It's a fine line between clever and stupid

[gwyn]

So, say I have a friend who writes fanfic. And say my friend once wrote a line she liked in a story, and had thought briefly of using that line for her title, but abandoned it in favor of a clearer, more concise title. And say now my friend doesn't like the title of a new story, and wants to use that line from an old story as title for the new one. Would you laugh up your sleeve at my friend? Think she was a pretentious ass? Snicker about her in chat, remarking how pathetically in love with herself she is? Dismiss her?

My friend is a little flinchy -- just about every time she turns around people discuss things on lists like finding the use of epigrams from philosophers or intellectuals or great poets as pathetic and sad (and she's just, of course, written a story where she used a quote from Einstein as an epigram), or people mocking fic writers who tend towards the metaphorical, or what have you. They always say to my friend, "We don't mean you, we mean bad writers who do that," but my friend is dubious. She can see herself and her own stylistic quirks in a lot of rants and mockery, and is easily embarassed by anything even resembling acting like an arrogant fool.

Should my friend give it up?