Thank you, Rebecca! Nice to hear.

Interesting thoughts, RL. I'm starting to think that it's only the fact of the fandom's polyamory that got me into HP at all-- if they'd been as OTPish as, say, Stargate is with Jack/Sam and/or Jack/Daniel, or as OTPish as Smallville is with Clark/Lex, I'd never have bothered. But HP is very widespread-- being so big, having so many different TPs-- and the ability that gives the fanfic reader to explore so many different sides of the text is stupendous.

SA and I had a conversation the other day about the liberating aspects of the near-total lack of canon in Popslash. Not somewhere I've delved (yet) but I do find the contrast between that and show-fandom very interesting.

I came around to this point recently in thinking about RPS and why I'm not into it-- the answer is, now (and this has changed), not that I'm put off by writing about 'real' people, because I quite see that they're considered in fictional terms, but that what interests me in a character to begin with is their canon, and without that firm canon I'm never going to go looking for fanfic. Of course, that does send me looking for fanfic about characters who have good canon and little or no fanfic, as my recent hunts for Minder and Seinfeld fic illustrate. I confess that the occassions when it works the other way around-- the fanfic sends me looking for the canon, as in Smallville, or sends me back to the canon with renewed vigour, as in HP (where I was sadly disappointed, and ran back to the fanon PDQ)-- are a bit of a problem to this theory, but I think it is true that lack of canon makes me shy away from the fandoms-- the little bits of LOTR RPS I read, for example, were good, but they didn't make me hunt for more, or even start watching the little bits that could be considered their canon, the DVD extras and such.

Um. Went on a little longer than I meant to, there.

the little bits of LOTR RPS I read, for example, were good, but they didn't make me hunt for more, or even start watching the little bits that could be considered their canon, the DVD

See, I read a bit of Dom/Billy Lotrips, and was completely and totally sucked in, all while feeling guilty about enjoying it. I haven't read much else, and I have to say that for some reason LOtR RPS sucks me LESS than mst NC-17 Hobbit fic especially after I accidently saw a (bad) photomanip of a naked and cuddling Pippin/Merry! There is something about the humor and friendship dynamic of that particular relationship (dom/Billy) as it is written by some authors that I just adore. However, I could use a BIT less of the "one of them is going crazy/going to kill himself" fics. There is just about one or two of those that I like.

As a reader I do tend to be pretty OTPish with the exception of things that are recommended to me. That is I will read a certain pairing until I am glutted-- Buffy/Spike (which I don't read any more except Herself) Josh/Donna, Lorelai/Luke, Pacey/Joey, and Dom/Billy (Lotrips). Dom/Billy is a new one for me, but I have read almost everything I have found of the others. I do try to stop reading if my eyes roll back up in my head too much, but with certain pairings it seems that there is a lot of eye-rolling inducing fic.

However, when I am recommended a story by a good author, especially here, that isn't one of those pairings, I love it! What a nice thing to have a well written interesting fic. I think this relates to my non-fic reading habits-- plenty and plenty of crappy romance novels and mysteries to relax and unwind interspesed with books that move me and make me just want to be inside them

Also WRT to PRE-SLASH:

I dislike that word for purely personal reasons-- it makes me think of the word pre-come. Which is a word I prefer not too see in my fics most of the time, although it is better than many alternativs that I can think of (secretions comes to mind)

SA and I had a conversation the other day about the liberating aspects of the near-total lack of canon in Popslash.

Hunh. Really? I often find lack of canon to be personally prohibitive. And on the flip side, too much canon acts the same way. (Hello, Batverse!)

I also think closed canon can be fun, in that "this is what you know about the characters, now feel free to go nuts" kind of way.

Hunh. Really? I often find lack of canon to be personally prohibitive. And on the flip side, too much canon acts the same way. (Hello, Batverse!)

Shrift, I've got one word for you. One word that makes everything better, makes grey skies blue, and doesn't make your brown eyes blue: Elseworlds.

Because, really, in a world where, out of Continuity, Batman is a pirate, anything can happen. So I just pretend it's all an Elseworld.

(Or: how Plei deals with the many contradictions and convoluted timelines of her chosen world.)

I also think closed canon can be fun, in that "this is what you know about the characters, now feel free to go nuts" kind of way.

Definitely. I've often found that my best plots have grown out of fanwanking apparent contradictions in canon or are a result of fitting things inbetween the lines of canon without crossing over.

Because, really, in a world where, out of Continuity, Batman is a pirate, anything can happen.

And it's funny 'cause it's TRUE. I love my crazy gay bondage fun avast ye! comics...

I'm getting better about following story ideas in spite of the fact that a) I may not know the canon as well as I'd like, or b) the canon is WACK, and c) I'm a neurotic freak.

'Cause there needs to be more comics smut out there, and we can't make Te write it all.

'Cause there needs to be more comics smut out there, and we can't make Te write it all.

I'm really, really looking forward to writing the rest of the Bart/Kon I started. I just need to stop getting distracted by things like, oh, err...

Looking around for crossdressing Bartfic instead of actually writing.

SA and I had a conversation the other day about the liberating aspects of the near-total lack of canon in Popslash.

Hunh. Really? I often find lack of canon to be personally prohibitive

Her point ( massively oversimplified) boiled down to "if nothing is true then anything can be true." Personally, I like the structure of canon - I like the mental exercise of figuring out where you can go while still working within certain boundaries. But I can see the appeal of the other side.

Personally, I like the structure of canon - I like the mental exercise of figuring out where you can go while still working within certain boundaries.

Yup. This is the same reason why I find crossovers to be so much fun to plan out and write--it's a challenge to be able to take two universes and figure out how to blend them without doing serious violence to either canon. Even more fun is finding the areas where Canon A can support canon and/or fill holes, tie dangling plot threads, etc. in Canon B.