RHD and high sales numbers, when reduced critical acclaim is present. The onset of the disorder's active cycle is often triggered by external events, such as a harsh professional review, a particularly obtuse reader on Amazon, or being named on Fandom Wank. Both the natural drive for recognition, and prolific writing skills, further enable the retaliation cycles, thus significantly increasing the disorder's hold on the sufferer with each additional cycle.
Transmission
This disorder is not infectious; however, it may be that exposure to RHD early in an author's career may somehow inoculate the author against potential RHD development later.[-citation needed]
Risk Factors
Studies have indicated that several crucial elements must be present for RHD to occur, although most authors with these risk factors will never develop RHD. There are still many questions on why some authors develop RHD and others do not.
At least four of the following factors are required for an author to be considered at-risk for RHD.
Symptoms
Authorial disorders of this nature are associated with distress and paranoia, and a relatively high risk of hissy fits. Unlike the AEDs a normal author might experience, one with RHD experiences extreme reader-directed antagonism that can last for months to years. This state is prefaced by a long gestation period during which the ego levels rise incrementally along with sales, which is often misdiagnosed as a chronic variant of RAF.
Additional symptoms may include:
Complications
With only a small pool of RHD cases available for study, scientists must rely on anecdotal evidence. So far the research indicates a lack of editorial oversight is directly correlated to a hastening of the disorder's progress. Limited editorial involvement may increase the RHD sufferer's perceived need to protect herself from fandom, thus prompting the disorder to enter its active attack-cycle.
Unfortunately, past a certain point in the disorder's progress, increased editorial oversight may backfire. The RHD sufferer may withdraw entirely, switching to a different publishing house from which she will then attack both fans and former editors.
Prevention
RHD is truly one of those disorders in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The simplest means is to dissuade female authors from remaining in the fantasy-horror vampire sub-genre longer than three books. Another course of treatment is to encourage any at-risk author to attempt one or more of the following.
Depending on the stage of the disorder, preventive treatments may have some efficacy in reducing the disorder's progress. For later stage RHD, however, there may be no recourse except to isolate the sufferer, remove her internet access, and ban her from all conventions or conferences.
The more advanced the RHD, the more chance a sufferer may introduce the disorder to a new genre; there are preliminary signs RHD, or a variant, may have appeared in the religious sub-genre of historical fiction. For this reason, many scientists argue against genre-switching; a negative impact on unrelated genres is too high a risk, given the existing questions about RHD's pathology. In the disorder's final stages, the only treatment may be to end all authorship; this is the only proven cure.
Sadly, pointing and laughing hysterically does not have any effect on RHD once it has passed into its final stage. However, this behavior is efficacious for fans and fellow writers dealing with annoyance in the wake of the disorder's active cycle.
References
[1] Some scientists argue RHD is possible in men, but surfaces in the medical thriller genre instead.
[2] There is some question whether this definition should be expanded to 'anti-fandom', which would include fan-art.
See Also
Crichton Penii Competition Disorder (CPCD)
Ellison Obsessive-Mammarive Disorder (EOMD)
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do crack myself up.
Rice-Hamilton disorder (RHD) is a very rare authorial egotistical disorder (AED), but is controllable if caught in time and treated properly. It is the least common of the genre-specific authorial infections (GSAI); it appears to strike female authors exclusively. There are no known male cases.
Misdiagonsis
RHD should not be mistaken for a milder AED, called reader-aggravated frustration (RAF), which is a short-term illness usually lasting no more than a week. Studies have shown RAF is caused almost exclusively by environmental triggers, although these are often identical to those causing the active cycle in RHD. While RAF is not normally career-threatening, repeated exposure has been known to lower the author's sensitivity to future bouts. Avoidance behaviors may lead the author to abandon writing for a new career, often as a mid-level manager at a home insurance company.
Pathology
RHD appears to be caused by a combination of natural ego and long-term genre exposure; there also appears to be a strong link between RHD and high sales numbers, when reduced critical acclaim is present. The onset of the disorder's active cycle is often triggered by external events, such as a harsh professional review, a particularly obtuse reader on Amazon, or being named on Fandom Wank. Both the natural drive for recognition, and prolific writing skills, further enable the retaliation cycles, thus significantly increasing the disorder's hold on the sufferer with each additional cycle.
Transmission
This disorder is not infectious; however, it may be that exposure to RHD early in an author's career may somehow inoculate the author against potential RHD development later.[-citation needed]
Risk Factors
Studies have indicated that several crucial elements must be present for RHD to occur, although most authors with these risk factors will never develop RHD. There are still many questions on why some authors develop RHD and others do not.
At least four of the following factors are required for an author to be considered at-risk for RHD.
- Post-college age, with at least four best sellers.[1]
- Writes in the horror-fantasy sub-genre focused on vampires.
- Specifically approaches vampires as sympathetic, sometimes hyper-sexed, often broody.
- Vehemently protective of created world and characters.
