Lisa wrote:
Ah. Well, you and the penguins are welcome to read all the socio-politico-type stories you can get your hands & flippers on.
My penguins don't read, they just eat slash.
Because you're missing out on a whole range of experience, that's why.
I'm missing out on a whole range of experience by not eating fried okra and stewed slugs, too. There are experiences my life is definitely richer without.
Ahem, false analogy there. Bit of a difference between political fanfic and bad food.
In my case, the fact that I read slash doesn't mean I don't read anything else. (Fanfic itself is a very small proportion of my reading, and I read both gen and slash if I come across something to my taste.) But even if it did -- and I know people who won't read any fanfic other than slash -- what of it? People aren't obligated to read what they don't like simply because you think they ought to have the "experience".
Let's play the food analogy game further. Some people eat a balanced diet. Some people eat only candy. If I come up to one of the latter and say "you know, eating the odd salad might not be a bad thing," they're certainly not obligated to take my advice, but it's not going to do their complexion or cholesterol rate any good if they don't. No one is saying that people "ought" or "ought not" to read anything-- I'm saying that people should know that slash is only a small part of a vast amount of fanfic of varying quality.
Nor are they likely to derive much benefit from an experience consisting primarily of boredom.
I'm sure Neil Faulkner and the other gen writers out there are delighted to hear that their writing is boring, as compared to a PWP.
So why exactly did you think Blake and Co. were on the run?
*Why* they were on the run was largely immaterial to me. I don't regard it as a major focus of the show; any of a variety of excuses would have done.
It isn't an excuse though, it's the main theme of the show from ep 1 onwards, coming to an abrupt and bloody end in ep 52.
Well, what is it about for you then?
The interrelationships between the characters. (Neil, just hit the delete key now, OK?) Principally Blake and Avon, from my point of view, with peripheral interest from the others. The whole fighting-the-Federation business is, as far as I'm concerned, just there to give them an excuse to bicker, and get into situations, and get each other out of situations, and generally demonstrate the character dynamics, which are what I'm watching for.
That _is_ politics, actually.
I'm not too keen on PWP in general, myself, though there are exceptions --some humorous stories with good dialogue can be quite diverting. A story which is just a sex scene I'll usually pass by, since sex per se is something I don't find terribly interesting.
If you don't find sex interesting, why read slash?
No, it isn't the target audience, it's true. But it does bug me to think of a distorted version of my lifestyle turned into somebody else's fantasy
Life is rough. You don't have jurisdiction over anyone else's fantasies, though if someone starts writing and distributing slash about *you*, I'd say you have some grounds for complaint.
Are you aware that slash and art out there has been produced which actually uses the _actors'_ names and not the characters'? Another reason for them and their families to object to its production.
As it stands, I doubt
whether anyone writing slash -- especially B7 slash -- is writing about *your* lifestyle at all, distorted or otherwise.
But if they're presenting two characters in a gay relationship, then they _are_ writing about my lifestyle. I'm a gay man in a gay relationship. Hence my concern. If somebody, say, wrote a story about a Muslim character which totally misrepresented Islam, would you say to Muslims who objected: "Oh, they weren't writing about _your_ religion"?
If you don't find the
stories believable, don't read 'em. No one says you have to. Heck, there are plenty of them that I don't find believable either, at various levels ranging from "This character wouldn't act like that," to "Men don't act like that," all the way through "No remotely sentient creature would act like that."
So we're agreed then. Slash of course being out of character for straight characters.
If you want to read this sort of slash as a fantasy, fair enough-- but it doesn't have much to do either with gay lifestyles _or_ with the programme itself.
Most slash is concerned with the relationship between two, very specific, characters, not with "lifestyles", gay or otherwise.
Um, sorry, but relationships between two characters _are_ their lifestyle.
And it has just
as much -- and just as little -- to do with the programme as any other fanfic which goes beyond a bald recitation of canon and includes anything of the author's own extrapolation. Whether that extrapolation is compatible with the reader's view of the characters and the show is up to the reader and writer concerned and will vary radically from one person to the next. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't, and there is nothing wrong with that. Your views just don't mesh well enough for you to buy into the author's vision. But that doesn't mean she shouldn't write it; what clashed horribly for you may work perfectly for someone else.
But some sorts of fanfic fit the canon better than others. And if there's no worth in a story beyond a quick wank, what's the point? It's 1984 all over again-- use porn to distract the people from the real issues and stifle discussion.
Nor is one of you
"right" and the other "wrong". Just move on to other authors whose stories are more suited to your taste.
You're really starting to sound like Annie and Leah here. Nobody brought up right or wrong in fanfic, slash or otherwise, prior to this.
And if it bothers you terribly that people
aren't going to restrict themselves to only material of which you, personally, approve -- well, as I said, life is rough. You'll just have to get used to being bothered.
Now I object to this sort of argument. Forgive me, Lisa, but you do sound exactly like Annie and Leah and their "ain't gonna change so get used to it" attitude. Supposing I told you "women are never going to get equal rights to men, you'll just have to get used to it?" Supposing I told you "racism will never go away, you'll just have to get used to it?" If something offends you, you have a choice. Either passively sit around hoping it'll go away, or stand up and make your opinions heard. I know which I'll pick.
Shane
"Resist the host or your oneness will be absorbed" --Zil
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