10 Unpopular Fandom Opinions

[kangeiko]

Stolen shamelessly from likeadeuce. I went for a slight twist on this, as I have been navel-gazing more and more recently.

10 Unpopular Fannish Fandom Opinions

1. Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic. There's the issue of - well, it's not physically possible. Why is people wanting something seen as justification for letting them have it, despite all physical laws? If they want a baby, why is there no thought given to adoption? Why must magic immediately enter into it? I'm sorry, but even stretching my suspension of disbelief as much as I can, I can't buy psontaneous MPREG, no matter how well it is written.

2. There are ways to retcon rape that still allows our characters to get together. I'm mainly talking about Spike/Buffy here, but also about a recent Lois & Clark fic I read where alt!Lois was dumped in a dimension where Kal-El was an evil overlord and held her as a slave for three years - only to come back and (eventually) fall in love with alt!Clark. I'm sorry, but I don't see a way to allow such a huge breach of trust to be retconned in any way that would allow those two characters a 'happily ever after' relationship. They might be able to rebuild their friendship, maybe, but to go back into a physical relationship so quickly? No.

Btw, the L&C fic was extraordinarily well written, and very long - the author clearly understood the issues that would have to be overcome but, IMO, having this be solved in under a year was still unrealistic.

3. When offering f/b, you should respond with encouragement, and only offer criticism if the writer asks for it. No. I'm sorry, but 'feedback' does not equal 'encouragement'. If the writer wants encouragement, they should ask for it. Asking for feedback involves asking for what worked and what didn't. Asking your boss for feedback does not mean that they sing your praises - they'll cover your strengths and areas of development. This is no different.

4. Incest between character X and character Y is 'obvious'. No, it really isn't, not unless it's canon. My argument is as follows:

Saying that there is UST between two characters is one thing. Having them engage in behaviour that they don't canonically engage in works fine for me (i.e. unconventional relationships). People sometimes sleep with people they didn't really intend to sleep with - just look at Spike and Anya. However, you're not going to find two siblings 'accidentally' falling into bed together and not thinking, "OMG, this is my brother/sister, WHAT AM I DOING??" The incest taboo is one of the strongest taboos out there. The only one that comes close is cannibalism - and you'd hardly have your characters engaging in what without a second thought. So why this focus on having incest as 'natural'?

This is vaguely regarding the Malfoy!cest, Weasley!cest, Potter!cest and Win!cest out there. Now, I've read some amazing 'cesty stuff, but the only ones that work for me are the ones that acknowledge that a taboo is being broken. Just skipping over it as cowardice on the part of the writer, and it's lazy, to boot. If you don't want to deal with the implications of the pairing, why not pick a different pairing, one that doesn't have such taboos surrounding it?

Now, in cases like Carnivale or Rome, where there is canon incest, the fic tends to take the taboos into account - because it tends to be covered on the show in any case. Please, take note - if writing incest, watch a couple of shows that actually feature it and deal with it appropriately, don't write it as a fairy tale. There are no ways in which a parent/child sexual relationship can be written as natural. By all means, if you want to write it, then write it. But don't shy away from what you are writing.

5. Slash is a 'superior' art-form. metafandom has had ten million essays on this, and yet there still appears to be a substantial faction in fandom that believes that those who can, slash, and those who can't, het. Where this leaves gen!fic is anyone's guess. Maybe it's because I've moved away from large fandoms into small, obscrube ones where there is a dearth of any of fic, but this sort of chauvanism really gets to me. It's not so much that I don't like slash - I am a slasher, after all - but that I think in the clash between slash and het, gen gets lost along the way. Personally, I define 'gen' as anything that keeps to the canon of the series, and doesn't focus primarily on a relationship rather than a plot. It's a plot-driven story rather than a relationship-driven one, but that doesn't mean that it's not character-driven as a consequence. A well-written gen story can reveal more about a relationship than a slash or het story might in the same circumstances - yet it doesn't get any sort of consideration. Gen, it appears has been consigned to the children's section - OG-rated, smut-free, and entirely uninteresting.