- Stridently anti-fanfic[2]; may employ, or plans to employ, a law firm for anti-fanfic purposes.
Symptoms
Authorial disorders of this nature are associated with distress and paranoia, and a relatively high risk of hissy fits. Unlike the AEDs a normal author might experience, one with RHD experiences extreme reader-directed antagonism that can last for months to years. This state is prefaced by a long gestation period during which the ego levels rise incrementally along with sales, which is often misdiagnosed as a chronic variant of RAF.
Additional symptoms may include:
- Plot deficiency; often rationalizes with 'character-driven' defense.
- Grandiosity; self-identifies as the ultimate standard for the genre.
- Consistently illogical; unable to recognize fallacies in verbal or written communcation.
- Narcissism; encourages perceived fan-obsession with author's sex life or political opinions.
- Excessive talkativeness; often combined with mono-focus on hardships of being an author.
- Risk-taking behaviors; acts out by poking crazy screechy monkeys with a stick.
Complications
With only a small pool of RHD cases available for study, scientists must rely on anecdotal evidence. So far the research indicates a lack of editorial oversight is directly correlated to a hastening of the disorder's progress. Limited editorial involvement may increase the RHD sufferer's perceived need to protect herself from fandom, thus prompting the disorder to enter its active attack-cycle.
Unfortunately, past a certain point in the disorder's progress, increased editorial oversight may backfire. The RHD sufferer may withdraw entirely, switching to a different publishing house from which she will then attack both fans and former editors.
Prevention
RHD is truly one of those disorders in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The simplest means is to dissuade female authors from remaining in the fantasy-horror vampire sub-genre longer than three books. Another course of treatment is to encourage any at-risk author to attempt one or more of the following.
- Regular exposure to current and historical authors in genre, with self-assessment geared towards achieving humility in comparisons.
- Embrace fandom, especially fanart and fanfic; at minimum, use self-hypnosis to willfully ignore fandom existence.
- Learn relaxation techniques for use during self-googling when critical reviews, fan forums, or fanfiction domains may appear in search results.
- In more extreme risk-cases, remove all access from the internet; limit interaction to monthly updates on official web site.
- Rewrite vampires as bloodthirsty, unsexy, vicious rabid dogs too busy killing things to brood.
Depending on the stage of the disorder, preventive treatments may have some efficacy in reducing the disorder's progress. For later stage RHD, however, there may be no recourse except to isolate the sufferer, remove her internet access, and ban her from all conventions or conferences.
The more advanced the RHD, the more chance a sufferer may introduce the disorder to a new genre; there are preliminary signs RHD, or a variant, may have appeared in the religious sub-genre of historical fiction. For this reason, many scientists argue against genre-switching; a negative impact on unrelated genres is too high a risk, given the existing questions about RHD's pathology. In the disorder's final stages, the only treatment may be to end all authorship; this is the only proven cure.
Sadly, pointing and laughing hysterically does not have any effect on RHD once it has passed into its final stage. However, this behavior is efficacious for fans and fellow writers dealing with annoyance in the wake of the disorder's active cycle.
References
[1] Some scientists argue RHD is possible in men, but surfaces in the medical thriller genre instead.
[2] There is some question whether this definition should be expanded to 'anti-fandom', which would include fan-art.
See Also
Crichton Penii Competition Disorder (CPCD)
Ellison Obsessive-Mammarive Disorder (EOMD)
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do crack myself up.
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Date: 3 Jan 2007 08:03 pm (UTC)Marcel Reich Ranicki (http://lostfort.blogspot.com/2005/07/marcel-reich-ranicki-author-of-himself.html) is an extremely popular though also much-hated critic with a TV show of his own (Oprah, this time with more intellect) who kept telling Günter Grass for years that his books are too long. Grass hates him on a personal level for that, and so do others for the reviewas he gives them - nonewithstanding the fact books RR shreds sell like hot cakes. Then Martin Walser wrote a book where a professional critic who is a thinly disguised RR gets killed by an enraged author. The book sucks, but because RR is Jew, some idiot - not RR himself - used it to hang an anitisemitism debate on it, surely more attention than the sorry thing was worth.
What distinguishes authors with the Grass-Walser syndrome is that they take reviews personal in a way you won't expect from professionals, and surely not from men. And they write Literature.
Though I should try to figure out if the (in)famous German Fantasy writer reacts to his dissappointed fans in the Rice-Hamilton manner to see if there's a spreading disease among German genre writers as well.
BTW Anyone remember Anne Golon, of Angelique fame? She identified with her heroine to a point it made you wonder, and got mad at people who pointed out that Angelique was an unrealistic creation in the later books. Really, Angie is married I don't know how many times, gets raped in almost every book, sleeps her way through the court of the Sun King, gets sold into some seraglio and, and ..... but remains the beautiful woman no man can withstand for like 30 years and 20 volumes. Clear case of Rice-Hamilton Disorder in pre-internet times.
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Date: 3 Jan 2007 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 Jan 2007 10:02 pm (UTC)