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.

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?

Orlando, Jude Law, just about everyone wearing gorgeous clothing ... I'm soooooo hoping Santa brings me a copy.

I think with Due South you really want to see at least a handful of episodes, because the characters, even the secondary ones, are fairly vividly presented and wonderfully quirky, and getting the full impact of the verbal fireworks makes it much more fun when you see a fan writer getting it down right.

This is maybe a silly question, but - do you like him? Do you dislike him?

Heh. Heee! Hah! Do I like him? That's putting it mildly. I love him. I adore him. I have enormous empathy for him, but I'm not blind to his faults. Generally, when I'm writing him, I write him as the man I think he is (or could be) during his best moments rather than the way he often comes across (petty, angry, narrow-minded). Part of it may be how I come to terms with the problematic parts of his personality, the things I'm ambivalent about, but I hesitate to actually put too much stock in that as my motivation for writing because when it comes right down to it I mostly write what turns me on or amuses me (and he does both).

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.

Yeah, I'll grant there is a certain disconnect and maybe this is part of the reason why I find it so appealing. I write original fic (hahahaha! unfinished, ahem) and well, it wouldn't be hard to turn some of my Em-related ideas into an original novel. Just change the names, but you know what? It would still be about him because he is who I'm thinking about when I'm writing stories. I'm not just borrowing his name and his likeness. I'm borrowing a heck of a lot of other things about him too.

As for AU's, I generally don't read them. They just don't appeal to me, whether we're talking Victorian Rentboys or Angel and Buffy in Nazi Germany (honest to God, there's a story like this out there). I like my Real People and my Fictional People firmly set in their own respective realities. I suppose some might regard Something Real as an AU with Eminem being inserted into the Angelverse, but he still has all the respective elements of what he is in our world -- famous rap star, etc. I dunno. Thoughts?

Wilde -- rent for the Orlando (but look closely in the beginning scenes, 'cause he's only on for like 30 seconds), stay for the Stephen Fry.

Oh, no worries - I've been meaning to watch Wilde for ages. I love Stephen Fry and I thoroughly enjoy reading Oscar Wilde. And Jude Law? Preternaturally pretty. Mmm. (Although Bosey, from what I gather, was a bit of a bastard.)

...and it occurs to me that this, of course, is RPF. Not RPS as such, because Mr Wilde was shagging the pretty boy, by all accounts. But - yes. Hmm. Distinctions? The only distinction that I can see is the fact that the individuals involved are dead. Although I guess that's a pretty big distinction.

I suppose some might regard Something Real as an AU with Eminem being inserted into the Angelverse, but he still has all the respective elements of what he is in our world -- famous rap star, etc. I dunno. Thoughts?

I really did enjoy how you worked this - the contrast between your character when he's with Connor & co (who don't recognise him) and when he's with Gunn - I liked that. A lot of the appeal of writing crossovers for me is the opportunity to take a character away from the pre-existing expectations & image blah blah blah associated with their usual context, and see how they interact if you give them more of a blank slate. It can be fun.

Angel and Buffy in Nazi Germany

See, I don't know that I'd consider that an AU, neccesarily, because there has been time travel within the Angelverse already, and we've had parallel universes too. Again, this is very much a YMMV thing as to how one categorises these things in one's own head, I guess.

Really, you know, this is fascinating for me; the idea of writing real people does my head in. Which was part of why I did write Min Calibre/Wes, actually - because it did my head in. I'm not sure whether that counts as proper RPS, but I'm cool with it doing so if it does. But the idea of assuming the personality and voice of a stranger whom I know only through the media - this feels really weird to me. And intrusive. To me. (I have weird boundaries and intimacy issues, though, as you may have gathered.)

It's what Impressionists make their living from, of course. Huh.