Not so. Gen fic is often the best-crafted fic out there, as it relies on something other than 'shipper support to keep the story going. If a het or slash fic falters, a smoochy scene between the OTP will often keep it afloat for a while - but a gen fic doesn't have that to fall back on. The standards, in short, are higher and more consistent throughout the fic. That is not to say that you can't have badly-written gen fic, but I'd argue that it is easier to spot, especially if parts of a gen fic are badly written.

This view primarily stems from my preference for fics that have a plot other than bringing our two characters together. I would argue that there can be an adult gen fic, although the current ratings/segmentation system does not allow for it. It is a fic rated higher than the standards PG for either sex or violence, but it is not about an OTP and so cannot be called a shipper fic. Doing so is a disservice to it.

6. A Season 1 version of Character X is fine for my Season 7 story. You'd be surprised how many people justify an interpretation of a character with evidence from 5 years previous. Seriously, as a character witness, would you cite someone's behaviour of a decade ago as justification for their actions now? If the Season 7 version of a character would not do what you need them to do for the fic, there might be a good reason for that.

7. My story is AU - it's a 'what if character X never fell in love with character y but character z instead, and then the world ended and character x was turned into a turtle and they all moved to the bottom of the ocean and spoke in tongues'. No, your story is not an AU of Fandom A, it's an original fic story that uses the same names as fandom A characters. Please, stop kidding yourself. A good example of an AU is the Babylon 5 fanfic "A Dark Distorted Mirror" that takes the 'what if?' question of: "what if the Minbari had not surrendered at the Battle of the Line?" and runs with it for 5 volumes, covering all 5 seasons of the show. All the characters that show up in the show show up in the fic, and the changes that the 'what if?' brings to their world is explored.

A bad example of an AU is an AU where Harry killed Voldemort as a baby and was raised by unicorns and fell in love with a unicorn princess and they had babies and this story is about what happens when the babies grow up and go to Hogwarts.

No. Please, no.

8. Telling writers about our story ideas is really funny and they really appreciate our enthusiasm! No, what you are doing is potentially holding up the development of the show. Those in the B5 fandom might well remember that the reason why "Passing Through Gethsemane" was held until the third season was because someone pitched JMS an unsolicited idea that was remarkably similar to it - and held up the development of the episode until the legal wrangles could be sorted. It's also the reason why warren_ellis doesn't really use his lj anymore - one too many people left story ideas in the comments section for him to cope with.

9. My OTP is TRUE and DESTINED because -. Oh dear god, am I ever glad that I am not remotely involved in the HP fandom shipper wars. Why? Just - why? Can you imagine something similar breaking out over Jane Austen pairing Fanny Price with Edward rather than the dashing Henry Crawford? No. Why? Because it's a book. You can dislike the choice, sure, and you can dislike it quite a bit, but hating other people for preferring a different pairing is the equivalent of green/purple.

10.Spoilers are EEEEVIL! And by spoilers I mean even one-word responses to episodes such as 'squee!' or 'bums!' Remember how people were pissed off at being 'spoiled' for the HP:HBP book covers? It's like that, only worse. My god, how do you live in the world? Suppose that someone sitting behind you on the bus says how excited they are over last night's LOST - wouldn't that spoil it for you?? There are spoiler warnings, and then there are ridiculous requests regarding spoiler warnings, and this falls into the latter category.

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Slash is a 'superior' art-form.

Sometimes, I think that if I see this argument being made one more time, even in jest, I am going to have to CHOKE A BITCH. Or force them to read every story in the slash subgenre of soulbonded wereleopards until their eyes bleed, which I think would take about four paragraphs.

[kangeiko]

soulbonded wereleopards

Mwahahahaha! WORD.

[http://users.livejournal.com/ari_/]

slash subgenre of soulbonded wereleopards

OH I HATE YOU WITH A LOT OF HATE THAT IS VERY HATE-Y!!!!11!

I had totally forgotten about that Sentinel story where Jim is a wereleopard and Blair is *8*, and they fall in love and have sex.

Excuse me, I now have to go and sit whimpering in a corner.

