META: In Defense of Feels
May. 17th, 2013 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithen
I've seen, in a variety of places, decrying of what's sometimes called "Tumblr-speak," especially targeted toward the term "feels." "You should just say you feel something, not this ridiculous 'I have feels' thing," the argument goes. But today I wish to step up to the plate and give a light-hearted defense of "feels" for a moment--bear with me!
My main argument is that "feels" are actually qualitatively different from "feelings," and "having feels" is different from "having feelings" or "feeling something." "Feels" is actually a
"Feels" is a handy shorthand that serves to delineate a specific kind of emotional experience: one marked by intensity and purity that transcends "day to day" emotions of happiness and sorrow (with their often-muddied, contradictory undertones).
It's also a tongue-in-cheek way to downplay those emotions, to ironically distance yourself from them a little bit and make clear you don't take them that seriously. They're not feelings, they're feels. It's actually an incredibly useful and complex term, one that serves to mark a very specific kind of experience and to simultaneously elevate and disparage it. Feels are overwhelming, they blot out everything in a rush of emotion, either good or bad.
Feels are something to be savored and--at a certain level--enjoyed, even when they're negative. Sad feelings are awful; but watching something that gives you sad feels has a certain hyper-real pleasure to it (obviously, or certain creators wouldn't have such huge followings!)
The term is, far from being a corruption of the language, an elegantly precise word that serves a very useful function. So next time you feel reluctant to say something "hit you right in the feels" or to cry out "ow, my feels!" embrace your inner fan, let go of your inner grammarian, and go for it!
And with that, I humbly take my leave of you. Thank you for your consideration! Perhaps next year I shall try to parse and defend "I have lost my ability to can."
here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-17 03:29 pm (UTC)I'd say though that 'feels' are pure in their intensity, but also much more muddled than 'feelings'? For me, 'feels' often indicates having a bunch of emotions at once, particularly in that way that fiction can provide where, say, you're simultaneously excited because there's a new episode of your tv show, fascinated by its plot twist, and very upset because the plot twist makes a character you like sad, even if you think it's good for the story as a whole. It's not a word for the perhaps conflicting emotions you might feel about, say, a drawn-out break-up, but it's also not the word for straightforward "goddamn, $actor is hot" or "this kitten gif is the CUTEST" emotions because it's easier to attach specific terms to those?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 04:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 04:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 05:32 pm (UTC)Fannish speak and net speak (which now has sub dialects apparently; twitter speak, Tumblr speak etc...) are in a way branches off English (and the other mother tongues of various fans with their own idiosyncrasies). And has whomever is complaining not noticed that 'feels' and similar are also part of a VISUAL language?
I had no idea at all that there was a 'Speak The Queen's English' going on about feels, or 'I can't' or 'THIS' said in all caps that means so much more than in general use of a thing as in this or that.
But then again... my religion is Batman. WTH do I know.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 06:13 pm (UTC)As a fan, I perfectly understand where 'feels' comes from. Fandom emotions are somewhat different from Real Life emotions.Also,l I love your gifs :)
thanks!
Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-17 07:40 pm (UTC)Yes, this too.
Besides, fandom is also a place to let go of our inner adult control-freak that has to present as professional uber!mature all the time. We can relax and be silly. And have ~feels~. Lots and lots of feels. And not have to articulate exactly what we mean by those feels because everyone else (in fandom) already knows :D
You should do the "I have lost the ability to can" one too. Part of that is from when we are so overwhelmed by the ~feels~ that we have lost the ability to articulate what exactly we are feeling, and also we no longer even care to spend all that effort trying to articulate, because we don't even have to, since we have this lovely expression already created for us to use :-)
Not to mention this shorthand is an easy way for people from a variety of language backgrounds to have some fandom slang to communicate.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 08:17 pm (UTC)Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-17 09:27 pm (UTC)I agree! I have always understood feels as only appropriate for emotions generated by fannish things.
And, OMG that kaonashi gif! Wonderful! It reminded me of my love for Spirited Away and inspired me to this.
Edited (because actually this wasn't meant to be a reply to this thread but now it is): Besides, fandom is also a place to let go of our inner adult control-freak that has to present as professional uber!mature all the time.
