Slash fics.. Blah..

POSTED BY: thekidflash
UPDATED: Saturday, September 23, 2006 11:20
VIEWED: 16644
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EMBERS

Friday, June 9, 2006 4:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SameErtia:
"Hey! No fanfic! Stop it!".

I heard once that Anne Rice tried really hard to prevent all fan fic about Lestat, but actually it is pretty hard to stop people's imaginations....

We're luckier w/a creator like Joss:
naturally we have to obey the licensing rules (no selling and making money off of characters owned by someone else) BUT
but Joss recognizes that he has created iconic characters that people love and he is totally cool about fan fic.

Quote:

And how many people would have said Willow was entirely straight early on in Buffy?

Yeah, Joss has said many time that he was on purposely writing BOTH Willow and Xander as ambiguously gay in High School because he was thinking that one or the other would 'come out' in their 20s...
Seth Green leaving the show in the 4th season tipped the scales in Willow's favor, but if it had been Emma Cawfield leaving then we might have seen Xander discover his true sexual identity instead.

Fact is that Joss is very open to this stuff, more so than most of his fans evidently.

CESARE

Friday, June 9, 2006 8:13 PM

Just thought I'd clarify a few things...
I was referring to slash in general, wasn't being Firefly specific...
So - as for your posts concerning Joss's attitude towards alternative interpretations - I accept your arguments. You've been around Firefly longer, so you should know better than I do.

As to fanfic in general - sure, JRRT is dead.
It is also true that the moment an author releases or publishes his/her work, it ceases to be his/hers exclusively. People are free to have ideas and interpret things.

But I don't really think that sticking to the canon when writing fanfic is "slavish" (is that the correct word?). It's simply part of the game. If I want to "let the winged fancy roam", I make up my own setting and characters...
For me, writing fanfic would be deprived of a great deal of fun, if it didn't involve trying to get the characters, the setting and the "paradigm" - or whatever you'd call it - right. It is a challenge that a standard original fiction won't pose.
My preferred way is to create a story with the original characters and setting in mind - keeping in mind what this or that guy would most probably do; and if I decide to develop the characters or setting, I prefer to try my best to build the story on some solid grounds...
Not vice versa - to modify the characters and setting to fit into MY story.
Which is IMHO the case with most slash fanfic out there... (With possible exceptions, I admit...;-))

I confess I don't like the whole "slash" concept, since - let's admit it - most of it is something like "O'Neill and Danny-boy are good friends and have all those funny banter exchanges, they MUST have some sort of sexual relationship". Or "this character hates the other character's guts, they MUST have some sort of sexual relationship."
I used to read a lot of slash a couple of years back...;-)
Guess the moment when slash lost the last remains of charm for me was when I saw somewhere (and decided not to read) "The Deer Hunter" slash (if I remember correctly, it involved Nicky and the French guy.)

But to be fair - violation of characters is not exclusive to slash, of course.

Didn't want to rant for so long.
Guess I should shut up, or I'll start my posting over here by making enemies...;-)
*hides*

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER

Friday, June 9, 2006 9:30 PM

Well...guess I might as well add my 2 platinum;)

Been said innumerable times here, but slash fic is about personal taste. I can read male slash fic (Lvs2read's "Family" series is a good example of slash fic that works well in my own mind). Tend to prefer female slash pairings (damn me and my seemingly hetero preferences *wink*), but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the author every time I look at something.

Honestly, I have read just as much "crap" het fanfic as I have read slash fic in my time. To me, it's all about how the author works with the material they are using. Now...I can see a Kaylee/Inara pairing cuz of their close friendship and fairly similiar POVs about sex and intimacy, and Mal/Simon works cuz I have perceived a kindred nature between both of them when it comes to things like freedom, loved ones and being in authority. That doesn't mean I ain't willing to consider other pairing of any sort;)

And yeah...anything created by Joss Whedon should automatically get a label "highly flexible" and/or "subject to sudden change." The number of hook-ups and break-ups amongst his televised works should be an open invitation for interpretation! I mean, Willow (as an example) went from pining for Xander to falling for Oz to being in love with Tara to trying out a relationship with Kennedy within 7 years, with crazy moments in between.

