This was a bad idea...
I think I can justifiably blame Ang. Okay, so I asked for it, but still. I can just see that I'm going to be able to waste tremendous amounts of time here.
Not that I need help to waste time. What have I done today? Laundry, mostly. And a lot online. Posted two new stories on my site after running them past Ang & Julie on R
Not that I need help to waste time. What have I done today? Laundry, mostly. And a lot online. Posted two new stories on my site after running them past Ang & Julie on R
Would such a pairing be able to fly under the radar in an Elven society, though?
Hard to say, isn't it? But I tend to think that people see what they expect to see. In a society where everyone is expected to be Christian, at least outwardly conforming to that, unless a person goes around openly proclaiming disbelief, others will assume he is a believer. Likewise I think the same would be true with gay Elves - no one expects that to happen, so unless they behave in ways that make it very obvious, those around them will have alternate explanations for unusual behavior, because they won't want to think that this person has this big "flaw" or "problem."
I believe that most fanfiction in this fandom lacks power because it is too in love with, too comfortable with, the characters and the society.
Ah, there's a thought. I love my characters - though I hope I'm not in love with any of them! - but there are aspects to their society that I am not comfortable with, and frankly the assumed heterosexuality is one of those aspects. Although "Passages" is in many respects soap-opera-ish, and I won't claim that there are no personal issues at all either. *grins*
Get going, do. What about writing cultural difference in fanfiction? Off the top of my head, one thing is that if the author goes too far beyond anything the reader is familiar with, she'll lose that reader entirely. OTOH, if someone writes the Shire as if it were the modern US (or UK, or wherever), then that rather misses the point, doesn't it? And even worse if one writes Elvish society that way.
Which reminds me of a comment on HA recently, about Elves being somewhat alien and not human. I don't see them that way at all - they are human, but a pre-Fall human, in the Biblical sense. Because of that they will have some different ideas and attitudes - but they are still human. (How else could we have the several celebrated Elf-Man marriages, otherwise?)
I know there was something else I intended to say here, but my brain has gone all fuzzy...
Cel
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