Yes! My inner child is whooping with joy/crushed by despair/gleeful like a gleeful thing/etc over fannish things. It is a nice counterbalance to real life.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 09:29 pm (UTC)OMG THIS. To demonstrate a point. :-)
ETA: Sadly enough not only zombie!Victorians would be appalled at "the state of the English language" today in all its wonderful diversity. There still are some "defenders of purity/standards" (or whatever they call themselves).
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-17 10:24 pm (UTC)Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-18 03:19 am (UTC)I'd say though that 'feels' are pure in their intensity, but also much more muddled than 'feelings'? For me, 'feels' often indicates having a bunch of emotions at once, particularly in that way that fiction can provide where, say, you're simultaneously excited because there's a new episode of your tv show, fascinated by its plot twist, and very upset because the plot twist makes a character you like sad, even if you think it's good for the story as a whole.
Ahhhhh, yes, yes! It's not just "A cute picture of Robert Downey Jr.," it's a gifset where an interviewer asks him "Now that you've turned 48, what are your long-term goals?" and he says "Honestly, to make it to 49" and there's this crazy mishmash of sympathy and sadness and respect all at once. Or to go fictional, yes, "Wow, Sherlock's death was very well-executed, and now I FEEL SO BAD FOR EVERYONE but it was really oddly satisfying BUT AUGH." So yeah, "pure" still feels right for that knife-blade intensity, but at the same time it's like...a whole lot of different pure knife-blades.
Wow, fandom sounds like SO MUCH FUN when described this way, doesn't it?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 03:25 am (UTC)Embrace your feels!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 03:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 03:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:28 am (UTC)You know, I could write a whole separate post about how things are becoming increasingly visual! It's a development that makes me sad sometimes (because words are my tool of choice) but there is no denying that there's a whole visual vocabulary developing that serves a valuable purpose.
Now I am imagining a bunch of Victorian zombies sitting around sipping ghoul tea and complaining about our simply shocking use of language... :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:37 am (UTC)I really love the idea that fans sort of...automatically create ways of talking about fannishness that serve to say "This is different from RL--not better or worse, just different." It seems really amazing to me.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-18 05:42 am (UTC)OMG, you are absolutely right! "I'm gonna start off all grammatical but by the end I doN'T KNOW ANY MORE OMG all my coherence is gONE."
Not to mention this shorthand is an easy way for people from a variety of language backgrounds to have some fandom slang to communicate.
I hadn't even thought of this, but I love it! It's true, having a sort of "fannish language" that starts with English but has certain key phrases that are fannish-only makes it so much easier to form connections with people from different backgrounds. That's great.
I also love your celebration of the chance to be a little goofy and emotional "off the clock"! I spend a lot of time holding down a job and being mature, and sometimes I just really like the chance to *flail* and go "OMG Stephen bby my fEELs OMG." :D
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:43 am (UTC)Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-18 05:46 am (UTC)Someone commented that they've seen people use it as a replacement for real-life feelings, and when I looked the "feels" tag on Tumblr I did see some of that, but that seems to be a kind of creeping of meaning to me. I suspect eventually it will transfer over to the larger world entirely, and then fans will have to find a NEW way to express roughly the same thing. :)
Kaonashi is one of my favorite characters--that might not be the best thing to say considering he's, well, kind of messed up, but he just...he has a lot of feels, okay? :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 05:51 am (UTC)Re: here via month_of_meta
Date: 2013-05-18 06:06 am (UTC)I think when confronted by loquacious perspicacious everything-acious Stephen, that's pretty much the only rational response anyway: "Oh yeah? Well" *flails* "~FEELS~ So there!!11!1!!"
... Now I think of it, that's pretty much what Jack does. Only with a violin.
:D :D :D
(no subject)
Date: 2013-05-18 06:12 am (UTC)Considering you could not possibly have done a post on ~feels~ without the gifs, yes, there is certainly no denying it!
It's funny, because now people will respond with a gif without even using the gif:
popcorn.gif
crushedbyfeels.gif
werenotacouple.gif