[(Anonymous)]

*joins you in the corner* 8? *weeps*

[machineplay.livejournal.com]

A bad example of an AU is an AU where Harry killed Voldemort as a baby and was raised by unicorns and fell in love with a unicorn princess and they had babies and this story is about what happens when the babies grow up and go to Hogwarts.

or it's a crossover with The Last Unicorn, which is worse. either way, have one internets to go with this shiny WORD that i am awarding you.

and #8... dear baby Harry Potter, YES. trust me, little Monalisa wasn't running in to the Councils of Florence in 1441 going, "ooh, it would be awesome if Onan was really, sekritly, in love with his manservant!" while they were deciding on what the Canon of the Bible was. even if that would have made it ten times more interesting. the same courtesy should be given all canon authors. honestly.

[kangeiko]

Mwahaha! Yes, indeed.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

This is a really unpopular opinion, at least if the majority of the slash in my fandom is anything to judge by... but I think that in many cases, #4 applies to slash as well. Like it or not, if the characters are in a society where homosexuality is taboo (or even in a mostly heteronormative society), and they haven't previously come to grips with their own sexual orientation, it's ridiculous to have them just jump into bed with someone of the same sex without even a "whoa, what am I doing?" moment. I mean, there are exceptions--someone either incredibly innocent or incredibly secure in their own sexuality might not have that reaction, and pure smut is under less obligation to be realistic--but on the whole, I don't think this is dealt with nearly as often as it ought to be.

Especially in historical fandoms, which is where I am at the moment. None of the fanfic seems to acknowledge that a taboo is being broken, or if it does, the treatment of the issue is trite and stereotypical. In fandoms set in the modern day, silence on this subject is understandable depending on the characters; in the 19th century, not even acknowledging that that sort of thing Just Isn't Done is unforgivable.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Here from metafandom.

I would highly recommend galadhir's fic, which is Pirates of the Caribbean and deals principally with Norrington/Gillette. She is very realistic about the serious legal, social and psychological difficulties that such a relationship would entail at that period (up to and including execution).

And as a writer of Silmarillion gen, I thank kangeiko for opinion 5.

[bimo.livejournal.com]

(Stumbled across this discussion via metafandom as well ;-))

Word on the general quality and enjoyableness of galadhir's stories.

I'm mostly a reader of mature, well-written gen, for the very reasons already mentioned under point 5; and quite often I feel that I need to take a look at a writer's gen fiction first, before deciding whether or not to follow them into slash country.

Clearly an act of general skepticism on my behalf, an "are you good enough to make me buy and enjoy the fictional world evolving around your pairing?"

The first piece I ever read from galadhir, Mutiny on the Dauntless was a very well-written gen novella with a breathtaking plot and very endearing, psychologically believable and multi-faceted characterisations. So I also tried a few galadhir's slashier stories. It's a decision I have not regretted, because the stuff is just as good and convincing as her gen ;-)

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

(Also here from metafandom.)

*perks up* Silmarillion gen? Where where where? I'd love to read some good Sil-fic, but I'm not a slasher and the ubiquity of the slash has mostly scared me away from wading into it.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

I haven't written much, but most of it is up at the Henneth Annun Story Archive under the name Anna Wing (or, possibly, AWing). They can also be found in my LJ entries, together with assorted ficlets.

[kangeiko]

Thanks for the recs - I shall check them out!

[tonko-ni.livejournal.com]

::delurks::

I think one reason a lot of authors might skip or leave out the societal repurcussions/personal angst thing is that, if the characters are being slashed in a fic, and it's not totally about the angst of breaking that taboo, it's a foregone conclusion that they'll get over it, so why rehash what's been repeated ad infinitum in fic already. There're only so many ways to write "well, I though I was straight but I'm not" or "I'm not supposed to be gay/bi/whatever because the military/society/my family says it's wrong/evil/not allowed.

Not saying that the turmoil about all that should be skipped, and of course many authors handle it smoothly in a way that isn't clunky or repetitive, instead of writing it like it's a quick hurdle to be jumped or sidestepped. I just think that for some its a case of familiarity with that plot point breeding contempt, or at least disinterest.

