Fandom things

[sholio]

... so I went and signed up for avengersfest, since Agent Carter is an option. I'm not entirely sure what the state of the fest is right now, because ... there was a notice two days ago that the mod was going to be closing signups? And then signups don't seem to have been closed? So maybe you can still sign up but I'm not sure. (I mean, this isn't meant to be mod-pokery, it's just that I hadn't mentioned this because I didn't think you could still sign up, but it's possible that you might be able to.)

I've mostly managed to talk myself out of signing up for genex, a gen relationship exchange. (Signups close July 23.) On the one hand - gen relationship exchange! That is totally my thing! But the dates are really NOT the best considering my current travel plans; it's bad enough I'm going to need to turn in my Avengers Fest assignment by Sept. 10, but Genex fics are due on Sept. 3, which would give me just a couple of weeks to write both of them when I get back in August. Genex also requires at least 3 different fandoms requested and 4 offered, and while I can do it, I'm not sure how enthusiastically I can do it.

(Plus there's my rather conflicted relationship with gen, of late. I feel like it's probably ridiculous to spend too much time fretting over whether writing gen is ethical, or I should say whether writing the kind of smarmy friendship stuff I like to write is ethical ... but I do worry about it, and while I am absolutely not going to beat myself up for writing a little idfic from time to time, I probably don't need to sign up for a ficathon that's going to encourage me to write even more of it.)

Today's my last day at home before I'm gone for a week and a half, then back for a couple of days, then gone again for almost three weeks. I feel as if I should be using my last day at home more usefully, but aside from proofing Kismet book files (AMAZON, PLZ STOP MAKING ME RE-UPLOAD THESE STUPID ENORMOUS FILES XD) I don't really have anything left to do urgently, and I kinda just want to chill online and maybe write another h/c bingo square.

Comments

[muccamukk]

I am saying all this while writing very little gen, so there is that. I read a lot though.

I really do think fandoms has echoes of the old fandom divide that segregated slash, and insisted that gen was canon/better/more moral/whatthefuckever, and it's really hard to get away from that even so many years down the line, when there's a whole generation of kids that didn't even see it happen, and are calling themselves queerplatonic on tumblr.

(Honestly queerbaiting is basically a useless term for me by now, it just gets thrown around way too much.)

Buuuuuuuuut at the same time, I think a lot of people in this threat shade pretty grey (myself included), and I don't want to stomp all over that and say it's romance or homophobia, and thems the breaks. Because then I might as well go yell at people on tumblr, and I don't have the bandwidth.

And tbh I read a lot of fic from fandoms where they're family relationships or big age gaps because they tip a little more gen than other fandoms do. One gets ones kinks where one can.

I wonder at this point if just abandoning the term smarm as pretty well burned would solve most of it.

[sholio]

Wayyyyy back in the day, before either asexuality or queerness was really talked about much in fandom, I remember having conversations with xparrot about whether h/c was, basically, romance for asexuals. ("Slash for asexuals" was how we framed it, but that probably had a lot to do with being in fandoms with mostly male characters at the time; het wasn't high on either of our radar, let alone anything else.) Both of us had noticed that, at least among people we knew, there was a MUCH higher-than-statistically-likely chance that people who were really into h/c were also somewhere along the ace spectrum, and the plots/emotions of h/c actually mirrors romance in a lot of ways: it's got a similar tension-and-release pattern, and the emotional arc often pivots around characters being forced to admit their feelings or being brought much closer together by the situation.

I realize it's more complicated than that -- among other things, there IS a lot of h/c in pairing-oriented fic, and there are a lot of people who like romance and gen. But I still think there's something to that; it's a way of getting a similar emotional release for people who don't kink on the will-they-or-won't-they to sexual release trajectory of romance. And now that I'm actually reading and enjoying more romance, I do get a very similar emotional charge from it when I happen to find one that works for me, as I do from reading about a friendship catalyzed by a perilous situation.

[sheron]

Thing is, I enjoy h/c more than anything and I do enjoy romance/sex IRL. I wouldn't call myself asexual at all. There are just very few pairings where I'm really into watching them get it on!

I spent most of my fanfic reading life reading exclusively slash because it was better written, writing mostly slash because those were the pairings that interested me, but also actively skipping pretty much anything more than kissing when I read. I got into writing sex a lot earlier than I got into reading it consistently. I might have read some excellent writers' take but normally it was just something I had to get through to understand what these characters were going through in their lives, rather than a highlight of the story.

