Wait. There is Weasley twincest?
Are we talking sad-wrong incest fic a la Simon/River, or more of the twincest-yay! type of a thing? If it's the latter, what the hell? I mean, I haven't read the books, but my understanding (via fandom osmosis) is that Weasleys are a genial and an uncomplicated lot. Is there some weird subtextual thing I don't know of?
I gotta say, I've been finding myself increasingly wigged at the "anything goes" mentality of fandom, prudish as that may sound. There are also people around me squeeing about ME-verse actor-fic (and not delusional barbie-shippers either--these are bright, talented, usually reasonable people), and I find myself bugged way more than I have ever been about popslash, toward which the most I've felt was indifference. I dunno if I'm being hypocritical or what.
If it's the latter, what the hell?
Well, you know...fandom.
I gotta say, I've been finding myself increasingly wigged at the "anything goes" mentality of fandom
It's been, what, four years, since I ventured out of Nikita and into the world of fandom at large, and I think that there's definitely been an increase in that mentality since then.
t shrug
My completely-unsupported guess is that it's boundary-pushing. Used to be that writing slash gave you the chance to feel subversive, if you wanted to. (DISCLAIMER: PEOPLE WRITE SLASH FOR MANY, MANY REASONS.) Now, not so much. So if you want to be all "look how wild and crazy I am" incest is a logical next step.
The guys who played the Weasley twins were 15 when the first one came out.
So if you want to be all "look how wild and crazy I am" incest is a logical next step
That, and also people trying to get heard over all the noise. If you're a mediocre writer (or even a good one who just hasn't built a reputation yet), it's *much* easier to get people to read your stories if you're the one person writing Fred/George than if you're Ginny/Harry shipper #397. Even if people read out of morbid curiosity, it's still attention.
My completely-unsupported guess is that it's boundary-pushing.
That, and also people trying to get heard over all the noise.
That makes sense, I guess, given that we *are* talking about fandom. That's....kind of ooky. I don't usually care enough to give a damn about stuff that's going on in fandom, but this pings a little above my "huh, so that's the new fad. Eh....whatever." radar.
The reason you might be feeling more squicked by ME-verse actorslash than popslash, Vonnie, is that popslash has just been on your horizon longer. I know that's what's true for me-- right now, just as you said, a lot of bright, talented people I watch are bandwagoning with pleasure to ME-verse actorslash, and I'm feeling the same distanced queasiness I did around the idea of popslash before I joined LJ and friended people who happened to often mention popslashy ideas, casually and positively.
I've gotten used to it; I can get used, probably, to anything. I remember not that long ago when reading Jane St Claire's Lost Boys fic had me a shaking mess at my computer-- the stories were hot and lyrically beautiful, but they were about incest between siblings, and, Jesus, that's such a visceral and serious squick for me I was caught between aesthetic appreciation, arousal, and serious disgust.
(I still think those stories are wonderful, from an aesthetic and meta-aesthetic viewpoint-- I love art that does that to me, pulls me that way; like Patricia Smith's poem "Skinhead" which is the scary and beautifully imagistic narration of a neo-Nazi. Wonderful, and absolutely upsetting.) (And the bad-wrong intersecting with the compelling and beautiful-- that is possibly my biggest literary kink.)
But now I'm kind of used to incest as a particular method of hitting the bad-wrong. I was idly reading (I have this obsessive-completivist OCD thing; if there's a link on my friends list, I have to follow it) this ME-verse actorfic slashing NB and his brother Kelly, the other day. And this story wasn't as good as JSC's old story; but it had several things that would have made it something I enjoyed (biting and emotional revelations, ba-dump) if it hadn't been, you know, about real people. Or a slasher's conception of real people, anyway. It seems like such an *awful* thing to, essentially, accuse NB & co of doing. I was doing the same I-am-so-shaken and this-is-sexy thing as before, tho' less with the sexy (not as well-written a story) and more with the shaken (real-people incest), so I don't think I'll, you know, go back to the story again.
(I see a *lot* of people doing Fred/George. I see a lot of people who are intrigued and turned on by Angel/Connor. That, actually <perversity badge> is a 'ship of mine! although in a very different way from the people who are writing, like, Angel/Connor schmoop. Now *that* disgusts me. ... I would be willing to talk about how I see Angel/Connor as something actually very present and viable, but maybe this site isn't the place for it?)
a lot of bright, talented people I watch are bandwagoning with pleasure to ME-verse actorslash,
Yes, yes, YES. We've just moved into the wrong zone, boys and girls. There's a real James Marsters, and it's nasty to put your fantasies about his boybits on to paper or phosphor and share them.