I dunno, my experience with m/m pairings is mostly in SGA and Naruto, and both those fandoms suffer from attacks of the "everyone's gay!" virus, too, so there's the entire spectrum of ways to handle the homosexuality taboo, from homophobia and dire angst to the entire cast of characters being perfectly okay with it.

Plus slash is a fantasy, written by people who like guys together, so it's par for the course that the couple might not meet with much resistance.

[kangeiko]

I think one reason a lot of authors might skip or leave out the societal repurcussions/personal angst thing is that, if the characters are being slashed in a fic, and it's not totally about the angst of breaking that taboo, it's a foregone conclusion that they'll get over it, so why rehash what's been repeated ad infinitum in fic already.

That's an interesting point, and I can appreciate it, but there's a fine line between weighing a fic in favour of post-realisation elements and skipping over them entirely. As a reader, I feel cheated somehow - it's a legitimate hurdle, and if they devote so much time to strawberry- or chocolate-flavoured lube, I'd expect at least a cursory nod in the direction of legalities and 'the real world'. That said, I'm a big stickler for real world details while others might not care about them at all.

There're only so many ways to write "well, I though I was straight but I'm not" or "I'm not supposed to be gay/bi/whatever because the military/society/my family says it's wrong/evil/not allowed.

Yes, indeed, but that's not the only thing that will come from setting the fic in such a world. I'm not talking about the internal discussions that a character has with themselves - which, I agree, do run the risk of sounding repetitive - but of the practical implications - for instance, there have been cases where I've seen someone bring their male dates with them to formal occasions. Um, all very well and good in the twenty-first century - less so in the nineteenth.

I dunno, my experience with m/m pairings is mostly in SGA and Naruto, and both those fandoms suffer from attacks of the "everyone's gay!" virus, too, so there's the entire spectrum of ways to handle the homosexuality taboo, from homophobia and dire angst to the entire cast of characters being perfectly okay with it.

Yes, I take your point - the fandom structure itself might have a lot to do with how well the subject is approached.

[infinitystormgard]

That's almost as bad as setting a fic in a timeframe or culture where it *wasn't/isn't* taboo but treating it like it was/is. What I mean to say is: would it *kill* people to do a bit of research before projecting modern cultural expectations onto a story that take place in a time/place where those expectations may have never existed?

[kangeiko]

*giggle* I haven't come across that - but I can just imagine! It wouldn't have anything to do with, say, Troy, would it? Oh noes, teh forbidden love - that was actually not really that forbidden at all...

[kangeiko]

None of the fanfic seems to acknowledge that a taboo is being broken, or if it does, the treatment of the issue is trite and stereotypical. In fandoms set in the modern day, silence on this subject is understandable depending on the characters; in the 19th century, not even acknowledging that that sort of thing Just Isn't Done is unforgivable.

Yes, exactly. That's my issue with a lot of the historical fic I've come across, especially the ones that seem to culminate in an Army-wide orgy... (they never covered that in my history classes...)

[plsteward.livejournal.com]

Here via metafandom

Word.
But because I'm weird, I'm going to respond point by point.

1.) Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic

Okay, I'm from the SGA fandom via Harry Potter's rare-pairings slash fandom. Mpreg is just one step away from canon in SGA because the aliens they deal with are cracked. This is also a fandom where penguin transformations are considered old hat or normal. Admittedly if I ever see mpreg in my more sane fandoms like Ouran, I will brain the author with a concrit & run screaming into the night. But in some fandoms where the place you live is pretty much in love with the hero & has god knows what tech waiting to be used, them mpreg because the couple wants it is plausible.

2.) There are ways to retcon rape that still allows our characters to get together.

Wordy McWord. There just isn't an easy way to write rape fics unless it's cracked or long & painful. I guess you could Stockholm it, but for the most part you need the time factor, which is hard for fanfic writers.

3.) Incest between character X and character Y is 'obvious'.

Again word. & it also needs to have an effect on the characters & their world outside of the "aw, it's so nice you have love."

