Completely bonkers post on fanfic

[lesbiassparrow]

I'm going to preface this by saying that I know that a lot of what I like and and don't like is all about my taste.  But it's my LJ so I am about to do the mad egomaniac thing and talk about it anyway.  (Also, as a person who doesn't actually produce fanfic beyond the odd tiny rubbishy story, it is a bit cheeky of me to complain about other people's writing).

I was looking for X-Men movieverse fanfic - um, featuring Wolverine-Jean (and Scott, because that is one terribly fecked up triangle).  Okay, that's a pretty shameful confession, as I suspect all the cool people like other pairings going by what I found^.1  But this is not a post whining about my inability to find quality fiction in the pairing of my choice, it's more about the writing in the other stories I read. Many of them were great - the Rogue pairing in particular seems to get some great stuff.  

But what I was a bit taken aback by was the fact that so few of them dealt with the problem that in the movies it is quite clear that Wolverine has it bad for Jean. I can see that you might think he ought be shagging someone else, but I would think you might want to mention that it is clear that for whatever reason he has the hots for Jean and deal with that.  It's a bit like all the Pyro/Iceman fiction I found:  I can see the slash attraction of that pairing, but ignoring Rogue seems a wee bit problematic to me.  What does she do while the boys are off having teenage sex?  Moon about the place and stalking Wolverine?

I wonder why when people do this they don't just go with AU.  You could easily write an AU where Jean/Rogue/Whatever character you like doesn't exist, instead of just writing 'and then one day X woke up and realised that Y was a horrible person who s/he loved no more.  And that Z was so much better. And then they shagged their way through my story.' Or kill the character. It's a story about mutants - lots of chances to kill people off.  And have angst and then shagging.  Because the two apparently go hand in hand.

I see the attraction of ignoring canon - I sometimes ignore things about shows and books that I don't like, because what I got was just too annoying.  I have, for example, halfway convinced myself that Jo and Laurie do hook up in Little Women, which is pretty impressive on some bonkers level.  And given that fanfic is often written because shows don't give what we want on screen, it seems natural that you'd ignore the bits you like. 

However, I can see a greater attraction to writing about things we know nothing about - like, for example, what happens 10 years on in the X-Men movieverse. Or in Doctor Who, the Doctor's sexuality, because god knows what that's about.  I mean for all we know the Doctor thinks having a good time involves having the companions smear him in jam and then rubbing himself against the Tardis console. So it's pretty easy to be right (or at least not wrong in canon terms) about this. Unless one day RTD writes a scene in which the Doctor declares that he'd never cover himself in jam.

Er, I think I've just written a post which a) was totally whiny, b) was gitty about ignoring canon and c) argued that people should write more Doctor Who x-rated fiction because you can't really counteract canon because there is none.²



1If anyone is interested I found a great one here: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2971535/1/  

²I ignore the looms because I have no idea if they are canon or not.

 

Comments

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I actually adore AUs. It's almost like original fiction.

I tried for awhile to find some X-Men fic, but I only rarely find something I like. And because I don't really like Wolverine with Jean, and no one else seems to fit him, I'm sort of at a loss.

I do rather like Storm/Nightstalker though. But again...can find nothing I like. Ah well.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I like AUs too - if done well, they can be a really interesting way to show the same characters.

There's a lot of Wolverine/Rogue out there, but I feel that relationship is a bit problematic by a) she's incredibly young and b) she can kill him by her touch. Not really what you're looking for in a girlfriend.

[lilly-rose.livejournal.com]

Three thoughts present themselves:

One, movieverse Wolverine/Rogue is the way to go for this girl. Love it all. The power imbalance, the age difference, the slight squick, and the "I can kill you with my skin" thing. Such great angst potential.

Two, Jo and Laurie? Totally hit it on the sly at least once. I'm convinced of it. And yes, I am *still* mad he married that *git* Amy. Though I have much love for the Professor, so I am a hypocrite yes.

And three. Certain Doctors. Jam. *brains fries* Shhh. Don't give Tegan ideas.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I think fandom agrees with you on the Wolverine/Rogue thing because there's a lot of it out there. Though I am all about the messed up Jean-Wolverine-Scott thing. It's the prissy leader vs. wild man o'the woods battle to the end.

Jo and Laurie hopefully went off to have mad repressed Victorian sex at some point.

And jam is underutilized in Who fandom.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

No, the joy of writing Doctor Who porn is that there is no canon to contradict, or rather, canon contradicts itself so often that if you didn't contradict canon at least once in your fic, your fic would be noncanonical.

Mostly I agree with you, though; fandom has gotten so OTP-focused that other characters just vanish into the ether. When in the hiatus for Stargate I sometimes forget about the existence of whole characters.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

f you didn't contradict canon at least once in your fic, your fic would be noncanonical.

Hee! Though I fear that one day it will be revealed that the Doctor has no bits and all porn (except for mind-meld stuff) will be invalidated.

And judging by some X-men fic the motto should be 'Jean? Who's that?'

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Oh, they've got Steven Moffat on the writing staff now, he'd never let them get away with it. *hopes*

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

And there is also the fact that they can never mention sex right on or bits because this is a children's show. So whatever the hell Gallifreyean sex would involve we will never know. (Though I secretly suspect it would be quite boring as that looked like one hell of a repressed society. Possibly this is why the Doctor likes humans so much.)

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Then again, considering how repressed Victorian society was and how kinky their porn was...I wouldn't be surprised if all that upright, stuffy Gallyfrean society hid a seething hotbed of kinkarificness.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I bet they all secretly wrote repressed porn and wondered what it would be like in reality. This is the real reason the Doctor went travelling.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

"I mean for all we know the Doctor thinks having a good time involves having the companions smear him in jam and then rubbing himself against the Tardis console. "

Um... Yeah. No. Well, separately they might be good ideas, but together, I think he'd just gum up her mechanics.

But I'm totally with you on the "write more X rated DW fic" suprisingly enough.

Oh, and happy birthday, from what I've heard. ;)

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

But what if the Tardis is powered by jam? Eh? Maybe she has special jam attachments?

And thanks for the birthday wishes. :)