i got into homestuck this past year, after avoiding it for a long fucking time due to being scared off by discourse that's neither here nor there. needless to say, after finally going into it with an open mind, i ended up loving it a lot. it sure has its moments that are questionable and/or havent aged well that we're all aware of, and we don't need to rehash that all here. (that being said, i do think there are some more, well, inspired critiques people have of the work that totally shouldn't be written off)
the criticism of homestuck that is relevant to this post is the claim that homestuck as a work/hussie as an author is spiteful to their audience. and... after finishing the comic i was just kind of like? huh? where? yes obviously the dancestors are one-note tumblr/internet personality stereotypes, but, they really have a pretty minuscule role overall and i have heard it said that hussie regrets including them, fwiw. (even then, i dont think, for example, kankri is really intended to imply that being a 'sjw' is stupid or w/e, when he's pretty clearly a misogynist who's being performative for social capital). and then we have caliborn and calliope, one of whom is the embodiment of the archetypal bigoted fan who hates women and is really only here for heroic masculine hype moments and aura performed by alpha males regardless of the desires of the "alpha male" in question. on the other hand we have calliope, who is the archetypal tumblr fan with her fanfics and art, who loves and cares for the story deeply, who's a lovable heroine and is so clearly a love letter to the part of the fandom that genuinely loves the story.
when i got to the caliborn takeover section, i asked my girlfriend (a long-time fan): is this the part that everyone was mad about? because again, the type of "fan" caliborn is parodying is so clearly the type of fan i don't think anyone i had seen on tumblr launching the critique that "homestuck hates its fans" would want to associate with. i thought the cherubs entire system of reproduction & how it was passed down through universes to the trolls and later humans was really poignant commentary on the enforcement of sexgender, heterosexuality, and masculinity/gender hierarchy more generally, and the violence innate to these structures. more broadly, while it was certainly flawed due to its commitment to raceblindness, i was really impressed by homestuck's overall (trans)feminist themes considering all of the baggage associated with it.
which gets me to finally begin to arrive at the point of all this. i think that a lot of authors these days are super scared of pissing off their audiences. which makes sense! because, indie creators such as hussie (tho i think theirs is also a pretty extreme example with just how huge and intense the fandom was) have been dog-piled, harassed, and stalked to such an unacceptable and really disproportionate degree, and i get why people don't want that to happen to them. but i think that hussie's willingness to make characters be messy in a realistic and relatable way (which. sighs. i know was the cause of the vriscourse), and to have the big bad of the story be the embodiment of hypermasculine misogyny who genuinely sucks to read (though he's also fun to hate), and to let characters die and/or take a backseat in the story rather than just dragging them along to please fans, are huge strengths that made homestuck feel so refreshing to read in this era where people are so scared to piss off fans that part of the story is sacrificed, that these stories become stale and uninteresting to read.
i did not think that homestuck was antagonistic towards its audience. but even if it was, i dont think thats something thats necessarily wrong! i certainly dont love every author whos work i admire - and how would i, when i dont know them? sometimes i really really love a work but still feel some sense of hostility towards the author for one reason or another, and thats okay. i obviously think theres a line in that reader/author relationship where we shouldnt be harassing each other, but that doesnt mean we have to kiss up to each other. if i can criticize a writer as a reader, whos to say that a writer cant criticize me as a reader, especially if im hypothetically missing the fucking point? i think that respect and disagreement and admiration and critique and even expression of frustration can all exist simultaneously when people are willing to have some degree of trust and faith.
i don't know how to solve this problem of everyone being afraid of each other that seems to have dominated fandom spaces for a long time that's now breached containment. everyone be more okay with being wrong and accepting critique no matter which side of the equation you find yourself on? easier said than done, especially coming from me, someone whose debilitating perfectionism keeps them from even starting on creative projects 75% of the time. but, i think that homestuck is such a good example of a creative work that is so much more meaningful because hussie did not compromise their vision for the sake of not pissing people off, and it continues to be such an impactful work all these years later. as andrew said in the HVC color composer essay - homestuck is a work of art that has inspired so many other people to make art. art thats messy, thats flawed, thats a product of peoples desire to express themselves regardless of how it will be perceived. and i think thats something thats really beautiful.