4.) Slash is a 'superior' art-form.

I hate this assumption (this is a slasher talking, er, writing, whatever.) There are crap writers in every section of fandom. The ony reason any one could even think this is b/c (from my experiences only- if you've seen different, talk) slashers tend to be the older members of a fandom, the ones who aren't in high school & who have the more ingrained habits of spell checker & beta before posting. But as far as plot goes I agree that gen writers have to be skilled because unless they know all the right comms, they have to stand out to get folks to talk about their fics. But the same goes for the rare pairs too (het or slash.)

6.) A Season 1 version of Character X is fine for my Season 7 story.

OMG, bad characterization sucks donkey bits. Unless they have amnisia or some other soap opera ailement, this never works. I've been guilty of this & I'm sorry about it (tried to fix it too, but I ended up just hating my fail more.)

7.) My story is AU - it's a 'what if character X never fell in love with character y but character z instead, and then the world ended and character x was turned into a turtle and they all moved to the bottom of the ocean and spoke in tongues'.

Again siteing SGA. We are truly the most cracked fandom in the world. *huggles my v. weird & insane fandom* This is v. close to canon. But really we do AU's all the time where they are perfectly in character but the folks are firemen, lawyers, teachers, an opera troope, advertising execs, or flowers (& that flower one has porn between the sunflower & the tulip which is also mpreg.) But all are v. in-character b/c the canon characters are v. strong & easy to use in new enviroments without damaging too much of their pasts. Besides this is rather canon too- there is a inter-dimensional mirror that lets you trip through various alt. realities. But you know what, in some fandoms it's the experiences that make the character & you can't change them.

8.) Telling writers about our story ideas is really funny and they really appreciate our enthusiasm!

shudders. BNF's.... crazy fans..... That's up there (but below) shoving porny fan art to the actors at cons & shoving fanfic in their direction too.

9.) My OTP is TRUE and DESTINED because -.

Slasher- if the ptb ever used one of my otp's or heaven provide my ot4 I'd die & go to heaven (or a special hell) then so would the show because once the Christain right go through trashing it, the shippers would squabble over the scraps & trash those.

10.) Spoilers are EEEEVIL! And by spoilers I mean even one-word responses to episodes such as 'squee!' or 'bums!'

Thank you for reminding me why I left the HP fandom. Spoilers are good, love spoilers, feed me them, then leave me to squee over them. I do warn for spoilers if I see that trend but mostly I just put in the tags the season or something to that effect. Let them flame me. I live in a cold wintery area now & I need the heat.

[(Anonymous)]

"& it also needs to have an effect on the characters and their world outside of the 'aw, it's so nice you have love'"

*HOUSE SPOILERS, I guess?*

Unless you're writing about Foreman. *ducks* I was just going "WTF?" at that point.


It's sad that it's become an unpopular opinion to think incest is wrong.

[kangeiko]

I've heard of people leaving the Supernatural fandom because they feel that their gen fic is being victimised - just because they don't see the Twue Luv of Win!cest. I mean, all power to you if you want to write a certain relationship, but I don't force my view of the world down their tthroats and I'd expect reciprocal courtesy.

[kangeiko]

Mpreg is just one step away from canon in SGA because the aliens they deal with are cracked. This is also a fandom where penguin transformations are considered old hat or normal. Admittedly if I ever see mpreg in my more sane fandoms like Ouran, I will brain the author with a concrit & run screaming into the night.

It's the latter example that I was really talking about. Having MPREG in a fandom like Harry Potter or even Buffy can be explained easily with magic - and indeed can be used to produce some interesting and fabulous fic (I'm thinking of the one fic in particular, where Dumbledore ends up pregnant with a Voldemort shrunk back to zygote size... it's more Rosemary's Baby than anything else and it's fabulous). However, there is no excuse for AMERICAN IDOL RPS MREG. Yes, you read that right. It's RPS. And it's mpreg.

The day that Simon Cowell turns up pregnant is the day that I eat my hat.

Again word. & it also needs to have an effect on the characters & their world outside of the "aw, it's so nice you have love."