Until SPN. Where I will read pretty much any kind of porn. Or romance. Or anything in between but hopefully with sex as well, because I finally understand why people look forward to the consummation of the relationship in a fic, something that used to be a mystery! It really surprised me when I got into that fandom many years ago that I was actually not scrolling through the sexy-bits to get to the "good parts". I guess I finally hit upon the relationship/character types that are MY type and was interested in that. I was also lucky to ship a popular pairing there, so all my cravings were satisfied, backwards, three times.

In other fandoms I'm still mostly firmly in the "couldn't care less about the stuff between the sheets" mode though. *shrug* I stopped feeling guilt about what I wanted to read around the time I turned 15 and kept having to lie on all those "are you over 18?" forms that used to be popular so I could get to read slash, so I don't really have much more to say. I will continue reading gen h/c (preferably written by sholio XD ) and writing it if it happens, OR turning slash/het fics into what is essentially gen by skipping the sex whenever I want to. :) And I'll read/write the porniest sex in fics -- if I want to. And nobody on tumblr will make me feel guilty about that aspect of myself, so there. XD

[muccamukk]

I just remembered that old Star Trek 'zine fic that argued that slash was the inevitable conclusion of h/c BECAUSE it followed the same pattern regarding release of emotions, but that having sex with your best beloved was more healthy than waiting for them to almost die before petting their hair and admitting your feelings at last.

Which is confusing several things, but that fic always made me laugh.

[nenya_kanadka]

having sex with your best beloved was more healthy than waiting for them to almost die before petting their hair and admitting your feelings at last.

Heeeee!

I have some sympathy for this viewpoint, LOL. Just fuck already! Of course the other side of it is that admitting you have emotions before the part where they're dying in your arms would probably be great for some of these characters. (And for lots of people, especially guys, IRL.) But then, where would the drama be in the fic? :P

[muccamukk]

WHERE WOULD BE THE DRAMA!?

[alatefeline]

>> because I finally understand why people look forward to the consummation of the relationship in a fic, something that used to be a mystery! It really surprised me when I got into that fandom many years ago that I was actually not scrolling through the sexy-bits to get to the "good parts”. <<

I used to do this with everything. Then I discovered sex and reversed the parameters. Then I discovered that very very good stories where more than the sum of their parts and read everything for that. And now I usually read everything provided I get past the first page, but I find myself picking something up just for the sex and going back just for the plot if it’s good.

>> and the plots/emotions of h/c actually mirrors romance in a lot of ways: it's got a similar tension-and-release pattern, and the emotional arc often pivots around characters being forced to admit their feelings or being brought much closer together by the situation <<

Weirdly, I wonder if this explains, not why I might like one but not the other, but why I started liking both at around the same time! Before that I was all about discovery, self-discovery, equality, getting a place at the table, teamwork, forever friend groups, fighting the good fight, and basically everything being fair and perfect and self-actualizing. And then I discovered that not all relationships had to be perfect symmetrical friendships where everyone was important in all the same ways all the time, and that was okay. I went from “I want EVERYBODY to get EVERYTHING GOOD” to “different things are good for different people at different times,” and I think that that opened the door to me appreciating romance AND realistic friendship narratives and everything in adjacent areas.

[alatefeline]

>> I think in many/most cases it's not them, it's me, because I'm also terrible at judging the line between platonic and flirting in real life <<

Hoooo boy. Personally I have given up on EVER understanding the clues in person. I just have to talk and rely on people talking back, and if they can’t handle it, leave. But I can understand how this would lead to issues in writing. If I get serious about writing more, I’m going to need so many betas…

…

>> and super-intense friendships that are probably codependent enough to be somewhat creepy in real life. <<

Mmm hmmm. You know, I love reading fic that sets up boundaries actually being respected, but also fic that involves the fantasy of “what if these boundaries weren’t even relevant because THEY WUV EACH OTHER?” And I think both impulses are totally logical responses to routine trivializing/ignoring of legitimate boundaries in real life. And can also be fun reading whether or not that’s true, of course.

…

>> If that's your kink, it's your kink. <<

Yes. Although things that are written well sometimes have some added appeal outside the core audience. *cough*