The Working Fic-Writer: sex and babies
A while back, I mentioned something about how I often read fic working similar scenarios or conceptual territory to things I'm working on--to see how other people are handling it, to see what other interpretations are out there, to see what I don't want to do. Someone, I forget who, said they'd be interested in seeing what I was reading as I'm writing. So, this is the first post like this. We'll see how it goes.
At the moment, I'm writing, and therefore reading, about the relationship between sex and reproduction. These connections are particularly interesting to me, since, as a lesbian whose kid was conceived through alternative reproductive technology, I don't make any sort of instinctive connection between the two. I've never had to worry about birth control in my sex life--well, the one time, but I just made sure to wear gloves and underpants when I was handling the syringe, you know? Similarly, the idea of not being able to conceive 'naturally' has never been painful for me, because I already knew I wasn't just going to get pregnant. (In fact, I have no desire to get pregnant; if I were to discover tomorrow that I were infertile, I'd shrug and start wondering about hysterectomies, because I'm seriously done with my period.) Working under the assumption that probably a majority of fanfic writers are women who have sex with men at least some of the time, then, reading fanfic about sex and reproduction is a way of looking into the way other folks think through and process their relationships to their bodies and their fertility, and do it in public. So, this is some of what I read in the process of working through this fic. They're all stories I like, to different degrees and in different ways.
A note: It would make sense to include Iolokus on this list, since it is a fic about sex and about reproduction. And yet, the reproductive element of the sex is almost incidental--the sex is about sex, about love and anger and raw need, while most of the reproduction takes place asexually. (Yes, there's the fourth part and the three post-scripts. But...well, I have thoughts about that, which I won't say so as not to spoil those who might not have read it. Happy to talk about it in comments.) So I'll leave it off for now, but with an asterisk.
All links are to Gossamer author pages. All fic is rated NC-17 for consensual sex; I've labelled the one that has an obvious trigger, but ask if you have other questions about content. Have fun.
Ceremony, by Darwin. This is a beautiful little piece. The sex strikes me as realistic in structure (not that I am, particularly, an expert on heterosexual sexual relations); and, from what I know of friends who have struggled to conceive, the way Scully feels about her period is absolutely true. It is not terribly...I was going to say sexy, but what I mean is that the sex is not, necessarily, designed to titillate; it's characterization that happens to take place while naked.
Ship Building, by Jess. This fic features one of the Consortium's most evil plots in all of fanfic, which is a sufficient reason to love it (Warning: ( skip) Contains descriptions of child sexual abuse
). But this exchange is the reason it's on the list:
"I wish I was fertile," she said, and he knew she didn't want to have
a baby so much as beat the system.
"You are," he told her, moving slowly, feeling her body grab him and hold
the skin as it slid against the muscle within. "You're the Nile delta."
Touched but Never Held, by Rachel Anton. I have a weakness for Rachel Anton, even though her writing is heavily flawed (there are spelling and grammar problems, the voices are off, etc). The thing about her fic often is that I see Mulder and Scully, fairly clearly, right under the surface of the writing; she gets to something true and right about the characters, even if they sound like they're reading from someone else's script. I find fic like this intellectually appealing, particularly when it includes utterly unrealistic but hot sex. (Perhaps this is where I, like
At the moment, I'm writing, and therefore reading, about the relationship between sex and reproduction. These connections are particularly interesting to me, since, as a lesbian whose kid was conceived through alternative reproductive technology, I don't make any sort of instinctive connection between the two. I've never had to worry about birth control in my sex life--well, the one time, but I just made sure to wear gloves and underpants when I was handling the syringe, you know? Similarly, the idea of not being able to conceive 'naturally' has never been painful for me, because I already knew I wasn't just going to get pregnant. (In fact, I have no desire to get pregnant; if I were to discover tomorrow that I were infertile, I'd shrug and start wondering about hysterectomies, because I'm seriously done with my period.) Working under the assumption that probably a majority of fanfic writers are women who have sex with men at least some of the time, then, reading fanfic about sex and reproduction is a way of looking into the way other folks think through and process their relationships to their bodies and their fertility, and do it in public. So, this is some of what I read in the process of working through this fic. They're all stories I like, to different degrees and in different ways.
A note: It would make sense to include Iolokus on this list, since it is a fic about sex and about reproduction. And yet, the reproductive element of the sex is almost incidental--the sex is about sex, about love and anger and raw need, while most of the reproduction takes place asexually. (Yes, there's the fourth part and the three post-scripts. But...well, I have thoughts about that, which I won't say so as not to spoil those who might not have read it. Happy to talk about it in comments.) So I'll leave it off for now, but with an asterisk.
All links are to Gossamer author pages. All fic is rated NC-17 for consensual sex; I've labelled the one that has an obvious trigger, but ask if you have other questions about content. Have fun.
Ceremony, by Darwin. This is a beautiful little piece. The sex strikes me as realistic in structure (not that I am, particularly, an expert on heterosexual sexual relations); and, from what I know of friends who have struggled to conceive, the way Scully feels about her period is absolutely true. It is not terribly...I was going to say sexy, but what I mean is that the sex is not, necessarily, designed to titillate; it's characterization that happens to take place while naked.
Ship Building, by Jess. This fic features one of the Consortium's most evil plots in all of fanfic, which is a sufficient reason to love it (Warning: ( skip) Contains descriptions of child sexual abuse
). But this exchange is the reason it's on the list:
"I wish I was fertile," she said, and he knew she didn't want to have
a baby so much as beat the system.
"You are," he told her, moving slowly, feeling her body grab him and hold
the skin as it slid against the muscle within. "You're the Nile delta."
Touched but Never Held, by Rachel Anton. I have a weakness for Rachel Anton, even though her writing is heavily flawed (there are spelling and grammar problems, the voices are off, etc). The thing about her fic often is that I see Mulder and Scully, fairly clearly, right under the surface of the writing; she gets to something true and right about the characters, even if they sound like they're reading from someone else's script. I find fic like this intellectually appealing, particularly when it includes utterly unrealistic but hot sex. (Perhaps this is where I, like