*giggle*

OMG, bad characterization sucks donkey bits. Unless they have amnisia or some other soap opera ailement, this never works. I've been guilty of this & I'm sorry about it (tried to fix it too, but I ended up just hating my fail more.)

Ditto. But, hey, at least we're aware of it now and watch out for it when writing - there are writers out there that feel it's a valid aritistic choice. *mind = boggling*

But all are v. in-character b/c the canon characters are v. strong & easy to use in new enviroments without damaging too much of their pasts.

See, I think there's a difference between the AUs where the characters are clearly identifiable and the ones that just use the character names to write original fic. Using the Buffy canon Wishverse, the Xena/Hercules, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Hercules!", the Star Treek Mirrorverse - all of these AUs use characters that we are familiar with and those characters are still regoniseable. However, it's not the same as calling it an AU because you didn't like character X's development and so decided to make them fall in love with an OFC and make them have babies. That's not an AU, that's just canon-rape.

But you know what, in some fandoms it's the experiences that make the character & you can't change them.

WORD. Or, LOST, as my actual example. :)

Thank you for reminding me why I left the HP fandom.

The people complaining about being spoiled for the book cover (!!) were just the best, weren't they? I wonder how they survived in the real world...

via metafandom

[brownbetty]

Clearly a very shallow reader because I read this and thought, "Lois and Clark fic? Where!?" So um. Do you have a link?

Re: via metafandom

[kangeiko]

*giggle* Indeed I do:

Anne's Place - fanfic, fan vids etc etc. The adult fic requires registration to get the password.

Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive - the largest archive for the fic. Only goes up to PG-rated fic, but has links to the Kerth awards and the nKerth awards (PG- and adult-rated fic awards) and to many other archives.

Enjoy!

here from Metafandom

[greenislove.livejournal.com]

Can you imagine something similar breaking out over Jane Austen pairing Fanny Price with Edward rather than the dashing Henry Crawford? No.

Hee! And here I thought the Fanny Wars were legendary. Thanks for reminding me how tame the Jane Austen fandom really is.

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Oh, major word on number 10. I absolutly will put specific spoilers behind a cut, but Squee, or OMG, or any kind of basic reaction is not a spoiler.

[arjd.livejournal.com]

Omg. WORD. WORD, WORD, WORD. Wordy McWord.

Urr. Yeah. Heh.

(Omg! Fanny gets with Edmund? [you do mean edmund right?] Yay I love them... Ignore me, I'm reading Mansfield Park, heh)

Also? "A bad example of an AU is an AU where Harry killed Voldemort as a baby and was raised by unicorns and fell in love with a unicorn princess and they had babies and this story is about what happens when the babies grow up and go to Hogwarts."

I think I read a fic like that once. -_-

[kangeiko]

Doh! Edmund, yes. (It's been years since I read Mansfield Park - it's my least-favourite Austen book - and I always have the feeling that it's not Edmund, 'cause I read it at the same time as King Lear and the two are forever mixed up in my mind now...)

What do you think of MP thus far? I have to say, given that I read Northanger Abbey right before it, I was very disappointed - although it gave us plenty to discuss in seminars, I admit.

[arjd.livejournal.com]

Disappointed too - seventy pages in and anything of consequence is yet to happen. I just read P&P so it's a big disappointment but if her other books aren't as boring as this then I'll give them a go. =D

Yay Edmund. I love him so much. =D

[kangeiko]

Austen was going through a religious conversion at the time, so not a whole lot actually happens in the rest of it as well. I think it's her least engaging and least accomplished novel, for all that Fanny Price is being touted as a feminist heroine - I don't think that she is. And I much prefer Emma, P&P, Northanger Abbey or Sense and Sensibility, I have to say... (I'm still saving Persuasion for a particularly horrid day when I need some comfort reading.)

Here via Metafandom

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

This is vaguely regarding the Malfoy!cest, Weasley!cest, Potter!cest and Win!cest out there.

Okay, I've gotta ask: just HOW do you have Potter!cest? I mean, aren't all of Harry's relatives on the Potter side, well, dead? I was about to ask a similar question about Malfoy!cest, but I assume that involves parent-child incest.

