Fan Fiction: Writers, Readers, and Enablers
This thread is for fanfic recs, links, and discussion, but not for actual posting of fanfic.
By the bye, there's a short article in the Boston Globe today about yaoi -- the standard OMG! Look what those people do! article. Neither particularly obnoxious nor laudatory. I gather there was a local anime con recently.
hebephrenia
For the record, this word isn't in common use any more. A bunch of head-shrinkers got together and changed the way we describe schizophrenia, so it's not quite so "Well you're just immature, you crazy person" any more.
Would a lot of earlier Smallville Clark/Lex fic be considered chan? I mean, yeah, Tom Welling was and looked 25 (a very pretty 25, but 25) and all, but he was playing a 15 year old character who was, in a whole lot of fic, getting busy with a 21+ year old Lex Luthor.
but he was playing a 15 year old character who was, in a whole lot of fic, getting busy with a 21+ year old Lex Luthor.
When Smallville fandom hit big, which was about twenty minutes before the first episode aired, there were a lot of people doing one of three things:
a) Frantically justifying ("Well, he's an alien! He's not really fifteen! Does he look fifteen to you?")
b) Disclaiming the hell out of their fic
c) Plowing right the hell on with the porn (I like to call this the Te approach.)
Most underage/adult relationships squick the hell out of me, but I never had a problem with the SV stuff. (Te's website is linked to the definition of "FicGoddess" in my mental wikipedia.) Which is why I wondered about the whole chan definition thing.
My personal experience is that the majority of fandom taboos fall like dominos for the majority of people when they get in the way of enjoying fic. Aside from Smallville, there's the whole RPS thing, which hit around the same time.
Also, it depends on your description of chan. I was never into SV, but I didn't get the impression that there was a whole lot of porn that centered around the idea of Clark being a lot younger than Lex, woo hoo nubile hairless boy-body. You know?
There was a fair bit of fic centered around Lex feeling guilty about lusting after a 15-16 year old. But I don't remember a lot of "man-on-boy!yay". I may just not have seen those stories. And I'm kinda glad.
There was a fair bit of fic centered around Lex feeling guilty about lusting after a 15-16 year old.
But it generally didn't stop him from fucking Clark over the pool table. Right? I mean, that's what I remember, but I may just be fondly remembering the early glow of that fandom.
But it generally didn't stop him from fucking Clark over the pool table. Right?
Depended on the story. Some had him waiting until Clark had whatever the magic age of consent birthday was (16? 18? I seem to recall 16). Some had him getting seduced by Clark (the alien made me do it, officer!) and some had him swept away by desireTM.
Depended on the story. Some had him waiting until Clark had whatever the magic age of consent birthday was (16? 18? I seem to recall 16). Some had him getting seduced by Clark (the alien made me do it, officer!) and some had him swept away by desireTM.
All true (and I remember a lot of people doing frantic research to justify what they were gonna do anyway before saying "Oh, PHEW, the age of consent is 16...") But even in the stories that did worry about the underage thing, the vibe was definitely mature-for-an-adolescent/barely adult -- just brushing up on both sides of the line, rather than grownup/kid.