Fascinating discussion.
I tend to dislike hurt/comfort as a B7 genre, unless it's done rather subtly. I think Neil is correct that one of its 'purposes' is to allow the writer and/or reader emotional closeness to usually distant characters, frequently Avon, though I've seen it done successfully with other characters, including Travis and Servalan, which might tend to support Neil's analysis. I'd agree that in this sense it's essentially a non-overtly sexualised version of slash.
Personally, as a writer, I'd prefer to use other ways of gaining closeness to the character, the easiest being to use their point of view -- if you want to expose Avon's inner child then just walk right into his head and expose it....
Tavia
Tavia Chalcraft wrote:
Personally, as a writer, I'd prefer to use other ways of gaining closeness to the character, the easiest being to use their point of view -- if you want to expose Avon's inner child then just walk right into his head and expose it....
Hm. Well, I'm not really a fan of H/C. But the problem with exposing the inner man - most people edit their thoughts before they voice them (and of course with B7 it's gone through the script editor as well <g>). Which leaves the author the choice of editing the character's thoughts to make them sound like external voice - thereby removing the closeness again - or writing what one thinks the inner dialogue actually is - and risk rendering the character's voice unrecognizable to the reader. It's IMHO a bit tricky. Mostly, I prefer characterization to come through actions and dialogue.
Mistral
From: Tavia Chalcraft tavia@btinternet.com
I tend to dislike hurt/comfort as a B7 genre, unless it's done rather subtly. I think Neil is correct that one of its 'purposes' is to allow the writer and/or reader emotional closeness to usually distant characters, frequently Avon, though I've seen it done successfully with other characters, including Travis and Servalan, which might tend to support Neil's analysis. I'd agree that in this sense it's essentially a non-overtly sexualised version of slash.
Not what I was trying to say, actually. More that slash is - in part - an overtly sexualised form of hurt/comfort where the sex is the means of emotional access rather than the debilitation. More than one way to skin a cat etc (though I don't recall anyone asking the cat).
Neil
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Mistral -
Neil Faulkner -
Tavia Chalcraft