Can you imagine something similar breaking out over Jane Austen pairing Fanny Price with Edward rather than the dashing Henry Crawford?

*stares* Um...you don't spend much time around Jane Austen fans, do you? Because I actually have seen something remarkably similar to the Potter wars there, though with a more grown-up and pseudo-academic tone to it. (Oh, and it's Edmund, by the way. Edward is in Sense and Sensibility. And I wouldn't call Henry Crawford so much "dashing" as "creepy," but that's just me....)

Re: Here via Metafandom

[(Anonymous)]

Necrofic. I'll just wait until we both stop shuddering before I continue.

There's a disturbing amount of dead!James pr0nfic out there. (Of course, my idea of a disturbing amount would be "any".)

Re: Here via Metafandom

[kangeiko]

Okay, I've gotta ask: just HOW do you have Potter!cest?

Via necrophilia and AUs, I believe. And the Mirror of Erised (although why Harry's fondest wish would be to be buggered by his father is beyond me.) And necromancy. And any other magical means you can think of? That too.

I was about to ask a similar question about Malfoy!cest, but I assume that involves parent-child incest.

They all do, to some extent. This is the one fandom where parent-child incest seems to be as popular as sibling incest. (And, for the record, as it colours my reactions to this, I can deal with the latter for narrative purposes - e.g. in Carnivale or Rome or similar - but the former squicks me like nobody's business, especially when it's mixed in with chan.)

*stares* Um...you don't spend much time around Jane Austen fans, do you? Because I actually have seen something remarkably similar to the Potter wars there, though with a more grown-up and pseudo-academic tone to it.

Oh, yeah, we had the whole "Is fanny Price is a feminist heroine or just a wimpy cunt?" discussion, too, and decided that we didn't care enough to actually get really het up about it. To be honest, the Harry Potter fandom is the only one where I have seen such a level of absolute hatred regarding something that doesn't actually exist. Part of it might have something to do with the fact that it's a fandom-in-progress - i.e. the canon isn't finished yet - so people still have hope that their OTP will 'win out'. I think that, despite the heated words exchanged over whether S&S's Marianne should have settled or held out for true love or whatever, at the end of the day the book is complete, and no amount of arguing will change that. (Plus, we don't have the option of arguing that jane Austen was personally out to spite us...)

(Oh, and it's Edmund, by the way.

brain-fart - yes, of course it is. Ignore the ramblings of the mad woman in the corner...

[shadsie.livejournal.com]

Also here from metafandom.

Thank you for the comments on genfic. I'm predominately a gen writer. Writing about the smooching and the lovey-dovey and the OMG! Let's bed each other! just doesn't interest me as much as writing about "aspects of the world," "characters' inner thoughts," or... "fantasy duel between this character and this character," haha!

From time to time (quite often) I like writing horror-themed stuff, and I love writing lavish descriptions (particularly of death scenes and gorey things). Um... Yes, I write gen, but my gen is NOT FOR THE KIDDIES. Some of my gen stories? I don't see how someone could regulate them to the "G-rated" section, so, yes, I really do hate that assumption in fandom.

[shadsie.livejournal.com]

... "relegate."

Dammit.

[kangeiko]

From time to time (quite often) I like writing horror-themed stuff, and I love writing lavish descriptions (particularly of death scenes and gorey things). Um... Yes, I write gen, but my gen is NOT FOR THE KIDDIES. Some of my gen stories? I don't see how someone could regulate them to the "G-rated" section, so, yes, I really do hate that assumption in fandom.

Yes, exactly. Although I'd call myself a slasher, I think that it's more out of habit than anything else, as the vast majority of stuff I write seems to be gen fic, but is most definitely not suitable for children. I can just imagine the difficulties a horror writer would have with it! There's a real dearth of adult-gen fic archives or communities out there. The only ones I'm aware of are actual mailing lists for specific fandoms that deal with dark!fic - not 'shipping fic, but something deliberately adult and unsettling and predominantly gen. I haven't noticed an equivalent thing on lj, though...