And in other news
Jan. 2nd, 2003 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaI keep trying to write a long analytical entry on RPS, and giving up for lack of caring. XD
No, really... I've been poking at the idea for a long time, trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of the thing - because it's not at all as simple as one might think. (Have you ever wondered why no one thinks to slash Neil Gaiman, despite the fact that a surprising number of people write fic for Good Omens, and an even larger number of people - some of whom I know personally - not-so-secretly think the man is adorable? No, you haven't wondered. I know. I do all the reckless wondering around here.) I've gotten to the point where I'm groping at the edge of a theory, but my own reaction to the stuff is counterintuitive. And it may be worthwhile (for me, not necessarily for you) to ramble on a bit about that.
1) I am not good with the suspension of disbelief. This is bad.
It's not just that I'm a canon weenie. I am, but I try for my own good to keep those impulses in check. If you watch a series or read a book and develop a bold new interpretation of some character, or go all out with the angsty high-school vampire slut AUs... well, I take that at face value. But with reality. RPS isn't writing a series one's watched, as it were; it's more like writing fic based on spotty online summaries done from memory by people who're pushing their own interpretations of the characters. Which doesn't mean the story can't stand up in objective terms, but one feels those extra filters of Hype, Rumour, Legend, Journalism and Public Relations. They make RPS more interesting on an intellectual level, actually, but they're detrimental to fiction-as-fiction.
2) I have trouble caring. This is sometimes bad and sometimes good.
Boyband onchi. I have mentioned this, right? ^^; The trouble is probably that I don't find all that many celebrities attractive. The celebs I do find attractive usually fall into one of two categories: a) embarrassingly inappropriate, or b) can't think why the rest of the world isn't crushing too, but if they are they're certainly going about it quietly. (There are a good number of celebrities I'm intrigued by but *not* attracted to. Gackt, astonishingly, is one of these last. I think of him as a sort of living, breathing, walking quattrocento Old Master. With a sense of humour, I grant you, but.) OTOH if I care at all - i.e. know anything much about the celeb in question - point #1 usually raises its head with a vengeance. ("You don't know this! You weren't there!") So I cheerfully read stories about people I don't care for a whit, and hardly know what they look like, because most of this stuff works no matter whom you picture. Which is kind of the genre's fatal fault and saving grace both, really.
3) I love the meta. This is good.
Or maybe it's not the meta. But I can't think what else to call it - you know when people say they're writing a crossover when what they're doing is slashing N'SYNC and BSB? That makes me giggle. Or a fic rec that runs "a wonderfully angsty and tense story about the Mouseketeers". How can that not make my day? XD And then you have the fictional characters coming in, people slashing Orlando Bloom with Methos, like. If I could die happy of meta, I would've already.
4) When all else fails, sex.
This is the most counterintuitive part: the RPS stories that feel to me least transgressive are the 100k-ers that are essentially nothing but one big epic sex scene. Because it takes the thing away from the libellous realm of making up events and conversations and emotions that didn't happen, and into the realm of happy fantasies of having sex with one's celeb crush. Which is - TMI, but this entire post skirts TMI - not actually something I engage in, but I've always been given to understand that the majority of people do. It's not a concept that's shocking, to me or anyone else. And (TMI! TMI!) I don't fantasize in the first person. I just don't. Never. The closest I get to it is a sort of romance novel-esque perspective switch. So it makes perfect sense to me that these narratives would be in the third person about two other people, because that's just how it's done.
...So, well. No discussion of the ethics involved. Because I'm just that "..." about it - I don't care enough to have a proper stance on the matter, and that's the long and the short of it. ^^;
No, really... I've been poking at the idea for a long time, trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of the thing - because it's not at all as simple as one might think. (Have you ever wondered why no one thinks to slash Neil Gaiman, despite the fact that a surprising number of people write fic for Good Omens, and an even larger number of people - some of whom I know personally - not-so-secretly think the man is adorable? No, you haven't wondered. I know. I do all the reckless wondering around here.) I've gotten to the point where I'm groping at the edge of a theory, but my own reaction to the stuff is counterintuitive. And it may be worthwhile (for me, not necessarily for you) to ramble on a bit about that.
1) I am not good with the suspension of disbelief. This is bad.
It's not just that I'm a canon weenie. I am, but I try for my own good to keep those impulses in check. If you watch a series or read a book and develop a bold new interpretation of some character, or go all out with the angsty high-school vampire slut AUs... well, I take that at face value. But with reality. RPS isn't writing a series one's watched, as it were; it's more like writing fic based on spotty online summaries done from memory by people who're pushing their own interpretations of the characters. Which doesn't mean the story can't stand up in objective terms, but one feels those extra filters of Hype, Rumour, Legend, Journalism and Public Relations. They make RPS more interesting on an intellectual level, actually, but they're detrimental to fiction-as-fiction.
2) I have trouble caring. This is sometimes bad and sometimes good.
Boyband onchi. I have mentioned this, right? ^^; The trouble is probably that I don't find all that many celebrities attractive. The celebs I do find attractive usually fall into one of two categories: a) embarrassingly inappropriate, or b) can't think why the rest of the world isn't crushing too, but if they are they're certainly going about it quietly. (There are a good number of celebrities I'm intrigued by but *not* attracted to. Gackt, astonishingly, is one of these last. I think of him as a sort of living, breathing, walking quattrocento Old Master. With a sense of humour, I grant you, but.) OTOH if I care at all - i.e. know anything much about the celeb in question - point #1 usually raises its head with a vengeance. ("You don't know this! You weren't there!") So I cheerfully read stories about people I don't care for a whit, and hardly know what they look like, because most of this stuff works no matter whom you picture. Which is kind of the genre's fatal fault and saving grace both, really.
3) I love the meta. This is good.
Or maybe it's not the meta. But I can't think what else to call it - you know when people say they're writing a crossover when what they're doing is slashing N'SYNC and BSB? That makes me giggle. Or a fic rec that runs "a wonderfully angsty and tense story about the Mouseketeers". How can that not make my day? XD And then you have the fictional characters coming in, people slashing Orlando Bloom with Methos, like. If I could die happy of meta, I would've already.
4) When all else fails, sex.
This is the most counterintuitive part: the RPS stories that feel to me least transgressive are the 100k-ers that are essentially nothing but one big epic sex scene. Because it takes the thing away from the libellous realm of making up events and conversations and emotions that didn't happen, and into the realm of happy fantasies of having sex with one's celeb crush. Which is - TMI, but this entire post skirts TMI - not actually something I engage in, but I've always been given to understand that the majority of people do. It's not a concept that's shocking, to me or anyone else. And (TMI! TMI!) I don't fantasize in the first person. I just don't. Never. The closest I get to it is a sort of romance novel-esque perspective switch. So it makes perfect sense to me that these narratives would be in the third person about two other people, because that's just how it's done.
...So, well. No discussion of the ethics involved. Because I'm just that "..." about it - I don't care enough to have a proper stance on the matter, and that's the long and the short of it. ^^;