Really...I can understand the POV that slash fics seem polar opposite to how things are presented, even if I don't agree with it. Having a disclaimer (even a basic "Slash fic inside") can go a long way to keeping a tenuous peace.

BlueEyedBrigadier

Literature has shown us some of humanity's greatest achievements; history, some of our greatest failures -- Alun Lewis

NUCLEARDAY

Saturday, June 10, 2006 5:22 PM

Just throwing my two cents in here as well. I'm still working my way through the fanfic on this site, and I haven't gotten terribly far, so I don't have the most educated opinion on this, but:

I've yet to accidentally read a fic that I didn't know was slash/ erotica when I wasn't in the mood, so at least from my experience I haven't had much trouble with the labelling.

I'll also have to agree with those who recommend avoiding any pairing you're not into. And there's just far too little canon as it what with our 14 episodes and one BDM to positively rule out anything as totally implausible.

Myself, I've found the fic around here to be well above par for the most part. A good few of the writers could certainly be looking towards getting some actual published writing from the examples I've seen in here.

Also, I've found I've come across some real gems reading some of the stuff I'm generally not into, and giving those a try. There's a couple that come to mind that I read on a whim and I'm glad I did. It's late in my day over here, so I can't think of many titles, though. One I remember was the series of "Frecklets" that were going around say a month or two ago. I'd give mention of the author if I could remember who it was, but I got a real kick out of that, and I don't generally see much in the whole Jayne/ Kaylee pairing.

Anyways, just another long-winded way of saying, sometimes if you keep an open mind, you'll be suprised at what you find. :P

________________________________________________
You can take my Browncoat when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers. (Or if Kaylee asks me nicely...)

SAMEERTIA

Saturday, June 10, 2006 6:22 PM

"Frecklets" is fabulous! Fizzled a bit at the end, but the corridor scene, "not playing anymore, bao bei" (Forgive me, I don't remember the exact line) gave me shivers for a week! Even if you're not a Jaylee shipper, try it. You might like it.

EMBERS

Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SameErtia:
"Frecklets" is fabulous!

I've been looking for it (after two recommendations I want to read it!) but I can't find it...
can you give us a link?

thanks

EPEYON

Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:21 PM

One of the things about slash in Firefly, is that I hate Mal slash. Mostly because he says he's not gay. In Heart of Gold there's a scene when he and Nandi are looking at her pistols.

NANDI:You ain't looked at one of 'em as long or as lovin' as you looked at those pistols. You're not sly, are you? 'cause I got my boys...

MAL:Sly? No. I lean towards womenfolk. Just one thing at a time. Never like complications.

Now I guess people either don't have that episode, weren't paying attention, or can't figure out what words mean from context.

EMBERS

Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Epeyon:

Now I guess people either don't have that episode, weren't paying attention, or can't figure out what words mean from context.

and I'm guessing you didn't bother to read the rest of this thread...
so you didn't notice that Joss hasn't ruled out anything
and Mal saying 'I lean to women folk'
does not mean he would never ever be w/a man, or has never ever been with one.

SAMEERTIA

Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:41 PM

Thank you, Embers.
Epeyon doesn't seem to understand the layers of context and subcontext in that line. :)

But that's okay. It's all open to interpretation until we actually SEE Mal say, "Simon, I ain't sly and you make one more pass me and your goin' out the airlock, dong ma?!?!?"

At least, that's about what it would take for me.

DEEPGIRL187

Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:51 PM

This is just a shameless plug, but it's for a good cause.

Since we seem to have a lot of fanfic readers here, everyone please head on over to the Blue Sun Room forum, where you'll find a thread about the 2005 Strawberry Awards. I spent a few hours reading many of the nominations, and they are all very high quality. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Edit: Oh, and by the way, you can vote for the entries if you're a member of LiveJournal (though I think they're fixing it so non-members can vote too).

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It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think.

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