Headers and labels and pairings and warnings and summaries and all are incredibly useful tools in a writer's toolbox, to advertise a fic to people who might want to read and suggest a mindset going in and whatnot, but their explicit purpose is always the same as that of the fic as a whole: to manipulate the reader, to evoke certain emotions, to instill pity and fear, to surprise and to not surprise, to give the reader what they want and/or what they need.
Which is not to say that the reader has to react the way the author wants--of course not!--but the tools ultimately belong to the author, not the reader.
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Date: 2007-03-27 01:57 pm (UTC)Which is not to say that the reader has to react the way the author wants--of course not!--but the tools ultimately belong to the author, not the reader.