Willow/Aragorn?

Colour me cynical. Although I must admit I loved one Smallville/LotR piece by Shalott. Bwah!

Gosh, having one of those job-things really cuts into your discussion time. :-)

Sorry to have been a cause of dissension. I was in a bit of a pre-Xmas funk yesterday and that may have made me overshoot the goal of trying to lay out my particular take on the conceptual issue of RPF/RPS in the spirit of sharing rather than condemning. It is an issue that I have personally wrestled with quite a bit.

I made a post to the LJ discussion, but it hasn't been released yet because it's anonymous.

Out of interest, how did you first get into the RPF thing?

Honestly, it's brand new and it's a side effect of my Eminem obsession, but I've been reading a lot of PopSlash and I love it. I expect I'll end up reading LOTRPS as well.

I've been reading fan fiction since Quantum Leap days and I've never had the slightest compulsion to pick up the pen (or keyboard) and write some until now.

Is it just a straightforward thing for you, then, writing the RPF? Because I find that it does my head in in a way that writing fictional people doesn't. I mean, the fictional people don't exist. I can know them totally and utterly with the same degree of authority as the show's writers, if I do my research.

See, the reason it does your head in is the reason I love it so much. I can't know Eminem or Justin Timberlake totally and utterly and that's what makes them so fascinating. There's no canon as such. I can't be "Jossed" as it were. Maybe this sounds lazy, I dunno. But for me the fascination is the things written in between the lines in all the interesting things that get said about celebrities. My very first story was based on two conflicting bits of information about a chance meeting at the VMAs between Justin Timberlake and Eminem. Justin says Eminem was nice to him, respectful. A tabloid reports the opposite, that Eminem devastated him with his mean comments. So what's true? It gives me a place to conjecture and I find the conjecture to be entertaining. I know that as much as I know about Eminem, I don't know the whole story and that's why he fascinates me in a way fictional characters don't. Also, slashing Eminem is just poetic justice when it comes right down to it ;)

As to the stuff I write which actually places him in a fictional world, that kind of thing really trips my trigger. The story I posted to Silverlake, Something Real, came about because I decided it would be interesting to take someone who is enough of a fanboy to dress up in a Robin costume for a video and who refers to superheroes in a number of his songs and place him into this fictional universe and see it from his angle, see how he reacts to it. I love the Angelverse, but I never felt like I had an angle on it that would give me a reason to sit down and write a story and say something that other people weren't saying. Writing Eminem into that universe was my angle. Same goes with the Faith/Eminem fics and one of those incidently was also based on tabloid reportage about Marshall buying presents for his bodyguards (true, untrue? who cares!).

I may have to post some more thoughts about this to my LJ later. Sigh. I'm avoiding work right now.

Okay, here's a non-RPS question: Do you have to actually watch Smallville to get the fic? I've been getting poked and prodded about it and figure I could use another fandom to read in. (Note the use of the word "read", as in not to write.) But I don't think I want to commit to watching the show.

Thoughts? Recs? Anyone?

....stumbling back to thread

Okay, I've been reading dueSouth and I just thought, for no particular reason, that it might be a good idea to read some HP fic, since I haven't read very much HP fic and yet appear to be writing a fuck off, big-ass piece of Dracofic.

I can, it turns out, be flustered and squicked with remarkable ease - but it's the indelicacy of the title that did it, though.

Yes, let's all take a moment to appreciate the multiplicity of my standards. I am Hypocricy!Gal. Hear me whine.

Thoughts? Recs? Anyone?

Watch one or two season one eps to get a feel for the BGL, then assume all the eps are pretty much the same after that and read on.

I've quit watching it, but the stories are good.

Point the first:

Do you have to actually watch Smallville to get the fic? I've been getting poked and prodded about it and figure I could use another fandom to read in.

No. I saw 3/4 of the episode Jitters and within 24 hours I was a Smallville fic crack whore. It would help if you caught a few episodes to contextualise matters - and if you're watching Smallville as background for fic, this is far and away the best way of interacting with it. 'Cause it's not great telly. But if you just download a couple of songvids it'll do the trick, to be honest - that'll give you an idea of the glorious Doomed Gay Prettyboy Love at the heart of the show. Plus - don't have to sit through the mostly-crap script if you go the Songvid route. Hmm. Shrift and Nestra have splendid recs on their site. Outwith that I'd point you to Thamiris , Hope and Jenn .

Also, slashing Eminem is just poetic justice when it comes right down to it

This is maybe a silly question, but - do you like him? Do you dislike him? I don't know all that much about him, but I can see that he's a very interesting personality & I can understand why you could be fascinated by him. For me, knowing about someone makes me disinclined to fictionalise them. I mean, I get squicked by gossip mags speculating on the intimate details of celebrities, so co-opting them for fiction isn't my cup of tea. It's coming clear to me that people's interactions with the fanfic texts are really very different, though. t /statestheobvious Um.

To me it feels like a vast leap from writing a fictional person to writing a living person. Vast. To you - not so much so? I mean, it feels more like Original fiction, in a way - like you're given a few parameters within which to work, but you're basically making up a character and situations from scratch. I mean, I've happened across a Victorian Vampire LotRiPS piece ostensibly about Orlando, but clearly not about Orlando, because he isn't a Victorian rentboy. And I know there are all manner of *Nsync AUs out there (including, supposedly, the Pern Crossover), so again it seems to me that the writers are taking the names and physical appearances of the people concerned, and a few perceived characteristics, and then just writing their own original fiction about what are, essentially, original characters.

Or - crumbs, I don't know whether this is making ANY sense. My writing brain is fried.

I've happened across a Victorian Vampire LotRiPS piece ostensibly about Orlando, but clearly not about Orlando, because he isn't a Victorian rentboy

But he did play one In Wilde. That's how the imdb lists the role. "Wilde (1997) .... Rentboy".

Okay, here's a non-RPS question: Do you have to actually watch Smallville to get the fic?

Not really. Lex: insanely hot. Clark: also hot, if slightly dim on occasion. There you go.

Thoughts? Recs? Anyone?

PolyRecs has nearly 100 stories up. I say you start there. ;-)

mental note to self: Rent Buy Wilde at earliest possible opportunity.

Nevertheless, this wasn't fanfic about his character in Wilde. This was LotR RPS about Orlando, in which Orlando was (not played) a Victorian Rentboy who got bitten by a vampire.

But I thank you from the bottom of my shallow heart for the heads up on Wilde, my love - not only Jude Law, but also Orlando Bloom? Gah. You rule.